I and many others that I spoken with have shared the sentiment that Too many Trophy races at once at competing tracks is destined to take the surge that we have seen in opval racing and turn it into yet another slump. It seems that as soon as oval racing in the Northeast was on the increase for the first time in 10 years that every track in New England jacked up the number of trophy races to point where tracks with driving distance are fighting for the same customers on a weekly basis.
We can try to justify this by saying business is business, but if you destroy th sport noone will have business. We have to ask oursleves, is there a need for so many trophy races? I think not. It's really hard to be specific because then you have to name tracks, and tour names and events to accurately describe what is going on.
I initaially thought that a tour would great fun and posted a thread asking about. The second post was from a fellow who said he already had one in the works and would be announcing dates soon. Indeed he did and it was fun for a while. The result however was painfully obvious. My home track had no business because the Tour had everyone and there brother flocking to tracks all over New England. Most months had races stacked up so close that between practicing for the next Tour event and going to the Tour event there was no time or money left to go to some club races.
Let me offer this scenario if I might.
Tour Event 2nd Saturday of Month (we'll use Saturday's for simplicity)
1st Saturday Travel to another state to practice
2nd Saturday Travel to same state again to race
3rd Saturday Go to local track
4th Saturday Go to a trophy Race Event (most likely out of state)
1st Saturday Practice for next Tour event
2nd Saturday Race at Tour Event
3rd Saturday take 1 weekend off so wife and kids won't divorce you!
4th Saturday Try to support your own track if there isn another "event" on the 1st
1st Saturday Practice in some God-forsaken location because the tour involves traveling 400 miles to a few "featured tracks" that are way far away.
Spend money on a hotel because it's too far to drive home and return to race the following day.

Now this schedule doesn't leave one saturday a month for your local track to have a trophy race or special event of any sort.

There was an interesting article about this very topic relative to New England in Xtreme RC (http://www.xtremerc.com) in the Oval Nation column. Avery good column I might add. We have always complained that there wasn't media coverage of oval events in the major RC magazines. Well if we want this sort of thing to continue we should subscribe to Xtreme RC (http://www.xtremerc.com) and also write to their editor Derk Buono and tell him that you're glad that it now a regular feature.

ps: While we were at all these "Tour" events and "Trohy" races, our local tracks not only didn't have any racers, but also didn't sell anything because there was noone there to buy stuff.
So what have done? Any thoughts?

I know this is going to anger some track owners and Tour-race directors, but it had to be said.

One solution might be to only allow the very fastest guys into the tour. (maximum of 8 per class). That way when they travel they don't take the entire oval clientel with them. Provide results to the tour director proving your abilities at the tracks that the tour races are at and then when they set up the roster for the next year's season you're either in or not. How much fun would it be to know that when the tour comes to your home track that you'll have a crack at the "fast" guys! Just like when the NASCAR Modifieds come around. Only difference is SK Mods don't run against Whelen Mods. What good would it be if all the SK mod guys left town and ran somewhere else? Most local NASCAR tracks would fold also.

Rick<><

well.........10 years ago we had a much larger base of racers...say 75 entries on a club night.....say half attended the big races but half stayed home...now you have 30 entries on a club night and half of them travel.....

you cannot pick just one problem as to lack of club racing. we just don't have the numbers to sustain all the racing we have now. i live in florida and we have maybe 4 novice racers at any one event...that is 4 new racers and they have been new for two years now...we just don't attract new blood anymore.

Why dont the tour racers stay home 3 weeks out of the month and just pick an event once a mo.. Your just running for some plastic and wood anyway and pay too much for it also. Most tracks would do better if they ran an extended point series say 20 weeks with 5 or so drops. Then give some great rewards at the end of the season. Also they should put some special events within the point series like an extra distance event with manditory pit stops. Or a team event like an enduro for 2 hrs. The track owners gotta figure out how to spice things up a little to keep their regulars comming.
I plege my loyalty to GMXtreme for legends and dirt oval and Maddness for SK.s.

If there are X number of racers in a given area of the country that has a tour and they all race every week doesn't it balance out for all the tracks included in the tour? The tracks not included in said tour probably do not cater to the tour drivers as much anyway so the impact is lessened on them.

Racing at the same track every single week becomes boring and burns a lot of people out. If I were to not race once a month because I was bored and tired of going to the same place is that any better then if I'm gone to a different track?

