Do you feel that? The winds of change thread!
11-30-2014, 07:31 AM
#46
TQ Raceway. Check out there website. 9 race Winter Series in session. Need to race 5 of them and we have already had three. Last race was so packed they were running out of pit spaces.
www.tqrcracing.com
www.tqrcracing.com
11-30-2014, 07:37 AM
#47
The main reason it's not big in AZ now is there is zero promotion, and an reluctance to seek out a better, and bigger, racing surface.
Doing some promotional events (demo races with 6-8 drivers) at car shows, car auctions and other car related events would go a long way to building the number of racers that can support an RC track facility. Do 3-4 promotional events each year, at the larger car events,....then let word-of-mouth advertising do the rest.
Racing every week, like we do here, doesn't give the organizers time to build on the base with promotional events, so growth stagnates.
As for classing: my votes go to 17.5 TC, USGT, VTA and 13.5 TC, even though I only run 2.
11-30-2014, 07:57 AM
#48
If you've got a carpet track, though, GT12 is really the ticket!
11-30-2014, 08:03 AM
#49
GT12 obvioulsy works in the UK
However in the US, the Tamiya RM-01 may be a better way to go
It's very durable, runs well in kit form, indoors, or on parking lots
Includes a scale heavy body, spec tyres & wheels
Bonuses are
You can run them in the TCS series
And with a few minor hop-ups, it can be a club weapon in regular 1/12 stock classes
However in the US, the Tamiya RM-01 may be a better way to go
It's very durable, runs well in kit form, indoors, or on parking lots
Includes a scale heavy body, spec tyres & wheels
Bonuses are
You can run them in the TCS series
And with a few minor hop-ups, it can be a club weapon in regular 1/12 stock classes
11-30-2014, 08:31 AM
#50
However in the US, the Tamiya RM-01 may be a better way to go
It's very durable, runs well in kit form, indoors, or on parking lots
Includes a scale heavy body, spec tyres & wheels
It's very durable, runs well in kit form, indoors, or on parking lots
Includes a scale heavy body, spec tyres & wheels
I love the LMP bodies, though!
11-30-2014, 10:50 AM
#51
Tech Master
iTrader: (19)
GT12 obvioulsy works in the UK
However in the US, the Tamiya RM-01 may be a better way to go
It's very durable, runs well in kit form, indoors, or on parking lots
Includes a scale heavy body, spec tyres & wheels
Bonuses are
You can run them in the TCS series
And with a few minor hop-ups, it can be a club weapon in regular 1/12 stock classes
However in the US, the Tamiya RM-01 may be a better way to go
It's very durable, runs well in kit form, indoors, or on parking lots
Includes a scale heavy body, spec tyres & wheels
Bonuses are
You can run them in the TCS series
And with a few minor hop-ups, it can be a club weapon in regular 1/12 stock classes
Not to be a negative Nellie but that is kind of what they do...Or there won't be any U.S. support...Take your pick.
11-30-2014, 11:07 AM
#52
And I guess since the Tamiyas are also 1/12 pan cars, they'll be just as bad on a temporary parking lot track as a GT12...
11-30-2014, 11:18 AM
#53
I'm surprised at how much I hear from the US about slowed down touring cars (like VTA and USGT) as the "starter classes", considering how expensive touring cars are! And also, how slow they're being made (here, the slowest TC class is 17.5 blinky).
An Associated TC6.2 costs £330 here, while a Schumacher SupaStox GT S1 costs £90! And you get get an ESC/motor/battery combo for £85, which is barely more than the price of just a 2S ESC... GT12 also runs fairly realistic bodies, not the usual 1/12 "wedge" bodies (it'd be cool if McAllister would make some bodies of American GT3 cars for GT12, though!).
So no surprise that GT12 is so popular here!
An Associated TC6.2 costs £330 here, while a Schumacher SupaStox GT S1 costs £90! And you get get an ESC/motor/battery combo for £85, which is barely more than the price of just a 2S ESC... GT12 also runs fairly realistic bodies, not the usual 1/12 "wedge" bodies (it'd be cool if McAllister would make some bodies of American GT3 cars for GT12, though!).
