In today’s story, a 10-year-old and his dad have a fun hobby of R/C racing, and the kid is so good that he’s competing against adults.

The problem is when a new racer starts competing and isn’t playing fair.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

R/C Racing Etiquette

So I race radio control cars and have done so since I was a kid. It’s certainly not the most common hobby. Others go for soccer or dancing but my dad and I went for r/C cars.

Anyway this story takes place when I was 10 and competing as a junior. I and the other kids I raced with had about 2 or so years experience, so for our age we were pretty good.

We had some great races.

We also made sure we were good sports (our dads really drilled it into us) so if one of us accidently took another racer out we made sure to apologise and wait for the other guys car to be marshaled and let them go ahead.

Eventually the kids got to compete with the adults.

We were well liked and eventually we were allowed up a class to race with the adult novices.

This was great.

The adults loved racing against us and really admired our sportsmanship and the way we raced and all was well.

Our club was very family friendly (lot’s of dad’s and their kids) and it remains like that to this day.

We can be competitive but the emphasis is on having fun.

There’s a new racer…

Enter ‘ID10T’.

Now ID10T is a grown man (about mid 20’s) who thinks he’s the next Michael Schumacher.

In reality he’s an amateur like the rest of us.

Sure enough he’s in my race.

Each race day we all get 4 races.

ID10T complains about his car.

Literally on the first corner of the first race, he takes me out.

Okay whatever, it’s his first day. I recover and finish in the mid-field.

Second race passes with no incident and in the third race, I finish second. I’m pretty chuffed as I collect my car from the track.

And then I hear ID10T over at race control. (He finished behind me in third) He insists that I need to be disqualified. Why? My car has damage (it didn’t) and that’s unsafe.

ID10T got revenge on him.

Race director tells him that’s not happening.

He walks off in a huff.

Guess what he did in the final race? He was really respectful and fair. Lol no.

He crashed into me. Several times in fact. My car was damaged to the point were I had to retire. I wasn’t happy.

There was a meeting but ID10T didn’t learn anything from it.

Next race meeting he kept at it. Not just to me, but everyone. So a few people weren’t happy with him.

At the next race meeting, before racing started, driver etiquette was brought up at the drivers briefing. No names were mentioned but it was made clear that some drivers (namely ID10T) weren’t being fair.

Everyone nodded and agreed that we were a family club and should strongly focus on being as fair as possible. In other words we’re not racing to be the next world champion, so just enjoy the day.

ID10T listens but doesn’t comply. He’s his usual self. He spins me around in the first 3 races. At this point 10 year-old me has had it.

It’s time for another race…

Now by 10 year-old standards, I was a patient person. But at this point I was mad. I began to plot for the final race.

At this point I should explain that our track was in an old car park. The walls for the track were pvc pipe.

To hold the pipe in place we used sandbags. Heavy sandbags too.

It took 2 strong men to lift them. They could do some damage if you hit them. (Keep this in mind)

The last race of the day starts and I get a great start and take the lead. ID10T is 2nd. A few laps in and we’ve both broken away from the rest. It’s between us.

We come onto the long straight and ID10T comes up alongside of me. We’re now halfway down the straight. And then sure enough he goes to veer into to me.

He got an idea.

Freeze-frame for a second.

At this point I could have turned into him too and given him a taste of his own medicine (and believe me I was mightily tempted) but that would just make me as bad as him and that sense of sportsmanship that dad had drilled into me was telling me not to.

But in that nanosecond an idea popped into my head. It would embarrass him and make me look good.

Un-freeze.

ID10T wrecked his car.

So I do something unexpected.

I hit the brakes.

Instead of hitting me, ID10T veers into thin air at top speed (about 60 km/h which in a little 1/10th scale car is fast), hits the wall and also one of the immoveable sandbags.

As I speed back up, still safely in the lead, I see the glorious sight of ID10T’s car cartwheeling it’s way into the air.

Wheels are falling off it, suspension parts are flying each and every way and as it lands it’s general mess.

He won the race.

I go on to win the race.

ID10T couldn’t do a thing because technically I did nothing wrong. I merely took evasive action and avoided an incident.

He was MAD. He was outwitted by a 10 year-old, his car was ruined and he only had himself to blame.

The real icing on the cake was that it was my first win against the adult novices, who bless them, were thrilled for me.

ID10T never raced again.

The club president shook my hand, congratulating me.

My dad was beaming.

At the sight of this ID10T nearly popped a blood vessel. His girlfriend was there too.

I can’t remember exactly what she said to him but it was words to the effect of “I’m taking that car off you!”

He never came back.

That was some good quick thinking to stop the car to avoid the accident. It sounds like ID10T learned his lesson.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader thinks he handled the situation better than he would have.

Another reader praised him for his self control.

This person likes his writing style.

This reader experienced a lot of intentional crashes when racing.

Another reader has a “more dramatic” idea…

The best part is that because of his quick thinking, the kid won!

He’ll never forget that day – and the loser won’t, either.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.