For me, racing 1/8 nitro bug, tracks got too big; driver stands too high and events too long.

Buggered off. As did many others. The series withered and died - as did the tracks. This was the '05 time frame. Prior to the 'big three' mentioned in first sentence, THRC (Team Houston RC) was racing six tracks on a rotating basis with two classes. 1/8 nitro bug and 1/10 nitro ST. Turnout was consistent at 80-100 entries. Events started on or about 9:00am and finished by 5:00pm.

That was before the 'big three' (previously mentioned) intervened to "make racing better." Or, as it turned out, making tracks bigger, driver stands higher and events longer by including more classes. Ka-Blooey. End of series and end of tracks.

No turning back the clock. It is what it is now and this is where it is at will probably be at for the duration of the hobby. Forget trying to entice spectators or big-time sponsors. That's in the too hard to do box. Focus on racing for the racer and the racer will support the track.

I've had friends and family accompany me to the RC race track and the biggest issue they had was once the race got started, and cars crashed (which draws their attention away from the lead cars) and/or cars start passing one another, they completely lose track of the lead car and will ask me: " who's winning"? Its very hard to watch a RC car race and follow it. When I used to race at the commercial 1/24th slot car tracks you at least had 8 colored lanes and the scoreboard showed which car was leading (each line highlighted in that lanes color) so it wasn't hard to look for that lead car (usually on the blue or orange or black lanes...LOL). It was easy to understand the race order and watch the laps click by on the screen and then look out at the track and follow the cars. The cars were fast, and they would even jump in and help marshall cars when they flew off the track, as they were comfortable doing so (except for the Group 7 cars). They though it was cool and fun and most importantly hung out and watched. At the RC car track they're so uninterested they're usually looking at or playing with their phones. If they are more than one, they'll be busy yapping with one another. Heck, I can't tell you how many times my wife came, knew I was going up to run and then after the race tell me she missed half the race...LOL

Yeah that's why I said you'd be better off getting the local pizza place, ice cream place, etc to sponsor as folks at the track will order food, or maybe use their services.

RC racing and really, the hobby in general needs an overhaul. As for the racing specificly, we'd need a couple eccentric millionaires pumping tons of money and attention into the popular classes to draw the interest of the general public and major brands outside of RC.

This circles back to the point about magazines. This hobby was largely covered and consumed by magazine. When that died to social media, RC lost its core medium. Other sports and hobbies didn't suffer as much because they already had dedicated tv networks, high profile celebs/athletes, and corporate sponsors pumping money in for ad revenue. What RC needs is something the equivalent of what magazines used to do for it.

It's not network tv. No one really watches tv(the conventional way) anymore. And RC races aren't very tv format friendly as previously discussed. But some sort of centralized media brand thats on facebook, Instagram, reddit and X. That posts race highlights, advertise up coming race events and post race results would help. Those 4 platforms is how most people get and consume their info now.

I'd hate to say it, but Traxxas and Horizon Hobbies for all the hate they get, are 2 major brands that could do a lot more for the hobby. They put their names on 1:1 race cars and places outside of the hobby. They just make questionable decisions and execute poorly sometimes. But putting their names on something regular people immediately recognize(monster trucks/nascar, top fuelers) is a good start.

Did you all know that Tyler Perry is very passionate about flying RC? I have seen at least two videos of him and another YouTuber talking about his passion for flying and his planes. This video was posted 4 months ago and has 3.4 million views. Supposedly Tyler Perry is a billionaire and the dude has a pretty big following. Someone like this would be a good asset to RC Racing, because their involvement would garner the attention of others that may have never given RC Racing any time or consideration. Tony Stewart owns Custom Works, when's the last time he's discussed that? Why doesn't that come up more? Why haven't any of the YouTubers like RCDriver or Mark Santa Maria done a video with him? I'm sure there are other high profile people involved in RC and if one of them attended a Nationals or an event like the Chili Bowl or even did a video with one of the shills, RC Racing would get a ton of exposure.

Getting Supercar blondie to a large event will also help.


And why not inviting local famous youtubers. Over here in a country of 17 million people we have youtuber Enzo Knol who has over 2 million followers. Funny thing, he likes RC cars. I also suggested many times to invite him at the larger events. Again, nothing was done with it....

So, Elon should buy ROAR?

No.
Mr. Tesla in charge of fuel racing. Don’t see that working out

Doug Demuro also.



No. Not him. Yes but no. Someone kind of like him, but not him.

They've got the advertising part down, they just don't focus on racing beyond their small spec classes. However they do make tons of expensive plastic bashers for you to break and upgrade all day.

Horizon and Traxxas have sent freebies to Cletus MacFarlane, and HH even runs a basher event at his track. So while they do reach out to some youtube celebrities it's all about getting people to dump tons of money into bashing/breaking stuff.

But, How many racers started out as bashers? It wasn't until I was at the hobby shop buying parts that I found out that there were actual offroad tracks that held races.

Exactly. But if they'd just do some of that for racing, it would help. Or if a racing brand like AE started doing something like that. Horizon had a chance to do this with Losi when they acquired the company. But instead wanted them to start making more basher oriented models and things went a bit sideways.

I think their new Nascar is a a step in the right direction, however I'm still perplexed as to why they didn't just use their V100 chassis. Making it on a Grom limits the aftermarket, electronics, and tire selection...at least outside of other Horizon Hobby parts.

As a disclaimer, I don't have a problem with "bashing" necessarily, but it is much more of a money maker/money pit than the old days.

Not convinced an influx of big money from sources external to the hobby of surface RC will do much to prevent losing race tracks. Other than make the investors even more money and probably at the expense of the RC basher/racer.

Soultion, I feel, at least in the short term, is internal to the hobby. What is needed is a firm national organization that looks after the interest of both basher and racer. Difficulty with that is that RCers tend to be quite independent and rules averse. Making support of any support-dependent national organization start-up's success iffy. Probably why statistics lean toward surface RC being 90% basher and 10% racer. Makes for a dilemma that is detrimental to both opening a track and maintaining a track as an operating and profitable entity.

This might be an opportunity to exercise emerging AI technology and query for a solution to this seemingly insurmountable recurring issue.

-AC