In my opinion you're fighting the wrong battle. If 10 guys are gone from the local track and that constitutes "everybody" then the problem isn't the traveling series the problem is that 10 guys constitues "everybody".

Now this might or will offend, but here is an outsiders view on something. Maybe part of why there are few newer racers is that classes that are developed with potential to be simple, low cost, fun alternatives or stepping stones are always turned into high cost, cut throat, drama filled classes.

Rick,

This is not a new discussion, it goes at least as far back as the old RCRA Series of some (I believe) 15 years ago.

The QUEST for the racers is to have events with the BEST Caliber racers they can find (For those who travel)

The flip side is in a lot of cases...when a TOUR event comes into the local track...a lot of the LOCALS don't come out and race at it. (Or at least that has been something I've seen going back to the late 80's...and started with some of the DIRT OVAL races I use to go to .)

In a perfect world, what I would like to see is 10+ "LOCAL" tracks that all have strong 'LOCAL' followings. (We'll say - 35-40 per track) That number of tracks..with that number of racers would created a base of 350 - 400 racers. It that kind of number could be generated...PLUS 25-30 'Travelling' racers, all it would take is 5 racers per track...PLUS the travellers to put on a good 'TOUR' type show...yet not really hurt a local program.

I know sometimes getting tracks, clubs, etc. to work together on scheduling doesn't always work too well. So to try to get MORE racers at their event...they step UP and make it a TROPHY race or a TOUR race...or something to try to make everyone come to THEIR event instead of the other guys.

Add to that the SNOWBIRDS, NATIONALS, etc...and you've got a HUGE uphill battle (If you are catering to those travelling racers)

I know out here in CALIF. at least in the So.Cal region, we only have about 50-60 total OVAL racers, and we're luck to get 40 of them to all show up at the same event.

We've got an oval race virtually EVERY weekend from the beginning of January to the end of December. Every once in a while a NEW track tries to pop up...and nobody shows up to race at it...because there are no free weekends. The 40+ guys racing...are the same guys for the most part that go from TRACK to TRACK up and down the state. NOBODY is really working on finding their OWN 'local' racers, they/we are are all depending on the 'TRAVELLER'

...something else that occured to me...when thinking about LOCAL races back when I got started (1985)

Our 'local' dirt oval track raced DIRT OVAL on Wednesday Nights, OFF-ROAD on Friday Nights, and Dirt Oval again on Sunday afternoon.

The Wednesday Night races had about 75 LOCALS - the SUNDAY Afternoons have only about 45 LOCALS, but we usually had 10-15 travellers.

It use to be awesome to get out of the house and do a few hours of racing on a MID WEEK night... The problem was, when the STORE owner wanted More Money..he tried making TOO many races...and actually burned people out...then complained if they didn't show up, or if they went to another track once in a while.

Rick,

This is not a new discussion, it goes at least as far back as the old RCRA Series of some (I believe) 15 years ago.

The QUEST for the racers is to have events with the BEST Caliber racers they can find (For those who travel)

The flip side is in a lot of cases...when a TOUR event comes into the local track...a lot of the LOCALS don't come out and race at it. (Or at least that has been something I've seen going back to the late 80's...and started with some of the DIRT OVAL races I use to go to .)

In a perfect world, what I would like to see is 10+ "LOCAL" tracks that all have strong 'LOCAL' followings. (We'll say - 35-40 per track) That number of tracks..with that number of racers would created a base of 350 - 400 racers. It that kind of number could be generated...PLUS 25-30 'Travelling' racers, all it would take is 5 racers per track...PLUS the travellers to put on a good 'TOUR' type show...yet not really hurt a local program.

I know sometimes getting tracks, clubs, etc. to work together on scheduling doesn't always work too well. So to try to get MORE racers at their event...they step UP and make it a TROPHY race or a TOUR race...or something to try to make everyone come to THEIR event instead of the other guys.

Add to that the SNOWBIRDS, NATIONALS, etc...and you've got a HUGE uphill battle (If you are catering to those travelling racers)

I know out here in CALIF. at least in the So.Cal region, we only have about 50-60 total OVAL racers, and we're luck to get 40 of them to all show up at the same event.

We've got an oval race virtually EVERY weekend from the beginning of January to the end of December. Every once in a while a NEW track tries to pop up...and nobody shows up to race at it...because there are no free weekends. The 40+ guys racing...are the same guys for the most part that go from TRACK to TRACK up and down the state. NOBODY is really working on finding their OWN 'local' racers, they/we are are all depending on the 'TRAVELLER'

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/tide_racinglogo.gif

Sounds like you guys need to get an organized series between tracks.

