Originally Posted by SWTour

That's the only part of your quote I don't agree with in full.

It is NOT a racer's responsibility to SUPPORT their track and hobby. Their support should not be 'EXPECTED' it should be earned. I've seen too many people open stores and tracks and think just because THEY opened them - RACERS had to support them - but they were JERKS or worse...and deserved NO support.

I would rather have NO track locally to race at and/or NO LHS to deal with - then be stuck with one run by a bunch of IDIOTS who are in this deal for the wrong reasons.

I've helped get more than several dozen NEW guys into r/c racing over the past 20+ years - and done it several different ways.

I - on MY own budget - would show up with 3 or 4 SPARE cars - just extra old school chassis's that were radio equipped and had a charged battery in them (Always tried to have a decent looking body on them - NEW guys couldn't care less what's UNDER the body - they don't know brand A from brand B.

I would let guys take the cars for a spin the first time they came to watch a race - and invite them back for the next event to actually DRIVE the car. (All they had to do was pay their OWN entry) I would provide a couple battery packs - cars - radio, etc. Granted - these are/were not FRONT RUNNING - EVENT WINNING cars - but they were ROOKIE drivers and the cars were set up so they'd be pretty easy to drive and we DID have a NOVICE class.

This was a SURE hook for over 80% of the guys who drove them...and when ever possible - I'd sell them the car they drove for a very good entry level price...and I would offer to buy it back (as long as it wasn't destroyed) anytime in the next couple months if they decided to UPGRADE.

The TC3's and old HPI Pro2's were great for this - I could pick one up as a roller for 60 - 7- bucks. I always have old Stock Motors and ex. OVAL batteries laying around that worked fine in a touring car.

I did the same thing to get OVAL racing up and running at our LOCAL club... The store didn't carry ANYTHING for oval parts, cars or accessories. But, once I got 8 - 10 OVAL cars showing up on race day - that changed and we formed a decent group of local OVAL racers (Which also started by me loaning ready to race oval cars - built like TANKS so they couldn't be broken - but with 19t motors so they'd be fairly quick.)

Too often when we try to get NEW people into R/C racing - we scare them off with the BIG dollar pit setups - HiTech big dollar 'RACING' chassis's - PILES of Batteries and TIRES and MOTORS.

We need more guys getting in with a good used 2-3 year old car - get them HOOKED - then let their blood get pumping - if they LIKE IT - They WILL upgrade and get caught up in the frenzy....if they don't - they are not out a TON of money.