Originally Posted by
RogerDaShrubber
If you want an interclub series, start by becomming a delegate at your local club and facilitating it. You do not need ROAR to do that, its a club level thing. Here in Brisbane Australia we have a very successful on road interclub series that runs between 5 or 6 clubs. In NSW they have another very successful interclub series, and non of this involve any Australian governing body other than for rulesets.
Even thought these interclub series are very successful, the majority of drivers who race at the clubs involved do not attent, for many people, racing is all about club level, and i put myself into that catagory too. For all the nice things that interclub, big events, state and national championships are, the club racer could not give too hoots about. For me, i object to paying 3 times the entry fee just to be told X part is not on the approved list for that race, or paying 3 times the entry fee just to come last and have 4 x 6 min races. Screw that for $40-60 entry, for the club racer, there still needs to be value for money to get them to come and drive.
Not that things can't be better but most of the people I see at my track couldn't give two sh*%s about interstate series or sanctioning bodies. They are just looking for a fun diversion from the rigors of daily life. The guys and gals who are more serious have no issues finding the higher level races. It is a hobby, not Nascar or Formula 1. Having a good club that makes an effort to have a solid program and treats customers with respect is #1 IMO, not another sanctioning body that has 0 relevance to 90% of club racers.
ROAR has gotten blasted, perhaps at times fairly but I do think they are a well intentioned, and underappreciated group. The fact that I've seen, in the three years I've been in RC, a number people proposing alternatives to ROAR but when it comes time for implementation...nothing, indicates that ROAR either isn't doing that bad a job or people quickly realize what a time consuming and thankless job it is. I can only imagine how many times a person who has been in this hobby for decades has seen the same scenario. While I don't agree with everything ROAR does, I do, after spending some time working as a volunteer at my local track have a better appreciation for the difficulties of making decisions that may not work for everyone but hopefully are the best for the majority. Having a little skin in the game gives a lot of perspective. Admittedly, there are other guys in my club who do much more but all the same I am pretty much done with R/C due to the fact I see no end to the same six or seven guys doing all the work, and the inequity of the situation has embittered me to the hobby. I wonder how many people on RCTech have done anything for their club past paying an entry and skating as soon as the program was over, leaving the clean up, track builds, admin to someone else? How many have used the excuse that they have other things to do not considering that the people that do show up have sacrificed their own personal plans to maintain a track for other people to race on? How many of the same actively whine on RCTech or Hobbytalk about why things aren't better? Personally I see this as a bigger threat to the hobby than lack of national leadership.
