Adam Skelding exclusive interview with Durango off-road racing star and designer

Unless you have been asleep under a large rock for the last 5 or so years, you will already know just how much of an impact Team Durango have made on the off-road racing scene. Their breath taking attention to detail, and truly amazing quality of production is created to please even the most discerning buggy fan. One man who decided to commit his years of professional experience both on the track and off to the Durango renaissance, is Adam Skelding. Adam is well known for his super consistent off-road racing performances and also his contribution to the development of some of Durango's most recent top end racing kits. Team Durango products are quality personified, and just picking up and holding the new DEX410 V3 4wd buggy feels more like lifting a finely crafted weapon of war than it does a racing car! As far as Team Durango's performance on the track, well a quick glance at the weekly race results will show you that a loyal legion of 'Rangoites' are trusting their lap times to this ground breaking range of products. Adam Skelding is currently a designer and U.K team manager for the brand, and his playful humour and sharp eye for professional detail gave our recent interview a real quality edge....over to you Adam.

ORRC - What was the first RC vehicle you ever owned?

Adam - I guess that would be back in 1983/4, wow that's going back some time. I think it was an RC car called 'The Winch'. I remember leaving the catalogue open on the page for my Mum and Dad to see. I'm sure there was a TV ad that went with it too. After a full pestering session I got one that Christmas. It had a fully working winch on it so you could get yourself out of trouble and haul logs and stuff. It ran on huge D cells and lasted for about 10 mins on a full overnight charge. How thing have changed.

ORRC - Have you always been involved in off-road racing or have you had your hand in other areas of the sport previously?

Adam - My main race interest has always been in off-road. I have ventured to the dark side of on-road once or twice though. When I started off-road racing it was off road cars on mainly flat surfaces like pub car-parks and inside old warehouses. Then I remember getting a BMW M3 saloon body shell for my Pro-Cat and racing in Saloon and RallyX series at Stafford. After those classes died out with the full blown TC chassis coming out I guess I went back to off-road full time. Whilst at HPI I occasionally ran TC at local clubs and some meetings we sponsored but I'm off road through and through now.

ORRC - What is your favourite off-road class to race and why?

Adam - 4wd Electric off-road. It's the class I feel most at home with, the one I've probably raced most throughout my time in the hobby. I really only started racing 2wd pretty late on. 4wd is mostly now about 'taming the beast', huge power, styling it up in the air and able to drift around corners. 2wd is the finesse class, something I've never quite got the hang of going fast at, I always seem to 'fear' 2wd and drive too conservatively.

ORRC - Do you feel that the current trend of multi-motor position factory buggy kits is set to become the excepted standard within 2wd kit production? If so why?

Adam - To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if it did. We have all the power in the world at our disposal now. Set-up is king and the more options we have the more we like to test, try and go faster. Tracks are evolving now and the surfaces that cars race on around the world are quite distinct (you have astro and carpet here in the UK and Northern Europe and dirt tracks predominately throughout the rest of the world) each surface requiring different chassis layouts to go fast.

ORRC - When you race towards an obstacle on the track, do you keep half an eye on the buggies around you, or just focus on your car as you prepare to take on the obstacle? Explain what goes through your mind?

Adam - I keep one eye on the marshal at the point nearest to the obstacle, I might need him soon!

Being honest, after racing for so long, some things do become second nature and I'd love to know what's actually going through my mind. It does seem like your driving round on autopilot when you are 'on a run'. I guess I do keep and eye on the cars around me, a mental note on the drivers driving them (are they likely to help you out), have they seen you coming, is it risky? It's probably like watching Terminator when he's looking around and his 'eye shot' is filled with data all of which is processed instantly. 

ORRC - When you are setting up your electrical installation in your off-road cars, do you have a favourite wiring technique and method of connecting items?

