AdrianM

iTrader: (4)

Derek - You are talking about a very rare combiantion of circumstances to allow sucess. To have a sucessful top notch facility you need a place that had excellent exposure but is dirt cheap in rent, a R/C racer with money to burn or a sucessful hobby shop to invest in construction, a knowledgeable well run hobbyshop on site to keep it going and generate revenue and all of this has to be in an area that has a high enough number of R/C racers to get ~100 entries per week.

The problem is the one part of the above equasion always seems to be missing.

DerekB

Obviously we can't have a track every 30 feet like a Starbucks. But since they exist out there it is possible to have a professional looking track. It's simply a numbers game. I'm not saying that a track will ork everywhere. But if you're going to build a track the difference in "finishing" the track is really nothing compared to the cot of building a track.

speedxl

adrian derek lives in a fantasy land!
other then the tamiya track how many tracks in the USA with a well mainted hobby store and a topnotch track can operate in a good nieborhood I am talking about an area with franchize stores circle k and bojangles dont count.

Florida is still cheaper to set up a track then cali but if you where a track owner would you put the track an area where everyone owns a mercedez benz with million dollar homes and make no profit or
open up a track in an industrial area with some type of suberb with mid income families where at the end of the year you will actually have and income sustaining the track and allow you to pay your mortage at home! speed world, rippon are perfect examples of tracks in a somewhat industrial area. go figure! must work.
Why aint there anytracks in belaire or beverly hills? or carmel! How bout socal. they are in a mid income nieborhood near huntington beach! I have been there and seen all of them.

EricF

Speedxl-
have you been to Competition Hobbies? 18,000 sf of purpose buit RC facility, 3000 of which is hobby store. I would suggest looking at their site but it's down right now.

If you get a chance you can ask Baker, Kindwald, Hodge just to name a few about a facility that's not located in the HOOD.

Eric

rtypec

iTrader: (2)

Nice video, I wonder why it makes me want to play GT2? I certainly hope there will be more Reedy videos released in the near future. With all that footage, it would be a shame to only see it compressed into less than two minutes with a third being covered with overlays. Any plans on the DVD Mr. Futureal?

speedxl

Fike I wasnt refering to arizona I have never been there just to a few tracks in cali!
Pluss I also did not say that it wasnt feasable anywhere I stated How many are out there! I know there are a few! just as beatiful. there are a few in ohio and conneticut.
But like i mentioned Howmany are there not that many mabey a handful across the counrty.
I say that tracks like that are 3 to 5 % of what is out there. another 10% are in a strip mall and 80% in an industrial or rural place and 5% in a city donated facilaty.
Now these are numbers based on what I feel which may not be accurate since we dont have a sensus telling us this stuff.
It is based on my experiances in the 14 years or so that I have attended races!
But like I said its only my opinion not nesscerally the facts so dont kill me guys!

EricF

Speedxl -
don't sweat it... I was in a hurry when I worte that, had to go to a job site meeting. Anyway, I was trying to beat on you. I was only trying to point out another top notch facility. I haven't been racing as loang as you but, I think that I agree that your numbers aren't probably taht far off.

One of the other tracks in Tucson is an outdoor facility which has a permanat asphalt and off-road track the is in a stip mall parking lot.

E

futureal

Rod: Working on it! Unfortuantely my video guy is downstairs using our new copies of Premiere and Encore to make anime DVDs and compilations. haha

It's coming... someday...

No, really, we're working on it.

Steve Weiss

I'm satisfied with that video...they show me dicing it up a bit right after they show the results for invitational class

Neil Rabara

Okay why am I having trouble viewing this? I clicked the download button and I know I have quicktime.

Neil Rabara

Nevermind, I figured it out.

mwcet8k

I disagree completely. Derek isn't saying that tracks should be in upscale, expensive neighborhoods where no expense is spared. There's nothing wrong with putting a track in an industrial park, but most industrial parks are not in the hood either. It's frustrating to see someone build a track, only to do a total half ass job building and designing it. I really think when non R/C people go to watch a race and the track isn't very nice, that doesn't do much to give R/C credibility as a legitimate form of competition. I realize not every facility can be as nice as Tamiya's, but I've seen plenty of tracks open where it was obvious the owners cared about and took pride in their facility. And that didn't mean they had a ton of cash to drop on the place. Unfortunately, I've seen just as many, if not more, that didn't make the extra effort to build a nice facility. I started racing in '89 and have raced at quite a few tracks all over the country. I can tell you that based on what I've seen, it's the nicer tracks that stay in business long term.

DerekB

Slowly people awaken!

Half assed gets you only half way

It would only take a littl bit of money to make any on-road track look like a pro-level environment. I guess I'll have to do an article like one of those make-over shows for a track.

speedxl

mwcet8k yes your right and so is derek that just because the tracks are in the getto dont mean they should look like the gettho and yes most of the time the nicer ones stay around. My main point in my previous posts were that most tracks are in the lowwer income parts of town.
And derek yes when they do things half ass it looks half ass!

Some owners dont know anybetter but there are some of them that are too cheap to spend some money to keep it clean.
If the place look crappy 9 out of 10 times the guys personal life or home is similar.

If the guy takes pride in his track and maintains it he is more likely to be sucsessful as a person in his personal life and buisness life!

Unfortunatlly if you dont care about the track you own what makes me think you care about me the racer/consumer. All you want is the cash! If you put some back into the track and your people they will be loyal to you and keep comming back. In the long run we all win. He's making a living and we are happy because we have somewhere to race and hang out with our friends.

AdrianM

iTrader: (4)

Derek - Very nice professor in this months issue...