what's the matter with American racing?
10-12-2014, 06:43 PM
#31
If the world's was held on carpet the outcome probably would have been different. Or at least the a main drivers. Some cars work really well on asphalt, some work better on carpet.
10-12-2014, 07:10 PM
#36
Also want to point out that in the last four years, Americans have won 6 IFMAR titles. Plus one Canadian. That's a pretty darn good showing of you ask me despite the complete lack of Americans in this Worlds. Also let's not forget that while Reinhard is not American, his car was built in freaking New York baby!
Thing is of those 6...4 are offroad and one is nitro sedan. the Yanks havent won an electric onroad title since 1996
10-12-2014, 07:18 PM
#37
I bet if there was a 17.5 worlds class, you would have seen at least 5 US drivers in the A, but the worlds class is open mod.
10-12-2014, 07:33 PM
#38
I live in SoCal home to several major RC companies. I can't practice outdoors on a track like that. I can go to very few humbly prepped, privately owned facilities. Where would a world class US challenger go to practice daily on to get good?
I only assume these Asian and Euro facilities are open all the time and are way nicer.
Also the guys are spot on with the 17.5 comments. Everyone wants to just stay in 17.5 so they can collect their trophy rather than run mod when they should be running mod. Yeah they may not win every time but it would make us better to represent.
Lastly I assume that the top drivers from the other countries are paid substantially more to actually make it a living and spend more time practicing. I would assume most our best have day jobs, even if it is with the RC company but they are not practicing and tuning all the time.
Does the proliferation of pro sports also have something to do with it? We are all about football, baseball, basketball etc. I would assume professional RC racing in Europe or Asia means something. Here most don't even know what RC is. Just a guess.
10-12-2014, 07:55 PM
#39
Good points to think about in your post.
Some tracks yes, some no (i think). Some clubs will let you on the tracks during the week but you may be on your own with prepping. That's another "issue" because I have a friend running the ENS and they do not prep tracks.
Most nitro tracks would welcome a group of electric racers because it helps support the track. From my experience there's always been a reason why no one shows up and it doesn't have anything to do with the nitro racers because we could care less. We're already running 30-60 mains, 6 more minutes is a warm up or extra time to true tires.
I'm guessing like you they are paid more because it's treated like a pro sport outside of the USA. You're probably right that our other sports drown it out but they have soccer which seems to be a year round sport to compete with RC racing.
Some tracks yes, some no (i think). Some clubs will let you on the tracks during the week but you may be on your own with prepping. That's another "issue" because I have a friend running the ENS and they do not prep tracks.
Most nitro tracks would welcome a group of electric racers because it helps support the track. From my experience there's always been a reason why no one shows up and it doesn't have anything to do with the nitro racers because we could care less. We're already running 30-60 mains, 6 more minutes is a warm up or extra time to true tires.
I'm guessing like you they are paid more because it's treated like a pro sport outside of the USA. You're probably right that our other sports drown it out but they have soccer which seems to be a year round sport to compete with RC racing.
Can you run at these tracks weekly for practice? I don't know the answer.
I live in SoCal home to several major RC companies. I can't practice outdoors on a track like that. I can go to very few humbly prepped, privately owned facilities. Where would a world class US challenger go to practice daily on to get good?
I only assume these Asian and Euro facilities are open all the time and are way nicer.
Also the guys are spot on with the 17.5 comments. Everyone wants to just stay in 17.5 so they can collect their trophy rather than run mod when they should be running mod. Yeah they may not win every time but it would make us better to represent.
Lastly I assume that the top drivers from the other countries are paid substantially more to actually make it a living and spend more time practicing. I would assume most our best have day jobs, even if it is with the RC company but they are not practicing and tuning all the time.
Does the proliferation of pro sports also have something to do with it? We are all about football, baseball, basketball etc. I would assume professional RC racing in Europe or Asia means something. Here most don't even know what RC is. Just a guess.
I live in SoCal home to several major RC companies. I can't practice outdoors on a track like that. I can go to very few humbly prepped, privately owned facilities. Where would a world class US challenger go to practice daily on to get good?
I only assume these Asian and Euro facilities are open all the time and are way nicer.
Also the guys are spot on with the 17.5 comments. Everyone wants to just stay in 17.5 so they can collect their trophy rather than run mod when they should be running mod. Yeah they may not win every time but it would make us better to represent.
Lastly I assume that the top drivers from the other countries are paid substantially more to actually make it a living and spend more time practicing. I would assume most our best have day jobs, even if it is with the RC company but they are not practicing and tuning all the time.
Does the proliferation of pro sports also have something to do with it? We are all about football, baseball, basketball etc. I would assume professional RC racing in Europe or Asia means something. Here most don't even know what RC is. Just a guess.
10-12-2014, 08:36 PM
#42
Tech Master
iTrader: (41)
Concur. How many Yokomo cars in the 1/12 Final? But that said, carpet isn't their strong suit. I have raced two ROAR nats at the track used for 1/12. They don't even glue their carpet to the floor. It is a temporary track in a recreational center and they only roll it out on a weekend. One day only at that.
10-12-2014, 10:21 PM
#43
Two major issues:
1. The aforementioned 17.5 class - racers want to go as fast as possible in a slow class. Bending and breaking the rules, swapping out rotors, overcharging batteries.The whole idea of calling it spec or stock is ridiculous, now.
2.Race track owners have gone out of their way to continually promote 17.5 and not mod. They even build permanent tracks with lanes too tight for anything but a 17.5 TC and 12th Scale. Mod is not pushed or promoted. In fact, people are discouraged from running it. The tracks big enough to hold Mod TC racing are bypassed because Electric TC racers want to label them "gas tracks". As if the two classes can't coexist on the same track or you can't gear the cars for the larger track. For some reason, we need to have separate tracks. In reality, if, racers were running mod throughout the U.S., it wouldn't even be a thought and we hold have a lot Americans attending and making the show at the World's
1. The aforementioned 17.5 class - racers want to go as fast as possible in a slow class. Bending and breaking the rules, swapping out rotors, overcharging batteries.The whole idea of calling it spec or stock is ridiculous, now.
2.Race track owners have gone out of their way to continually promote 17.5 and not mod. They even build permanent tracks with lanes too tight for anything but a 17.5 TC and 12th Scale. Mod is not pushed or promoted. In fact, people are discouraged from running it. The tracks big enough to hold Mod TC racing are bypassed because Electric TC racers want to label them "gas tracks". As if the two classes can't coexist on the same track or you can't gear the cars for the larger track. For some reason, we need to have separate tracks. In reality, if, racers were running mod throughout the U.S., it wouldn't even be a thought and we hold have a lot Americans attending and making the show at the World's
10-12-2014, 10:28 PM
#44
Tech Apprentice
From personal experience of going to my local track, it just seems not too many people are serious about the hobby. Sure there are some who are very into it, but they just seem to do it for the fun of it. The experience of waking up on race day and trying to beat your buddies is all the fun imo. People just aren't interested in being completely competative.
10-12-2014, 11:15 PM
#45
Tech Master
Don't worry, China will buy out someone like they did with the Waldorf Astoria and make a real RC facility like the ones all over South East Asia. Because 3rd world countries can make better tracks/facilities at a reasonable cost than we can ever do.