Our club (along with others I'd imagine) has concerns about the number of options available to 1/10 electric racers - Offroad in particular.

The present classes having the choice of running Stock (27T/17.5) / Pro - Stock (19T/ 13.5/ 10.5) / and Mod teamed with:

2wd Buggy
4wd Buggy
Truck
2wd SC
4wd SC (Slash 4x4)

and you have the possibility of 15 options.

If, like our club in a regional centre, you dont have 100's of members, racing against only 1 - 2 others isn't a lot of fun.

We have thought about options to increase the numbers of racers and have come up with the possibility of running each class altogether with a limited motor wind, e.g. up to a 17 Turn brushed or 10.5 brushless, with any battery choice.

Do you think this is a viable option, or do you know another way to keep these classes numbers healthy.

We would really appreciate your feedback

Regards

We pretty much only run 540/stock/mod classes in 2wd/4wd. If someone is new and has a 19t/13.5 brushless we run them in stock class and if they get too good we ask them to go 17.5 t or stick them in with the mod guys. In victoria superstock is only run at state titles.

At this stage, and we understand that it is early days, but 1/8 electric cars appear to have no motor limits, does anyone think this is a viable option for 1/10 cars?

What are opinons of this:

2wd buggy - any motor up to 10.5 brushless or brushed equiv
4wd buggy - any motor - present mod class
SC - any motor up to 10.5 or brushed equiv
Truck - any motor up to 10.5 or brushed equiv

We are not suggesting any rewrite of any present rules under our sanctioning body/s, just considering how to strengthen these classes at our club, and any others in the same predicament.

It appears that there are not many opinions regarding this. I guess in the larger populated area's it's probably not an issue.

Maybe our club should get together with other clubs in our region (Cairns/Townsville) to discuss this situation, and maybe try and agree on a set of running guidelines, especially when it comes to intercity events.

yeh good idea yeh sc class need some rules

what motors etc all depends on the numbers available to race and what they want to run.i think cairns used to run stock for the first half the year and mod or the second.not 100% on that but.
i personally run a 9t brushed in my mod truck in townsville (when i get to race) and i like a 10t in my buggy.i find mod a lot cheaper to run because you dont need the best batteries etc etc to get good performance and checkpoint mods are pretty well priced and last for ages compared to running 27t stock motors.
i think with the short course class there needs to be limits,mainly in keeping with stock type tyres so that it can be kept as a spec style class which would be a great class for beginners to start in.motors possible limited to a 19t brushed for example as well to keep costs down.i have no idea on brushless motors etc which is why i mentioned brushed.
possibly the 4wd slash class could be open motor as it comes with a brushless set up from factory,but still stick with stock style tyres.

when townsville used to race weekends there used to be enough people to race mod and stock buggy(at times there were about 18 stock buggys), mod and stock truck and 4wd as well as a sportsman silver can class.now they race on a wednesday night the numbers have died off considerably.week nights are not a good idea for getting young kids etc into racing due to school etc.

I like the idea of running one class per vehicle type. Yes I am a nitro racer, and have only just joined the electric ranks with an RTR SC10.

If numbers per class can increase, based on running only one, then it can only improve the fun for all involved.

With the 1/8 brushless stuff coming out, there appears to be open slather on what guys are running with KV ratings and 4S/5S/6S lipo's. Why not consider a similar thing with 1/10, except place a motor limit on it as stated earlier.

2wd buggy, Truck and SC, all being 2wd, will probably be easier to drive (for less experienced drivers anyway) with a bit less power and 10.5 seems like a good compromise.

4wd, I guess being the flagship class perhaps can have no motor limit as it appears to be the elite, having said that, there have been instances more than once that I have seen and heard, of a 17.5 equiped "stock" 4wd buggy turning laps times that are competitive with the mod guys anyway.

At the end of the day, if the classes numbers can increase, then I'm all for it, as I'm an RC enthusiast, and enjoy all, and I mean all aspects of the hobby, and dont want to see anything detract from the hobby.

