This post is certainly not to stir anything or make anyone mad just a thought to try to save guys some money here and there I would throw these idea out.

New products such as batteries I think instead of being legal on Jan 1 (or whatever) most times should be in between seasons. Example: between the summer offroad or concrete and carpet season. Which is upon us. Such as the case with batteries right now. Many tracks are trying to decide on rules for the upcoming season. Some are going to allow 37+ cells and some wont. This has got to be looked at to save this situation from taking place. It would save guys from having to be forced to purchase new equipment mid season to compete with the handfull who will or can afford to buy the equipment.

Paved National events: I for one cant make the roar paved nats this year because of the time of year. My family alone is 3 entries if we only run one class. As is the case for others I know. Many have school starting soon, parents with kids in school or in my case I am also a farmer and the first week of october is the start of my harvest season. And it is cold that time of year. August the last couple of years has been a good time of year I think and others I know think this as well. Roar should be after car count and members for support and should set time frames for these races that will benefit roar as well as the track. October is just to late in the year. No offense to Dale and crew at bms but this is awefull late in the year for maximum car count.

Carpet Nats: Again, in order to have better interest and car count try having them before the first of the year or very close after. With them always being in March or so you have guys who wont come becaue those races usually mean new equipment such as batteries, motors, cars, chargers and etc. Then if they are racers who dont race in the summer they may not attend because they will use that expensive new equipment once and then it sits for moths only to be obsolete when carpet season comes back around. I think earlier in the year would be better not only from the points made above but the interest would be higher because its the middle of season or so when interest is high and if new equipment is purchased they will have the rest of the season to make good use of it. And again, I think Roar would get more members and car count from this.

These are just some personal thoughts mixed in from what I hear from my customers year after year. And what I have seen over 26 eyars of racing. With Roar being the major sanctioing body I think it would be a good idea for you to take a look at attempting to save racers some money and make a few more supporters along the way. Again, this was not posted to start a fire storm or point finger. Im just a racer and business man who trys to save my custers money and yet build the sport as much as possible. My intentions are good is what Im getting at here. I really feel that the points above are in my fellow racers best interest as well as roar.

Rob @ Murdock R/C & Performance

I agree!!!

I can only answer for me. when we had batteries legalized thru out the year -it was always the battery on the month. Now ROAR has done it once a year and makes it even for everyone. It they did it by the season when you have a National before the season you would have the same problem as before.I could here someone saying the season changes next week why can't we use the batteries that will be legal next week this week.With batterys and motors (brushless) changing rapidly it will be challenging the next few years.
I would say the 3600-3800's will be legalized in January- first they must submit them to ROAR and get them approved.Now what happens next year 2006 when another new milliamp battery comes out?There is no really good answer.

In no way was I suggesting that we allow multiple legalizations through out the year. Once a year is just fine, but doing it in the middle of the carpet season (for example) is not. Do it at the beginning of a season instead to avoid contraversy at the local track level and between drivers. Roar needs to start looking out for the drivers and the cost of this sport a lot more. After all without the drivers, Roar does not exist.

Rob, I agree with what you are saying. One thing I would like to see with the batteries is a staggered time frame. For example, batteries must be sent in for approval by Sept. 1st and approved or disallowed by Jan 1st as they are now, but not legal for competition for 2 or 3 months. This lets the racers know what is going to be legal instead of everyone scrambling for new batteries Jan. 1st. This would also dovetail with Rob's idea of changing batteries between seasons. This might make it a little easier on the matchers also. Flame suit on.

Nice thought there with the time delay. I would agree with that. The thing right now is that the 3700's, 3800's are already being done by matchers and the quality of the 3300's will most likely go down just as every other cell has in the past. This does not make sense to me that the quality goes down on the currently legal stuff.


Rob

I think items such as new motors and batteries should be adopted in on January 1 and July 1 of each year. Pretty much every oval racer is going to need to buy new packs twice a year. If they allowed the 3800's and under in July we wouldnt be running obsolete stuff anymore. I tend to buy new batts for the upcoming carpet season each year in October. So if I run Stock why buy new packs of 3300's. No way am I spending good money to only get to run them Oct, Nov and Dec
then buy 3800's in January. If they approved them in July we could all buy 3800's and be able to run them in all classes.

from a person who use to be "behind the scenes" in some of the rules making and product legalization, something YOU the RACERS don't maybe realize...

A) Most of these R/C Organizations don't have people just sitting in a chair waiting for a NEW product to come along...so they can decide weather or not to legalize it. (Actually too often, the ORG. is the last one to know....they are usually busy enough just trying to keep up with the daily stuff, like members addresses, upcoming events, sponsors for those events, making sure races get run...etc.)

B)Most of the time "NEW" product will NOT help the actual QUALITY of a racing event.

C)Too often MFG's. jump on NEW technology TOO soon to get a jump on their PROFIT (Don't get me wrong...they are in BUSINESS and that's their job..., but that does NOT always help the HOBBY/SPORT of R/C as a whole)

We are faced with several delimas in this hobby. The biggest is KEEPING old racers, the second biggest is GAINING New racers. (You can swap them if you'd like..but I think that is the correct order)

OLD Racers get TIRED of being told...every year...they HAVE to HAVE these New products and/or getting beat if they don't have them. As has been said 100's of times in this hobby, the FAST GUYS are USUALLY FAST regardless of what is legal.

Currently, we are faced in just the Battery category with at least 3 batteries, 3600, 3700 and 3800's, and this is only AUGUST. What will be out by next February? Why not KEEP 3300's for one more year. We all know they are good, then see which of the 3 ends up being the best...and/or if the 3900 or 4100 (or what ever the next one is)

(Better yet, why don't we go back to 2000 mah NiCads...they should be REALLY cheap by now...LOL Just kidding)

Why not KEEP 3300's for one more year. We all know they are good

would love to,
but the matchers have moved on

To me ROAR has answered the battery problem. The current system is working. One of you mentioned the oval season or carpet season. Not everyone races oval or carpet (not me).The on-road nationals are rather late this year (october). I'm getting new 3300's for the race. As for the new batteries(3700) that are just a tad out of the correct sub C size, the only place they can sell them to is us (R/C). Are you going to tell the electric tool companys to make there tools bigger- I doubt it. They will probably get grandfathered in like the orginal 3300 GP's[This is not official].But the first thing is the Batteries have to be sent in to get certified by the lab otherwise your just wasting your time.
If you really want to get my opinion get a copy of Rev-up (the latest edition and read my Region 4 article.

I think the once a year rule is still the best thing for the AVERAGE racer. The top guys are the ones that actualy can make use of best voltage and higher charge. Though you will get the most pressure from the drivers that run national level events and some regional events to get the best they can get there hands on. Flyers and dates for these events are publiched far enough in advance to know what you should have to run so thats what you need to plann on getting. For local tracks, running local events they can tweek there class rules to fit the needs of there racers be they a ROAR track or not. There is nothing stopping a track approving newer cells or banning newer cells per there published rules.

Stick with the current system of when there approved. But might want to open up when they can be submitted and approved, letting the local tracks make there choices. The Jan 1 would stand for ROAR events unless proper requests made and published.