[imported_kuatto]

If getting them to the track is a problem,just take along a kid(or adult)the next time you go out for a bash or just messing around in the back yard/parking lot.I also like the building of a kit togather idea,my youngest son is really interested how things work and he seems to remember more about the building of it and getting it to work.

[Pipeous]

New blood is needed for growth. New faces and racers. Think outside the box a little. Approach your local cub/boy/girl scouts organizations and have the club do a little demo and let the kids try some rc stuff. we are doing one for about 150 scouts soon and we are going to setup a little table top raceway and donate our micro t's for them to race.

Schools are a good place as well. a couple days clubs could have the veterens donate their time and setup a table for tuning and setup help. leave your rc off to the side and help these new people learn how to wrench and adjust. forums are great but hands on in person stuff is priceless.

I totally agree with a novice class. go one step further. when I started racing 20 something years ago, we had a novice class. I had a piece of crap rc and spending the measly $2 entry fee was nothing and I drove across town to the other end to do it. many did. once you win a couple races you moved to stock. anything goes in this class, run what you brung. when you have enugh to split them up, you can. but for the most part it doesn't matter what the newbiews will drive because they can crash a big or a small rc just the same.

Electrics are a great way to start because it teaches susp4ension tuning without worrying about tuning the engines. novice moves to stock, then to mod or a nitro class. goal setting. kust like real racing. guys can't jump into F1 without racing a lesser class to start. it keeps finances real for the starter and the racing simple.

approach the hobby shops and make a deal that if they sell a newb a kit then get them a membership either free or at a reduced rate to the local club

[Speed Metal]

The biggest problem with trying to grow this sport is its lack of exposure to the general public. So many people have NO idea that a) there's good, organized racing available and b) these are no toys but actual race vehicles.

When I'm out testing my engines in the park and people stop and ask questions and look at my buggy or truggy they are amazed at the sophistication and level of quality (of course they're XRays!) of these little cars.

And when they see the abuse that they can take they're astonished. When they see how fast they can be on a track, they get interested. We need to to expose the general public somehow to get more people into RC racing. There's is no better family activity than RC racing IMHO. Everyone in the family can be involved, and the races are like picnics. Going to places like Niagara or Sprucewood to race should make families want to come out because they're in beautiful areas.

And now with RCs getting more inexpensive while still being decent, it's getting more attractive to a wider base. Getting people hip to this great sport ( I prefer to call RC Racing a sport) is an issue we gotta address in order to grow this hobby. Once people know RC Racing is available and reasonably affordable, the rest will sell itself IMHO.

regards

speed metal

[Guest]

The hobby sometimes suffers because it is primarily summer fun. Unfortunately Canada's longest season limits the exposure and availability to thieve all year round. Parents of the potential future RC Guru (in my opinion) would rather invest their money in playing hockey or some other indoor recreational sport. Some people are lost during these colder months and do not return the next season.

I believe if there were more facilities that provide the optimum RC experiences offering birthday parties, beginner racing for the youth, build a kit as a group, but most important giving both indoor and outdoor RC fun all year long. Very inviting to those who want to tryout the hobby and for those seasoned racers wanting the excitement all year long. Also to keep the interest levels high while the Rc season is under way, is for the tracks to offer a little more bang for the buck!! meaning some extra entertaining factors on race weekends. For example: $$$ for any to enter and winner takes all; Big Air Contest, Fastest Car Contest, Best Paint Contest, Rc Show and Shine (bling bling) Contest, Rock Crawler Contest, hell even a Rc Demolition Pit. These are just some of my ideas and thoughts to keep Rc interesting for newbies. Some do not like just the racing, so to grab the interest of those who are probably the silent majority.

Calvin Mercer

[bobf24]

Originally Posted by Pipeous

. anything goes in this class, run what you brung. when you have enugh to split them up, you can. but for the most part it doesn't matter what the newbiews will drive because they can crash a big or a small rc just the same.

Electrics are a great way to start because it teaches susp4ension tuning without worrying about tuning the engines. novice moves to stock, then to mod or a nitro class. goal setting. kust like real racing. guys can't jump into F1 without racing a lesser class to start. it keeps finances real for the starter and the racing simple.

I dont know if I'm misunderstanding, so if I am correct me, but it sounds like you mean run new kids with 10th scales, or MT's, or truggy, all in one class because they will all crash anyway, which in theory is ok, but when a kid with a 10th scale buggy gets smoked by some kid with a truggy, the 10th scale is going to explode, thats where the problem is you need to split those guys all up, and that splits number of racers up, otherwsie the kid with the 10th scale wont be back again,

and I agree electric is an awsome way for people to start in the hobby, but they simply dont appeal to new people, my dads had a shop for around 15 years, and the last probally 5 years I dont think we have sold a single electric car bigger than a mini t, people want the noise and smell of nitro, thats what gets them interested, and if you try to talk them into getting an electric because its better to start on, they will just go to another shop thats willing to sell them what ever they want just to make the $$$, there are a few good shops that try to help people get what they are going to get the most out of, but there are alot more shops that are just looking to move product,

IMO the RC companies like traxxas and duratrax that sell all RTR's have put the industry in a really bad place, because new guys getting in the hobby can buy it all in the one package, and they figure they can take it from the shop to a parking lot and start running it, then when it blows up, or they smoke a curb because they didn't un-coil the RX wire from the radio box (actually seen that happen a few times), and need to replace the whole front end, they dont know how to fix it themselves and pay the shop to do it, that gets expensive and they lose intrest,

[brent-kyle]

