platgof

iTrader: (4)

I haven't been to an r/c race this year. With all the limited activity it just isn't worth it for the hassle of a long drive. My favorite track closed down, and it is a 1 1/2 hour drive to the other one. Now my cars just sit there as time goes on. Maybe next year when the Covid bs ends? and maybe not!

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

Well I’ve gone the complete opposite. Think Saturday was my 27 race since June. We stopped working Saturdays and I’m taking advantage of it. And with the decrease in traffic, I’ve been willing to make the hour drive on a Wednesday for mid week racing.

Until June I’d raced carpet, pavement and small scale. I wasn’t really interested in clay for some reason. But in 5 months on clay I’m more competitive then 3 summers on pavement on road.

Is RC racing dying? In some areas is definitely on a downward trend. On road is struggling in my area.

Dan

iTrader: (75)

Yep, its dying. Just goto most of your local club or big races and look at the average age of racers. Compare that to what it was ~20yrs ago.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

I’m still the newer guy with 4 years. I’m finding that the guys racing now were the same guys 20 years ago. I have noticed that when the track close last year. They just gave up. I don’t find there names anywhere anymore.

Bloke

Hard to say right now, off the back of the covid pandemic.

With most clubs here in Australia only just getting back up and running again this past month, the turnouts for those events have been pretty good.

Plus, you have to factor in people taking up the hobby, or even getting back into it, as their nation or state has been locked down. Next year will be telling.

I think too, it will have been a big wake-up call for tracks and clubs to maybe rethink how they do things going forward, to better prepare for the slow times.

RC10Nick

iTrader: (9)

What I find interesting is the basher/rtr market segment seems to have grown massively in the last 5 to 10 years but that doesn't really seem to have translated to bigger race turnouts.

My personal opinion is there's a fundamental incompatibility between the way hardcore racers want the hobby to go and what a casual hobbyist wants and that prevents racing from growing.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

As a convert to racing. I see both sides. The basher side was in a decline until this spring. It got a big boost with everything shutdown. And people looking for things to do at home.

There’s a long list of reasons why people don’t race. Or even just try track driving. And there’s two simple ones that are difficult to over come. Time and lack of local tracks. With nearly 40 percent of Americans now working part of a weekend. That lack of ability to just spend the day at the track is fading. I did my first off road points race over the weekend. 15 hours. Got there at 8:45am. Left at 11:55pm. And from those that have been racing longer, the 66 drivers we had was less then half of what they got a year ago.

Then there’s the lack of tracks. Between 2018 and 2019 we lost 4 tracks in Illinois. If two new places had not opened. The nearest would have been a 2-3 hour drive in Wisconsin. Not exactly a trip that most could make weekly.

Since I crossed over to Racing. I’ve always tried to promote it the best I can. Show that it can be fun even if running multiple laps down. And to try to get people to come and try. Even if they just practice. I’ve known far too many that once temperatures drop below 50 degrees. Their rc gets put on the shelf till spring.

the rc guy

Yes its dying.. No bs about C19 its real its not gonna die off .it was a bio engineered virus. 5 years from now there might be a lag but I doubt it.rc has always come n go .it might be back .only raced 5 times this year still a heavy basher

RC10Nick

iTrader: (9)

a lack of tracks doesn't explain turnout decline in places that still have tracks. i think your response about the time commitment is a big part of what i mean when I say what hardocre racers want is at odds with what causal racers want. i know too many people who would say something like "15 hour race day? that's great, i get to run multiple classes!" whereas someone like me would say "i don't want to pay for multiple rigs just so I can get more than 20 minutes of track time in a 15 hour long race day, i'll just stay home. that 20 minutes just isn't good enough to justify the other 14 hours and 40 minutes."

i also think any explanation that answers why track turnout is down also needs to account for the explosion in the no-prep scene. clearly there isn't a lack of interest in racing, there's just a lack of interest in the way races are done at tracks.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

Out here in Texas, it's hit and miss, as several clubs have been re-opening post COVID, folks are traveling to the next "big event", I know I can cherry pick high turnout from all the different clubs in the region and make it look like every track is flourishing, but I just want to show some examples that go from one extreme to the other for regular club race events recently. While technically a club race, the points series events tend to draw in a higher turnout with 100+ entries, and the Wed night program has lower turnout in general.





Pre-COVID, the numbers were definitely higher across the board:



Overall I think the racing scene is faring well in Texas, we often see bashers show up at the track every Sat and some are slowly converting into racers. There is also a sustainable sweet spot where 50-80 entries is my ideal comfort zone, race days tend to go too long for 80+ entries and the level of competitiveness isn't as intense for lower than 50 entries based on my personal observation. The key is to prevent saturation of tracks to where you market the proper turnout for a given area.

killer rock

It's a 50/50 I see a lot of the bigger tracks with lower turn outs then normal. And other smaller tracks seeing record turn outs. There will unfortunately be a lot of tracks closed permanently because of the cold. But there will be other track open up because of lack of track in the area.

As far a people turn individuals. There are some regular I haven't seen because there scared and they can't risk it, but there are some faces I haven't seen in 10+years at the track because they couldn't do there normal thing. And have then said how they forgot how much fun they have at the track. And even a increase of new faces that have never raced. Sooooo it 50/50. And me being optimistic I think this cold as bad as it is in the long run will help the hobby.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

2wd stock buggy for carpet - recommendations


Heres a perfect example of why people stay away from racing. Simple question turns into who’s got the best racing credentials. Now imagine being someone completely new a reading that.

DirkW

iTrader: (1)

But that's a quite extreme example, as it involves one of the most toxic people currently active on this forum.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

I agree. The other just got pulled in and couldn’t help himself. And its happens much less here in the past few years. But it’s wasn’t long back that I used to read similar very often. I only crossed into racing 4 years ago. And didn’t really become semi regular until May of 2017. I raced with one group only until November of 2019.
We had a now closed, well known track in the area. That this attitude was fairly normal. A member once chased a photographer sent by Horzion hobby out of the track.
And going back to before I started racing. I used to read the “my credentials are better” type post quite often here.

DirkW

iTrader: (1)

Let's just say that trolling is more an internet than an RC phenomenon. Although both seem to attract people with severe deficits in their social skills... but luckily RC lacks the anonymity of the internet, so the trolls are not quite as "courageous" with their antics in the real world.