I don't think the problem is with traveling shows its more with tracks not getting nor having any locals or any new racers coming in. I run in the orl series which we have any where from 30 to 40 racers once a month and maybe 20 that show up at all the races. Now if you figure we have 9 tracks on tour and we pull 3-4 racers from any one track and there not making it because there is only 2 pepole there to race on the tour week then there not going to make it. My local track is 1 1/2 hours away on a good day and it is the only track that pulls a good crowd every week. they run all types of cars and trucks not just pan cars. if you think your track will make it just running pan cars you are in for hard times. there are not enough pan car racers in any given area for a track to survive with just them. Tracks need to get more pepole involved. I really don't think its a problem with any traveling series.

Very well said Rick, i know that RCH has lowered attendance due to all the racers traveling somewhere or another . Sure it's good the weekend that whatever series is there and god bless for that but overall traveling racers have hurt the hobby-sport . I am a dedicated RCH guy , been there thru thick and thin , dont always agree with the way things are run but i hang in and I dont want my stuff on EBAY or on the shelf collecting dust .SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TRACK !!!!!!!!!!

overall traveling racers have hurt the hobby-sport

...I don't think I agree with this part of your statement, but I can see where some might feel that way. It may hurt local tracks, if the local tracks don't have a source for bringing in NEW BLOOD...but if the travelers hurt that track...it was probably in trouble already.

OVAL racing has been the hardest sell in the R/C market to bring in NEW people for a long time. In part, I believe this is due to COMPETITION levels...too much high tech equipment at local races...attitudes of racers...and in large part the perception people get at a lot of RC Oval events...that the NEW GUY can't fit in.

Rarely does a 'local' event happen where a guy can just bring what ever car he may have...and be allowed to run it in something like a "Run what ya brung" STOCK class. Although, we've tried this on occasion..and sometimes it really works great to get a RC enthusiast on a oval track..and then work on him to get a OVAL car.

All the tracks I attend to are my home track. Although I do support my actual labeled home track as much as possible, infact I usualy attend the race before I leave town just to have fun with the guys and dont care what the outcome of standings are. As a business standpoint I travel to gain hobbyshops/dealers etc and answer questions give support because of the lack of support from other companies. As a racer its soley up to them as to where they would like to go, usualy most local racers dont go on a road trip the same time there local track has a major event. Is it possible that racers want to better themselves at all kinds of tracks, IE: banked,flat,short,carpet,concrete etc.. There is noway your going to better yourself by staying at one place and drive against the same racers all the time, when those traveling tours come through all kinds of drivers,avg, good,pro you get to race against. thats how you better yourself. Look at snowbirds, Hundreds of people flock to that place, what happens to the local racers? and thats for a week if not more(lack of sleep an money), not only that people find tracks to test to get them close to that track and it might not be there home track and some are not even thinking about racing, alot are thinking about saving money to go and dont even race for weeks. This particular traveling Tour your talking about tried to support there local tracks,companies etc, some worked out some havent. You said it yourself, from the begining you wanted a tour, I dont understand as most do your way of thinking, when something goes wrong, the finger goes elsewhere. Most importantly we have ALOT of fun when traveling to different tracks, you get to meet alot of cool people out there and put faces to names like on here. My racing has gotten better due to traveling where its nice to talk to people and get help with setting up cars and learning new products.

...TIME - that is the real culprit. There just isn't enough of it.

When you break down a 12 month period (YEAR) and realize there is only 52 weeks, then you take into account holidays, birthdays, anniversaries...you only usually end up with about 45-46 usable weekends. In some areas of the country they only get about 1/2 of that...due to weather issues and/or other concerns.

Add to that generally most races are done on either Saturday or Sunday...and most people don't race both days of the weekend...it really limits things.

As I mentioned before...we had a track that run their local club races on a WEEKDAY evening. That let the travelers travel on the weekend w/o missing our on local racing.

To some though, they just can't do that much racing. Myself...when my kids were small..and other family obligations....I was only able to race 10-11 times a year. (ONCE a MONTH), and last year I raced nearly 40 times....some times twice the same weekend. But man...it makes you crazy when you are trying to get other things done..NON Racing related.

