While walking the dog tonight I got to thinking about the slot track business. I can't think of any slot track that was a realistic business. Most of them don't seem to make enough money to cover their expenses and unless they can make enough on retail (AB Charels) or mail order(Buds HO) hobby items they don't last long. The Track in Gaithersburg seems to do OK but they are more RC than slots.

So is there a better model? Over the years there have been many successful club run tracks. Most of these were owned by an individual but there were several that were owned by the club. So I started thinking, how about a country club arraingement for slot heads? Pay a mounthly membership and have access to the tracks with reasonable reservations.

With a real country club you have a membership, greens fees, and sometimes even a food and drink minimum not to mention tips. A slot club would probably have a membership and negligible track fees just to give everyone a chance to run.

Country clubs have to have other amenities like pools and lounges. A slot country club might have tracks of several scales and types but would the members want RC tracks or racing sims? How about storage space for your hobby items or work shop space? How about a bar and big screen TV for the speed channel? How about a shooting range? Would you want more 1:1 car tie ins?

Would you join a club like this? How much would you pay? How far away could it be?

my biggest problem is space, not cost. i would happily fund tracks of several scales and sizes (1/43 and HO), say $5,000 worth, if i had space avaiable i could readily access (say within 5 minutes drive). i would be happy to share the tracks/space with other slot heads. wouldnt mind paying a monthly fee of say $50-100 for the space. but space aint that cheap.

if i were not a homeowner, i would look for an apartment complex that had a rec room, and offer to provide, maintain and manage tracks, cars and controllers if i could put a track in the rec room (instead of say, a pool table). of course, there are liability issues there, as teenagers/kids without supervision will figure out a way to hurt themselves. and casual users (opposed to slot heads) would proably trash the equipment.

i also considered offering to do the same for a nearby church. a church the wife and i go to occasionally has some very underutilized community space and an active teen program, but i have never asked about it using it for slot cars.

a local business converted a warehouse type building to hobby space to rent to individuals, but its a 15 minute drive from me and space there is pretty spendy (about 3-5x the cost of basic rental storage space)

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I really need a dog to bounce my ideas off of. ;)

He isn't much help. He ignores me to chase birds and keeps licking the slot cars.

Pretty good idea. Of course you would need a population to support it. Certainly not as many as a country club unless you use real grass as infield detail. I would love to have a place to set up my portable work station and work on some cars, use the spray booth, etc, wath the speed channel with the buds and have a beer.

I buy spray paints and only use them on a couple of cars to avoid the same color on a bunch, so I would be happy to share. I could see lots of pit room benefits not to mention the camaraderie. Unfortunately, I live in FL where there is not a big slot car population.

Jim

Unfortunately, I live in FL where there is not a big slot car population.

Jim

T-jet,
You could always take a setup down to the Senior's Center and start a following. :devil: rr

It needs something for the wife and kids to do while hubby is racing. That way the whole family is in favor of membership.

How about the big family fun places with video arcades and the huge ones with outdoor go carts, and putt-putt. They could have a track set up for house cars and a weekly race night for BYOC (bring-your-own-car). I like the SPEED channel televised championship idea too. I had thought it might take off in the past year or two with the tv commercials featuring slot cars but I haven't seen anything yet. The neighbor kids go ape over my setup. They beat up my cars too much though :rolleyes: I believe people will tire of the video game tv screen thing eventually and want to do something in the real world, at least I hope so.

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There is basically 5 large organized races in the Country for road racing and I believe 2 for Drag racing. HOPRA, UFORA and HOPAC multi class national races. In the case of HOPAC it is regional but draws as large and as good a racing crowd as the other two. Then there is the FRAY and the Shootout National in the crowd they draw but regional in the race is held the same place every year. The FRAY one class two races ie Team and Individual. The Shootout two classes, two races, Team and Individual. I have raced at all except the FRAY and HOPAC. I like the Team racing on multiple tracks the best as I found this the most enjoyable. Small 10 lap races require a differenet driving style that 3:00 min heat races. It would be cool to see the Team races come to the Super Stock magnet car class. I also hope to one day smaller regional Team races similar to the FRAY and Shootout.


Oops I forgot the Quad City Quarral is a new kid on the block that should grow in scope like the FRAY/Shootout. Got to put that on my list of races to attend.

Just some rambling

Roger Corrie

Dadds Extreme Indoor Sports Complex LLC in West haven CT actually started out as a small place with a NASCAR track that raced 1/10th scale remote control cars. You had steering wheel gas and brake and you race the oval. The place was slow. He got a bigger place that now has many arcade games, Merry go Round, Indoor Go Karts, indoor Mini Golf, and he had his trackin there, but no one used it, so now its gone.

