Boom Racing New Team Driver - Johanna Wechselberg

Boom Racing recently picked up a strong team player that runs Boom Racing products with a passion - Johanna Wechselberg.

Johanna „Joey“ Wechselberger aka CoffeeJeep J

As a kid I always played with matchbox cars and made bows and arrowes with my first pocketknife I got with 6yrs. Dolls were no options. I rather built something for fun. My first job was building a toy for a colleague of my Mom. He told me how to calculate the parts I used and bought one for his daughter. Valuable lesson!
But my wish for a remote controlled car kept unfulfilled. So I disassembled my first moped’s carburetor 27 times at the age of 16. Why? Just because I could :-D I had fun wrenching. My Dad told me he caught me hammering nails in the wooden floor at the age of 4. When he said „no, no nails in the floor“, I resumed hammering them in the closet....

Later I bought old motorbikes and repaired and maintained them.

But it still took me until 1,5 years ago when I sold my self-roasted fresh coffee at the Offroad Truck Rodeo at Erzberg, in Austria, where the 2nd RECON G6 took place as well.

I had no idea about that, but a friend of mine told me he would be there with his toytruck (still didn’t understand why) and visit my coffee-camper.

Well he did, and with the words „and I bring you an American“ he introduced me to Brian Parker, who got a strong double espresso first. When I got out of my camper to look at Peter’s toy truck, I got caught in a Parker-Pickup! :-D I had no idea why he did that, but he was funny.
The cars fascinated me and so I took my tips out of the cash registry, walked over to the booth of Crawlerkeller and bought an scx10 Falken edition, put a flashlight on the roof rack and joined the night stage drivers for a while.
I was super happy. Next day Brian saw me again and screamed over the plaza „you did it – you really did it!!!“ I had no idea why that crazy American was so excited about me buying a toy car, but I was happy that it made him happy :-D
Next day, when he was gone, i found out who he was and why that touched him so much....

He resumed to Italy to the 2nd RG6 in Maggiora but came back to Vienna where we met again to roast some coffee and drive the trucks. Soon I found out what a RECON G6 is, that people are actually building their own cars, how many different types there are...parts, tires... a whole new world opened up! I was so excited.

I signed up in a local RC Club to use their crawl hills (Modellbaugruppe 20, in Spillern), met more and more nice, helpful drivers and started to change parts on my car.

It’s amazing how many people want to help you, but when it comes to wrenching – I strictly wanna do it myself, but I listen to advices :-D

Fell in love with the pickup versions, hard bodies, ordered a Tamya Hilux, painted it matte black with shining black hawai’ian designs on it...my first self-made truck was called Nightmarcher cause I also finished him on Oahu, Hawai’i.

I knew I would meet Brian Parker again at the Recon G6 Shaka Brah there, but before I had a surprise planned. I took 24 hours off my Hawai’i vacation and flew to Las Vegas, got a rental car, drove to Logandale, where I arrived at 4am. There was the FIX and a RG6 about to start early and I wanted to crawl on those beautiful red rocks.

That was actually the morning I met Jason & Boomracing  for the first time! Just had no idea who he was back then :-D I was still a newbie.

Well, when Parker came out of his trailer I wanted him to see my car first... but he passed by and went tot he bathroom. I followed him steering Nightmarcher in front of the toilet door, me hiding behind the steering wheel of my rental. He came out, saw the car, smiled but stepped over it and moved on... damn! But then he saw me. Eyes wide, mouth open... yep, the surprise worked. :-D We had a blast meeting again that way and I was happy he let me help at G-Central where I made my coffee for the drivers the hole day. In-between I drove my truck a bit but soon I found out my magnetic mounting was not such a good idea and my body was way too high.

So I started looking and asking for solutions and kept on rebuilding my truck.

I could also help at the RG6 Shaka Brah and met even more passionate drivers and learned even more.

I was hooked. Been gable to repair and make trucks better and better with every change fascinated me.
Today I still have the same truck, but there is just one part left original – the frame. EVERYTHING else has been exchanged, some parts several times already. And with every part my knowledge grows and my driving gets better.

After one year I also changed my first hard body, which in the meantime was taped, glued and zip tied together. Definitely beaten, not babied :-D

For a long time I was happy with my Super Swamper tires and tried all kinds of foams, but Brian made me try Pitbull Tires and now I don’t want back. I do try others, but none could convince me of a better tire. Loved the Rockbeasts with CI foam, tried the growlers with crazy crawler foams and drive them right now with the original PB foam. Can’t wait fort he new waterproof and temp resistant foams.....

Since more then a year I drive Boomracing shocks, changed the oil several times, tried different oils and springs but finally got new shocks with the advanced metal layer. The old ones got so scratched that they couldn’t keep the oil anymore – no wonder, i drove 6 more RECON G6es with them plus my leisure adventures in the Austrian alps :-D They did a great job for a really long time.

The Boomracing axle housings give my truck extra weight and are awesome to drive. Some people warned me of metal ones cause they „don’t slide so well at the beginning“... I never had any problems, but I choose my lines carefully and don’t just bump over the rocks J Driving my 1:1 JEEP CJ6 off-road without lockers helps me seeing and memorizing the right lines for my car, cause once under the hood, I see nothing anymore and need to judge where my tires will have a spot to get traction. Ifo ne wheel is in the air I am doomed :-D

So driving RC Rock Crawlers is the perfect compensation and exercise form y 1:1 truck. Unlike in the USA we cannot drive off-road wherever we want on the countryside. Everything is privately owned or a national park. But with my RC truck in my trunk I can stop and take some time wheeling everywhere I want!

In the meantime I am a busy volunteer of RECON G6, helping with some graphic design, logbooks, banners, stickers ‚n stuff, help at G-Central if I can afford to travel there, and I roast some special coffees fort he RECON G6 drivers with great labels. Great, because I started making photo competitions for those and drivers send me awesome truck photos. In exchange I send them some coffee J
So in the meantime I have been at 12 RECON G6es and help organizing more in Europe the next years.
The highlight this year was the first RECON G6 – the ASIAN SCALE INVASION by Boomracing in China! I had the honor to be a helper again and met amazing drivers from 14 nations! Boomracing and AsiaTee did a great job organizing everything and making it such a great experience.
My next stop will be Motorama in Pennyslvania where I will help, but also compete in the US Nationals.

Being asked to be a team driver for BOOMRACING is a great honor for me. I can’t wait to try more of the products on my truck and help other drivers to find the parts they need.
I also hope to make more women feel comfortable to try this hobby. I saw families driving from 3 to 93 year old. I met super Driving Divas who do a great job wrenching on their cars – some get it done by their husbands, but I believe they should try it themselves. I always say: Wrenching is easy. You can take anything apart with tools, you just need to remember the order you did it J