This discussion should involve all of the local tracks, Garlands, Bumps, Pit Stop and LCRC.
In the past week I have had no less than 10 phone calls regarding the rules for short course. Rather than express my opinion on an individual basis, I think it would be best to do it in a public forum. Coincidentally other people share my opinion that I am going to state.
I am sure I won't get any argument from anyone in stating that the short course trucks have been the best and biggest thing to revive 1/10 off-road in 15 years. Tracks all over the country are flourishing thanks to Traxxas and the slash. Why have these trucks been so successful? The answer is simple because they were out of the box stock - for $300 you could competitively race one of these and if you were capable of driving you could win right out of the box. It gave beginners a place to start and more advanced drivers the ability to race and simply have fun and not worry about setup and working on your car. For those of you who have not witnessed this spec phenomenon in the past are probably to new to remember running RC Outfitters with a Tamiya TL01 – it was not uncommon to see 90 of these on a Saturday night! What killed the class? The fact that Tamiya came out with a kit that included many more adjustments, thus requiring you to buy a new kit to be competitive.
This is exactly what is now occurring in the Corr Truck class, although this time it is a self inflicted injury. Weather or not it is true that you need to have a blitz running slash tires and an sc-10 motor is irrelevant, (or a 17.5 – which is ludicrous with today’s technology a turbo mode esc and a 17.5 is faster than my 8.5!). It’s all in the perception. If someone running a stock slash get’s beat by someone that is running the aforementioned combo it does not matter that they cant drive as good as that person it is the perception that you need that equipment to win. That person might quit racing because they don’t want to spend another $200 plus on a brush-less systems and tires, thus hurting tracks, hobby shops, manufacturers, and most importantly other racers. We have all seen people show up with cars and not enough people to run in there particular class. In my rough calculations it is just as cheap to run a mod truck (RTR T4 brushless 2.4 for $250) with all the upgrades you might potentially have to do to compete in the box stock class. So based on the above why would a track owner change the rules to allow all these modifications? I can’t answer for them, but it might be because people talked them into it thinking it was the best scenario, it might be because they thought the additional sales would help them, who knows but the result might not be good.
No one really knows at this point, but I can tell you that the Corr Truck class at bumps the past two winters has been fantastic, and based on the calls I have received, the same might not be true this summer, without some changes to the rules from all the local tracks. I probably conduct bumps different from other owners in that I never make a rules decision without lot’s of feedback from the racers, most times it is a vote. I am also careful not to base a rules change only on the guys that run up front, but also from the one’s in the middle, and the one’s in the back of the pack.
So one might ask why I would I type all this and put myself out there for the abuse? Simple I want RC to continue to grow, not only because I genuinely care about rc, but it is also my livelihood. I don’t see continued growth this summer based on the conversations I have had with other racers. In other words more people are likely to drop $300 to start racing instead of $400 you also need to put X esc in, change the plugs, put Y tires on, etc... We have 2 different trends going here Bumps and LCRC running basically box stock and Garlands and Pit Stop running any manufacturers stock products in the vehicles. We should all be on the same page, with everyone running the same rules – Pit Stop currently runs a roar corr truck class, but for all intents it is simply mod corr class, as I previously mentioned the 17.5’s are insanely fast with the new speedo technology. So we are just talking about the stock class. Since I know that I am not the only one that feels this way this is the chance for the you the racer to voice your opinion so that all the tracks can run the same configuration and it needs to be figured out now before the outdoor season kicks into full gear. Please don’t chime in if you don’t run the class. Sincerely, Chris