The other thing aswell, because I know your talking about the NEOT, If you look at the attendance of the NEOT tour which isnt much and most are deticated SK racers since day one, there isnt that many people if any who are drawn out of your local track. I beleive this thread is made out of bitterness, seeing how it was somewhat mentioned in my thread the other day. If your talking about the overall traveling racers then how do we know whos going where and does 1 or 2 make that much of a difference for a week? NO, Now the only other traveling series I know of is the BRL an ORL and from what I have herd thats huge and if they bring that many racers to a track once a month or twice within the series that cant do anything but boost revenue to the tracks they attend. Right now there is alot of trophy races series events etc, and we all had this same complaint last year, its your choice to go no pressure. Go to the places that you feel is going to be fun and worth it for whatever reason. If your main concern is New England area, why doesnt any of the track owners talk to each other to plan events if its such a problem? Trick or treat

Communication is a big part of the problem these days , people are afraid to talk to one another , example someone gets pissed at a hobbyshop owner and he spreads hate to everyone else instead of talking to the person he has the problem with in the first place , most people take this hobby way too serious for sure .........i go just to have fun , feel some speed , shot the breeze and EAT !

We need more racers...PERIOD!!!

We have very few "New" guy's because of too many classes and it's too confusing.

Simply put all we need to grow the oval community is...

STOCK...17.5
19.........10.5
Open....

Same cars, tires, bodies...Everything is the same, but you guys HAVE TO GET OUT OF STOCK TO GIVE THE NEWGUY A PLACE TO LEARN WITHOUT BEING OVERWHELMED!!!
JUST DO IT!!!

Is a good idea jet but the price of the brushless setup or 19 turn class is too high for a beginner. It would have to be in my mind a stright out of the box legend class. I ran them 10 years ago and im getting ready to run them again. there fun and cheap and can challenge you in way a pan car or an sk can. What happens when a newbe decides he cant hang with the sk or pan car crowd? how much did he put down for one or the other 3 to 5 hundred??? tooooo much.

Legends fan and proud of it.

Same cars, tires, bodies...Everything is the same, but you guys HAVE TO GET OUT OF STOCK TO GIVE THE NEWGUY A PLACE TO LEARN WITHOUT BEING OVERWHELMED!!!


Well put Bret. Back in the day when oval meant something there were two classes. Stock and Modified. Stock had the majority of drivers of all skills and modified for the most part was the best of the best. What i see now is on any given weekend you have 3 or 4 guys viying for 4 to 10 diffrent classes and it seems like every week a new class is developed for raacers who feel uncompetitive to now become competitive.

I think it is up the racers as well as the tracks to grasp ahold of this situation before we end up completly phazing out all of oval racing.

SL

scott your right about to many classes. up untill this year anyways. now we run 13.5 at marshalls with the occasional 10.5 class but we get 10-20 13.5's on a weekend. its really cool. a, b, and c mains on a weekly basis now at marshalls! :)

Pure and simple,it's $$$$$$$'s causing the decline.It ran me out,and i have a good $ job and no kids.It was a minimun $75 each time i went,[track 90 miles away],plus the upkeep,wear and tear on vehicle.....after 17 yrs i'd had enough.

Great Thread Rickster ,,,,,, THIS IS NOT THE FUTURE OF RC !!!!!

Tours with all trailer guys kill any local racing :cool:

Is a good idea jet but the price of the brushless setup or 19 turn class is too high for a beginner. It would have to be in my mind a stright out of the box legend class. I ran them 10 years ago and im getting ready to run them again. there fun and cheap and can challenge you in way a pan car or an sk can. What happens when a newbe decides he cant hang with the sk or pan car crowd? how much did he put down for one or the other 3 to 5 hundred??? tooooo much.

Legends fan and proud of it.

Whoops...Missed the point.
If STOCK/17.5 was left for the "Newbe" all the tech wouldn't be there, thus less costly. THEN when the ability improves, naturally the driver will want to advance.
Point being 1 chassis :thumbsup: , NOT Legends (Completly different equipment) then Spec (different equipment) then SK, Then Pancar Stock, then... you see, it's too confusing for someone to even start out :freak: .

The BEST thing that could possibly happen... (And easiest) is for the eliet drivers to get away from stock!!!

Very well said Rick, i know that RCH has lowered attendance due to all the racers traveling somewhere or another .
....overall traveling racers have hurt the hobby-sport .

