I'm 14 years old I started racing at Christmas with an Ftx Carnage at Southport, but I waited until I could go as fast as the car would allow and then I bought a B4 of another club member for £ 145. Since then I have got a paper round to pay for all the things I need. I get paid £15 a week so overall I still have money to get other things that I want.

Personally i point parents looking to bring young kids to the club that are looking to upgrade the electrics in their rtr cars towards something like the inix combo's at £60 delivered with program card and most turn motors catered for they are a bargain and can be competitive as well!

I've seen this myself and also had it myself when I borrowed a mates car that was an absolute dog ( tamiya mini - battery fell out on corners and everything :wtf: ), some bloke got a right cob on when I didn't move over quick enough for him. I went straight over and apologised for upsetting his lap as soon as the race was over. He wasn't interested ( I'm 38, not a young kid ), it was his attitude. The thing is if they're 'that' good and can see you're coming up on a slower driver they should allow for that and pass him in an appropriate place, there are plenty of opportunities to go around someone rather than through them ! I hope it hasn't put your son off. These people seem to be above this though and forget we all have to start some where. New blood should be encouraged into the sport whatever it takes, so if you get taken off or are a lap down at the end of it maybe better to go and give the person some encouragement and some hints and tips rather than putting them down. It took the guy who got arsey with me at the start of the evening all night to come over and say he was just caught up in the moment of the race but he did at least bother, just before I went home...

This is a great thread, I hope shops and clubs are going to take note of it.

Good point made above. Good drivers should be able to anticipate those with lesser ability,especially youngsters, and there is no excuse for shouting at them. Same goes for shouting at marshalls.

You dont see Bloomfield and Martin a) crashing into backmarkers-they just sail past on a tight racing line and b) abusing marshalls. Top guys are intelligent enough to remember that they were beginners once and that errors happen.

I agree with the majority of what has been said in this thread and truly believe that the future of this sport / hobby is bringing more youth in, but i can also understand the frustration element as we are all competative or would not do this, sometimes with junior drivers they are attracted by the other cars passing them so steer towards them not deliberately but a natural act that if you look at something else then you aim towards that point!

Let the debate continue?

And yes there is a difference to shouting to get a marshalls attention and abuse, the first not ideal but is it acceptable?
The second tottally unaceptable!!!!!!!!!

Shouting abuse at anyone at the club i used to go to (20+ years ago) got you penalised. Can't remember how much. But it was enough that no-one did it twice.

And i can't believe all these people banging on about the cost of the cars.

The costs are almost the same as they were 20+ years ago, for top level kit, £200 gets you into the beginnings of the top end "world class" rolling chassis range, almost the same as it was in 1985, maybe £25 or so more, which compared to inflation and wage increases, is negligible.

The only two things that have changed is (1) the cost of the ESCs, but then, you only need one motor, and a couple of batteries. Instead of half a dozen of each. I reckon you could get an A final-able set-up for somewhere around a half of the cost you'd need when i last raced. The difference being mostly in motors and batteries! (still, many people spend a whole load more!)

The second thing that's changed (2) is the quality of the RTR cars. To be frank, the bottom end ones we could get back then, were dire compared to what you can get now, take the grasshopper, hornet and the frog, and compare to things like the mad rat, FTX and others, all the way up to something like the B4.1.

BTW, our club seems to have plenty of kids in it. Some of them are pretty handy............

Isnt there a governing body?.....the BRCA... what they doing to promote the sport ?

Very interesting reading everybodys comments.
My personal opinion on it is that I dont think its the kids that wouldnt want to do it or the fact that it is quite expensive or the kids getting put off by loud mouths at the clubs (in my experience these days kids give as good as they get if not worse) , I think in general its the lazy arse parents, these days they just dont want to invest the time in there children which is a real shame as that for me is the reason you have kids.
My son races in most of the off road classes and at the club we belong to Herts Nitro there is a healthy number of youngsters . I think its a generation thing.

i notice alot of people keep mentioning cost and xbox but dont xbox and ps games cost about £50 each with a new game coming out every other month i aint no maths genius but 4 games you can get a good car that will last a lot longer than the game, :p

This Sunday at HRCCC had two rounds all for youngsters of both sex's. I think it's a lot to do with the feeling of the clubs, I've been to Stotfold last year and there was a young chap who needed help and non of the top guys would lend a hand or advice on his B44, that left a bad taste to me and we fixed it in the end.
At our club we will talk to them and make sure they know that we can help fix, set up and just help what ever they drive. I know it's easy to think your there to help but do you offer help. When I started in the 1980's it was more about fun and the overall atmosphere was of fun, now it's very competive and that can be a problem at an early stage as there is little conferdance at first.
It's down to EVERYONE to make a good impression plus help out too.

jK

agree with the above,

i also race at the same club and i know its not 10th but 18th / 16th / 14th but the question was where have all the young drivers gone, and we have around 7 - 9 drivers there between the ages of 7 and 15 all with either lrp sharks or losi mini 8ights, maybe thats where they have all gone, over to micro..

I agree 100%, people should be made to feel welcome and not ignored, I think things should change because there are many people that try this hobbie out and give up because of this.

I would have to agree with Si, they have a car and so they do have the correct kit to start racing and haven't wasted any money. It's not as if they are going to be challenging for wins or planning on running at the nationals. You let them run and when they start managing to get around without hitting anything they usually then start looking at more appropriate cars and equipment, quite often second hand equipment from the top racers who now know them and give them a good deal.

