Originally Posted by mleemor60

I too am a VTA beginner. So far I have found that the area racers in VTA more than willing to give and share information than I ever found over the years with the rest of the scale. There seems to be much less due's paying and generally being taken out by the designated hitter until you are found worthy or have expended enough disposable income to show that you are going to stick around. The fact that virtually everything of importance is spec'ed out you don't have to be worried about the part of the week and can concentrate on your set up and driving skills.

As for body selection, I am sure it will soon improve with the HPI re-org. Until then it doesn't much matter which body since you are quite likely going to be a little hard on it anyway. The tires and wheels are readily available but you have to search a little bit. I personally have had no trouble at all finding them over the counter. I haven't necessarily been able to find everything in one shop but have located all I need none the less. I have also picked up a good number of new and used sets through this forum. I am perhaps a bit luckier than some others in that I am retired and have more time to browse various sites in search of what I want.

I have attended a couple of events in preparation for my own debut. I have found the VTA guys to be more open and friendly than any of the other competitors. They want their class to grow and prosper while many others piss and moan about low turn out while vehemently trying to protect whatever edge they think they have from being legislated out by a pending rules change that might actually help their flavor of Kool-Aid grow to new levels. Just from the standpoint of infighting and politics within the ranks the only choice I would consider is VTA.