Dave, travelling to Tour or trophy races is not the reason why those racers aren't at RCH.
A couple of us choose to race at another track and some haven't started racing yet this season.

Guys, it's only october.

...I really don't think getting experienced people OUT OF STOCK is going to increase numbers either.

But...say I agree...and DON'T run STOCK, and the class I do enter only has 3 other guys. Now I'm bored, and next week I don't show up...because I can't race in the class w/ ENTRIES..and don't feel like spending the money to race against only 3 other people..so NOW that class only has 3 total (unless those 3 stay home too)... SEE Where that's going?

Been there....Done that~

(NOTE: I'm very interested in ideas about 'LOCAL' racing...as I'm currently involved with a NEW local group and we've just started our Local program a couple weeks ago..and for those who don't know, the rest of the time...I direct/promote a TOURING "oval" Series)

The problem is not with the travelers, like I said before how many racers does the series pull from any one track. You have to face facts racing is getting to expensive, you have to have some place for newbes to start out in which would be legends or some other cheap car. When you figure out how much it cost just to get a low budget pan car running, dad is not going to spend that much money on jr. All you have to do is look at marshalls and see how many classes they have which most of them are geared towards the low buck racer, they even have a rookie class that they can run what ever kind of car they have. So if you need racers to keep the local track going you need to get new blood through the door.

I don't know what's up with this mentality we have that all classes need to be run with pan cars. When you go to your local full size stock car track you don't see guys running 4 cylinders in a late model style body and chassis as an entry division do you? No, they run street cars they buy used or build from parts they find in salvage yards. They run on street tires not slicks etc etc.

So why can't we replicate the same thing at the RC level?

You need to get people in the door first. Then they can later upgrade later to a full fledged pan car setup if they want.

THE cheap car in my opinion is the Losi Slider (1/18th scale sprint car). Everything except for one or 2 extra pattery packs, tools and a decent charger, are in the box ready to run. Heck it even runs on Spectrum! If the club decides to keep the car box stock you got a really cool and cheap entry level division. Plus you can run the car on Carpet AND dirt.

http://www.losi.com/Products/Features.aspx?ProdId=LOSB0205

Also how many times has a "cheap" class, be it SK's or Associated Mini T's been ruined because promoters allowed racers to completely go crazy on all kinds of hop ups that spiral the class out of control speed and cost wise.

[QUOTE=swtour

But...say I agree...and DON'T run STOCK, and the class I do enter only has 3 other guys. Now I'm bored, and next week I don't show up...because I can't race in the class w/ ENTRIES[/QUOTE]

The reason the "Other" classes have limited numbers is because they're in stock, LOL, it's a catch 22...That's why everyone just needs to make the jump.

Patrick...That is great, but with limited number of people, if you spread them too thin, then your back to the "Bored" problem.

It's funny how people talk and talk, but nothing really changes...How easy it would be to TRY something like leaving stock for the beginner, just TRY it, what's to lose :rolleyes:

I don't know what's up with this mentality we have that all classes need to be run with pan cars.

Finally, someone else has stated what I've been thinking for years.

There are many reasons why r/c oval isn't bigger. We could discuss them all day and end up right back where we started. But the biggest reason why our hobby doesn't grow is because too many of us (myself included) are too close to the hobby to see from an outsiders viewpoint. We can't see how the things we are doing today are keeping people away instead of drawing them in.

Travelling series aren't the problem. I'll leave it to others to debate this issue.

The problem is not with the travelers, like I said before how many racers does the series pull from any one track. You have to face facts racing is getting to expensive, you have to have some place for newbes to start out in which would be legends or some other cheap car. When you figure out how much it cost just to get a low budget pan car running, dad is not going to spend that much money on jr. All you have to do is look at marshalls and see how many classes they have which most of them are geared towards the low buck racer, they even have a rookie class that they can run what ever kind of car they have. So if you need racers to keep the local track going you need to get new blood through the door.

ron knows what he is talking about on this. nothing to do with the travaling tours. its the fact that you dont have enough racers at your track to begin with. a track can not survive on pan car racers alone. first off pan car racers get half of there stuff off "sponsers" so the track owners barely get paid from pan car guys. thats a general statement but its pretty true. now look at the low buck classes. those guys do not have sponsers therefore the track owner gets alot more money from them then they do from pan car guys. anyways to keep this short, traveling tours have very little to do with why a track has so little racers!

