Speed Demons & Super Spectators: Thank You!

 Wow, crew! Just... WOW! If you were anywhere near C-Maxx Raceway this past weekend, you know exactly what we're talking about. The air was filled with the spirit of competition, the track vibrated with the racing of miniature wheels, and the sheer, unadulterated FUN was off the charts!

We at C4 DRL, in collaboration with the awesome Charm City Collector's Club, are still buzzing from the incredible Downhill Racing Event. Seriously, you all turned a simple track into a full-blown festival of speed, skill, and seriously cool cars.

To our Race Teams: You magnificent maniacs! You brought the heat and the drive to compete that made every single race a nail-biter. From the finely made Hot Wheels speed demons to the Realistic Matchbox JDMs, you showed us what it means to push the limits of miniature gravity racing.  You folks are the heart and soul of this event, and we can’t thank you enough for making it truly unforgettable.

To our Spectators: You are the cheering, booing, aweing, high-fiving superstars! You transformed the raceway into a coliseum of excitement. Your energy was absolutely electric! Every “Ooooh!” and “Aaaah!” every clap and cheer fueled the racers and made the atmosphere absolutely incredible. We saw families laughing, friends competing, and a community coming together to celebrate the thrill of the race. You brought the party, and we couldn’t have asked for a better crowd.

And to everyone who helped in any way: From the volunteers who kept things running smoothly to the sponsors who made it all possible, thank you! You are the unsung heroes who made this event a resounding success.

We're anticipating next month's race, and we can't wait to see what you all bring to the table. We're talking bigger, better, and even more ridiculously fun!

So, until then, keep those engines revving, those wheels spinning, and that passion burning bright. You're all champions in our book!

Stay tuned for photos and videos from the event – we’ll be sharing them soon!

Keep on racing, Charm City!

The C4 DRL & Charm City Collector's Club Crew!

Action-Packed Weekend Sees Thrilling Races and Tight Finishes

C-Maxx Raceway – The meanest & speediest JDM Racer took to the track this past weekend as the C4 DRL in association with the Charm City Collector's Club hosted a series of exciting races. Spectators were treated to close finishes, impressive maneuvers, and a few surprises along the way.

 A standout performance came from Nurses 22 Racing a brand new team to the C4 DRL. They dominated the competition, securing the top spot with a points difference of 6 points, by winning 3 races in the finals. Her closest rival, Jumping Bean Racing, trailed by 9 points, going into the 4^th race of the finals. Both Cherry Tree Racing & Double D Racing tied after the 4^th race of the finals which highlighted the intense level of competition. Double D Racing edged out ahead in a tie breaking 5^th race to take the 3^rd spot on the podium.

 Other teams finishing in the top 16 and earning points for the 2025 Charm City Cup were Raw Racing, Ghost Racing Inc, Recreational Hazard Racing, Dented Bed Racing, Butler Racing, Blackjack Racing and Scat Wheels Racing.

 A couple rookie teams made it heat races this month.  Alex Racing and Smiley Guy’s Garage Racing made it to the heats in their debut appearance on the C-Maxx Raceway.  Dog Walker Racing also made it into the heats as a rookie team in their 2^nd appearance of the year.  Some of our veteran teams, Blind Dog Racing, Different Smell Racing, Dragoon Racing, JPL Raing, Monster Racing, Moo Cow Horse Farm Racing, along with Road Hazard Racing failed to make it into the quarterfinals but managed to gain some well needed points racing into the heats.

 Additional teams receiving points for their performances by getting into the qualifiers are Busted Knuckles Racing, a veteran to the C4 DRL that has been absent from competition for a few months, Pirate’s Cove Racing, a rookie racing team in his 2^nd race for 2025, and a brand-new 1^st time team, Supreme Wheels Racing.  These teams were just a few race wins shy of being in the finals and we believe if they keep after the drop, they will end up on the podium in the near future.

 Only four teams were left just outside of the points for March.  Two veteran teams, Rainbow Unicorn Racing and Krazy Kat Lady Racing, along with two 1^st time teams, Juup Racing and Speedy Racing. Unfortunately, the competition was close this month and if a team’s racer wasn’t tuned in, that team was left looking from the outside.  

 The C4 racing weekend was a resounding success, showcasing both the competitive spirit and camaraderie of the racers. With its diverse range of participants, from 1^st timer and rookies to professionals and veterans, and thrilling races, the C4 DRL continues to grow in popularity. The next event promises even more excitement, as racers build on their experiences and push the boundaries.