So no surprise that GT12 is so popular here!
I only physically saw one Schumacher ever. No one sells or supports them here. It's X-ray or AE at the club level.
11-30-2014, 11:51 AM
#54
11-30-2014, 01:49 PM
#55
Onroad can do Better
Onroad unfortunately is almost an underground thing here in SoCal. Many people have no idea that there are as many Onroad tracks as there are Offroad here in SoCal. With that being said its really up to the individuals to do the promoting unfortunately. Offroad seems to be the rockstars of the RC world with bigger than life personalities and event coverage comes naturally. If the Onroad tracks simply posted results and pictures from the series races on social media or the more public news websites, Neobuggy, Redrc, RCInsider, etc.. Onroad could possibly explode again. Many big races go on with little to no info or you have to dig so hard to find the info that its not worth it.
Simple changes need to be made to the race programs and facilities.
1st
Provide enough pit area to grow. If people come and can't get a pit space word will get out and people won't come because of it.
2nd
Have a Scoring and Sound system that people can see and hear clearly. For indoors do a projector on a wall that everyone can see. Outdoors provide a monitor near tech.
3rd
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures. Everyone loves to see the action and even more Podium pictures. I have to say hitting my first Onroad race in over 20 years I was really surprised that there were no podium pictures for the winners. For instance there were a few kids in the novice class. I think they would really get a kick out of seeing themselves posted somewhere.
These are basics that the Offroad community has been doing well for quite some time and look at the growth that they have had.
Simple changes need to be made to the race programs and facilities.
1st
Provide enough pit area to grow. If people come and can't get a pit space word will get out and people won't come because of it.
2nd
Have a Scoring and Sound system that people can see and hear clearly. For indoors do a projector on a wall that everyone can see. Outdoors provide a monitor near tech.
3rd
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures. Everyone loves to see the action and even more Podium pictures. I have to say hitting my first Onroad race in over 20 years I was really surprised that there were no podium pictures for the winners. For instance there were a few kids in the novice class. I think they would really get a kick out of seeing themselves posted somewhere.
These are basics that the Offroad community has been doing well for quite some time and look at the growth that they have had.
11-30-2014, 02:34 PM
#56
I feel it.
I live in an area where the only on-road for years was outdoor break-out oval racing. TC was tried several times but never took off. We then started running VTA and TC started going some where. This led to USGT. Then an indoor carpet track opened. Now two carpet tracks are open. Both are within drive-able distances.
These are the classes I could now run locally:
USVTA
USGT
17.5 TC
1/12
Legends
17.5 oval truck / oval car
A few other pan car classes I think I'm missing.
I live in an area where the only on-road for years was outdoor break-out oval racing. TC was tried several times but never took off. We then started running VTA and TC started going some where. This led to USGT. Then an indoor carpet track opened. Now two carpet tracks are open. Both are within drive-able distances.
These are the classes I could now run locally:
USVTA
USGT
17.5 TC
1/12
Legends
17.5 oval truck / oval car
A few other pan car classes I think I'm missing.
11-30-2014, 03:16 PM
#57
I really hope onroad makes a comeback too! I love driving onroad much more than offroad, but I do enjoy both. It seems that there are few drivers that do both types in my area. There are strong onroad and strong offroad guys. It seems that the best way to grow onroad as a whole is to get strictly offroad guys to try and run both. How to do that? Not sure, maybe better marketing/advertising at the track.
Yes, onroad and offroad both have many classes. But the cool thing about onroad is that many of the TC classes all have the same base chassis and require only a different motor/body to run in a different class. Obviously you can't switch them throughout the course of the day to race in multiple classes the same day, but from week to week its certainly possible. This is very far from the case in offroad where you need an entirely new chassis to switch classes. Which is really striking because you also need large amounts of tires/wings etc to run offroad, making it more expensive.