I race both locally and on tours and my opinion is this. Traveling tours do not kill local racing. Guys are only drawn away from Local tracks once maybe twice a month. 5-6 guys a track racing on a tour, being gone even half the season, is not going to kill the track. If the track is only pulling 15-20 guys a week anyhow, it is going to be difficult for that track to stay open even if the guys didn't travel. I agree that there are too many classes, and to be competitve the cost has gone through the roof. When I started there were (2) pan car classes, lightweight and lightweight PRO. You had to run a certain number of laps in lightweight before moving up, and once you moved up you couldn't go back. On another note, the biggest classes at my local track are not pan car classes. They run stadium trucks, touring cats, EDM's, Mini-T's, and almost all of them have just as many if not more racers than PAN CARS. I am lucky in the fact that during the winter months, out local track pulls about 75 racers, equaling out to anywhere from 18 - 22 heats a night. I don't have to worry about my local track closing. I am of the opinion that traveling series actually promote racing at local tracks, simply because it is one of the only forms of marketing a track may actually do. You go to a track you like, and you're going to tell your friends about it. The word travels, and sooner or later more people are willing to come check the track out. The decline in oval racing, or any form of local racing is lack of promotion. I have rarely seen advertisments in newspapers, heard advertisements on radio, or any other form of advertising even as simple as flyers distributed to local businesses like grocery stores when they can be placed on a bulletin Board. I was lucky that I had R/C growing up, because if I didn't who knows what kind of trouble I could have gotten into. After School programs, demo's at the local mall or parking lots in the summer. This hobby is not put in the public eye nearly enough to promote growth. Look at how paintball has grown over the past few years, and it's simply because companies are investing the money in promoting the hobby. I really wish some of the larger manufacturers would step up to the plate, and have some commercials that can be aired on tv. People can't join the hobby if they don't know about it, and that is exactly the problem. Once the numbers come up, then you can address the cost issue, instituting a class for the Losi sliders, or trinity t-specs, some some from of entry level spec. But without promotion, all these discussions are a mute point.

tommygun: :thumbsup: It's november now bud , i think i know why the crew does'nt come to RCH weekly and thats here nor there, so be it but "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HOOBY SHOP" is all i'm tryin to say , BIG D

I race both locally and on tours and my opinion is this. Traveling tours do not kill local racing. Guys are only drawn away from Local tracks once maybe twice a month. 5-6 guys a track racing on a tour, being gone even half the season, is not going to kill the track.

If the track is only pulling 15-20 guys a week anyhow, it is going to be difficult for that track to stay open even if the guys didn't travel.

I agree that there are too many classes, and to be competitve the cost has gone through the roof. When I started there were (2) pan car classes, lightweight and lightweight PRO. You had to run a certain number of laps in lightweight before moving up, and once you moved up you couldn't go back.

On another note, the biggest classes at my local track are not pan car classes. They run stadium trucks, touring cats, EDM's, Mini-T's, and almost all of them have just as many if not more racers than PAN CARS.

I am lucky in the fact that during the winter months, out local track pulls about 75 racers, equaling out to anywhere from 18 - 22 heats a night. I don't have to worry about my local track closing. I am of the opinion that traveling series actually promote racing at local tracks, simply because it is one of the only forms of marketing a track may actually do.

You go to a track you like, and you're going to tell your friends about it. The word travels, and sooner or later more people are willing to come check the track out.

The decline in oval racing, or any form of local racing is lack of promotion. I have rarely seen advertisments in newspapers, heard advertisements on radio, or any other form of advertising even as simple as flyers distributed to local businesses like grocery stores when they can be placed on a bulletin Board. I was lucky that I had R/C growing up, because if I didn't who knows what kind of trouble I could have gotten into. After School programs, demo's at the local mall or parking lots in the summer.

This hobby is not put in the public eye nearly enough to promote growth. Look at how paintball has grown over the past few years, and it's simply because companies are investing the money in promoting the hobby. I really wish some of the larger manufacturers would step up to the plate, and have some commercials that can be aired on tv.

People can't join the hobby if they don't know about it, and that is exactly the problem. Once the numbers come up, then you can address the cost issue, instituting a class for the Losi sliders, or trinity t-specs, some some from of entry level spec. But without promotion, all these discussions are a mute point.

Sorry, only reposting so I could split this up to make it easier for my bad eyes to read...

Bill,

I don't know about the rest of the crap, but the next time corporate asks why something didn't get done...I'm gonna simply say "ya know the fish stinks from the head down!"

