Is electric off-road on its way back to popularity??
 

:weird: Is it just me, or am I noticing a steady increase in off-road race turnout ?

These last few weeks of clubracing Ive been noticing a lot more "die-hard" touring car guys showing up, and our novice class goes into the B-Main.
I started racing when 2wd buggy was THE class to be in, could the pendulum be swinging back?

No change in attendance here in Arizona. Maybe it just seems that way where you are becasue it's the beginning of the season and everybody is breaking out their xmas presents (new rides!).

Eh maybe you are right, I also am a returner this year, which is why it may seem different. but damn it feels good to have a competitive turnout

Personally, I just jumped into offroad from Touring Car. I guess I just lost interest. There are no Novice TC drivers at my track, which makes it frustrating to race when you're always last by a factor of several laps and not seconds.

Offroad electric seems like it's just more "fun". But then, I just got my T4 a week ago and raced last Saturday! So I'm still going "oh crap I just hit the brakes in the air and now I'm on my lid!" :D Laughing my a** off up on the driver's stand is much better than standing up there cursing. :D

I see the TC ranks dwindling. Maybe they're all coming over to the dirt. Heck, maybe you're right!

dirt is for racing......asphalt is for getting to the track. :nod:

besides.....ain't no jumps in touring car. :D

Brushless and li-pos will bring maintence free long runtimes to electric racing along with longer mains that may appeal to the gas guys who left electric for longer runtimes.

Hopefully Assocaited and Losi both listen to alot us that want a 1/10th scale 4wd truck or truggy with drive shafts and diffs! With brushless and li-pos, this class would be huge and very popular because how easy they would be to drive.

With the 1/10 electric off-road ifmar race coming up, let the season for electric racing begin! I know 2wd and 4wd buggy classes are already strong in many areas, but in anticipation to this big race, I'm sure many electric diehards will be hitting the track more often this year :)

mostly because the major electric events are getting closer so everyone is tuning up their driving, then around may it will drop again until like september to november then dead until like a week ago. its a little cycle they have.

SpeedyJay-You are correct.
Electric offroad IS coming back in a big way at alot of tracks across america.
Guys tried nitro or sedan over the last 2-3 yrs and due to certain reasons they have come BACK to Elec. Offroad and the newbie's are loving it.
Losi did a great job building a RTR with a brushless in it for rookie's or people just wanting to have fun.
I have seen a 20-30% increase locally over the last 5-6 months.
I have talked to people in Oklahoma,Tenn,Florida,Las Vegas,and others and they are all up 20-50% on driver's.
4wd has come back in a BIG way.People that dont have the patience to learn how to drive right away love this class because it's HOLD THE THROTTLE and TURN racing.lol.
While usually they dont run stock motor's you have guys running 19 turn and mod in your rookie class that STILL GET BEAT by trucks or buggies running stock motor's.Kinda funny actually but help's you explain that slower is faster sometimes.
I run almost everything and still myself prefer Elec offroad.

The KNOCK on elec offroad.Not as organized as most Nitro Clubs or Big Races.
We have nitro guys that run in packs of like 40-60 to area tracks within a 4-5 hour drive each way.
Electric has NOTHING like this.

Les

Hopefully it does make a comeback, with brushless looking to be a big factor. Cutting down on the maintenance and upping the runtime is what is needed. Brushless is doing its part, and when lipo or some other technology becomes more accepted, we can see a big resurgence.

Variety in available vehicles also helps.

take a look and get your hands on a sbv2 pro they handle like a dream!

Electric offroad is doing very well around here. Better turnouts then most other racing. In offroad its easy to come back take time off ect. We always see new and old faces at the track. In carpet good luck with that. Brushless is deciding factor for alot of people which is awsome.

Racin
 

In the past couple of years it is coming back....Most the races i attend club and otherwise usually have a pretty good turnout with Mod Truck! Usually,Novice classes are full of different electrics......Every once and awhile few 4wheel cars. I wish that would blow up again!! :cool:

At my "local" off-road track, there were 2 heats of sportsman class last weekend. Granted, now is the busiest time of year for the track, but it is still encouraging to see some new faces.

Also, several nitro guys decided to give electric a try and most of them sold their nitros after a couple of weeks of electric racing. I think nitro guys are the key to electric coming back. I really don't understand why more of them don't race nitro during the summer AND race electric during the winter. Do they hibernate during the winter or what?

PS. Those RTR Losi BL trucks seem pretty popular. I think a stock 13.5 class would be really great for the hobby and I hope it catches on at my track.

PPS. One guy ran a 3.5 in his Losi buggy last weekend and it was frickin' hilarious!!! All the mod buggy drivers on the stand (including me) were having a problem concentrating because we'd rather watch his car go crazy than pay attention to our own cars!

in the NorthEast atleast, i think the electric classes are dying...let's put it this way...

my local track recently held an annual trophy race...two years ago, we would get up to F-Mains in classes like Mod Buggy, and up to D-Mains in classes in classes like Mod Truck. people came from areas such as Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, among others to race...

this year, we barely had enough Mod Buggies to make a D-Main, and barely enough Mod Trucks to make a C-Main...95% of the guys who raced were locals. those who would travel for this race have moved on to 1\8 buggy\truggies in indoor tracks for the winter...

part of this i believe has to do with the release of Losi's 8ight...in the 120 mile radius or so of where I live, people have always been hardcore electric fans, and said at most they would try 1\10th gas truck...as soon as they heard Losi was going to make an 1\8th scale buggy, all of the local guys ran out and got one(including myself :rolleyes: ) due to these guys knowing Losi was a quality company as soon as they got the car...these guys also know that we have the only electric off-road track in about 90 miles (and that's only during the winter), and that 1\8th is growing around the rest of the country\world...

i don't think electric off-road is going to make a comeback until the problems are worked out of the new LiPo\brushless technologies atleast...