My idea is to open a bar with a slot car track in it and either let people race for free or maybe a minimal price, and make my money off the drinks. I think the patrons would have a blast..

My idea is to open a bar with a slot car track in it and either let people race for free or maybe a minimal price, and make my money off the drinks. I think the patrons would have a blast..


Mic,
Great idea. I don't think MADD or local law enforcement would like the after effects. Then again, you could always have the slot car driver/drinker provide proof of their designated driver for the return trip home before they can get a cold one or a controller. :) rr

RoadRUnner- Maybe when all you guys retire from the cold country, we could start our club in Florida! LOL
Jim

I was looking for an article I’d read hoping to find it before I posted—no such luck.

I’d read of something along this line of discussion.

There is a Motorsports complex club (don't recall the location), which, along with the normal amenities (pool, spa, etc), offers a road course, and experienced trainers to help the high rollers navigate their Ferrari’s and Lambo’s away from the concrete. They also have a sports bar with 24hr. automotive shows and a slot car track (I think it might be the larger scale).

This is just a little similar to what we are talking about here, but the concept has merit. The slot track is mainly a “back-up” for the other activities, after the members have tilted back a few.
The dues are 5 grand down and a timeshare condo for 20 grand a year! :eek:

That would cover a heck of a lot of slot car purchases!

If it was toned down for the layman and the condo deal dropped in favor of an amusement park (centered around the automobile) for the rest of the family, it could possibly fly. All it would take is bucks—big ones! ;)


Cheers..

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I've always thought that all the regional short tracks for 1:1 cars (dirt and asphalt)could use slot cars as a way to promote their tracks during the off season. They all have the facilities whether they be gift shops, concession stands, whatever, that could be converted to a slot car area. The slot car manufacturers just need to help make it interesting for the track owners through co-promotions.

(That's spooky... AFXToo and I posted at the same time and were thinking pretty much the same thing.)

we used to race r/c cars that was next to a bar that one of the guys that raced with us owned. for the most part it was good but then someone would come in snockered and stumble around and he usually ended up trying to corner a car which with slot cars it wouldnt be so bad but with r/c cars it could and once or twice was diaterous yes the guy actually crunched a car .

oops forgot to add that you have to be prepared that these people are going to be there and you will have to accept them and just deal with the fact that they are going to want to help and try to keep him at bay lol so to speak

This is drifting off what I was thinking. Opening things up to the public does not seem like a good idea to me. I was thinking more along the lines of a close knit club that a family could join and feel safe not an open to the public free for all.

The inspiration was those motorsports clubs with their own track or the collector car garage on Long Island where you can keep your 1:1 car and enjoy the slot track and the humidore.

I think out reach is best accomplished by having liberal policies on inviting kids to be guests and making it easy for them to get their own equipment. I know most kids today don't appreciate getting a controller and a slot car the way we used to but they still need a good introduction.

I still think it would be effective to have a "club house" for a large group.

If you're a club owner you don't want to be the neighborhood babysitter or just a place for kids to hang out. The hobby/sport has to be the primary focus. The camaraderie and social side of things will develop from a mutual respect for the hobby/sport, fair competition, and willingness to share, teach, and learn. I'm a bit wary of trying to start from the social side of things with the hobby/sport being a peripheral concern. I think it would narrow down the number of folks who feel inspired to join in. If the ticket to entry is a desire to race, and maybe a car and a controller, well that's a pretty low bar to hurdle. If it's a smoking club or a drinking establishment, two things that are in no way associated with the hobby/sport, then the bar just got raised a few notches and some people will feel left out.

A lot of the qualities and benefits of a "race club" that we all talk about are the normal way of doing business at top notch slot car racing shops - even today. The problem is that we don't have enough of them. But with the wide open communication mediums we now have at our disposal we can fill in the gaps by creating "virtual race clubs." Anyone with a basement track can easily become another piece of a larger network of racers and track owners who form a widely distributed "race club." That's exactly what the regional and national racing organizations are, or at least what they strive to be.

I believe that we can build on the groundwork that's already been laid down by the current organizations for the past few decades. But we need to use the Internet and real time personal communication channels that we have today as positive influences to bringing geographically distributed racers together into a larger racing community. We need to end up with one big "country club" and have the right forces pulling us together.

Mutual respect for the hobby/sport, fair competition, and willingness to share, teach, and learn. Not a gated "members only" country club.