Cheers

2WD Buggy:"540", "STOCK 17.5/27T" and "MOD".
4WD Buggy:"540", "STOCK 17.5/27T" and "MOD"
Truck: "STOCK" and "MOD"
SC: "CORR SPEC" and "OPEN"
1/8-e: "ROAR SPEC" and "OPEN (5S, 6S)"
I'd keep it close to the ORRCA ruling for simplicity. Give le way to new comers. Combined races by class but not by points until numbers are high enough.

My 2 cents,
Michael.

Don't want to start anythng but Electric has increased on the wednesday night from weekend racing. The last season raced at the heatley track on the weekend there was only 3 x 2wd mods (col, jacko and myself). The rest was nitro. Wednesday night have increase the electic numbers to following. All classes are mod
buggy - 4-8
Truck - 4-8
4WD - 6-10
SC10 - 6-12 limited motor class (17T brushed as per RTR or 10.5BL. Will be starting class with control tyre and class can run at onroad if number turn up)

Most people are running more than 1 class. With the help of the LHS's the SC10 class will be the entry class. Its cheap to start racing and they have low break downs.

The best thing to do is limit the 2WD classes (inc. truck) to a 6.5BL and open 4WD. I have seen people use 19T 4WD and still stay in the hunt for the win over the 5.5 4WD. Any more than a 5.5BL in the 4wd and the thing will come apart by the 3rd race. people will figure it out as they race. powerfull motor = more damage

Start with open and take it from there.

Warren

Always keep your options open. As a club, srt the rules and classes to be run for one season and work from there. Don't fall into the trap like a lot of Committee's do and think just because it didn't work last season, last year or a couple of years ago, that it won't work again. What racers want is always changing and if the club keeps up with the changes they stand a better chance of growing stronger.
Maybe for a starting point, as 4wd mod appears to be the flavour for now, stick with that class and work the other classes to suit what members have and sort the rules for those classes from there. As short course trucks are still being sorted out up here, have a motor limit and trucks to use the SC type rims and tyres. They are a bit pricey to upgrade, but from what I have seen so far, you won't be needing a new set each race day as they have a good wear rate on them, and this also keeps the concept of this type of truck racing for what they were designed for.
If you find interest wanes a bit through the season in a class, that could be a sign to look at making changes to a class or two. All racers want to go fast, and all racers like good competition, and you can have good competition between racers if, for instance, for a season you find a common motor that everyone has or would run for a season. This would encourage those who may not be able to outlay to much to make the jump up a class if they know what motor to buy instead of finding out the new motor they bought is still to slow for the jump up.

Open fun days, fete's and displays are also a good way to gauge what can draw interest, after all, you have to encourage young drivers into the club as this is what will help keep the club growing. As adults we tend to forget the youngsters or want to restrict them racing with us as we are afraid they will get in the way or run into us and break things. Having a class for them can be a good thing for a club if your looking to increase membership.

20 years ago we used to have end of season fun days, racing with no marshals, the car that ran the longest, mini enduro's etc. Most times we had more members turn up for those then race days..., and due to location, we also got a lot of interest as well and picked up racers for next season from those.
Just a few of many things you can consider, it all really depends on what the committee wants to do which will determine how ell the class will go

Hi guys,

I will give my opinion that is based on racing pretty much every class that you guys have mentioned there.

First off i think that when the decision is made it needs to be stuck with, no exceptions to the rules, just adds to confusion and makes it less likely for newcomers to return.

2wd, i personally think that stock/17.5 brushless is fine and plenty of power, running on lipo is plenty fast and there is no need for mod motors, haven driven both and can tell the non believers that there is 10th`s of seconds difference in lap times for stock vs mod at a high experience level, having a spec class will make it cheaper for new guys to join the ranks and easier for them to learn, and is still fast enough for the experienced guys, this class is a small class these days as well which means numbers are more important and stock will draw more numbers long term.

4wd, as stated above can be an open class, the cars are a lot easier to drive and are a bit expensive and arent a type of chassis the new comer would buy. So making it an experienced class wouldnt be a bad choice.

