Meet the Staff!!! Interview with Zach!!!
Fellow Terribles! We have a great interview for you this month! This fellow has been involved with the Team since our early days on RCTech and he is our new Team Personnel Manager! Some may know him as Zach, while others may recognize him by djzachtyler… Welcome Zach!
Aaron: Zach, to start out with, please tell us a little about yourself and how you became involved with the Team.
Zach: I am an IT nerd out in sunny California. I live in the Silicon Valley, and live by the philosophy of work hard/play hard, and I always try to enjoy life as much as possible! I’m single, without kids or a wife; it’s just me, my RC cars, and my computers. I stumbled upon the Team concept thread on RCTech, did some reading and sent James a message asking about it. After James filled me in on what the team was all about and the ideals it was based on, I was very touched and saw an opportunity to align myself with a group based on promoting the hobby/sport with the possibility of being able to revamp the racing scene in my area. I joined with out a second though and participated in some of the forum chats when it was just a forum thread at RCTech.
Aaron: It’s always really cool to hear how people have become involved with the Team! With that in mind, how has your Team role evolved?
Zach: When teamterribles.com finally went live I was the 10th member to register, and shortly after the launch asked if they needed help moderating, or anything and also went on to share my IT background. At that point I was recruited by James and Irv to help get the site built, and shortly after, started becoming more and more involved in the initial setup of the site and was asked to become part of management since I seemed to have a good head on my shoulders. I was so humbled I devoted as much time as I could, as the Moderation manager, assistant Site Administrator, Mentor to younger members, and by also reaching out to find members more interested in helping the team...
Aaron: Wow, good stuff! How did you become interested in RC cars? Have you always been a racer?
Zach: I first got into RC way back in the 80s when electrics were all the rage and RTR was non existent. You had to build from scratch... Used too have a lot of fun building cars, and helping my buddies build theirs. I didn't race competitively, but me and the guys I grew up around would race each other's dragsters up and down the road, was a blast. I then went to the Navy, and being on board ship, didn't have the space or time for RC, and even thought I had out grown it pretty much.
Aaron: Sounds like you started with RC at a young age! It seems that when people get into the hobby at such a young age, they leave, but usually come back. What brought you back to the hobby?
Zach: Well, after the service I came out to Cali, and there was a slot car track by my apartment. They also carried RC cars and kits; this was the mid 90s when nitro was becoming all the rage... I started getting back into the sport by just helping out marshalling local races, and helping guys pit, etc. I had no money for a car of my own, but loved it when I got to drive. It still wasn’t until about five years ago that I stumbled upon a buddy who was working on a custom RC crawler, and he was really into it. I’ve always been a speed demon though, and stumbled across a Duratrax Maximum ST that I scored for $40 with everything it needed. It didn’t take but a week before I had it back to good running shape and had modded it.
Aaron: LOL, that’s all it took?
Zach: Yes! I was officially bit, and started buying many more nitro models, mostly 1/10. Around that time I scored a NTC3+ and got bit by the onroad bug, as well as the off-road bug, after that I was hooked and at one point had 13 cars from all classes, Comp crawler, 1/10 on & off road, Monster trucks, everything... problem was I was getting tired of the small rides, and then got an Ofna buggy which was my first foray into 1/8 scale... I called that my Franken Ofna as it was built out of remnants of several OFNA Ultra series buggies. I ended up with a few of the older Ofna chassis, but they became outdated and outclassed, at that point I got my Hyper 7 (which I still race) that became my first true race buggy and has every mod you can get for it... a few months after Losi released the 8ight 2.0’s, I got an 8ight-T 2.0 and started running truggy as well as buggy... Unfortunately the economic down turn forced me to have to part with my truggy and a lot of my collection, which I scaled down to just my Hyper 7, My NTC3+, My Axial comp crawler, and my Losi Mini DT.
Aaron: For what it’s worth, I feel we have lost a lot of good competition and fellow hobbyists with the down-turn of the economy. The nice part is, the hobby is still evolving and new innovative products are still being released. This is what I really like about the RC hobby… And now that we have Team Terribles, we should all stress that the RC hobby creates bonds between strangers, who quickly make life-long friends with fellow competitors. Whew… Sorry for the soap box! How has Terribles impacted your life?
Zach: Team Terribles has helped me foster good relationships, and make great new friends, it has helped me branch out and expand my programming knowledge of working with a top notch CMSA based website, and helped me to outreach to hundreds of fellow racers world wide. It has been an honor and privilege to become such a valued member of the Team, and to see it continually grow through both good and bad times, and to be a part of something so much greater than myself...
Aaron: Zach, it has been a pleasure to finally be able to work out the logistics for this interview. Is there anything coming up within the Team you would like to inform our members of?
Zach: At this point anyone truly involved in the team and our forums pretty much knows what we are about and what we are up to. As always we are always seeking input from team members as to what we can do from a management perspective to make it a better organization all around. As the Team continues to grow we plan to sponsor more events, and doing everything we can to give back to all our team members in the form of prizes, trophies and anything else we can to keep the organization a great success. As we discussed earlier, Team member relations is my primary focus. It is my responsibility to act as the direct interface between the new members, Team Reps and Staff. If there is ever a concern or something any member of the team needs I will do everything in my power to see that you all are getting what you need to be successful and winning races!
Aaron: Zach, I can’t wait to get the opportunity to work with you in the field. Thank you for taking the time for this, as I know our members will greatly enjoy getting to read about another staff member behind the scenes! Any closing thoughts?
Zach: Thanks for your time and a huge thanks to James & Irving for bringing me in from the start, and to my buddy Greg who has been my right hand man and great friend since he joined, To you Aaron for doing such a great job with content, Nate for the slick graphics, to all the reps for all the organizing and cohesion they bring to the team, and of course to each and every team member for helping drive our success and show the world we are here to stay!!!