Victor Vector

iTrader: (9)

Rose City Scale Racing is a mobile track in Portland Oregon. It has a long history that includes surviving periods of low membership.

I'm not sure if the RTR state of our hobby has anything to do with participation but we have seen a drop off of membership that has a background smell of people not wanting to be part of the effort of setting up and tearing down the track for a days racing.

There's a parallel to when we used to buy a kit and build, we then invested time in keeping a club together so we would have a place to race and now, with the Ready To Run instant gratification mind set, the ability of clubs like ours to survive is severely in jeopardy !!

Also posting on the NW thread is Fantasy World, Tacoma Washington. They have a similar problem around head count for set up.

I'm not a big believer in promotions to attract new comers, I've seen and been part of many. They work better in times when people have spare money which as you might have noticed, is not right now. I think our next season for growth will be 2014/5 at the earliest.

So for now, I'm suffering withdrawals from the hobby I love and like an old junkie, I feel a need to find the next dealer of cheap thrills. So I will probably take up gardening !!

So, how is your club doing ??

Rose City Scale Racing is looking for solutions. And so am I.....

Jacko

JamesHealey

iTrader: (1)

My local club is known as the "home of nitro" in the UK so it's actually doing rather well and people are prepared to travel some distance to race there on club days, it's a big track with great facilities, sheltered pits, toilets, food, compressed air, tire truing area, mighty high rostrum that has a roof.

It is a truely great facility and I can't ever see it dying off completely especially since it's all paid for which is unique! It's no where near the numbers of the early 2000s with the touring car explosion but there are always enough racers of 200mm, 220mm (UK class very popular) and 8th scales to have a great club day.

I know how lucky we are up north to have such a facility, as down south the noise problems of nitro are an issue hence clubs like West London Racing Club and Aldershot not hosting gas nationals.

In the UK we have the "eight" major Nitro tracks. Adur, Wombwell, Mendip, Cotswolds, Halifax, Brooklands, Colchester and Stonehaven.

Although I think in total we have more on-road tracks, these are the "eight" that host 8th and 10th gas nationals.

Check out this page with 3D views of six of the eight major UK tracks, Adur and Wombwell are not on this.
http://www.brca.org/?q=sections/subs...ck-views/11171

Shawn68z

iTrader: (6)

You have no idea how jealous we are right now... Our on-road club has been alittle slow of late.
Alot of interest has been expressed in setting up a permenant facility, but the costs are outrageous. Land value is to expensive here.


Shawn

JamesHealey

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I know we're very lucky to have such a facility, here's a video of a 220mm National at our club:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOKiUmfwrCQ

220mm is basically a 200mm with an upgrade/conversion kit on it to make it into a Mini 8th Scale.



The electric scene is dead at Halifax though on club days, possibly 1 or 2 touring cars which sucks, but we host electric nationals as you can see below in this awesome video from 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiT_qIgLbQU

Johnson40

Our club, AMCA, is well known in The Netherlands. We have super facilities
www_amcaracing.nl/circuit/circuit.htm[/url]

1:8th:
www_youtube.com/watch?v=b8ol61rVvqk[/url]

1:10th, 13,5 electric
www_youtube.com/watch?v=h_RJ9EvEsZg[/url]

Victor Vector

iTrader: (9)

Thanks for the bait James. Bet you race in the rain as well !!

Just can't get these americans to race in the rain. I mean to say, half our scheduled races in the NW America are rained out. I mean to say !!

So, who shelled out the loot for Halifax. Tell us a tale of impossibility.

We never have had a permanent track up this way. Certainly would help.

And that dutch track..........lucky buggers.

Oh well, maybe some philanthrope will read this thread and solves our problem...........hope (is a thing with feathers)

Jacko

TerribleTy

Jacko!!!

Our club down here is about to suffer a grave loss… It’s almost too sad to even say but we have 1 final nitro race this season. I’m honestly terrified… I picked up some toy cars to distract me but I don’t know how long or well this is going to work. If it gets too bad I will set up a small pathetic excuse for a track in my father’s garage and burn some nitro to stay warm lol.

On a serious note as you may know we only have one on road track to race on here in Utah. Its mainly designed for 10th scale and smaller but the leadership of Gus Wood has proven otherwise with a screaming GT! We have two events we regularly race IRCR (the track I mentioned above) and we set up boards in parking lots. A little time invested and bam we have a race track! As far as our club goes I have heard each season you will see about 10 new guys and of that 10 you will have 2 that stick around. I’m one of the 2!!! I take it upon myself to be pretty intrusive with the new guys especially if they are having troubles. I have and will continue to tear into anyone’s car that needs help. Ensuring that your newer members are part of the click and ensuring they are having fun is my main priority. As far as set up goes we each kinda have our own roles we take care of each time we race. The same ol guys will blow off the track, others will set the loop, others set the boards and then bam its race time. We all attack set up and tear down together and turn it into a social event where we talk trash and have fun! Remember it’s really frustrating when you first start in; use your experience to help them out. I’m all over the new guys that show up, I’ve given out tires, done set ups, you name it. Your actions speak for themselves and you will gain a new friend that will soon be knocking on your rear bumper. The atmosphere we have here in Utah is pretty awesome. We race hard at our tracks and come together as a team when we travel. The biggest part of racing here in Utah is Gus and his wife. Without them we would have nothing. I look up to Gus a great deal and look at them more as family than friends. We have a great community of racers here, it all leads back to Gus. Best of luck in your endeavors Jacko!

JamesHealey

iTrader: (1)

Of course we race in the rain wouldn't get any racing done other wise.. I've got more options for wet racing tires than dry!

The tale? pretty simple.. A super market wanted the club's land in the late 90s to build a gas station so they paid for a new facility. Great eh? :-)