Originally Posted by RCcanuck

well for us older folks with kids.....pass it on to your kids. instead of Xbox 360 for Xmas get them into RC....
getting more people into racing is going to be tough..I think it is too competitive for newbies....not many people will come back after having run a club race against the top guys at the track(usually the owner and crew)...I think there should be a rookie class...then once you are finishing consistantley you can move up to the novice class...
The biggest thing is to get joe public more involved.....Pull a few spectators out of the crowd and get them to marshall, pit,rake the track....organize some public try me sessions...Tracks should have give aways such as Magazines, catalogues, calenders,keychains......
Celebrities are always a draw...get a celebrity to show up at the track and flog the heck out of it with pictures posters flyers...hold a press conferance and set it up just like the press conferances before major 1:1 races like the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 with the rival drivers answering q's and trash talking each other..
that should get the ball rolling

thats a good idean rccanuk, thats wat my dad did he hot me a rush evo, last christmass, and i havnt gone a day with out looking at my truck or doing n e thing to it, never touch my p2s. it got my how family in to it, and we go to the races and love it, iv gone some of my friend it it but other think its "gay" any way, this is a very good idea to get ppl in to the hobby!

[imported_cancruiser]

I have a meeting with the Mayor and Town council tomorrow night to introduce them to our new club, Dufferin RC.

Myself and a few others have started up a not for profit organization with the goals of establishing a family oriented racing center in Orangeville. There have been a few posts over the last couple of months here probing to see if there is any interest locally.We put a sign up sheet in the new hobby shop in town and so far have 30+ names of interested people.

The letter I sent in to the mayors office has made its way around the town council and other departments and we have feed back from Parks and Rec as well as the planning department. Parks and Rec see our venture as a benefit to the town and getting people together. Planning has no issue with us using town owned property both indoors and out as long as we have adequate insurance and pay the associated rental fees for the space. What those fees are going to be is what we want to negotiate with them.

We only have a short time to present our ideas and our main goal is to leave them thinking and wanting to meet with us to answer more questions. We already have basically all possible questions ready to answer if they ask some after our presentation.

We will be entertaining the run what you brung idea, even if it's from the source. The idea there is that those people will see the others running the hobby class cars and generate more interest that way. The plan is to have rental cars for them to try out as well. We are going to stick with the Tamiya M03 chassis cars to start with as they are easy and fun to drive.

The goal is to talk electric cars for now and then expand to off road electric and nitro once the weather permits. Of course the town is concerned with noise but we are willing to work with them to fins an area that will cause the least amount of public disturbance. This was also mentioned in my initial letter to the mayor and was commented on by council as commendable that we were thinking of this already.

Basically to grow the hobby, people have to actually get involved and just do it. Demonstrations in malls, community centers and schools are a great place to start. The idea mentioned above about working with the scouts is great! We might have to use that one too. Getting new beginners out will allow the races to have the novice classes and the intimidation of having to run with the pros wont be an issue as it is now.

I've seen novices racing at FastCats and hear the announcer over the PA say that there is a faster driver coming up behind and make room for him so he can get by. This usually causes the novice to panic and loose control just enough that the fast driver gets by and then the remaining pack end up in a pile up when the newer drivers tries to get back into the line.

The bottom line is to quit talking about it and start making the public aware of us. One of the commercials during RCTV is great! It shows the kid on playing video games and then in the park with a RC. This is exactly what we need to do. The demonstrations is what will help bring them out.

[tekno]

when me and offroader were talking he mentioned that when when he went to florda. He said there was a public track from the government. All they (the people using the track) had to do was pour water on the track and cover the holes with dirt and i believe the dirt was just dumped there and it was up to the rc'ers to make the track happen. People would take there turns maintaining the track while they stayed. I say we write a letter and get as many signatures as we can to make this happen of course it would take a long time but in my opinion it would be all worth it. a place to run for free, get new people in the hobby etc. I see bmx, and skate parks that grew because, there were places to go to do your stuff. It's also wayyyy more safe than bmx-ing and skateboarding. Also keeps the young people out of trouble and points them into the right direction. thats my .02. Tekno.

[thrash metal]

if you want to see a first class facility that helps make rc racing a family event you have to give props to fastcats .

they have a great place for families to get into rc racing.

when i was there racing there was some kids attending a birthday party there and you could see the excitment on those kids faces racing the mini onroads on the little track.

if some of the outdoor tracks had something like fastcats setup it would give young kids a chance to try it out.

myself being fairly new to the whole racing scene in rc i can honestly say ive met alot of great guys who have really gone out of their way to help me and other newbies .

guys like abiye,gump, crusher,chewy, jordan,tefflawn, martin, and trevor have all been great in helping me set up my truggy and my monster truck,given me tuning tips,etc.... .

if us guys in the rc community are looking for people to come up with ideas to help grow this hobby in canada these are definately the guys we should be looking to for advice and ideas .

nothing beats experience when your looking for knowledge so if glorcs is looking for more guys to help grow the sport then they should be getting these guys involved somehow.( i know abiye and gump are involved with glorcs already)

having guys like this involved and you cant go wrong in my opinion

[MUSTGOFASTER]

Originally Posted by cancruiser

I've seen novices racing at FastCats and hear the announcer over the PA say that there is a faster driver coming up behind and make room for him so he can get by. This usually causes the novice to panic and loose control just enough that the fast driver gets by and then the remaining pack end up in a pile up when the newer drivers tries to get back into the line.

That is not the case IMO. Actually, I would say that it is the opposite. People like John C. at FastCats and Matt D. at Niagara provided that useful information over the mic to me when I was first starting and that was how I learned how to conduct myself on a race track. Both of those people even offered other useful information on how to get around the track faster and I appreciate it.