Originally Posted by TM America

I think the old adage of you never know how much you will miss something until it is gone is so very true with our on-road tracks here in the states. Crystal Park is no different.

Yes attendance is down due to the economy. However before the economy struck attendance was down from what it could have been because of some politics I was told. Now neither side of this situation wins. Another track gone for now. I am with the rest of you I hope this track returns soon.

Las Vegas is another example of the adage. There lies an excellent track in a great location set up by the city and no one is using the track but for 2 or 3 races a year. I know it takes time to clean the track to get ready for racing. However look at the work the Greater LA and Rams guys do twice a month to make racing available to everyone.

What is left now is the Greater LA R/C Club and the excellent work that these gentlemen are doing for our hobby. Everyone should be bending over backward to thank them especially to the men that do most of the unflattering work on race weekends. Yet I do read some posting on threads that don't share this view with consistently. With the closing of Crystal Park there should be plenty of people to help build and tear down the track to make it easy and fun for everyone.

Sometimes this hobby forgets it is suppose to be fun. My question to myself and others who listen is always why don't we have a lot of new faces and young drivers coming aboard as compared to electric and off-road racing. Obviously the amount of tracks available for these venues is one big reason. For nitro on-road a question we need to address is why the master class at major events is growing? The nitro on-road racing segment of the RC Market is getting smaller and older. We need to reverse this trend.

The only people that can change this trend are the guys that presently own tracks and the guys that form clubs and have people in that club that would rather help the race run each weekend than race themselves. Very unselfish people. However to change this trend these people need our support. They don't need the politics of not racing at a track because this guy said something or doesn't like someone at the track. We need to be excellent people, great representatives of our hobby, and racers at heart. With this enthusiasm showing at the tracks we can't help but get new racers. We need a club to form in Las Vegas and set a racing schedule at the their track (this can be done for those that don't know) and racers from LA should become members even if they wouldn't make that many races during the course of the year. We just need to support people that are willing to give up their time and weekends to set up races for the rest of us. If Vegas track was rolled over into grass to blend into the park, there would be a thread just like this one talking about how sorry everyone is about the track closing.

I wish there was an easy answer to keep our hobby growing. Obviously the economy did not help this situation. So maybe back to the basics. Tracks and clubs need to try to get new hobbyist. Have a pull start class that is relatively cheap using RTR's. ( Or some type of class that is cheap for newbies) Make sure this class is for the newbies so they are not intimated. Make sure other racers help these newbies every week. Try to get new members by talking about the club everywhere. At your work on the bulletin boards. Seek out free advertising from the local news papers for the race club as a community service. Get manufacturers to display banners on drivers stand for a yearly fee. Racers need to build the RC Nitro On-Road hobby. We need to do this by each local area throughout the USA. Examples are the GLA R/C Club, The Rams in Northern California (Bay Area), SpeedWorld, and others. Each group needs to work on build their membership using "all" of the racers in each of those areas. First and foremost we need to help and support our local area and also areas that are close to us. If you can afford it, go to a race outside your area and join their club if you can race their a couple of times a year. This helps the club stay there and be there for the next race you attend. As I said no easy answers and I don't have any answers just ideas. I am one of the old guys but sincerely wish to see young racers on the drivers stand which would identify we are keeping this exciting hobby growing.