seen this thread in the onroad section
03-10-2011, 07:09 PM
#1
seen this thread in the onroad section
guys i been reading a thread in the on road section about reviving onroad and a post stuck out to me and wanted to quote it. made alot of sence. i know in the past i have been one to not realy offer advice or make myself available to help the new racers, cause without them we will not have a racin program. we need to welcome the new guys in (not sayin we havnt). anywho lookin farward to a great season of awesome racin ." I noticed some people mentioning dropping numbers due to rules changing for VTA ,TC and GT. Brings up a point though that we don't often think about. VTA has had 1 major rule change and yes, it hasn't been popular in some peoples minds BUT...that was not the fault of VTA. In order to keep the focus on what the class is designed to be the organizers HAVE to react to the changes in the technology. Thats a fact of life in every technology oriented market. If that wasn't the case, we'd all still be using computers from 5 years ago. In our case, the updated technology directly impacts performance and THAT can make huge problems in spec oriented classes, which should be the largest percentage of racers. RCGT is a perfect example. It started as a way to make racing more affordable, realistic and less "gotta have the fastest, most expensive technology out there". It started great. It failed because nobody reacted to the tech explosion that created secondary issues. Costs increaed dramatically, tires weren't able to handle the higher level of performance so they wore out quickly and made driving harder for newer drivers + the cost when up because you had to replace them more often. Get the picture ?? Higher cost, more skill required, less fun !! Hmmmm....can you spell recipe for disaster !!?? NOW look at RCGT....very few original RCGT programs. Most others are some form of it and are different around the country.
You'll never be able to make every class what everybody wants !! What would happen if 21.5 were the standard for VTA, GT and TC? Holy crap, peple would drop out left and right because they don't want 21.5. How about 17.5 !? Same problem in reverse....too fast for VTA and GT. Tires wear out, harder to do as a newbie, costs go up. Sound familiar ??
Too many people want to race too many classes but they don't want to commit to 1 or 2. You are not the key to on road. The key is in developing NEW people and you MUST provide for them AND those who don't want to become so "hard core" about racing RC. It's a hobby...not a sport.
We as racers, hobby shop owners and club directors get WAY too focused on trying to satisfy the one group that we shouldn't....those who are already in the hobby at whatever level. I'm not increasing my racer numbers by changing my rules because the guy who drives TC also wants to race VTA but doesn't want to buy another motor/esc/or car. I increase my numbers by offering stable classes where the commitment is to LIMIT the number of changes expected due to technology changes. VTA has done that. TCS has done that and had a long,successful program. GT has a chance but not there yet.
No matter what, WE are to blame. Stop looking for ways to make 1 car do it all. Start realizing that we have some great classes and they have their own value but if you don't want to spend on it then don't piss on the rest who might. Those are the people who AREN'T getting involved. "
with this quoted what other ideas u guys have to help memphis ON ROAD grow. AND GETTIN RID OF ME ISNT A OPTION
__________________
03-10-2011, 09:15 PM
#2
Tech Initiate
You won't/can't make something not there be there let me explain. This will be long and if I step on anybody's toes then I am sorry. I am not pointing fingers at anybody just stateing the facts.
First you have to understand on a club level the majority of the members are local people with a handful from out-of-town.Then you mix in all the different personalities with everybody. Then you have people in different stages of their lives. Some live at home with mom and dad, some have wives and families. Do you see where I am going with this.
Now think about the very first rc you had or got.Was it an onroad or an offroad. For me it was a tamiya Nissan Kingcab a very cool truck for a newby to r/c but in noyway was it a race truck. As far as for me, offroad vehicles are the coolest and funnest to play with.
Now back to growing onroad or TC. You need classes that will fit every level of experience all the way from someone that has never raced to the hardest of hard core racers. Noboby new to the sport who wants to come out and race wants to hear they need to buy new equipment,new electronics, or anything else they may need for this hobby.They just want to come out and race.
So where do we begin. A run what you brung class is the perfect class for the newby or someone that has a car that they want to bring out and race. This should be a class that is solely focused towards welcoming new people to the sport and the local clubs. Clubs should make every effort to make their entrance as easy as possible. Even if it means they get to race practically for free.No Roar memberships, no race fees, and no transponder rentals. This is a cost of trying to promote the sport and build attendance on local levels. Only until somebody wants to get more serious about racing should they have to think about having to spend more money.
Now if they continue to race for an extended measure of time then we should encourage them to move into a more organized class that is a step above where they are currently running. Which I doubt will take much effort because if they like to race then they will want to move into a better class anyways.Then introduce them to needing Roar memberships and transponder rentals.