Be sure to check back soon for information on the Charm City Cup Points Race.

The Next C4 DRL Race is just around the bend… Get in, so you don’t get left out… If you think you are you Ready for the Drop?

GRI Jr's February C4 Experience

It was the third day into February, we've had a couple new things happening and something new that I neglected to tell everyone that started last month.

First off we have started points racing, the points race is only lasting for the first three months of this year, it is just a trial run right now but stay tuned in the future we may make it happen. With the points race, you only get points for one car that went the farthest. For instance, billy has two cars in the semi finals and one car in the finals, billy would only get points for the car that went to the finals...

The second new thing that we had to add in last month were the race-ins. If you go back to last months post, I explain what a "Race-In" is... We have experimented with this before with up to ten cars but this month it was different.

This month we had over one hundred entries. For those of you who do know, our racing bracket is set up for sixty-four cars any other would have to be race in, unless we got a perfect 128 cars. If we were to have 128 cars we could just add another "leg" of the race and it would still boil down to the final two cars without there being any "byes"

And that is what we did, we had a perfect 128 cars to run in the downhill race. By the way, next months race is "Mopar-Madness" meaning the car must be a dodge product...

Today was also a special day because our "sister" hot-wheels club, South Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware(SJPD) was also stopping by to do some racing, trading and selling... One of their members, Dan had won our race today, and he is now in the second place in the points race and he will be back next month to go after the crown in our Mopar-Madness Race..

Next month is going to be special also, not only is it the end of the points race, but if you make it toward the end, you will get double points for not one, but two of your top contending cars. So with that, thank you for enjoying my experience at the C4 Hot-wheels club and have a good rest of your day/night.

GRI Jr's January C4 Experience

It was January 6th, C4 race committee had planed for two races. One would be the "Bow-tie" battle and the other was an invite only race. The invite only race, is for all people that do customs. This will be explained in more detail later in the post.

For the Bow-tie battle, we had a total of 70 entrees, the most we've had in a while. Also, because we had 70 entrees, we had to do a "Race-in" to 64 cars to complete the bracket. What I mean is that we took the last person to sign up to race, which was me, and we took their cars and "raced" them in.

 We used a random number generator to pull out 6 random cars, each car would then go up against my cars to decide which was entered in the bracket. Out of all of my cars that competed in the race-in, only two stayed. Fortunately, the bracket allowed me to enter 4 of my other cars.

I won a couple in the eliminator portion of the race, but when we reached quarter finals no one could beat the blue Chevelle, Alex had brought one and someone else had brought one. My Chevy Stockar couldn't keep up. Therefore I was eliminated before the semi-finals.

In the end, another Chevy Stockar had won, another Stockar took second, and Alex's blue Chevelle took third. Next would be the custom invite-only race.

Anyone who participated in the custom race brought their cars and was able to test them, not many people had prepared for the race, I didn't prepare either... In the end we ended up rescheduling the race until next month because we didnt have enough people to run the race...

I had a great time today and i cant wait to work on my custom for the race next month, and i will be getting cars ready for the stock race as well...

GRI Jr's December C4 Experience

The day was December 2nd, there would be only one race today and it was a special one... Today we would be running the Treasure Hunt Challenge, a "winner-takes-all" race where if you lose, you lose your car too. That previous weekend my dad and I had gone to the PA Toy show and scoped out a few hunts for the race.

From a Cadillac to a Way To Fast, we had a total of ten cars on our side enter the race. In total there were 62 cars entered, almost an entire bracket of cars to race. There were many races where the same cars raced each other, mostly because we had an over abundance of that type of car, or because of some odd luck.

Alex had brought only four cars to race, with price tags of five to fifteen dollars each. She had believed that her four cars were enough to take home the prize. But one of the cars had a bent axle and couldn't even make it to the finish line... Even though she lost one of her cars, the other three did do some damage to the other entries. Alex must have went home with at least fifteen cars and if I recall correctly she had won the overall race.

I, myself had won about 6 to 9 races and took some other cars with me. During the race we had a pretty big audience, well big in a sense that most people only come to sell then we had a little more then usual which was pretty cool. I was actually able to start the cars and launch them which was different and fun.

Another big event that occurred this month was our Christmas themed custom build-off. We only had four entries but they really out did the last build-off we had. For this build-off we also decided to have a silent auction for these pieces. The overall theme of the contest was Christmas but there were deeper rules then that, your finished piece must be two chopped/combined vehicles to create one finished piece.

