Interview with Axial's Brad Dumont AKA Bender

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Interview with Axial's Brad Dumont AKA Bender
By Tony Arnold – StampedeProject.com

Long ago in 1984 before anyone even thought abouthough RC rock crawling, one guy realized going slow crawling around on rocks could be a blast. That person was Brad Dumont (AKA Bender) the now nationally ranked #1-#2 crawler competitor is the US . As of the beginning of September, he is going to work full time for Axial Racing and our exclusive interview is going to tell how it all happened.

As Brad remembers back to junior high in 1984 with his first real hobby grade RC, “Sure I had other RCs before that, but nothing like what that Kyosho Big Brut delivered… it was another whole new world for me and could go places I never thought a RC could.

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Brad was out of RC for a while until 2000 when he built his first really capable rock crawler with custom parts made during off hours at his job as a professional machinist. Brad modified the then just released Traxxas E-Maxx with new modified tires, a stretched chassis, extra braces, lower gearing and slower motor all to have a better rock crawler. Brad noted, “I was doing real 1:1rock crawling and thought how cool that would be in an RC thinking it would definitely be cheaper, so mod’ed up an EMaxx for crawling. That EMaxx rig allowed me to really experience decent RC crawling for the first time. I just thought it was cool and had no idea that crawling would become what it is today… it was just me and a couple friends, these lone guys fabricating rigs from scratch and hanging out with this chopped Emaxx crawling around on rocks. I was hooked on the whole fabrication thing surrounding crawling and that was what sucked me in.”

In June of 2004 Brad discovered he was not alone in RC rock crawling on the planet earth and stumbled on the just launched website called RCCrawler.com. RCCrawler.com was dedicated exclusively to RC rock crawling hoping to organize crawlers nationally and locally, set up competitions, share designs, and help people build crawlers. “Thanks to RCCrawler.com, by December of 04’ I was standing neck deep in crawling, and participating in organized competitions, had built EMaxx, TXT, TLT and Clod crawlers and was finishing up my first SW1 chassis prototype. By 2005 I had the production version of the SW2 crawler chassis complete and released what was only the second or third mass produced crawler chassis ever.”

As we know things have moved very fast in the crawler world since 2005. “Tamiya TLT and TXT kits started popping up everywhere, then HPI released the Wheelie King. About the same time, Matt Kearney designed the initial crawler and formed Axial racing in late 2006 and by late 2007 the AX10 was hitting shelves. The introduction of my 2.2 class focused SW3 chassis was someplace in there…the last three years have been a blur.” What Brad fails to mention, in his ever so understated modest way, is that during that time he has consistently been the #1 or #2 nationally ranked crawler competitor (juggling positions with Austin Dunn) nearly every year and during that time his SW3 chassis has won more comps than any other chassis in history.

[img5.jpg]-{Brad at the Axial Westcoast Championships}

We all know that this isn’t NASCAR and being one of the world’s best RC competitors isn’t going to put cash in the bank, so Brad’s career since high school was as a professional machinist. The downturn in economy has been difficult though for machine shops in the USthis last year and Brad unfortunately was un-expectedly laid off. Don’t cry too long for Brad, there is a Cinderella story here. The industry that Brad helped form and create is paying him back in the form of a dream job as the junior designer under VP Matt Kearney, R&D engineer, and crawler team manager for Axial just as he was laid off again during another machine shop downsizing. According to Brad, “Getting laid off was a blessing in disguise and taught me that it might be time for me to look at other career options. If I would have been working, the opportunity at Axial probably would not have happened.”

As a sponsored driver for Axial, Losi, and RCP Crawlers, Brad is expected to show for the big crawling events, however with funding being short after the lay off, he couldn’t come up with the cash to make it to the Axial West Coast Crawler Championships in California . According to Brad, “Matt Kearney VP at Axial called me up and asked what day I would be coming in for the comp and that lead into my situation. Matt asked me why I had not applied with them as the open Head Engineer position and I said I wasn’t sure if I was qualified. Matt just got silent on the other end of the phone and then offered to pick up the travel expenses for me to compete only if I agreed to interview with them after the comp. Apparently I did well on the interview, because they hired me pretty much on the spot.”

So will this mean we will now see Brad everywhere? “I am packing up and moving to Californiato be on site at Axial, so I will definitely be at more events. Axial assures me that I will be at almost all of the national events as the Axial crawler team manager and as a team driver. Matt said I might be hitting a few international comps as well.

Axial will be keeping Brad plenty busy. “My focus at Axial will be to concentrate on new products, concepts, and the forward design of where Axial will go with its crawler products. If it’s anything like what I am doing now, I will design something and then see if I can break it. [he laughs]. Right now I am still a little stunned. In the last three months I have lost two jobs and landed my dream job, I am moving to beautiful California with a new career, and I am getting paid to do what I have been doing since Junior High – hitting the rocks.”

According to Matt Kearney, VP – Axial, “Brad is going to be a great compliment to the Axial team. With his extensive experience in competing he will be a huge asset in managing the Axial rock crawling team because he’ll make sure that driver feedback is an integral component into future Axial designs. His machining background will also contribute heavily to our product development team by reducing the time to market. This will be a tremendous benefit rock crawling enthusiasts worldwide! We’re glad that Brad has joined the Axial team, and we know he’ll continue to be a valuable asset to the entire development/design process because he brings an additional perspective on the rock crawling market that you can be assured of that will continue set Axial as a pioneering leader in the rock crawling market.”

Axial recognizes a good thing when they see it and Brad’s newest SWX 2.2 Axial build tuned competition crawler chassis is now under exclusive license by Axial. The SWX design will be produced and distributed via Axial’s vast distributor network, so all of us will be able to at least build up a comp spec chassis even if we can’t drive like Brad. The cool part is every sale will put a little coin in the pocket of the nice guy who helped start this whole crawling thing.

[img4.jpg & img3.jpg]-{CAPTION - Brad's newest SWX competition crawler chassis}

So what’s next from Axial? As an Axial new hire, Brad’s lips might as well be sewn shut, and any direct questions I have posed to Matt and the other guys at Axial are answered is a distorted mumbling tone. From my expert deductive reasoning, I am pretty sure whatever they have up their sleeve next will have to do with crawling now that one of the heaviest hitters and creative fabricators in the crawler scene is now a new staff member. See you on the rocks…Brad might even be there.

Behind the Interview
To say Brad is a laid back guy is an understatement. I have traded emails a number of times and talked with him regarding our RC Car “Tips from a Pro” that I add to our crawler articles. His emails are typical of his ever helpful but short online forum posts – they are always to the point. I am always stunned and very pleased at the same time that a guy like Brad who justifiably could have an ego, doesn’t. In forums he is almost overly polite to even the un-knowing newbie’s attempting to give him advice (hmm a trait we should all work on). It seems everyone knows Brad, and though I like to think my RC network is pretty extensive, I have yet to find a person who doesn’t think he is a great guy. Brad returned a compliment to everyone else in crawling and pretty much summed up Brad and the entire industry. “I hear guys that race in other areas of RC complain that this or that category has become so competitive and expensive that all the fun is gone. Crawling is so much different… parts rarely break once you get everything dialed in, and a Axial RTR crawler kit is cheap to buy and run. People go out of their way to help each other. We set up these just insane courses and then do everything possible to help each other in a hope that at least one of use will finish the course. I don’t know any other RC segment like that.”