Second you need to develope classes that gradually become more competitive as skill levels increase.These classes also need to be monitored and managed so as to not allow classes to be overly expensive until you get into the expert level of classes. I know racing is expensive and cost money no matter how small our toys are.
The next thing to deal with is the fact that on just about any level or in any class there will always be a dominate driver. This is where the hard work really starts. We as racers and club members need to be able to recognize these different skill levels and keep the playing field as level as possible. People get burned out because they never win. Maybe they should be steared into the right class for their skill sets.When you have a dominate driver in a class he should be encouraged to move up into a higher level or class if there is one. Novice and sportsman classes should be for underdeveloped skill sets.
These should be things already handled at local levels.
Contrary to popular beliefs hobby stores can greatly affect attendance at, in, and around racing for our local club. If there were no hobby shop there would be no new racers. So you need to establish a relationship with local shop owners. After all we help to generate sales for them aswell as they generate new racers for us.
Something else the club could do is to come up with a mission statement.
These are just a few things to think about.
First you have to understand on a club level the majority of the members are local people with a handful from out-of-town.Then you mix in all the different personalities with everybody. Then you have people in different stages of their lives. Some live at home with mom and dad, some have wives and families. Do you see where I am going with this.
Now think about the very first rc you had or got.Was it an onroad or an offroad. For me it was a tamiya Nissan Kingcab a very cool truck for a newby to r/c but in noyway was it a race truck. As far as for me, offroad vehicles are the coolest and funnest to play with.
Now back to growing onroad or TC. You need classes that will fit every level of experience all the way from someone that has never raced to the hardest of hard core racers. Noboby new to the sport who wants to come out and race wants to hear they need to buy new equipment,new electronics, or anything else they may need for this hobby.They just want to come out and race.
So where do we begin. A run what you brung class is the perfect class for the newby or someone that has a car that they want to bring out and race. This should be a class that is solely focused towards welcoming new people to the sport and the local clubs. Clubs should make every effort to make their entrance as easy as possible. Even if it means they get to race practically for free.No Roar memberships, no race fees, and no transponder rentals. This is a cost of trying to promote the sport and build attendance on local levels. Only until somebody wants to get more serious about racing should they have to think about having to spend more money.
Now if they continue to race for an extended measure of time then we should encourage them to move into a more organized class that is a step above where they are currently running. Which I doubt will take much effort because if they like to race then they will want to move into a better class anyways.Then introduce them to needing Roar memberships and transponder rentals.
Second you need to develope classes that gradually become more competitive as skill levels increase.These classes also need to be monitored and managed so as to not allow classes to be overly expensive until you get into the expert level of classes. I know racing is expensive and cost money no matter how small our toys are.
The next thing to deal with is the fact that on just about any level or in any class there will always be a dominate driver. This is where the hard work really starts. We as racers and club members need to be able to recognize these different skill levels and keep the playing field as level as possible. People get burned out because they never win. Maybe they should be steared into the right class for their skill sets.When you have a dominate driver in a class he should be encouraged to move up into a higher level or class if there is one. Novice and sportsman classes should be for underdeveloped skill sets.
These should be things already handled at local levels.
Contrary to popular beliefs hobby stores can greatly affect attendance at, in, and around racing for our local club. If there were no hobby shop there would be no new racers. So you need to establish a relationship with local shop owners. After all we help to generate sales for them aswell as they generate new racers for us.
Something else the club could do is to come up with a mission statement.
These are just a few things to think about.
03-11-2011, 06:30 AM
#3
this is some of the same things i have been trying to say for a couple of years now.( maybe not all that well) if you want to play baseball all you need is a ball and bat but if you want to play in a upper leage you then will need a 300 dollar bat 200 dollar glove and so on. if we as a club don't start trying very hard to enbrace new racers with what ever level experiance and have a class that they can come out and race what ever car with what ever motor and no i not saying that novice should be run like last year with what ever motor wide open we as a club should get with the new people and help them slow down their cars to controllable speed for them an others in that class.some of the other things i feel that race fees for the lower classes is much to high to attract new people with the new fees this year it will cost my family about 65 dollars to race that is a lot to spent to have a family day of fun so we will not be able to race very much. know that racing is not cheap but, with the lower car counts and the hardly any people willing to come out and help what do really have to lose by trying some thing new. i really feel that if we don't start doing something very soon we will not have club. just my thoughs not trying to make anyone mad just trying to help.
03-11-2011, 07:15 AM
#4
Tech Initiate
Sup Fellas,
I'm new here and new to R/C, so I may be able to offer an opinion as a newbie. I see many parallels to R/C and my first hobby love, which is Paintball, I'm 32 now.. started playing at 14, and I've competed at the national event levels. I also worked for 10 years doing websites, promotions, field judging, and sales for EZ Paintball / Paintball Park of Memphis companies. I feel that we went through a similar situation of trying nursing an anemic competitive paintball scene back to a solid participant core.
