Small Cars Bring Big Fun to Scale No Star Bash

Drift Indy and Max Speed Shop collaborated at this year’s No Star Bash to bring you the greatest drift festival in the Midwest. A three day festival with some of the best drivers the country has to offer. Max Speed Shop brought the same grassroots style fun in 1/10 scale!

MSS is Dayton's premier indoor RC drift track and dedicated hobby store, known for its welcoming community, awesome vibes, and focus on rear-wheel-drive RC drifting. Their facility features a professionally designed track, pit areas, as well as a fully stocked retail section. They offer everything from ready-to-run (RTR) chassis all the way to fully customized builds. If you can’t find something in house, odds are they can get it for you. Max Speed also hosts competitive and community events, including their Super Drift Competition.

They're located just a short 10 minute drive from Drift Indy’s home track, Darana Racway, (formerly Kil-kare), so naturally, they closed shop for the weekend and made a mobile shop at the racetrack. Underneath the covered pavilion was the scale track with surface tiles used specifically for RC drifting. Also featured was a fleet of rental RTRs to use if you wanted to try it out before you make that leap into another great hobby.

Friday was full of driving and fun. If you happen to look up from the scale RC track, you would see people of all ages side by side with the same look of concentration on their faces driving to the best of their ability. Many full-scale drifters were watching and driving as well. My favorite way to watch is by sitting on the ground next to the track. It changes the perspective and adds a bit more realism to the experience. Viewing different builds ranging from your standard RTR all the way to full-blown race cars, it’s hard to decipher the difference between 1:1 and 1:10 scale. Just like full scale, these different build levels offer endless customization and driving feel.

Saturday was no different for most of the day until it came time for MSS to host a competition right after Drift Indy's infamous Roller Dog Tag Team Championship.

The competition process is what you’d expect to see at any 1:1 scale comp. The only difference with this particular comp was no qualifying and no practice laps, just straight to competition. Although there were many RC drifters from near and far in attendance for the weekend, only 18 brave souls signed up to compete. With a randomized seeding bracket made, drivers were ready to start battles. These battles needed judged, and who better to make the calls than the judges for Drift Indy Grand Prix; Derek King, Mike Skudlarek, and T. R. Scrivner.

As the comp got underway, battles progressed without issue. Sometimes drivers would make a mistake or “crash” but that’s not an issue at 1:10 scale. Some battles were tough for the judges to make a decision and multiple battles resulted in OMT. Compared to 1:1, the comp is fast-paced and takes a short time to work through all the battles. Third place battle was secured and the stage was set for the final battle. Antony and Dale went head to head to see who would take the win for the first Scale No Star Bash Comp. Antony edged out Dale for the top spot. The podium was as follows; 1st Place - Antony (RX7, TN), 2nd Place -Dale (Corvette, OH), 3rd Place - John (Supra, TN). With the scale comp wrapped up, it was time to watch the dudes of Drift Indy Grand Prix put on a full-scale show!

After a weekend full of different scale drifting, I asked the owner of Max Speed Shop, Kyle Min, a few questions:

What were some highlights of the weekend? 

Kyle: We had 30+ attendees who showed up just for us. That's the highlight for us. It not only brought some of the guests out of the state that had no idea No Star Bash was a thing, but also served as a reminder that we are here for the people. One other highlight was meeting this 14 year old kid who has been saving up for a drift RC. Edgar from Drift Indy was observing the action from his golf cart and heard what this kid was doing and helped him out with his first RC drift car. It made the kid’s whole year. Everything about this weekend was a highlight! Seeing the real life drifter transition over to small ones once their break was up was one of the coolest things to see.

Compared to your shop and a controlled environment, how is it setting up and running RC drift outdoors?

Kyle: Absolutely horrible. Took us 7 hours to set up, 5 hours to tear down. But the atmosphere made it worth it. Being able to hear and smell the real drift cars while drifting your toy drift RC car is an insane feeling.

Can you elaborate a little on your goals for Max Speed Shop? 

Kyle: The goal initially was to create a safe space for hobbyists that are into this hobby. That turned quickly into world domination (Drift RC Domination). We plan to expand to two other states by 2027, and we are going to spread our love for drifting throughout the nation.

Make sure to check out the whole Scale NSB gallery here!