genesisG4

iTrader: (8)

Some of you guys probably saw the thread on the electric forum on the future of RC racing. There is a ton of good input on this thread...some for rc in general and some pertaining to electric.

The bottom line is we need more people exposed to the sport which ultimately relates to more participants.

Lets start a think tank on the nitro forum...what needs fixed, what to do about costs, what do you think about spec classes, how to better market and promote....on and on.

Serpent-Dan

iTrader: (18)

It needs a more public exposure like an hour on speed channel or espn it is a motorsport And yes we need some spec classes because it cost to compete

jscamry

iTrader: (5)

There has been the airings of hobby information relating to RC, on the I believe the oxygen channel. But then again I do not feel that this channel has the following that espn or speed!

Thanks Jason.

Roelof

Yes, modelcar races are like real motorsports and should be promoted in the same way on the same TV channels.
Also all the people who are phsysical and/or financial not capable driving real motorsports can find all the aspects in the model motorsports and must also be promoted as such.

As I mentioned "all the aspects of real motorsports" is one things to take away the term "toy". I had a lot of friends who altered their thinking about toys when they had seen a real race...

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

Inside RC airs on OLN sometimes, I don't think I've seen it in almost a year though but they covered the RC Pro series offroad races last year and a maybe a couple others. On top of the wild world of rc sail boating, they tried pretty hard to get it mainstream.

TomB

iTrader: (10)

if you want RC to be more like mainstream motorsports you need to do the following;

1) inject character into the sport. ie make each sponsored driver show their personality. I've seen some of the interviews that Ray Wood does in his videos with the big drivers...and i'm sorry some of them are boring as bat sh1t. you can't sell a sport as exciting, and cool if the guy who is the big wig driver has -20 carisma.

2)jazz it up baby. music, nothing makes something get the heart racing like a good cut montage scene to a pumping set of tracks

3)commercialize it. get other brands invovled, and do massive one of race events with mainstream brand support.

4) get it involved with other sports to feed of it's fan base, ie like the xtreme sports championships where they mix skating with bike half pipe, downhill onroad bob sledding etc

the downside is probably that the communial feel of the hobby will disapear and people will become more competitive and agressive at the local track...so every positive will have it's downsides. When money get's invovled forget about friendships.

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

Very good point, every aspect of this hobby is already controlled by small groups with agendas to make their own money.

People will already rail you into the wall because they saw it on NASCAR, just imagine if it would then be for profit. I've been to some $1000 payout races, the mains are ugly.

RayJ

In the past few years, we've seen a steady drop off at our local club races here in the midwest. Many people are concerned with there job stability, and the high costs involved with racing and the expenses just getting to races. In Detroit we had a local club, and we held afew races at a Walmart parking lot. There was alot of interest generated by passersby on how to get into the sport. In fact after chatting with the Walmart manager.......... he kinda laughed when people went into the store and wanted to buy our cars. Other passerbys asked some of the racers on how much would it cost to get set-up for 200mm or 1/8th. With the replies of $1,000, $1,500......it stopped most people dead in their tracks...............with.... "whoa..........that's way outta my league." A potentially new racers interest generally died at that point.


Five years ago, when I first started with RC stuff. I stopped by at a local offroad track. I asked about how much to get a car and equipment, and I found I could get a car, battery, charger......radio gear for about $500.00. I was in at that point. The intitial sticker shock didn't turn me away from the sport. The key here is intitial sticker shock!! The lack of "initial sticker shock" is why most of the RC business is RTR kits, and always will be. After someone gets started with a RTR kit.............time will tell how much of a plunge they take into the sport. For me? I was in!! I wanted the latest and greatest of everything, and I spent the money.........and still do. Sometimes I thyink I'm just plain outta my mind!! The key here......is intitial start-up costs!!!!! I can't emphasize that enough. When I first entered the hobby I did not want to spend $1,000 to $1,500 to get started. No friggin' way!!

One of the things I have seen lately is the talk about the RTR spec classes with the Kyosho IGT, OFNA GTB and other buggy based cars. Not only are they very reasonable to get people into racing...........they also look very realistic(Ferrari, BMW, Porsche 911, aston martin.......etc etc etc) Now......when people see a race.............and they see these cars run..... they get a chance to "taste" our hobby without going broke. This class also reduces the intimidation factor of racing against experienced racers who are running circles around them in 200mm and 1/8th. If this this new class of buggy based cars is supported............and treated with the same respect as the 1/8th and 200mm's........the on-road scene..........has a chance to improve.

Limiting these cars to rubber tires........and keeping the class "spec" will intially help build more participants. If new potential racers can get involved with $500.00 vs thousands......more people will want to try it. The spec class will eliminate the need for:

Starter Boxes
High priced motors
Many many sets of foam tires
Tire truers
A limited # of replacements parts, since these buggys are pretty tough.
Not having to buy alls those things to get started will make the class more appealing.