Adam - I try to keep things simple, Wires as short as possible and make the job neat, something I learnt from Andy Moore. A neat wiring solution leads to least problems, take some time and you'll only have to do the job once. I do try a few layouts and then pick the best, it can sometimes be quite a long job at the end of a kit build, frustrating at times and sometimes really easy. I like my Speed Passion motors as they use connectors to connect the motor rather than having to solder a motor in at the track.

ORRC - Do you like saddle pack layouts or stick pack configurations best? And why?

Adam - I have no real preference here. When designing, it's really down to whichever offers the best solution to weight distribution and packaging. When racing it's whatever is required to be fast at the track.

ORRC - What's your greatest off-road racing achievement to date?

Adam - I have a couple. Making my first national A final was a monkey off my back, I'd been so close so many times. I don't really have a list of big race wins, but the last few years have been my collective best. 14th at the Euro's in Bilbao. 15th and 16th in the last 2 years at nationals and also a top ten in the last round of the Worlds Warm-up in Finland.. Those are the times that have made me go a little fuzzy inside.

ORRC - What is your favourite surface to race on and why?

Adam - I honestly don't think I have a favourite surface, sorry to sit on the fence here, but I really don't. I think a track layout / venue can make a surface 'shine'. If I was really pushed I'd say the old school grass/dirt tracks some with multi surface elements. They were the ones I grew up on. You had to have you car set-up for a number of changes in surface and be able to get the most out of your car on a varied track.

ORRC - Can you explain the methodology behind Team Durangos quality of production? How do you get such high quality products at such competitive retail prices?

Adam - We spend a lot of time at TD looking over the design making sure the product we are selling is as cost effective as possible for us to make whilst still giving the racer the best car they can have. It's something we have focused on recently with the DEX210 and DEX410v3, the first version of the DEX410 was a no holds barred piece of engineering. We then brought out the 'R' version to bring Durango to the masses. The V3 is the perfect marriage of them both. No compromise on performance whilst being kind on your pocket. The DEX210 had a similar philosophy, we wanted the most adjustable 2wd ever, whilst still hitting the price point of the most popular 2wd cars on the market in this most cost-conscious class.

ORRC - When you are waiting to race your round at a meeting, do you spend time socialising, or are you 100% focused on preparing your car?

Adam - The way our pitting area is set-up it's a good mix of both. We tend to pit with friends (Neil & Bradders) from rival teams (AE) and team-mates alike. The banter is always good and provides a nice atmosphere to go racing. Without a good social atmosphere I think it would be hard to enjoy the racing as much as I do. There's always a healthy level of competition between the guys on the team but everything is shared and we work together to get our cars at the sharp end of the grid. I do have my time where I focus on getting the car ready for the next run, but now the batteries and motors are so easy to work with more time can be spent wandering round the pits and seeing friends. On the way to the rostrum I like to get there early, watch some racing and make sure I get the spot on the rostrum I practiced in.

ORRC - What's your least favourite part of a new kit build and why?

Adam - Shocks and turnbuckles.... OMG!!!!!!! The agony of it! They just aren't fun to build and require a lot of arm wrenching!

ORRC - Have you ever attacked a gap during a race and found the other drivers just block you out? What's your technique to overcome this situation and make the pass count?

Adam - Yes. We all shut the door on each other at some point in time. Different lines converging at the same point, it's better to get out of it (if you can) and work out where you are faster and try and concentrate on getting them there next time round rather than making a lunge for a gap that might go pretty quick.

ORRC - Can you explain what your opinions are on RC users buying products from Eastern Asian on-line suppliers? What's good? What's bad?

Adam - It's certainly a toughie.. We all want the same product at the lowest price and the internet has all helped us get our hands on product from far overseas cheaper than we can get it down the road. It's affected all commerce not just RC. I do a lot of shopping on-line especially around Christmas, you just know that some things are worth spending a little time researching to save some money which everyone's trying to do in the current climate.

I guess I'm also fairly lucky in that I have a couple of model shops local to me which I do use for as much as I can. It's nice to go in and 'chew the fat' with some like minded people and also it's a good port of call to check on how things are selling and what we can do better.

