Drivers Wanted

IF YOU WANT TO GET A LOT OF RC OPINIONS very quickly, just float this fill-in-the-blank: “What RC racing really needs is ______.” Everybody and their brother thinks they know what the competition side of the hobby needs, and the one thing every answer has in common is it’s the point of view of someone already involved in racing. Which makes sense, of course. But the people we really need to hear from are those who aren’t racing; after all, isn’t “need more people doing it” the problem that racing needs to fix? Not that racing should be turned upside down to suit people who aren’t even doing it. RC competition has been evolving for more than 40 years now, and that’s not a recipe for getting things wrong. But it has refined and hardened RC racing into a very technical and intense activity that consumes a lot of time and money, at least if you want to be competitive. “Casual racing” isn’t really a thing. Families with Traxxas Stampedes or Arrma Granites or other fun-runners in the household probably aren’t thinking, “This weekend, should we go to the water park or go RC racing?” Which is too bad— there should be some kind of racing for casual RC enthusiasts to enjoy, a low-stress, run-what-you-brung way to have fun with equally laid-back hobbyists that doesn’t consume an entire Sunday just to get in 20 or 30 minutes of actual track time. And maybe it’s not actually racing, just “track fun.” Any hobby store that operates a track has a ton of money sunk into that square footage, so more cars on the track, more days of the week, is always better for the bottom line. Family pizza night? Timed bracket-style racing so that mismatched cars and drivers can compete with each other? Monthly concourse competition? There are all kinds of ways track operators can entice drivers to the track that don’t involve taking a deep dive with transponders and a quest to shave hundredths of a second. Some will get there, for sure; those susceptible to the racing bug will get bitten. If I were a track operator, I would make it my job to satisfy not just my racing regulars but to make sure there’s ample opportunity for everyone with a RC car to have fun on a real track, which is always the most fun place to drive an RC car.