Vince

I haven't been following this thread from the start let alone been on rctech in a while, so I may be saying what has already been said but just giving my 2 cents.

I think if we start now we can have something up for next year and i dont see it being hard to setup. Everybody knows everybody if your'e an avid racer who travels. I don't think getting sponsors will be an issue. I've been traveling to races for over 10 years and know all of the major onroad distributors (owners, managers, employees etc). It's more than a passion to some but their lively hood as well. Getting support is most likely the easy part.

The hard part is actually getting people back into nitro onroad competition. I remember my first nationals back in i think 2001, the nitro sedan nationals in Cincinnati, OH. I think it was a P Main for a single class. Nowadays we can barely reach that number with 4 classes combined (sedan, 1/8 open, GT, and Masters). I also went to Argentina in 2007 for the 1/8 worlds and they had billboards advertising the race, and to this day is hands down the biggest crowd I've experienced at an onroad event.

The focus for the first few years should be exposure. Stamping a name on a race isn't going to help. This is an underground hobby with no major media coverage. Even with RC media coverage, its pathetic in the U.S. market for nitro onroad. We need a group to focus their time on marketing and media, and they can't be racers themselves. Otherwise the marketing and media will be half assed, so will their racing. We need new faces in this hobby/sport. The old faces can do but so much to keep it going. Lets take Traxxas for example, a multi million dollar RC company who now sponsor full scale auto racing. They market to beginners and get people into the hobby with their RTR kits. No reason why all competitive RC racing company can't achieve the same, but can't do it if no one knows about competitive RC racing.

I would like to be apart of any governing body to get this series going, but its imperative that we also get a group for media and marketing exposure. Maybe like a High School AV club or college interns looking for experience is an idea.

R10 Rob

Good ideas. Traxxas has definitely stepped up its game when it comes to marketing. I am actually in the marketing profession myself. There are so many free tools we can use to get it out there. Use twitter and facebook to spread some good graphic material, create a landing page (web domain) with info and results, etc, use vine to spread short clips of races, or to promote a race, youtube, twitch and periscope are free video streaming services that will allow you to stream live, so we could broadcast races, interviews, etc, and also create promo videos to post and have on the website and share via social media to draw traffic to the site. All of these services and app are mobile friendly, which is good because most of the population view more content on a mobile device than they do a laptop. (This website could use a better mobile experience, Tapatalk is a good and free solution) That is one of the major aspects of marketing, create visually intriguing content and draw them in to get interested and have a good retention rate. If we also involve the racers and fans through this media, people will stay interested more due to the fact that they are actually part of it, make them feel as if they are an important part, which in part they actually are.

Edit: If you think about it, we should cater to the younger crowd, because kids love toys and things that go fast. If the kids are interested they are going to drag their parents to events, or share the media content, then we could hook in the adults. Of course we would need to have some good looking trophy girls at races (don't get too upset, but it works. Just look at AMA racing the track girls, trophy girls and sponsor girls bring in a huge male crowd by themselves, but we would also need something to appeal to the female crowd as well. Would be great if we market female drivers)

bigjez

The edit part is the key if you ask me. Growing up I love rc because of tyco you don't see those tv spots any more but with social media you can do the same. This may be off a little but I always wanted to know what cars the drivers used not just lap times.

JLock

iTrader: (4)

Well, you could get things kicked off by starting a Facebook page. Someone needs to come up with a logo to put on the main page and go from there. A mission statement needs to be developed followed by an outline of the rules, regions, etc. Send requests to your r/c friends to join which will then feed to their news feed pages for others to see and possibly inquire. Like R10 Rob has mentioned, you have to move it to other sources outside of RC Tech and the other r/c forums to get possible interest sparked. I did something similar as far as starting a FB page for 5th scale racing in Texas and requested a few friends to join. Word is getting out and is sparking interest with a few actually buying a 5th scale car and joining in the racing fun.

R10 Rob

Would we just have nitro powered cars or allow electric as well?

Here are my suggestions for a name:

National Nitro Automobile Federation (NNAF)
National Nitro Remote Control Automobile Federation (NNRCAF)
National Remote Control Automobile Federation (NRCAF)
United States Nitro Automobile Federation (USNAF)

Anyone else have suggestions?

RoketRdr

iTrader: (2)

This discussion has gone from establishing a much needed national nitro series to marketing for youth and the occasional basher while allowing electrics. Going in the wrong direction now as there are already plenty of established races and organizations catering to youth/bashers/electrics. A national series is to bring the best racers from all over the country to one event and establish who the best of the best in nitro on-road racing is. The benefit is that locals get to try their hand at getting into the "show" and the tracks have another event to make money from. Lots of discussion about politics and money have gone on but the fact of the matter is that you have nothing without either of them. And we're racing RC cars which is a competition. He who crosses the finish line first wins. If you don't have the money or the skill well...sorry. A national series isn't for those individuals and there aren't going to be trophies handed out to everyone. That's what local club racing is for. But I also see the point about those who can't travel all over the country to hit every race. This is where the regionals are used as qualifiers for the "big show" so that individuals only have to travel long distance to one race. Have regional qualifers at 4 tracks from N/S/E/W and then the big "show" at a completely different track. Yes...marketing is much needed but for a national level series you don't want to cater to the basher or guy who occasionally shows up to race while at the same time letting them know that "here's an opportunity to prove yourself" and "there's a prize if you can". First things first before a governing body is established, the track owners need to all be contacted and the idea pitched. Without them getting on board the series won't happen. And money is gonna have to be involved. Lets face it...without a prize no one shows up. The tracks have to make money and there needs to be an incentive for racers from all over the country to take time off of work and spend money traveling to the final race. Trophies and bragging rights are for club races. A national racing series is to attract the best of the best from around the country and give them something to show for it. Get the track owners on board and drum up/support local nitro on-road racing to get it back to where it once was and then everything will take off. And this of course is going to cost time and money. Going to require a TON of time on the phone and in communication with track owners, sponsors, manufacturers, etc. It won't happen over night and certainly not in 2016. But NOW is the time for someone to get moving so this can get started next year. The only question is...who is going to invest their time and money to try and get this established? And you're gonna have to get some big names involved if you're not already well known in the industry.

