Well, now that I'm doing the web site, maybe I should tell you guys a little more about the man behind the screen. My name is Troy Lyman. I was born and raised in Southern California and have lived here all my life. I am married to a very wonderful woman named Melissa. Melissa and I met over the internet, were engaged three months after we met face to face, and have been happily married for almost three years now. A year and a half ago my wife gave birth to our son, an 11 lb. 2 oz. linebacker we named Grant. He is definitely my son. When I go out and run my R/C car he has to go out and watch. When I'm done, he wants to play with my transmitter. He knows how to hold it and everything. If I work on the car at the coffee table, he sits down beside me and holds my parts and tools for me. All this much to my wife's chagrin. Now, the cars are not my only interest. My wife and I also own horses. Mine is an aptly named Thoroughbred named Daytona. We go riding every weekend, even if I have a race. This is a great time for my wife and I to do something we both enjoy. As far as my professional life, I work as a heavy equipment dispatcher for a construction company in Long Beach. My computer skills I've picked up and learned on my own first as a hobby, then as a trade. At my place of business, I also act as MIS and a database programmer. I have an AA in History and almost have finished my BA. Being a little lazy, then getting on academic probation, then a career and family cut into my studies. As of right now, I need just a few classes to complete it.

On a more related topic, I got into R/C cars at a very young age. One of my earliest memories involves a remote controlled police car that I use to chase my mother around with when I was about 2. Racing and racecars has always been in my blood. At three and a half I was asked to pick out wall paper for my room and what did I pick, racecars. As it turned out, it couldn't have been more appropriate. That wall paper went with my, uhmmm, decorum until I was almost 24. Racing poster's decorated my walls along with racecar driver's autographs like A.J. Foyt and Rick Mears. If it had four wheels and went fast, I was interested. Around 13, a neighbor of mine got an R/C car, a Tamiya Hornet. Well, when I saw how fast it was compared to the toy store kind, I had to have one. So I saved and saved until I could afford one. Always wanting something different, I got a Grasshopper. Then started a long tradition of going faster. I found that my car came with a smaller, and pathetically slower, motor. Well, couldn't have that, could we? Nope. So in went a faster motor. Pretty soon, my friend and I raced anything that moved, dogs, bikes, cars, but mostly, each other. Then we began to race our other friends that had R/C cars. Then we went much separate ways. He never did get another R/C car but me, I started racing. Back at this time, Frogs were the hot tickets in off road racing. That all changed though with the introduction of the RC10. Nothing could touch this revolutionary design. Nothing that is, except in sand. One of my first races was a "Parking lot" event. More to the truth, it was a sand box event. A local dirt oval hobby store put together a community race in a sandbox at a local park. All the guys showed up with RC10s with spike tires. Me, I showed up with my trusty Grasshopper. But I had a small sponsorship from another local hobby shop, and they not only paid my entry fee, but also gave me a set of real wide, real big, paddle tires that looked like they were ready for a tractor pull. Needless to say, I got laughed at for that. They stopped laughing though when they saw that it was the perfect combination for sand. A real light car with very little suspension that could stay on top of the sand instead of sinking in combined with tires that got a lot of bite in the soft stuff. It was a last hurrah for a dying breed. I had tried to get that Grasshopper to run on the oval, but to no avail. So then I got a "real" car. It was called the Beagle, and I don't remember who made it, but it was basically a rip off of Koyosho's Optima Mid. This was a chain drive four wheel drive vehicle that made the Grasshopper look like a rocket. Big bulky and heavy, it was no match for the RC10s or any other car on that oval. Then I got desperate. After reading an article in RCCA, I went out and bought a Road Wizard. (This was Tamiya's first F1 car.) I tried to adapt large off road type tires to the rear to race oval. It almost worked. But then, just when I thought all was hopeless, the track owner decided to bank and pave it. So, to on road I went. The wizard worked okay, and by okay I mean it handled like a greased pig. It squirmed and squealed and meandered this way and that. It was incredibly loose. I tried traction additives, sun screen and finally put a 1/16" strip of black electrician's tape straight down the middle of the inside front tire to try and keep the back end down. All that combined seemed to work. I ran in novice because that was the only class they would allow