Robotech

This is spot on.

It's more than just being "available", it's being proactive. Many times new drivers won't approach the "fast guys" because they may feel intimidated or they're interrupting. I feel, if we want to keep racing at our local tracks, that we need to make the new racer feel welcome and help them be competitive.

One of my favorite racing stories was a number of years ago. I was at a big parking lot race series that they use to have here in So Cal and was running electric sedan. I don't remember why but I wasn't running my Super Nitro like I usually did but I had it and my parts for it with me. I always like to go out and watch the novice class and on this particular day there was a younger kid running a Super Nitro in the Nitro Novice class. During warmup his engine kept flaming out and his dad was having a bugger of a time restarting it...classis "too lean" condition.

So I went over and struck up a conversation with his father and found out the car was box stock and this was his second race with it but they were having a hard time keeping it running. It flamed out again and the car came to a stop at our feet. I asked if he would mind if I took a look at it and he said sure. I reached down and started counting how many turns out the main needle was and stopped at 1.5 turns...too lean for the .15fe. I turned it back out to 2.25 turns out, let it cool a bit, and refired it. Off it went with a nice plume of blue smoke. I then explianed to dad what I did, why I did it, and how it was causing the enigne to shut down.

The car never again flamed out and the kid finished the race but I noticed the car was spinning out everywhere. He had finished dead last. I asked his father what tires they were using. The stock ones, he told me. I told him that after his son was done turn marshelling for them to come over to my pit area with his son's car and I'd help them with it.

When they got there I put a set of my Super Nitro tires on it. These were the same ones I raced with normally. I told them what compound they were and what inserts were in each. Then I had them squeeze them so they could FEEL the difference. I then put his car on my Hudy station and went through all the adjustments with the son...showing him were things were off and where things were good. We set ride hight. We checked shock length and made all the shocks the same. I showed him camber and toe. I showed him how to make sure nothing was binding, bent, loose, or broke. I basically put my setup on the car with a few differences since my car ran a front one-way and his didn't. We did everything, but other than the tires we didn't add any option parts to the car.

He went back out for his next heat and I went out with them. After a few laps during warm-up I asked him how the car felt. He told me it felt much better. Well, I guess he wasn't kidding because he went out that heat and TQed!!!! He then went out and won the main! He and his father brought the tires back to me, after writting down exactly what they were so they could buy them at the hobby shop the following week, and thanked me over and over for my help. The smile on that kids face, and the fact that he would definatley be back, was all the thanks I needed and far more than I expected.

Obviously you always have to be careful when approaching someone asking if they want help as many won't be so quick to accept. If someone doesn't want your help, that's okay too. I once tried to tell a guy he was running too much camber...that only about -1 degree is where he wanted to be...but he insisted that his -25 degree setup (I'm not exagerating) was faster because "like with a VW Bug, when you accelerate they'll 'stand up'". But offering is the important part.