Meet T-Bone, age 70, and Ed, age 51 with his son, Alex, who is 15. They run remote control trucks every weekend at a small track in San Fernando Valley. When it comes to this kind of hobby, age is no obstacle to obsessive enjoyment.
The track is located in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, which is part of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games Master Plan. Sepulveda Basin will host canoe slalom, equestrian and shooting competitions. The organizers promise to build temporary venues only, and not to ruin the nature of the area.
Currently, it’s an ideal place for such Sunday afternoon activities as picnicking, golfing, flying model planes – and, as it so happens, driving RC cars.
Southern California has multiple RC racing clubs and dozens of on- and off-road tracks for competitive remote control racers. Woodley Park’s Apollo XI Flying Field inside the Sepulveda Basin is not one of them. Here, people like T-Bone, Ed and Alex, rev their cars for fun.
Watch this “Remote Riders” video to catch their thrill, the first in a series by Ben Mohay about places in Los Angeles planned to be used for the 2028 Olympics.