Hopefully this new class will evolve new racers. Having a class with a much more reasonable "start-up" cost will bring more into on-road racing. After a racer gets started..... the "hobby bug" will determine......how far new racers will choose to take it. I know many of us would like to see new faces at the track. Hopefully the existing racers out there............will support it.

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

Are you planning on buying a GT to help the turnouts or learn the setup so the new guys don't have a car that won't go straight or exit a turn properly. In houston I think I see a new guy maybe once ever 3-4 months at the most which doesn't really translate into a class to race due to our low turnouts. I believe there are 4-5 total GT's here but I've never seen more than 2 at once but then again I haven't seen more than 14 sedans and 10 8th scales here lately either.

HPI and others make 200mm bodies like real cars, people just don't run them because they're not legal but they would be allowed at my local tracks. The FW05 rtr is at least 90% of the RRR and supportable by most local drivers but I never see people buy them even with a low price tag. Nobody really pushes this car though and even our shop managers push the $1500 entry price.


You're right about the economy though, our sport is driven mostly by the 90% of the world that work hard for a living and may or may not have a job coming into the recession. It's been in decline here for probably 2-3 years or so, so the economy doesn't completely explain it either. I have no idea why the decline is truly here.

The Walmart idea is big, all of Houston's tracks have been hidden since I can remember but when I traveled to Austin and San Antonio, they had races right off of main streets and had 10-20 people stop by just to see what was happening even on one half rainy cold day.

Taylorm

..........i think the IGT class could get huge IF there was a way to get more exposure to the mainstream public.........400 bucks RTR is a great price to get going in the hobby......the rubber tires and spec/lower priced motors need to be retained or just like any other class costs will quickly go out of control and then at that point you might as well run 1/8.....look at where sedan has gone...costs just about equal 1/8...........

RC500

The walmart idea shopping center is great if its in a area that people can afford to buy the cars. location location oh location...... dallas club was at one time at texas motor speedway at the corner of 2 main highways in the area we had lots of lookers, now you can find it IF you know were to look,its has declined almost to nothing...... Having races at local hobby shops is were i think it has to start, i e get the owner off his ass and advertise..... MY 2 CENTS METHENY

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

You are correct Sir! new classes or not, visibility is the key to me. It's incredibly difficult to find a parking lot owner in any part of town willing to even talk to you about this hobby though even after you tell them about ROAR insurance. The hobby shops themselves may have better luck especially with their own parking lots but I've been shut down at every attempt except one, a church near downtown houston but they can only race on Saturdays and only for a couple months during the summer but they've agreed to pay for all of the materials.

Roelof

The costs is how you spend it with clear thinking....

You can get a Hudy full automated tire truer for 400 dollar, or get a cheap non-automatic for 100 euro's. Better maybe to go on the 2nd hand market or make one by your own. With starterboxes likewise, you can get a 200 euro set included 2 high power battery packs or get a airplaine startermotor with a rubber starting wheel, an acid 12v battery and build a box arround it for just 60 bucks.
True down the tires or train them to the right size.... A question you can ask to get more drivetime out of your tires without more costs.
A starter in the 8th scale onroad can buy a Collari package for 900 bucks or a R&B S7C with exhaust for just 300 bucks.

You can make it as crazy as you want but do not complain about the high costs.

Within electric racing it is a lot worser. Every year those guys have new powersupplies, high advanced chargers and dischargers while I for example at clubracing managed to become champion in stockclass with just a simple 5A charger and an old Kyosho TF4R chassis on 1 (!!) batterypack.

Ivan Dickson

iTrader: (32)

There is no easy solutionmost hobbies across the board are expensive.

flack

iTrader: (1)

In 2007 our club offered free racing to all touring cars. Also offered a run what you brung class for touring. At the same time we offered a "Sport" 1/8 Open class. These were the results:

Averaged six touring cars per race
One full time racer in "Sport" 1/8 Open with a total of three participants for the year.

These changes were well published on our club website, fliers placed in hobby stores, and word of mouth. We had more touring cars show up for the year than past years, but most would run three races and begone or switch to 1/8 Open.

I for one was shocked that more people wouldn't come out on race days when it was free (save $15) per race. My only conclusion to this is that there are fewer people with the desire to race competitivly, there are a lot of choices to choose from in this hobby (planes, boats, offroad, onroad, electric) that it can "thin" the race specific crowd and many LHS don't openly advertise or sell what is considered a competitive race chasis.

No matter what you provide as a club, be it RTR class, spec class or free racing...if people don't have the desire to race they aren't going to show up.

Doug