Mike Catron had put up a red van, I cant even explain the combination of vehicles. It was a tree delivery with Santa as the driver. Justin did three different vehicles transporting trees. Rob had done a pickup truck with a tree and decals that looked great and on top of all of that he gave it a glass casing with lighting around it. Marcus had done a snow board truck that almost resembled a transformer that I thought it was really cool.

Overall the meet was pretty simple but it was still really cool. No matter what every month I look forward to going and I always have a good time. My favorite part of every meet is the races but today was one of my favorite. Now on to January and I wish you all a good holiday season.

GRI Jr's November C4 Experience

The day was November 4th, Charm City Race Committee chose only one race for today. This race was a stock "Rip-n-Run" which means the car must be packaged in order to race in the competition. By holding only one we had more participation and more of an audience when it came to the races.

The Race Committee also had a major change for once. GRI Jr had actually handled the races for the day, I was able to record all of the data for everyone, which means I noted each person and their cars. I was also able to call out each race and fill out each bracket.

The stock race for today was movie and TV cars, we had cars from Gas Monkey Garage, Back to the Future, and even Star Wars. I and my dad raced a few Fast and the Furious cars, a Scooby Doo Van, a Knight Rider K.I.T.T car, and a couple different Star Wars cars.

We raced three total Star Wars cars, the Millennium Falcon, an X-Wing, and a Tie-Fighter. Throughout the race it seemed as if these cars were unstoppable, each car won by at least two other car lengths.

It was the final four with my Millennium Falcon, Ron Rattel's 007 Aston Martin, Team Raley Racing with the Fast and the Furious matte black charger, and my Tie-Fighter. Ironically the round previously the X-Wing faced the Tie-Fighter, obviously you guys know what took the win.

The semi-finals began with my Millennium Falcon and the Dodge Charger. It was the closest race the Millennium had seen this competition. Nose to nose they both sped down the track until the Millennium Falcon pulled off at the last second and won both races.

The second race was the X-Wing and the Aston Martin I was feeling very uneasy about this race because I could tell that the Aston Martin was fast and the X-wing was only winning by a nose each race, so I didn't know what was going to happen...The X-Wing could not hold up to the competition and the final race would be the Millennium Falcon and the Aston Martin.

The Tension was high at this point, the green lights flash and both cars are launched. It was so close, but the Millennium Falcon won by a nose. The second race was about to begin, and I knew in my head it was in the bag. The cars were launched and it was a clear win, I had won the race with the Millennium Falcon, and was going home with the WIN!

GRI Jr's October C4 Experience

The day was October 14th, we had two special events happening today.

 The first event would be the invite-only custom car race, the invitees were given one casting, this race was announced to this private group back in the July meet. The casting chosen was the Surf n Turf , the builders had 3 months to complete this vehicle. They could do whatever they wanted to the car, from adding weight, chopping the body, or adding graphite to the axles. Some of us chose to do all of the above.

 I personally painted mine, the body was blue, the engine was black and their was a pink surfboard on top. Then I added weight, approximately 80 grams more then the original. The weights I used were fishing weights, to keep these weights down I use an epoxy called J-B Weld. This epoxy becomes a liquid cement that will hold together almost anything. 

While I was waiting for the Epoxy to set up, I began the wheels. I tore apart an old bat mobile with faster than evers, they were medium wheels in the back and small wheels in the front. I used both for my custom, I used regular gorilla glue to hold them in place, then put them all back together. 

This was 2 months ago, that next month I went to the meet and tested it against a ford probe funny car because I generally know what time the funny cars put up. Today, I raced it against 6 other Surf n Turfs, I placed 2nd, the winner was Alex. Alex can be considered a professional modifier, she wins all of our custom races. I still felt accomplished though because I beat out 5 other modifiers.

Our second event was the custom Halloween diorama contest. We also knew about this for 3 1/2 months. My idea was to create a semi-scary, semi-cute ice cream truck with a clown head on the top. The original idea was a Twisted metal ice cream truck from the video game, but I thought that was not original enough. I used a pop culture ice cream truck that already had Real Riders.

 I drilled that open and immediately put that in stripper. The stripper I use is a citric smelling, septic safe stripper, so that i can strip my cars and wash them off in my kitchen sink, I highly recommend it for small projects, you can find it at Walmart in the paint section. While that was stripping I painted the window a matte white. I typically let the stripper set in for about a day or two, it should finish in 12 hours for newer cars, it may take a little longer for older rusted cars like Redlines or older Blackwalls. After that time I scrubbed all the paint and excess stripper off and let it dry all the way off. 