1/10 truck, once again i think stock/17.5 brushless or 19t/10.5 brushless is a good idea, it is a chassis that will attract new comers and is avaliable as a RTR from a lot of manafacturers as is 2wd buggy.

Im not going to comment on the short course trucks as i havent got experience with them or follow them much.

one thing i will say is that IMO we need to simplify the hobby, i can totally understand the point of this thread and the frustration in making decisions regarding this, it is confusing for the consumer/racer on what class to run, and agreed it is no fun racing with just 2 cars, i would rather race stock even though im experienced with modified motors if it means i will have a decent field to race against and have some fun. Simple = fun, less work, less money and less time consuming to enjoy racing, a bit of this has gone out the window these days with so many motor and chassis class options, but i say make a rule, stick with it, people will get used to it and the numbers will grow along with people having fun with a simple bunch of classes.

I was not going to post here but have decided to let all of you have the benefit of my wisdom. This is a copy of my post in my clubs forum. I hope it might help others and it cant hurt to get other peoples opinion on my ideas.


The only way to grow numbers is to gain new racers.(this may seem to be obvious but its not always).
As old boy said we must promote the hobby. Maybe some weekend fun days that have been well advertised at all the hobby shops in town.
The offroad car numbers as wazza said have grown but how many more racers do we have? I would suspect it is very few. The same racers run multiple classes which artificially inflates numbers.
Dallas offered the opinion that numbers have changed since shifting to wednesday nights. A few members have asked about the possibility of trying sundays again.
The current format of racing 2wd,2wd truck, 4wd and sc10's is beginning to make for a very cramped night. (I for 1 skip the last race of the night as I have an early start).
How about we try to have a combined fun/race on one sunday even if it is over the break after the regular season? This day should be advertised around town and if we hold it in a month or so we should have plenty of time to organise. It would not have to start early maybe 2:30, 3ish and could still be finished by dark. If it is even mildly successful we could run one every month or so and I am willing to bet our race days will benefit from new members. If we get enough kids turn up regularly we could form a kids club attatched to our club and possibly run the kids with a points system and the adults/racers as a fun thing to fill in the day, everyone would benefit.

Just my thoughts

Terry

PS feel free to modify any/all the above if you think it could work.
Also the current committee does not have to be responsible for the organising if they feel they have enough on their plates already. (I know you are all putting in a lot of o/t for the club already.) We could form a sub committee for which I would put up my hand.

Some very good points in there. Having stock classes can be fun for experienced drivers where it comes down to drivers ability and not nice fast motors to race with. Stick with a rule for stock and don't go changing it so that the stock cars can go faster as we have modified for that, we just need to get the numbers up to race stock. What most clubs are missing at the moment is stock racing. Any newcomers to the sport don't really get the choice to race in a novice or stock class, they get thrown in with the experienced drivers and then those experienced drivers can get a bit agro towards them because they got in the way, or crashed into them etc. Clubs need to get back to basics and get those novice or stock classes up and running to encourage new drivers to the clubs.

Old boy that is exactly what I was thinking you read the post with the same mind frame as when I wrote it, I see that happening a lot and I know when I first joined I wouldn't have stayed racing if I was up against the experienced mod guys every fortnight, not only would I not want to get in there way but I know they wouldn't want me in there way, it's easy to forget this as experience grows and you move up the ranks but we all started out once upon a time need to think like the new comer/ rookie if we want to grow numbers, far to much emphasis is in the mod classes and experienced drivers and not taking anything away from them we need them as much as the rookies but I think it's the duty if the more experienced guys ( myself included ) to make some sacrifices in the best interests if our sport to keep people having a blast at the track and getting excited about racing each weekend!

Just checking out some raceable RTR's at my LHS, and I notice that some of them come with more than stock motors (i.e. 17t reedy in T4's and B4's). I think the advent or expansion of 'sportsman' racing where you "run what you brung" is workable for newbies to racing. Once there experience increases, they join the regular class/s.

As stated earlier by NJA82, simplifying this aspect of the hobby should certainly be on the horizon, but hey, that's a fair way down the track.

If at a club level, we can make race days easier, and more enjoyable, then I cant see any losing out.