Let me know how that works out for you, kind of like the Chappel show, "When keeping it real goes wrong"
Tom

Let me know how that works out for you, kind of like the Chappel show, "When keeping it real goes wrong"
Tom

LMAO...I could see how that would!

Bill,

I don't know about the rest of the crap, but the next time corporate asks why something didn't get done...I'm gonna simply say "ya know the fish stinks from the head down!"

It all starts at management my friend... :thumbsup:

Hank, you have a reply back......

For those wondering why we don't get new racers, this is what we are dealing with...http://www.ifilm.com/episode/2902833 (http://www.ifilm.com/episode/23325?startsWith=2902833)

couple hundred dollars for a system and about 50 dollars per game no need for a special built facility

rc racing will never get this big

rcwolfee,

What DRIVES that industry?

MONEY

MONEY Spent to create HYPE, and Not being afraid to make it a "Professional" event.

...do we want R/C Racing to go the direction of a Professional Sport? Or an Extreme Sport? If so, it will take RC Mfg's willingness to spent $100,000's of THEIR money to promote THEIR product...and someone creative enough to get OUTSIDE sources involved too.

Imagine KYOSHO/ORION promoting (and footing the bill for T.V. coverage) the OFF-ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - $25,000 to WIN event...and get it on a SPIKE or A&E or one of the other Cable networks.

There are a couple events that could already take the hobby that direction (IIC, SNOWBIRDS, Reedy Race of Champions, etc.) But no matter how it's done...R/C will never draw the attention that a VIDEO Game can...and the MFG's will NEVER spend the kind of MONEY required to do so. (At least in my opinion)

We'll always be an low level hobby/sport. We'll never be as popular as Soccer, Football, Video Games, Computer Games, Paintball,

R/C is a hard hobby to jump into and stay for 5-6 months...or even a year. It's like you either get in/get out in a hurry...or you stay several years....(or a couple DECADES like some of us)

To get to the level of that video game deal, would take a solid 5 year commitment from some major players in our industry. Lots of dollars and time. I doubt it will happen, which is really too bad! Maybe one day Mr. Boylan will be the Bill France of R/C and take us to the next level, but a better bet is that it will remain much the same as it is now ....

On a side note, I always wonder why some of the MFG's don't have public tracks at their facilities? Like the Tamiya track (which closed down), why don't they invest in giving us places to run our cars?

On a lighter note...The heck with the gaming video. Click on the Hooters Swimsuit video :woohoo: :tongue:

On a side note, I always wonder why some of the MFG's don't have public tracks at their facilities? Like the Tamiya track (which closed down), why don't they invest in giving us places to run our cars?

CRC does.

Ugh everything is the death of the hobby supposedly.

When you consider that wages are going down, living expenses are going up and they are more choices of competitive activities then they were 10 years ago I think oval racing is doing ok.

Personally I see a lot of positives. The number of races this year with 100+ guys will probably be up in the double digits. The ROAR nats were the biggest they've been in many years. There are multiple tracks that stopped running oval years ago in favor of road course that are bringing it back. Ther is finally a BL stock motor, which could be huge for us. The consolidation of classes is coming along pretty decent as we move to newer CHEAPER technology.

I think there is lots of positive stuff. IS oval racing as big as it was 10 years ago? Nope, but is it bigger then it was 4 years ago? I think so.

Go over to the websites for some of the well known touring car and electric offroad tracks around the country and check how their turnouts look. Lately I think those guys have a lot more to worry about then we do.

...I'm excited to be involved in a "Local Race Program" again.

I've been doing my traveling series for 7 years now, and during that time virtually all the races I've attended or directed have been at least 100-125 miles from my home.

Last month I was able to get a small 'local' deal fired up at one of the local high schools, and although we're heading into Winter...when things usually slow down...thankfully we generally have decent weather this time of year and I'm hoping we are able to build our local race numbers back up to 2 or 3 dozen racers. (It's been a long time since I was able to race within a 10 minute drive from home)

www.southwesttour.com (http://www.southwesttour.com)

www.centralcoastrcracing.com (http://www.centralcoastrcracing.com)

The appeal of Video games is the reset button.

If you are doing poorly you can just start over. You do not get that chance in R/C. You have to work at this. You have to build it, set it up and DRIVE IT. It is not an equal playing field like a video game, IMHO this turns of most of the micro-wave generation.