After it dried, I rinsed my hands and thoroughly cleaned them with soap to get all of the oils off, then I placed the car in my hands and thoroughly cleaned that as well. This is preparing it for painting, cleaning it with soap allows for all of the oils to rinse off so that the paint doesn't bubble when you spray it. I then went out to paint it matte white like the windows. I let this sit for another day to let it fully set up. 

While this was setting up I opened up an old ice cream building picture and I edited it to look more clean and able to print using Photoshop. I cut out a 7 inch by 5 inch Styrofoam square and glued this image to the front of it. I then cut out another 7 inch by 5 inch square for the base. I put white liquid glue all over the base and spread artificial sand all over the glue. I found the sand at a nearby hobby shop, that had multiple different colors and types of material. 

This sand matched the color and feeling of the background. I let that sit for about 15 minutes to fully set, then I applied another layer of glue and put another layer of sand over. In order to keep from making a mess, I put a newspaper down that collects all of the excess sand. When you sprinkle the sand, put as much as you can on so you cover your entire work space, you save yourself a ton of money with the news paper layed down, you can then fold the paper in half and slide all of the excess material back into the package. I layed about three more layers of sand and on the last layer I made tire tracks in the sand as if the truck were to be drifting into place. I used the J-B Weld to put the base and background together.

 I also made pink polka-dots on the truck. To make the dots, I used regular paper and hole puncher to randomly put holes in the paper traced like the truck. I did that for each side, then taped the paper to the car and taped any parts I didn't want painted. I bought a small Five Nights at Freddy's Lego figure named "Foxy" and tore off the head, it perfectly matched the colors of the truck. I drilled a small hole in the top of the truck where I wanted the head, and I gently placed the head in the hole.

 Today, I took my diorama to the meet and I was able to view the other contestants. Dave, another member of C4, brought a huge house and property, set in a haunted yard with skeletons and other spooky details, this diorama completely blew mine out of the water. Alex had also brought a diorama, which was just as equally good as Dave's, she used multiple damaged Redlines as a grave yard scene and had a car chase at the top of a hill. My Dad has also made a diorama, his was a scene from an old Scooby Doo episode called "The Spooky Case of the Phantom Race". I liked it a lot, he raised one of his cars to look like it was driving above another racer, like it was capturing it.

Our stock race today was an "American Graffiti" theme. There were six cars that were allowed to run, these cars were all from the movie, from a 32' Ford to a 56' T-Bird. I didn't have any cars to race at first, but I walked around and found some for cheap that I was able to race. We found a couple 32' Fords to race, all the others were taken or being raced. Alex won this race even without modifying her car, she won with a white 32' Ford with black flames.  

In conclusion, today was a pretty good day for Hotwheels...  Neither me nor my Dad had won the custom diorama contest or the stock race, or the private custom race. But all-in-all, I had a great day with the crew, and an even better day with my Dad.

What's Been Going On...

I’m back… We’re back… Well, we’ve never left… Whatever way you, the reader, want to interpret, this, our latest blog.  We, C4, have had our monthly meets and racing events, or as I like to label them, Maryland DieCast Trade Shows and Downhill Racing Events. Even though I haven't updated this blog in forever. My bad... no really... My Bad! Well then, let me get on with it then.

First and foremost… The Hot Wheels Collectors’ Nationals took place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania this past April and we were there!!! Our C4 Crew made their presence known with over 20 members attending throughout the week in combination with our SJPD friends from the north also made the trip with several of their members in attendance. If you are a collector and have never been to one of these events, then you need to go. I mean it!!! Somehow, someway… find a way... really, just go! From the room to room buying, selling and trading to the Downhill and Sizzler Track Racing, there is so much for a collector to do.  We bought some long sought after die-casts, raced a few cars, made some new friends and also made some lasting memories.  I’m not saying who, but I happened upon a room, where a certain someone, from our club, left his wife, in said room, as collateral so that he could run to the ATM because he found die-casts that he couldn’t leave behind. Way to go NT!!! This was truly an an awesome experience and I’m sincerely looking forward to the next one in Texas.

Proceeding the National Event, our show attendance seemed to hit an all time high.  I’m not sure if people were blowing out pieces looking to make some extra cash for the Nationals’ or if they were looking for last minute items at lower prices to take to sell/trade at the Nationals’.  It almost seemed like we were back in our smaller meeting room that we outgrew last year.  All of our vendor tables were full and there wasn’t a lot of room for the extra people attending.  Either way, it was awesome for the club.

Away... away, way back. Now I'm Catching Up!

