I got into this hooby as a replacement for the normal "wal*mart" RCs as christmas presents for my son. While at the hobby store picking out a "kit" truck I picked up a magazine. I then learned that people sent time and money racing toys. This was a very odd concept to me. I found there was a track about 1 hour from my house. We went as a family, my son, my wife, my nephew, his step-father, his mother, and myself to a Friday night race. Three weeks later, we were all racing at that track. Have been ever since, that was 3 years ago.
What keeps use coming back:
1) family style asphomere.
2) FUN, FUN, FUN.
3) the challange of making a car faster. and the defeat of going slower.
4) the joy of helping others. Even though I feel I'm still a rookie, I'm always getting asked "how does this work", "why does this not work", "can you help me with this". It gives you a feeling of worth, helping your fellow hobbist, and fellow man.
5) A track that starts on time, moves quickly with few delays, but that is also willing to work around the normal problems that newbies have, will be sucessful.
6) You need food, during race and practice times.
7) If you use computer timing equipment, you need to make that avliable to your racers during practice times also. If you don't want the average racer using your computer, have someone there that is quailifed. It's really hard to practice, make changes, and wait till race night only to find out you got slower.
8) When things do go wrong, don't lose your cool, just work it out the best you can. Nothing ruins fun quicker than the person in charge losing their temper.