Originally Posted by Cosmo

I know you don't see many RTR touring cars winning championships. But, those are experienced racers who are willing to pay what it costs to win.

The whole thing that this Pro 10 class is supposed to do is get new people into the sport. The RTR cars are great ways to get new people into the sport. Low cost and completeness of the package are very important to newcomers. If this class is only affordable to the people who are willing to pay the big bucks for their cars, the only people that will be racing will be the people that already race with expensive touring cars. And they have spent so much money on their TC stuff, I doubt you'd see many just abandoning their TC to run Pro 10.

I've been racing since before a lot of the board members here were born, so I've seen the sport rise in popularity and die out more than once. When touring cars started out, they were aimed at "parking lot racing" and were billed as a great way to get new people into the hobby. But costs quickly skyrocketed and again the newcomer was left with the only option being to pony up a lot of cash to get into it.

If I was to get back into TC racing, it would probably not be with a RTR car. But, I'm not the target audience for RTR's. They are to help new people get into racing. The lower cost is the biggest selling point. Plus, a lot of them can be upgraded to compete with the top of the line cars as the racer's skill and budget allow. I realize that the Pro 10 cars out there now are top of the line, but I haven't seen any mention of offering a cheaper version. I'm not necessarily talking about a RTR (to me, building is just as much fun as racing), but I would like to see a chassis in the $125-150 price range. It doesn't have to be top of the line, but should at least be upgradeable.

I just think that something needs to be done to get new people into the hobby. Our on-road track died out because of lack of attendance. We had more people watching than racing on average days. We had lots of younger people in the audience as well. At least 4 or 5 times a day I would overhear someone asking one of the racers asking how much their car cost, or what it cost to get started. I saw the look on their face when they found out it was out of their price range. I mean, for some people $300 is pocket change. But for many more people, $300 is a pretty good chunk of money.

Of course, that's just my 2¢...