Let's talk about the Hobbyshop... it is your frontline, 24/7 advertisement of your hobby. I think MSRA needs a presence there and I can tell you one way you could help... assemble a packet that lists which cars and components are acceptable in the classes. It may sound silly to the established r/c enthusiast... but we're not looking to attract them, they're already hooked; we're looking for ways to easily attract the impulse buyer with an interest in racing. Imagine you are going to Autozone, you need certain part or headlight... they have those books chained to the sales rack so you can see what options are available to you. For example, I'm a Traxxas fan, so I went into the shop looking if an option there for on-road racing from Traxxas... didn't see it. I saw two different Tamiya on-road kits... F1 and a Lamborghini "Perfect", the Lambo at least said that it was TCS eligible. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had any idea what I could buy that would fit the class... I wasn't too impressed with the tamiya options so I didn't buy anything. I ended up buying a 1/16th Traxxas "Ken Block" Fiesta to go with my two 1/16th Traxxas Slash trucks... so I still haven't found a 1/10th on-road option.
Second point, at the paintball shop.. we had the markers split, left side of the store were entry level to mid-level markers much smaller initial investment ($65 - $250) so you could get your introduction to the sport and see if it suits you. On the right were the tournament level guns ($350 - $2000). With the purchase of ANY marker, you received a membership to the local paintball park. I'll repeat that, with the purchase of any paintball marker, you would receive a membership to the local paintball park. The tenure of the membership was based on the marker price... so they would get 3 month, 6month, 12 month memberships. What if the hobbyshop gave out MSRA membership information and a voucher for a free race entry to a race-day. Couple that with if the local shop carried a fun,tough car that was fairly cheap but be eligible to race with the beginner on-road group... get your feet wet with racing, socialize with other racers, so you can eventually learn where you want to go next in the hobby... that would seem like a way to fast-track new racers into your club. I'm new, so such a car kit might exist and I missed it... but it would be great to just walk in... and see a sticker or tag on a car kit, "MSRA BEGINNER CLASS ELIGIBLE - Free First Race Entry & 1 year Club Membership with purchase". That way, you're helping push sales and providing a tangible benefit to Hobbytown and they're reciprocating by routing new racers into your club.
I hope these ideas aren't offensive to anyone, just thought I'd offer my view as a new r/c hobbyist.
Thanks,
Evins
I'm new here and new to R/C, so I may be able to offer an opinion as a newbie. I see many parallels to R/C and my first hobby love, which is Paintball, I'm 32 now.. started playing at 14, and I've competed at the national event levels. I also worked for 10 years doing websites, promotions, field judging, and sales for EZ Paintball / Paintball Park of Memphis companies. I feel that we went through a similar situation of trying nursing an anemic competitive paintball scene back to a solid participant core.
Let's talk about the Hobbyshop... it is your frontline, 24/7 advertisement of your hobby. I think MSRA needs a presence there and I can tell you one way you could help... assemble a packet that lists which cars and components are acceptable in the classes. It may sound silly to the established r/c enthusiast... but we're not looking to attract them, they're already hooked; we're looking for ways to easily attract the impulse buyer with an interest in racing. Imagine you are going to Autozone, you need certain part or headlight... they have those books chained to the sales rack so you can see what options are available to you. For example, I'm a Traxxas fan, so I went into the shop looking if an option there for on-road racing from Traxxas... didn't see it. I saw two different Tamiya on-road kits... F1 and a Lamborghini "Perfect", the Lambo at least said that it was TCS eligible. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had any idea what I could buy that would fit the class... I wasn't too impressed with the tamiya options so I didn't buy anything. I ended up buying a 1/16th Traxxas "Ken Block" Fiesta to go with my two 1/16th Traxxas Slash trucks... so I still haven't found a 1/10th on-road option.
Second point, at the paintball shop.. we had the markers split, left side of the store were entry level to mid-level markers much smaller initial investment ($65 - $250) so you could get your introduction to the sport and see if it suits you. On the right were the tournament level guns ($350 - $2000). With the purchase of ANY marker, you received a membership to the local paintball park. I'll repeat that, with the purchase of any paintball marker, you would receive a membership to the local paintball park. The tenure of the membership was based on the marker price... so they would get 3 month, 6month, 12 month memberships. What if the hobbyshop gave out MSRA membership information and a voucher for a free race entry to a race-day. Couple that with if the local shop carried a fun,tough car that was fairly cheap but be eligible to race with the beginner on-road group... get your feet wet with racing, socialize with other racers, so you can eventually learn where you want to go next in the hobby... that would seem like a way to fast-track new racers into your club. I'm new, so such a car kit might exist and I missed it... but it would be great to just walk in... and see a sticker or tag on a car kit, "MSRA BEGINNER CLASS ELIGIBLE - Free First Race Entry & 1 year Club Membership with purchase". That way, you're helping push sales and providing a tangible benefit to Hobbytown and they're reciprocating by routing new racers into your club.
