imjonah

I have run my car on two Parking lot tracks in front of Hobby stores and three permanent tracks run by Hobby shops.
(One tracks edges are two stacked 2x4s with some kind of concrete sprayed on them)

None of the tracks make even minimal effort to protect my car from damage, by putting some kind of cusioning at those parts of the track where the cars are most likely to hit the boards/pipes and damage themselves.

I understand the logic. The hobby store makes money off broken cars.

If you stop and think about it, that is a little weird.
I watched a father and son run their brand new electric car for the first time at a local track. They seemed to be having a lot of fun; then they hit the hard wall at the end of the straight away and brokea couple kind of expensive parts on the suspension. After that they just packed up and left, not with smiles on their face I may add.

I think this vulture like policy on the part of track owners is penny wise dollar foolish. I think in reality the money spent on replacing broken parts would probably be spent on other RC products and/or upgrades. The hobby stores create disapointment, frustration and bad will and in the end do not really generate more business.

I personally would be glad to pay a couple dollars more in entry fees to run on a track that had installed cushioning at key places around the track.

This is probably not a big deal for you experienced guys who rarely hit the boards; but for many of us who are still learning, it has a major effect on our enjoyment of racing.