We also have a member with a spare car or two, a basic car with a limited top speed that is lent on the night for a race or two to people who are interested, it usually gets them hooked and they go looking for a car themselves. Being an on road club the cars lent out are basic TT01s with an EZRun brushless running on a cheap 4 cell nimh pack. The slow speed makes them so easy to drive and having tested it at the track we can get 30 minutes running out of one battery charge.

Getting the shop to push particular cars onto customers isn't going to increase the new racers, it's just going to push them away from thinking about racing if they know they have to buy a different car to what they want to buy. It's only around 1 in every 50 drivers that even have a go at racing and I would be very surprised if any newbie buying a non racing car would even know about racing, what's more important for local clubs is whether there are posters or leaflets advertising them in the model shops.

Unless your son is capable of qualifying for the A finals himself I would question why he was put in the same heat. If the drivers lapping were A finalists I would also question their driving ability if they can't see a slower car in front of them and drive round it.

At my club we have one lad who, like your son, can get around quick enough to be moved out of the novice heat but can just about handle getting round the track. I put him in the same heat I run in. First race trying to lap him usually ended up with my car being hit. Took me that one race to learn how he drives round the track and after that I knew how to pass him as I learnt where he ran wide.
Working out the problem was much more mature than shouting at a child because he doesn't jump out of your way.

The one thing I've noticed is that there seems to be two types of club. There is one type that takes their racing seriously, organises club championships and concentrates on the racing, and this tends to kill off the 'club' aspect of club meetings. The other type, which seems to be most clubs in this thread, are those that don't take club meetings seriously and go out of their way to help the kids just by the nature of the drivers there. Guess which type will be around in years to come due to getting a regular supply of new drivers.

As for those who don't see new drivers, are you actually doing something to attract them to your club and letting potential members know you exist.

Members of the BRCA were running demo events at the Autosport show, running demos at Gadget Show Live, were running demos at the South west Model Show and many others, and this particular BRCA member spent the whole of the weekend before last promoting the hobby at the Eventcity Classic Car Show.

The BRCA also produces a DVD to encourage the bashers to try racing, and gives advice to clubs to help them promote themselves. "The BRCA" isn't some great overseeing organisation, the committee members are just fellow racers like you and me who have volunteered to do some of the tasks needed to run the organisation. Considering just about everyone racing should be a member of the BRCA, then your question really is what are you doing to promote the sport.

I agree and understand your point here but as the BRCA this is a very Government Body type of response.

You (committee members) create the rule book
You (committee members) create the regional events
You (committee members) set the rules for the clubs to follow.

Instead of pointing the finger and saying the above which is such a "it's not us its you response" you could have looked at it and said these are valid points and as the BRCA we could maybe look into making some changes to the rule book to try and see if we can force clubs to have young driver heats. (I think some clubs might be shocked to only see 1 or 2 people standing there on the rostrum)
We can also look at regional or competition events to have under 13 heats instead of having everybody of all ages in the same heats. We could also have a look at regional’s or competitions where under 13 do not pay entrance fees. You could be doing allot more than "your question really is what are you doing to promote the sport."

This is where the problem is. We need to look at clubs as to what you/they do and what can be imroved to try and get more young drivers involved.

I can honestly say I have not been to any of those shows before you mentioned and I am not planning to go because they are pricey so would have not found out about racing rc cars unless I met someone that did it and introduced it to me. (This is where we come in...promote what we do more...I am doing this on a regular bases)

We need the info structure in place to make the under 13 kids injoy it when they come to a club and to a regional event and unfortunately it is not up to the normal racer but up to the BRCA to put rules in place so that clubs and race event organisers take action. (Some clubs refuse to change because the BRCA Book they follow does not state that they have to do so.

I’m not going off on you here as a individual person and sorry if it feels that way because let’s be honest you trying to promote and I take my hat off to you. It’s more to the BRCA in general.

I could be wrong and if I am then I say sorry now as I don’t know how all clubs run themselves and is only a suggestion.

Quite right on the typical BRCA response!

If something is a great success... the individuals that represent the BRCA are to be praised. They give up so much of their time etc. etc.

If something is a failure... it's the BRCA membership as a whole that are to be blamed. You vote on the rules etc. etc.

The BRCA can't force clubs to do anything. Clubs don't even need to be part of the BRCA.

It does make sense however to have a junior regional champion for example. I don't imagine this would involve a separate heat at regionals but might encourage younger drivers to higher levels.

Clubs can help promote racing by hosting meetings at major events, but so far I think the thing thats been lacking there is support from model shops. For example, Southport hold a meeting annually at the Woodvale Rally which attracts big crowds. The event is an RC airshow and by the runway there are loads of stalls selling planes etc but over by the track nobody is selling anything.

What is needed is clubs and shops to work to promote together. Hold a meeting, show people what these cars can do, but also have a stall full of Madrats and B4.1RTR's to sell.

I do think it needs to be separate as its more fun for them to have people their own age stand next to them. I think sometimes racing against a adult might feel a bit of a intimidating and this is just because they might have been sworn at or told off before at club lvl or at other events.

Kids should race kids. They have more fun that way. + you don’t have the adults getting angered at them. You might just get the over supported father shouting from the sideline but that’s normal in every sport. :)

What is stopping us running at school's when they have summer fete's are on either as a meeting or demo runs and try and get a few shops involved or importers like CML or JE Spare's etc. They all have good RTR's on sale and a few demo's with them could work for all.
When i worked at a model shop in Harrow many years ago we did demo's in schools,shopping centers and the response was very good and we found a lot of new members for the local clubs.

jK