I hope these ideas aren't offensive to anyone, just thought I'd offer my view as a new r/c hobbyist.
Thanks,
Evins
03-11-2011, 07:30 AM
#5
glad to see want to try onroad racing i think that traxxas car is a well bought car to get your feet wet in racing it has most everything you need in the box to run novice but tires and if you want i will be happy to give you a set of used tires that will last a good while in novice
03-11-2011, 11:11 AM
#6
Well im still a nube here and I have to say Steve, Justin, Cliff, and Sean have all helped me a ton and I apreciate it greatly. I do agree with the guy above the club needs something at a store to help the beginners to show them the classes and what they would kinda need to get there. I have bought three cars in the past 2 months and learned that none of them were really up to my standards and woudnt do what i wanted it to so I just bought another one this week from Cliff. Which I haven't lost any money for I would buy them and put them back on the net for sale but I could have avoided all that trouble if there would havE been somewere that I could have went and looked to see what everyone else run and what I needed. Now I know the rules on the MSRa website has componets that must be run but most newbs lik myself have no idea what they mean. So if there is way to put up something with different brand cars, motors, ESC, tires that way everycan kinda see which class intails what instead of excess spending or buying something that's not needed or want compEte on any level.
Just my 2 cents also
Dustin
Just my 2 cents also
Dustin
03-11-2011, 08:09 PM
#7
i think the Sticker on the kits idea is Great........what shop wouldn't........anyway free first year membership,3 free races...something like that........
BUY THIS KIT!
FREE MSRA MEMBERSHIP
3 FREE RACE WEEKENDS
FREE TRANSPONDERS
MORE DETAILS AT
www.msra-racing.com[B]
Sumpin like that....Stickers would be a cheap investment.......Maybe the shops would discount there first set of tires and battery......FISH HOOKED!.....LOL!!....flyers with info to support this......not everyone is online
!
BUY THIS KIT!
FREE MSRA MEMBERSHIP
3 FREE RACE WEEKENDS
FREE TRANSPONDERS
MORE DETAILS AT
www.msra-racing.com[B]
Sumpin like that....Stickers would be a cheap investment.......Maybe the shops would discount there first set of tires and battery......FISH HOOKED!.....LOL!!....flyers with info to support this......not everyone is online
!
03-13-2011, 11:48 AM
#9
03-13-2011, 02:11 PM
#10
I dont race onroad myself but have read some of the post's here lately. Why not have a SC(slash, sc10, ect...) class to get new racers to stop by and race. It really wouldnt be that hard, just throw a few wooden ramps with the rest of the track setup stuff. The short coarse trucks have pretty much single handidly revived electric offroad. I have seen a few tracks that have done this and they are doing well from it. I know some people will say let the offroad people do that...but memphis doesn't have a (public) track(onroad or offroad) that someone can buy a car or truck and just go practice and race.
Personally, I would almost buy a onroad kit and try the onroad stuff out, but am not willing to buy a 17.5 or 21.5 BL it just to try it out.
Just my opinion
Personally, I would almost buy a onroad kit and try the onroad stuff out, but am not willing to buy a 17.5 or 21.5 BL it just to try it out.
Just my opinion
03-13-2011, 04:08 PM
#12
I dont race onroad myself but have read some of the post's here lately. Why not have a SC(slash, sc10, ect...) class to get new racers to stop by and race. It really wouldnt be that hard, just throw a few wooden ramps with the rest of the track setup stuff. The short coarse trucks have pretty much single handidly revived electric offroad. I have seen a few tracks that have done this and they are doing well from it. I know some people will say let the offroad people do that...but memphis doesn't have a (public) track(onroad or offroad) that someone can buy a car or truck and just go practice and race.
Personally, I would almost buy a onroad kit and try the onroad stuff out, but am not willing to buy a 17.5 or 21.5 BL it just to try it out.
Just my opinion
Personally, I would almost buy a onroad kit and try the onroad stuff out, but am not willing to buy a 17.5 or 21.5 BL it just to try it out.
Just my opinion
Look at it from the person that knows nothing about our racing, they like to see tight close racing.... which is just the opposite of use on the track... Well most of us.... the more skills we gain the more comfortable we are with close racing...
Just a point of view...
03-14-2011, 09:57 AM
#15
Tech Initiate