All I can say at this point is I am sorry… And, I mean this sincerely!  It’s been over a year since I’ve last posted the goings on of our little club and I really should keep this updated for historical purposes at least. I don’t actually know how many people actually follow this blog. I’m hoping there are many…  I digress. 

There have been so many changes since the last posting from September of last year that I don’t know where to start… so the best way to do this is to roll back time, back to October 2015…  Our little meeting room was bursting at the seams with the amount of vendors that were on hand as well as the other attendees to the event.  Calvin Cohen won the Downhill Racing Hot Wheels Stock Class Race with a 1970 Plymouth Superbird with FTEs while we were not able to hold our Run Whatcha’ Brung Class Race due to time restraints.  Plenty of buying, selling and trading always takes place at our events and October was no different.

For the next couple of months the club’s reputation and popularity grew by leaps and bounds, as well as our attendance.  The amount of people that came to visit our small meeting room forced the C4 Board to search for alternate locations for our events.  Racing in November continued during this growth, seeing Team Raley Racing return to the DRHWSC  Winner’s Circle with a Ferrari Testarossa and the Custom Double Bull, mail-in entry from Matt Hathaway, taking the top honors for the DRRWB Class.

C4 Sizzles in September

The end of the summer draws near and lots of great things are happening with our ever growing die-cast club.  We continue to hold our racing events, raffles and have even introduced some other awesome giveaways. If you attend any of our events and aren’t able to find something that you are looking for and leave empty handed, then you’re doing something wrong.  

Our resident Downhill Racing Run Whatcha’ Brung King, James Fortenberry, won a voucher for a free fountain soda just for signing our attendance sheet.  We raffled off a gift certificate to MK Toys & Stuff,  two Free Bowling Parties and a C4 vender certificate to purchase from any of the vendors at the show.  Our two Downhill Racing Events were impressive and saw the return of some veteran racers as well as a few rookies.  Oh, and by the way… there were a ton of trades made along with sales of many die-casts ranging from basic easy to find items to the less produced holy grails that collectors seek at reasonable prices.

The Downhill Racing Hot Wheels Stock Class ran first with 30 entries whittled down to 4 semifinalists… Newcomer George Miller and his Ferrari F40 eliminated the GRI sponsored Corvette in the qualifiers, knocked out the Team Raley Ferrari 308 in the heats and drove away from Owen Nesslage’s Ferrari F40 Clone in the quarterfinals.  GRI’s Mustang GT entry had similar fortune in the top portion of the bracket besting Mark Starr’s Twin mill in the qualifier, Nathan’s Zubalic’s Studebaker in the heats and Wayne Heede’s Chevelle in the quarters.  Ultimately the GRI Mustang would be no match for the Miller Ferrari F40 which would move on from the semifinals.  In the lower portion of the bracket, Owen & Bruce Nesslage would meet and compete in the semifinals once again.  We’ve seen this pairing before and it’s always interesting to watch.  Owen’s Sol-Aire entry disposed of Team Raley’s CUL8R in the qualifier, then Team Raley’s Carbide in the heats and the GRI Sidekick in the quarters.  Bruce’s Monte Carlo defeated Jon Issac’s Ford F-150 in the qualifier, Rookie Ian Greenberg’s Olds Aurora in the heats and the GRI Chrysler 300C in the quarterfinals to put him against his son Owen in a semifinal showdown.  Unfortunately for Bruce, Owen would dust his off once again putting himself in a familiar spot… the Finals!!!  This time Owen would test rookie George Miller’s chosen Ferrari F40 entry, but the outcome would be just as familiar.  Owen Nesslage’s Sol-Aire dominated the Downhill Racing Hot Wheels Stock Class Bracket to win this September’s Event.  Congratulations to owen Nesslage and his Sol-Aire Hot Wheel!!!

The final event of the day would be the Downhill Racing Run Whatcha’ Brung Class Races.  James Fortenberry and his master modification creations would control this event all the way down to the final race.  Fortenberry has been undefeated in every DRRWB Event that he has entered and his Blue Flame F-15o Pick-Up destroys all of it’s competition.  Congratulations to James Fortenberry and the “Blue Flame” Ford F-150 Pick-up, winner of September 2015’s Downhill Racing Run Whatcha’ Brung Class Races.

Keep an eye open for our videos on YouTube as well…

September’s Maryland Die-Cast Trade Show was great event and we would like to congratulate all of the winners and thank all of the members who donated prizes, time and items for the FoT.  We look forward to seeing you again this time next month and hope everyone in attendance had a good time.