open wheel cars into. I tried to fit pan car bodies to the Wizard, but with no luck. I continued to run in this fashion until, one night, the outside tire came off the car in turn three. The car, with tape around the inside tire, pushed up the track into the third turn wall. The impact caused the chassis to snap in half. I had enough of this. I gave up racing for a while. I couldn't stay away for long though, and with my first real paycheck came my first real racecar, an RC10L. That car ran good, far better than the Wizard, but I still wasn't that competitive until another racer took me under his wing. First, my car was a fiberglass version of the car, but he helped me tweak it to get it running like a champ. Soon, however, I sold it and he helped me purchase a RC10Lss from a friend of his. This one was full graphite and now I started to become competitive. A good car and some experience behind the wheel had changed things. I raced in a six race series that covered six different tracks, three oval and three road courses. I was tied for first coming into the last race, which was being held, at my home track. I thought that I had this in the bag. However, in the main event, my car started getting hit with a serious glitch down the back straight. It cost me the race and the championship. It wasn't long after before I realized I couldn't stay competitive in on road racing without dumping a ton of money into my car every week. Besides that, all the oval tracks, including my home track that had been around for so long, began closing up. So, I sold all my on road cars and bought my next car, a Koyosho Ultima II. Then, the old bug came back and I decided to try and race it. I thought I could get back into off road. This was a big mistake. The car couldn't compete with the other cars and I found that off road just wasn't for me. So, I got out of racing all together. I stayed out for about 3 years, and then I picked up a copy of RCCA and saw that parking lot racing was starting to get popular. Hobby Shack was holding at least one race a month. It was meant to be a fun and relaxed atmosphere. That sounded good to me. So, I went out and got a Tamyia Newman/Haas Indycar. I figured with this, I could run the parking lot races and do oval. I found that the Indycar, however, wasn't a very good road coarse car. Unlike any pan car I'd had before, this one had too much rear traction. I couldn't believe it. Nothing I did would make the car handle in a neutral fashion. I decided to try it out on an oval and see how it would do there. I wound up TQ in novice after not having raced oval for many years. However, the only oval around was 2 hrs. away from where I lived and that was just too far. So, I saved a bit and decided to get a sedan. My first sedan was a Tamyia TA-03F Pro. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) It was a great car and I did fairly well with it. I just had a real problem with the car when it got hot outside, the back end wouldn't stay down. Now I was learing all over again with a car totally different from what I had been use to. Soon, I had my handling problems down. I then decided to try and get my wife involved in racing. So I picked up another sedan, a HPI RS4. This car was used and the newer model sport and pro versions with dual belt drive train were out. I figured this would be a good way for her to get started. However, she didn't like racing and the car would have just sat. So, Idecided to try and race it and see what the HPI thing was all about. I put on a dual belt and pro front end conversion and began to race it. Soon, it was my primary car and my TA03 turned into my back up. However, this car began having the same problem as my TA03, the back end wouldn't stay planted when it was hot. All last year I fought with this car and the best I could do was a second place finish in the D main. (Even though I led every lap but the first and last). I knew the car was better than that though. So, after the season was over, I totally striped the car down. I found three bent hing pins, one bent universal, and other problem parts. I replaced and upgraded everything I found to be wrong. A new servo saver, CVDs in all four corners, new belts and tires. But most of all, I drove and drove and drove. I'd make a change to the shocks and try it out. Make another change and put another pack through it. By the time this year was getting ready to start, I knew that RS4 inside and out. It was set up just the way I wanted it, hot or cold. I decided to take it to a small parking lot race to put it to the test. It dominated the race. (Though the competition was light). Now, my parking lot season has started. The car is working great. I didn't do well in the main event of my first race, but I placed first and second in my heats. This was something I couldn't do all last year. This season, I am looking forward to a successful string of victories (I hope) instead of frustration after frustration. Oh, and my next car? Well…let's just say it's going to be another HPI!

Troy Lyman

Robotech.