As far as the multiple classes on track at the same time idea, that was actually tried in my area recently with relatively good success. There are quite a few threads littered around rctech. Here's the facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/unitedsportscarrc
Yes, onroad and offroad both have many classes. But the cool thing about onroad is that many of the TC classes all have the same base chassis and require only a different motor/body to run in a different class. Obviously you can't switch them throughout the course of the day to race in multiple classes the same day, but from week to week its certainly possible. This is very far from the case in offroad where you need an entirely new chassis to switch classes. Which is really striking because you also need large amounts of tires/wings etc to run offroad, making it more expensive.
As far as the multiple classes on track at the same time idea, that was actually tried in my area recently with relatively good success. There are quite a few threads littered around rctech. Here's the facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/unitedsportscarrc
11-30-2014, 03:25 PM
#58
Off-road will always get more exposure. Pics of a buggy flying through the air are just more exciting, period. And the RTR end of off-road just brings so many people in, even if they start out clueless to the racing part of the hobby.
BUT, on-road is due to make it's big comeback. At least I feel that way, things move in a cycle. VTA has IMHO made a big impression, and of course it leads to more guys that want to run 17.5 eventually. Locally a lot of the 17.5 hotshots (big race winners) have even jumped into the class. I would have never got back into TC based classes without VTA, the same can be said for others as well.
BUT, on-road is due to make it's big comeback. At least I feel that way, things move in a cycle. VTA has IMHO made a big impression, and of course it leads to more guys that want to run 17.5 eventually. Locally a lot of the 17.5 hotshots (big race winners) have even jumped into the class. I would have never got back into TC based classes without VTA, the same can be said for others as well.
11-30-2014, 04:50 PM
#59
I know in my area we had a good strong onroad following about 5-6 yrs ago and it fell on its face and went to zero onroad racing.
Last yr a carpet track opened in a mall. It started slow but by the end of the season we were averaging about 40 entries.
During the summer they ran one race a month and kept the 40 entry average.
Now that carpet season has really got going we are running a 6 race points series.
First race we had 50-55 entries
Race 2 66 entries
Race 3 72 entries with a handful of reg that didn't run
So it's definetly picking up. There are new faces every week.
There is even a new carpet track that opened about an hour an a half from the one in the mall. The guys there have a 1st class place.
100x48 on a sub floor.
So we went from 0 places and racers to close to 100 racers and two awesome tracks
Glad on road is going strong in my area
Last yr a carpet track opened in a mall. It started slow but by the end of the season we were averaging about 40 entries.
During the summer they ran one race a month and kept the 40 entry average.
Now that carpet season has really got going we are running a 6 race points series.
First race we had 50-55 entries
Race 2 66 entries
Race 3 72 entries with a handful of reg that didn't run
So it's definetly picking up. There are new faces every week.
There is even a new carpet track that opened about an hour an a half from the one in the mall. The guys there have a 1st class place.
100x48 on a sub floor.
So we went from 0 places and racers to close to 100 racers and two awesome tracks
Glad on road is going strong in my area
I'm in VA
Where are these tracks at? I'm in Fredericksburg.
11-30-2014, 05:10 PM
#60
I feel it.
I live in an area where the only on-road for years was outdoor break-out oval racing. TC was tried several times but never took off. We then started running VTA and TC started going some where. This led to USGT. Then an indoor carpet track opened. Now two carpet tracks are open. Both are within drive-able distances.
These are the classes I could now run locally:
USVTA
USGT
17.5 TC
1/12
Legends
17.5 oval truck / oval car
A few other pan car classes I think I'm missing.
I live in an area where the only on-road for years was outdoor break-out oval racing. TC was tried several times but never took off. We then started running VTA and TC started going some where. This led to USGT. Then an indoor carpet track opened. Now two carpet tracks are open. Both are within drive-able distances.
These are the classes I could now run locally:
USVTA
USGT
17.5 TC
1/12
Legends
17.5 oval truck / oval car
A few other pan car classes I think I'm missing.
F1
TT-01 spec (box stock)