Originally Posted by IndyRC_Racer

For any club to be successful, they need to focus on getting new people and trying to keep them. They need to recognize that this hobby is expensive and try to keep the initial costs down. They also need to recognize that not everyone is going to race for the same reasons. Most people just want to have fun and don't care if they are racing in ROAR or IFMAR approved classes.

Another thing to consider is that not everyone has the time to invest an entire day at the track. Many people have busy lives and their time spent playing with their r/c toys should be fun and not a second job. I've seen tracks offer classes with reduced fees and shortened programs for the "fun" classes. An example would be the novice program having fewer qualifiers and possible having their main run during the 2nd or 3rd round instead of during the "mains" round.

Here is something I would like everyone to consider. There are never too many classes. There are simply classes that work best for the people racing at a specific facility. Help the local racers build classes that are fun that people want to be a part of. Those classes can be modeled after existing classes or something totally new. But we all need to understand that we cannot force someone new to be a part of this hobby by making them run what we are running. We can simply try to show them how much fun we are having and let them make their own choice.

One final thought. To grow a club or facility, it is important that everyone makes sure the newest members are having fun. Sometimes that means sacrificing some of our own fun, but more often than not you will be rewarded for it. Seeing the person you helped leave with a smile on their face eager to come back next week is more important to me than just trying to win another club race.

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I will add there is a time and a place for competitive racing in this hobby. But I've seen too many people act like every minute they are on the track is like they are qualifying/racing for a world trophy. It should be okay to dial it down for weekly club racing and just have fun with the rest of mere mortals. Right?