R10 Rob

Good points, when i talked about marketing for the kids/basher crowd, I meant as spectators, not racers, that would be a whole different campaign. Just as a means to draw a crowd. Typically you can get the tracks on board by giving them free promotions and ad space. Your right though, someone is going to have to convince them and some of the big names to come on board. I just know about graphics, social media integration, web design and video. Need someone who can sell this and someone that can help organize it all.

A list of possible tracks would also be a good start.

RoketRdr

iTrader: (2)

Yep you're right. Someone to pitch/sell/organize and be the "face" of the organization. Then someone like yourself to get it in everyones face. This is just to get it started.

R10 Rob

Just to get the "ball rolling" so to speak. Just messing around with names and logos. To pitch the idea, I think we would need at least a quick outline of what we are trying to accomplish with a mission statement/objective and name/logo.

Name with a spur gear and a "transmitter" radio logo behind it.

nitrodude

iTrader: (8)

I dont want to burst your bubble, but IMO theres no point on doing anything BEFORE the tracks are on board.

You gotta buy the horse before you can take it home...

RoketRdr

iTrader: (2)

What Steven said. Like I previously stated, until the tracks get on board with this there's no point in doing anything else. Can't market an "appearance" until those with the facilities want to get in the boat with you. And in order to get the tracks on board with this there needs to be a relationship developed with each of them which takes time. That's why I said you need some big names to help get the door open if you aren't already well known in the industry or have an established relationship with the track owners. You gotta do a market analysis to even see if there's a market before you buy your corporate office and hire employees.

R10 Rob

I understand that. Just messing around on photoshop. Just having a little fun with it. Nothing going on at the office at the moment. .

RoketRdr

iTrader: (2)

Gotcha...been guilty many times of doing the same myself.

Vince

The onroad nitro community who travels is kind of like a tight nit family, everybody knows everybody. If you don't know someone personally, somebody you know, knows someone you don't. They're are enough connections to make this happen. Getting tracks involved is relatively the easy part, just may need to shuffle some dates around to make it work. Everyone is easy to talk to and is the most diverse group of people to come together for a common passion to enjoy racing RC cars. Getting the "big names" to help open the door is going to go but so far. They can help provide sponsors but they need help organizing races for them and everyone to go to. Their job is just to make the product that they're promoting look good. It's up to the racing organizations and track owners to provide races to attend.

The reason why nitro onroad is in this position is because of the lack of cash flow. It all comes full circle as a domino effect. Each issue has another issue behind it.

You can't host regional races to weed out the best to send to nationals. Simply not enough people in each region to weed out. You more people need to attend. Lets take the worlds for example, as many people who qualify for the worlds from the U.S., only about 3 or so go each year to represent. The manufacturers can't justify the cost to send even the 100% U.S. drivers to the worlds because they don't make that much money from it. The need more revenue and more revenue means more people to race. In order to get more people into competitive racing, there must be more tracks, but onroad tracks cost so much more to build compared to offroad. So your average investor or RC enthusiast can't justify building an onroad track unless they don't care taking a loss. Even if you go to a parking lot owned by someone or some kind of parks and recreation, they want money too, most likely more than what the profit will allow, otherwise there would be alot more tracks available. The solution is to get more racers involved to create and compensate that revenue to justify the cost of building a track.

The common denominator is that more revenue has to be generated for everything to work out with promoting a marketing in the sport no matter whose name is involved. We have to put more attention on the racing and help the manufactures make more money, then more tracks can come afterwards and the domino effect to a real racing structure will go on.

RoketRdr

iTrader: (2)

Getting the tracks to get onboard with this isn't as easy as you think. There's the ROAR politics involved as most of the tracks that we would want to utilize already host large ROAR events. We would essentially be establishing an organization just like ROAR for the onroad nitro community which would now compete with ROAR in that department. If ROAR doesn't like it they could threaten to pull their scheduled race from a venue or skip them the next year until they play by ROAR rules. This is where the "big names" come in to help get the door open with the tracks and to attract racers to get back out there and show up. You are correct in stating that cash flow has become the issue. Isn't it always with everything that begins failing in life? Revenue is what makes or breaks an event, organization or industry. Building onroad tracks is definitely far more expensive than offroad, and most of them probably don't ever turn a profit, but they're at least easier to maintain. I don't think there's as much a need for more tracks as there is to get those who got out of nitro onroad back in and start showing back up to race. But more tracks would definitely be nice if folks are willing to invest not expecting to see a return. Not sure why you think there aren't enough racers to show up at regional events. That's where the "prize" comes in to get the folks back into racing nitro onroad. Show them the money and they will start showing back up. And the alternative to not holding regionals takes us back to only those with money will be able fly around the country to race which will kill the organization before it even gets started. The organization has to give the "little" guy at shot and making it to "the show". Some would use their planned vacation to do it if they thought there was a chance at getting noticed and recognized. You're right...the common denominator is money. The tracks need to make money, the racer needs to make money as well as not have to spend a ton, and the sponsors need to make money.