RC RACER TURNS PRO IMPORT DRAG CAR DRIVER
STEPHAN PAPADAKIS by Greg Vogel

PHOTOS COURTESY OF AEM/DC SPORTS AND BY GREG VOGEL

Why? Why do you run those little toy cars? Just for fun? How much do they cost? They really cost that much? Are you crazy? What’s the point? Will it get you anywhere in life? If you’ve encountered an onlooker while driving your RC car, there is a good chance you were hit with some or all of the aforementioned questions. While we all have our own unique answers, (by the way, I proudly answer “Yes” to the crazy question,) here is a unique story about someone who’s RC career made him realize his potential and the direction he wanted to take with his life.

Stephan Papadakis is one of the most recognizable and most popular drivers on the Pro Import drag car circuit today and is already thought of as a legend. Stephan grew with the import scene, and developed a racing team along with the first front-wheel-drive, tube-chassis racecar in the U.S.—the AEM Drag Civic. This car turned E.T.s and trap speeds that were unheard of for front-wheel-drive vehicles and set a standard for the future of sport compact racing.

I was able to sit down with Steph at the recent RC Drift Expo in Carson, California and get some background info on his RC and Import Drag Racing experiences. Here’s what went down.

RC DRIVER INTERVIEW

GREG - Tell me a little about your import drag racing background?

STEPH - We started with a front-wheel-drive drag car. We were the first into the 9-second range, then 8 seconds in the quarter mile; we were also the first into 150, 160, 170 and 180 mph. We’ve had the fastest Honda front-wheel-drive and Pro Import rear-wheel-drive cars.

GREG - Pretty impressive; I bet you have some impressive titles to match.

STEPH - I have five NHRA sport compact wins, three championships with two different sanctioning bodies, and a whole bunch of other wins.

GREG - So you race full time? Travel?

STEPH - Yup, I race full time. We travel all over: Dallas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Vegas, St. Louis, Pomona, Florida…all over the place.

GREG - Wow, must be a killer on the personal life?

STEPH -Sometimes yes, sometimes it’s not too bad. Recently, I’ve been flying out to the track on a Friday and fly home on a Monday so it gives me the week to do whatever. It’s a fun industry to be in. I’ve made a lot of friends in the industry so I get to hang with friends at the tracks.

GREG - How about hobbies?

STEPH - I like to exercise. Weight training, running, biking through the mountains and stuff; it gives you a great workout. But for the last three months I’ve been heavily working on the drift car. Plus I have a girlfriend, so I spend time with her.

GREG - TV?

STEPH - No, not really, I don’t have much time for television. If I do, I flip on the history channel.

GREG - You mentioned you have a drift car. What’s that about?

STEPH - I just started drifting a 240. It’s just something extra, some fun. I just ran an event in Vegas and we were in Fontana a few weeks ago. I’ll just be doing drift on the side when I don’t have a scheduled drag event.

GREG - When’s the last time you raced an RC car?

STEPH - Wow, let me think. I’m 27 now, so it was probably around 14 years ago. I ran or raced RC cars from age 12 through 15.

GREG - Do you remember where you ran?

STEPH - It was called RC Hobbies in Costa Mesa. We ran 1/10 buggies and trucks on the off-road track.

GREG - Remember what setup you ran?

STEPH - Oh yeah, an Associated RC10 with a Reedy Motor, and I think I had Reedy batteries, too. I used to run with some pretty big name drivers like Kinwald and Pavidis, mainly because they were from the same area as me, Huntington Beach. Let me think…I think we used Losi tires: ribbes in the front and X-pattern in the rear. X-patterns were huge! I remember my aluminum tub RC10: We’d mill down the sides and mill out channels to reduce the weight. I remember the Team graphite arms, oh, and then Teflon-coated shocks had just come out. I used an Airtronics CS2P radio, Novak Speed Controller, and a Futaba servo. Futaba had the popular servo then, but we always had to change the plug over to use it with the Airtronics radio.

GREG -So was the RC10 your first car?

STEPH - No, my first car was a Tamiya Frog. That thing was a nightmare: it would bounce around and the dogbones would fall out. I remember some company made these straps to prevent the trailing arms from over extending, which helped keep the dogbones in. It was just a total nightmare. But then I got an RC10, the old one, the one you had to build and file parts, like the 6-gear tranny: I had to file the teeth on the gears so it would spin freely.

Then later I remember the newer RC10 with stealth tranny and slipper clutch and the longer arms; that buggy ran great. Oh, and during that time, I had a Losi truck. I think it was the JRX-T. I loved that truck. It was like the best RC car I’ve ever owned: it was durable and fast and handled well. Trucks are so forgiving to drive.