‘Our own little pit crew’

If you take a turn too fast, prepare to skid out and crash. Don’t slow down; there’s still plenty of racers on your tail. Lose focus for even a moment? Say goodbye to a win.

The only differences between Team Peavler and any other sport involving fast cars are the drivers and the cars themselves. Behind the wheel isn’t necessary or possible: these cars are only 16 inches in length, and the drivers control them using radio waves.

Comprised of father David Peavler and children Jayme and Jana, the Peavlers have been racing for most of their lives, and they’ve gotten quite good at it.

The Peavlers aren’t embarrassed at all by their hobby. After constant improvement and optimizations to their miniature cars’ setups, RC car racing is more than a playing with toys. After seeing how fast these cars move, there’s no doubt in the dedication it takes to control them.

“Some people might think it’s a toy, but once you see one in person, you’ll be like, ‘oh,’” David said.

The work week

When he’s not customizing and fine-tuning his car, David works as a maintenance engineer at Greater Regional Hospital. Some days are as easy as changing a few light bulbs. Most of the time, it’s making sure the hospital can run effectively.

With the amount of tech at every level of the hospital, making sure the frontline doctors, nurses, surgeons and administrators can do their jobs smoothly is in the hands of the maintenance crew. David recounted working on an air handler unit so there’d be a steady temperature required for surgery.

“I know we don’t probably get as much credit, but I would think, without the maintenance crew, sometimes the hospital probably wouldn’t run,” David said.

The kids, five years apart in age, have their own lives. Jayme, 14 and still making his way through eighth grade, has homework to do in between races. Jana, 19, works as an online shopper at Walmart, but still finds time when she can to travel with her family.

For the whole family, traveling together feels like a mini vacation. Meeting up with friends and talking about the competition after all the races are done has become something to look forward to, and becomes a balancing break from their work week.

The beginning

After David received his first RC car as a kid, he spent his afternoons driving it around his neighborhood. David was then approached by someone who invited him to put his racing skills to the test, the rest is history.

Still, convincing his parents to drive him to RC events wasn’t easy.

“It’s hard to ask a parent that, as an intuit to be like, ‘Hey, I need you to drive me clear over here and spend this much money,’” David said. “They might think it’s a play thing, but it turns into like if you were good enough, when you start off, like when you’re young, you can make a career out of it.”

Although the Peavlers aren’t career racers, David has received his own sponsorships over the years. When he’s sponsored, David uses the parts from the company sponsoring him and adds decals to his Team Peavler car.

At this time, Team Peavler is sponsored by Team Associated, J Concepts, Reedy Power and Factory Team, supplying batteries, motors, bodies, tires, rims and more.

The mechanical complexity of these cars means a lot of optimization in what parts to use. Depending on the amount of turns in a track, the material of the track and the competition racing alongside, small adjustments in a car can lead to a few more seconds shaved.

The family

Although David spent his weekends traveling for RC competitions, he took a break to focus on his family. When his kids grew older, the RC cars came back after his children asked for them for Christmas. The rest is history.

“My dad has been racing them since he was a kid,” Jana said. “I turned about 10, 11, and then I was like, ‘That looks pretty cool. I want to do that too.’”

The Peavlers would travel to competitions, David and his kids. David encouraged them to get more involved as they gained confidence in racing. Soon, the kids were speaking in their racing language and watch racing videos in their downtime.

Through this bonding, the Peavlers find their own contributions to the team. Suggestions on how to optimize their cars, adjust steering and the weight balance became a frequent review between the family.

Looking inside these cars and seeing speeds which require lightning-fast reflexes, it’s clear these cars aren’t mere toys. Even if everyone joins together on the driver’s stand, looking down on the track and controlling the action through a remote control, the competition is fierce.

“These are like cars to us, like real race cars because we do more stuff with it,” Jana said.

“They have more tunability than probably a real race car,” David said. “You can change the pistons, the oil, the spring ratio, the camber, the caster, the tow, the anti-squat. I mean, there’s just so much you can change to make a car handle.”

The family agrees on the hardest part of racing: not crashing. Different elevations, quick turns, ramps and jumps; so many things can go wrong if the Peavlers aren’t careful. A bad crash might require a quick repair.

“It’s so easy to run into a pipe, flip over, run into someone, flip over, or just turn into it because you have to ease to it,” Jana said.

Still, even through the difficulties of managing one’s speed, there’s nothing better than having a close race.

“When you just have a good race with someone, like back and forth, going fast, staying on each other, going through those windy jumps and all that, that’s probably one of my favorite parts,” Jayme said.

“I like the way it makes my heart race,” Jana said. “Driving and just passing anybody, it makes your heart race and be like, oh no, because now I can’t crash because then I’m not going to win.”

After years together, racing together, the family still competes and improves together. At competitions, the family watches each other’s races to learn from each other while also helping with the race.

A part of the competition is helping as a race marshall, which requires a complete awareness of the whole track as you keep the race running smooth. If someone crashes, the marshall will hustle to flip the car and keep the race moving.

For the Peavlers, marshalling for each other has been a consistent theme. For every crash, a Peavler will be there to help out. As they share these experiences together, Jayme had a term for the family which describes their cohesiveness perfectly.

“It’s like our own little pit crew.”