WAITE PARK -- After a severe summer storm knocked down the Baker's Hobbytown RC dome, a new permanent structure now stands in its place.

Laura and Steve Knutson own Baker's Hobbytown and the Thunder Dome Raceway. Laura says the last few months have brought their challenges, but the community has been very supportive.

"I just want to thank everybody who supported us through the disaster. It's been really hard, but here we are."

Their son, Ryan Knutson, manages the RC course. He says the temporary setback allowed him to refocus his efforts in building a better race track.

"I got a lot of advise from people in the race community, and they seem to be impressed and excited in what we are doing."

As remote control car racing continues to grow in popularity, Ryan says having an indoor course is a huge benefit to the community.

"There are only four permanent indoor tracks in Minnesota and we are all doing really well."

Laura says while the RC carpet course is ready, they still have a few things they need to finish inside.

"We got the RC course up and running, next is the rock crawler track and then it's the drones."

The Thunder Dome Raceway will officially open Saturday at 500 Sundial Drive.

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