Resilient teen revs up to build community RC track

When at first he did not succeed, Josh Loper tried and tried again to build a remote control car track at the Croffoot Park and Sports Complex in Hayden.

Around the summer of 2021, he started work on an RC park to earn his final badge to graduate to an Eagle Scout.

“The first time I tried to do the project, I didn’t plan enough,” Josh said.

Originally, the RC park was proposed at Stoddard Park in Hayden. Plans had been approved by the Hayden city staff, and work was already underway when a nearby resident raised concerns.

“Her complaint mainly was that it was going to bring men and teenagers into the park,” Josh said.

And in many ways, that’s true.

“The hobby industry is one of those things where you don’t realize how many people are out there,” said Peter Gallo, assistant manager at In Control Hobbies. In Control sells RC cars, boats and other vehicles to local hobbyists.

“And we get asked all the time if there’s a track people can take this to,” Gallo said.

Like Gallo, Josh got into the RC hobby world with a love for speed and cars.

“To build something that’s unique, and express yourself through it, is great,” Gallo said. “A new track will be a great way to meet people and make friends. It’s a community of like-minded people —that's huge.”

Josh decided to meet the local demand for a public track by building one for the community.

After failing in 2021, he went back to the drawing board in 2022. But that summer he turned 16, got his driver’s license and with it a Subaru WRX.

The freedom that comes with a car cut significantly into his planning time for the new design. He didn’t dedicate enough time to gathering donations, he said, so he had to delay the project again.

But in 2023, Josh learned from early errors and spent the winter planning. This summer he and his family built the Hayden Family RC Track.

With support from In Control Hobbies, and his father as his number one donor, Josh was able to gather enough donations and labor to build the free track. Work started in the summer and the track is now complete and ready for anyone to use.

“As far as being a free track that’s awesome,” Gallo said. “That’ll provide a better sense of community. I anticipate it’s going to be a great addition to the area.”

RC cars are not the Walmart special that people may think of, Gallo said. He sells cars that start at hundreds of dollars, and can cost upwards of thousands by the time they’re tweaked to optimal performance.

Gallo has a car that will go 160 mph and he’s building one that will go up to 200 mph, though they won’t likely hit those speeds on the new family track.

“There’s skills you do gain from this,” Gallo said. “Troubleshooting is a huge thing. If I hadn’t started with this I wouldn’t be the car guy I am.”

Gallo is also a mechanic and works on his own Mercedes, which he’s passionate about, in addition to working at the hobby shop, which he loves.

“As much as I want to say this hobby is very straightforward, it’s maybe not,” he said. “The performance of the product is still shocking to most people.”

And the process of getting the cars to perform is an aspirational form of mastery, Gallo said. It provides kids like Josh an area to channel their creativity and love for cars.

Making tweaks to each vehicle to get the best performance from them is a huge part of the hobby, and that skill carries over into other areas of people’s lives.

Josh likes the skill required in driving the cars, and it’s cheaper than rally racing, which he hopes he might get into someday.

He’d love to get a Lexus LFA or an old Subaru rally car, but for now, the RC cars are a little more in line with his budget.

“Rally is just like a race track, off-road,” Josh said.