Originally Posted by DrOlds
There is also a very good thread going in the racing forum about some just for fun races being held at the Tamiya track-check that out-that's the sort of thing I am trying to get people to think about.
As the person who organized said race let me try and get this back on topic as I admire what you are trying to do.
• First off this has zero to do with ROAR those that want to bring them into this there a ton of threads already on this topic let ROAR live or die by it's own sword.
• Club/Parking lot racing is a local phenomenom(sp?) and should be treated as such. What is liked on the East may not be what is hot in the west etc.
•*If you want to limit something limit the motors and final drive gearing not the batteries limiting batteries just created more issues and costs.
• Cutting down grip is a great idea but only for the intermediate drivers as raw rookies will not feel motivated if they can't even get around the track.
•Chassis costs are the biggest problem as it was said earlier in this thread. It's hard to get a rookie intrested is they feel they have to have Pro-grade equipment to race Stock. The answer to this is what I have done for my local racing series I do not allow certain materials like Carbon Graphite and aluminum chassis pieces unless they are in areas like Motor mounts or shock towers where it is more of a durability issue rather then performance. This allows the RTR guys very little investment to get there cars up to competative level. Haivng Pure RTR class is rough because rarely will even a rokie keep his car stock and having the ruling allows somebody with big budget to come in a run a new car every weekend and that throse out the idea yet again (it happens trust me)
If you look at the Tamiya TCS series you will see a very healthy National series with expanding classes and plenty of attendance the reason behinf this is not only that is is a one manufacturers class which limits the choices but it has destinct classes that are very different and promote scale realism in both the way the cars look and handle . The GT1 class is very similar to what most people would consider mod and yet even though some of the factors that people blame are not involved:
-It does not have pro drivers
-It does not have a cost limit
-there is still a tire choice
-no prototype parts are allowed and everything legal has to be avaialable
on the market
-They use 6 cells (funny enough there is rarely an ESC failure?)
Yet it is still one of the smallest classes why? Because non of the above is the real issue the real issue is the sport of racing and making it available and fun the other classes are more fun with less set-up and maintenance allowing more enjoyment of the actual driving and the socializing aspect of the events.
I have raced both TCS and Open Mod at Reedy and though Reedy was more of a rush and ending up in the D-Main was not bad considering I treated like a club race had I tried really hard and tuned my car and run new tires after every run like everyone else I would have probably ended up in the B but still had less fun. When I raced TCS I would treat it the same and I would end up in the top 5 every regional and I never finished outside the A main at Nationals but back then I was more stressed about it even though I put in the same effort in the end did not have as much fun.
What was the big difference? ME when I ran TCS I expected to do good and was worried I would not when I ran the Reedy and didn't expect anything and I placed 3rd in the D and didn't care I had fun racing and didn't worry about any trophy or result. I think the importants of having to win is a huge phsycological issue we as the RC community needs to address. Sure if you are Pro and have sponsors you want to do well for them so you can continue to race at that level, fine but that is the smallest percentage of the entire industry the vast majority of us need to take to step back and realise that winning is fun and it happens to the best and the worst of us but at the end of the day an IFMAR world championship will not even get you a cup of coffee out side the fence of the track.
Here is the answer to all the problems with TC in one sweet sentence:
If you like racing then worry about having people and attracting people to race with rather then a personal quest to make a class that you can win at.
This is the core of the problem.