I think the peak of HO racing in my area occurred about 1988, when we had a total of 15 guys racing on 4 ovals and 2 road courses all over town. From there it’s been a slow decline. I have been able to keep a few of those racers in competition, most though have “graduated” to larger scales of just dropped out of the hobby. The problem is that HO racing just isn't "real" enough for those who participate. They want scale speed and handling.

I’ve been lucky in the role of promoter though, this new series I’m doing for the Lifelike cars is seeing some interest. And having connections with local merchants helps, like John Berry of Jamba Juice and Refugio Sanchez of Auto Zone, both of whom have contributed hundreds of dollars into my last two independent series. I appreciate the help from you guys too, but unfortunately you haven’t been here to see really how good we’re doing.

The local Hobbytown USA turned me down to host an HO race in their store. They don’t want competition with their 1/25th scale program and knowing my reputation for recruiting guys they won’t even display my flyers. My track is small, it fits in the back of my Ranger with the tailgate closed, yet they’re worried about me taking guys away from their 110’ Trackmaster program. Go figure. My former employer Lithia Ford has permitted me to have races there in the past but when I asked to this time they declined. Seems I was taking too much attention away from car shopping. Still, we have the local Me-n-Ed’s Pizza place and now the Auto Zone store next door to host our racing, and with AZ donating a nice $200 for new CoT cars, hey, who really needs Hobbytown.

The Auto Zone store is anchored by a Von’s grocery store, and our first race will be the evening of October 3rd. The track will be visible from the west entrance and I’m hoping that those that get their checks on that day will at least bring the kids and grandkids by to watch. This is how we generate racing interest. And with 13 year old John Hamilton among several younger people racing the kid will at least see there are some their own ages.

When you’re a small time hobbyist like me, one that does not get a lot of local hobby shop support, you have to be….creative. The 8 racers that will begin this series will be joined by others, I have no doubt, but not having a brick-and-mortar business to support it I deal with open promotions like this. There are always questions about why I built this track so small, knowing people like to race on bigger tracks. The reason is I can bring this track to them, to their promotions, and entertain those they want to attract. I've done open houses at Harley Dealerships, I did a birthday party for a relative, "have track, will travel" it says on my calling card I guess.

Auto Zone will host 4 races, Me-n-Ed’s will host 2 races, the other 6 races will be split between my house and the Hick’s Brothers shop. Until we get our Electronic Pit Station fixed there will be no Chicagoland Speedway events, but we may have a solution as soon as the first part of November for next year. This is a short, 12 race series, for 2009 we will have both the CoT and the West Series cars running in a much longer series. All it takes is a little promotions and to keep ourselves visible.

Just getting people to come race, let alone promoting it into the community, is hard enough.

Thankfully, we have about 12 guys now who race sports cars, and another 3 or 4 who race Indy cars, any given week. Our stock car program should be looking up this year too with the switch to the LL "COT" cars and adopting the sports car race format.

We all have fun and it's about the best time to race locally here, at least in our three 'basement' leagues.

Keep on doing your thing Pete. :thumbsup:

Good for you Petey.

I haven't ever gotten anything of value of of our local Hobbytown USA. Staffed with a bunch of smart-assed 17 year olds that cater only to the RC folks, the store is really not a good one as far as I am concerned. Tons of RC stuff, half a shelf of train items and maybe 2 pegs with LL cars on it. The rest is modeling supplies. Even if I were more into the RC or modelling things, the staff leaves much to be desired, I wonder of the owner has any clue, or even cares.

Marty, we don't even have that. Trains yes, as a matter of fact I started getting stuff for an N Gauge layout before I decided it was going to cost too much. R/C dominates but so does airsoft and some paintball. At least two of the guys from Auto Zone will be racing soon, but we may have to switch the nights we run for them.

I am planning some upgrades for my little track, lighting will be the main one. I'll be taking my train transformer and mounting it under the framing and installing infield lights and track status lights. I may even light up the concession stands. I have some blinking LED's that will be used in my ambulance stationed outside turn 4, I just need to drill out the overheads from the inside and hot glue them in place.

Great work Pete! :thumbsup:Thanks for sharing the info and encouragement. We now have 10-15 racers on any given week. We've been racing for about 3 months now,and are just now starting to talk about some serious series. I was thinking of talking to OReillys, because I do a lot of business with them for work. Kids will eventually row up and need real cars, so they may be interested. We're still mapping out stuff though.

Marty, I here you on the HobbyTown stuff. The one close to me has pretty much stopped buying HO stuff, and the one in Dallas just carries the bigger cars. Carrera GO! is as close to HO as they are getting. At least they let me pass out some flyers.

Rich
www.myspace.com/northtexasslotcars :thumbsup:

Rich, I'll be switching over to the CoT's from my 2001-2002 style cars for my series starting in a week and a half. I'd be glad to send you all the cars I'm phasing out. I have 16 total now, all have custom paint schemes and Patto's decals. Some are the original chassis style and the older Dodge body, good for beaters if nothing else. If you want them for your kids just say the word and I'll ship them off by Tuesday.

Hey Pete, thanks for your generous offer. We only have 2 or 3 kids racing with us right now. The rest of us kids are over 35. We're nowhere near as far down the line as you are, but I hope to promote things down here in a similar fashion. Coach has done some stuff down here in the past and we'll hook up and join our efforts. He has something coming up in November I think. Coach you out there? Anyways, maybe the cars can help him out.
Thanks,
Rich

Yeah Coach, let me know! 9 are the original style chassis, the other 7 are T-Chassis cars. All run great, some have almost no time. These are what remains of the cars donated to me from Scale Auto and Lucky Bob's so I'll send them to whoever can use them. I have some extra Patto's decals I'll throw in along with them.

Decals?

<perk> Decals?

Yeah, some NASCAR decals I got for the cars. Since I'm moving over the the CoT's they go with the cars. Some of them are leftovers from doing the bodies. There's a handful of partial sheets, a couple that are whole and bits and pieces.

Sounds great Pete, the Oldsters will enjoy these i think quick enough to get everyones attention and grippy enough to hold on the track.. Thanks!

Coach!

Coach, PM me an addy and I'll get them out to you pronto. You and Rich can barter for the decals.

We're down to 6 racers now, 2 of the big scale guys dropped out because of some SoCal championship they need to qualify for. So we're going to allow 2 cars of the 2002 style and 1 CoT each for two classes. I ordered 6 cars from Brian this morning, they should be here in time for some pre-race prep before the series begins.

The track is clean, testing and practice begins tomorrow for the 2002 cars.

Coach, the cars went out this morning priority mail, should be there mid-week.