ORRC - When you prepare your race gear what's the one thing you attend to first?

Adam - The broken part(s) from my last race meeting:)

Running the Durango's is a bit of a god send really. They are so reliable and with enclosed transmission and shock/ drive boots there really is little to go wrong.

 I guess I have a good look around the car and check the vitals. Was anything wrong in its last run? Check the bearings and drive-shafts if it was wet/very sandy.

I do occasionally stick a Post it note to my car if there is something that needs doing. The drive home from a tiring day at racing can leave you forgetting that something needed doing. I always try to have my car ready to go, charged up and loaded even when I go club racing. It's just one less thing to do when you get there and you can hit the track for valuable practically stick a Post it note to my car if there is something that needs doing. The drive home from a tiring day at racing can leave you forgetting that something needed doing. I always try to have my car ready to go, charged up and loaded even when I go club racing. It's just one less thing to do when you get there and you can hit the track for valuable practice as soon as you arrive.

ORRC - How do you see the regional club scenes developing over the next few years with what seems like a vast upturn in off-road racers joining the sport?

Adam - It's been great seeing off-road come back from the depths of the late 90's early 2000's where TC was king and off-road was struggling. Some old ones have come back and some young faces have got old. There does also seem to be a vain of young blood coming into the sport, I've no doubt that brushless and LiPo have been a massive factor in this. You only need a couple of packs of cells to go racing not the 8 or so we used to need with NiMH's. Motors don't need brushes and skimming every other run to keep them in tip top condition. The racing now is much more of a level playing field now and there seems to be more emphasis on your driving and set-up than equipment you have.

I think clubs and regional races will carry on increasing in attendance, where to, I don't know. There's enough drivers out there now to support clubs, which empowers the club to make the club better for its members. Forums like oOple have had an excellent impact on the sport making the clubs more accessible to racers and vice versa. I've known Jimmy since when he first turned up at Batley taking photos and I don't think he fully realises the impact he's had.

ORRC - What's your favourite buggy body shell of all time?

Adam - DEX410. Soooooo slim, so different, and my paint scheme looks good on it.

ORRC - How many times per week do you race? Would you race more if you could find the time?

Adam - When I started I raced 5-6 times a week, there was a different club every night apart from Thursday.  Now I race once sometimes twice a week depending on how I can fit it around being a husband and dad. Sometimes I would like to race more, but then again it's nice to have a break and come back fresh.

ORRC - When a racer is looking to begin to understand the technology that is now used in brushless systems, what is the best way to learn these complicated electrical facts?

Adam - It's all powered by magic smoke! Initially, my advice would be to read the instructions and use it on factory settings at least until you are happy with what you have. Then when you do make alterations make them one at a time so you know what you are doing. (this also works with any set-up change on the car). Keep a note book handy of anything you change, use the set-up sheets that companies provide keeping a note of when something was good and when a change maybe went bad. Also, don't be afraid of asking around at meetings, ask one of the drivers at the top of the time sheets or someone near you if they know about your brand of product. They will give you a hand on setting up your equipment.

ORRC - Explain your racing style in 3 words?

Adam - Scared of crashing :)

ORRC - If you could race on just 1 track for the rest of your career, where would that be, and why?

Adam - Hot Rod Hobbies. California, sunshine, good track layouts , awesome announcer (Jimmy Babcock).

There is no doubt that with knowleagable and experienced characters such as Adam under their banner, Team Durango are set to command even larger portions of the racers hard earned budget over the coming years. With a level of quality that is seen throughout the brands entire range, we can be sure that Adam Skelding will continue to be the man to beat at a track near you. If you ever get a chance to grab a chat with Adam, dont miss the opportunity. He is a real gentleman and his years of experience really shine through with his enthusiasm and passion not just for Team Durango, but for off-road racing as a whole.

We would like to thank Adam and Team Durango for this interview and we wish them the very best of luck during 2012.

To learn more about the full range of Team Durango products visit www.team-durango.com