Where have the young drivers gone?
 

Hello to all.

Let me clarify for you what I mean by this.


We were at the Robin Hood Racing event this Sunday and well myself and a couple of people got chatting about young drivers and how there is a lack of them.


One of the people there has 2 sons but only had 1 there on the day. I had to ask where the other one was because they normally always in a 3 pack group at our club. (father and 2 sons)


He pointed out that his other son is a bit younger then the son racing that day and that because he still brakes things allot with club lvl he wants to keep the costs down, he also pointed out that because none of the younger drivers where his age he felt that other drivers in his class (some adults) will just get angry with him racing slower and might say something to upset the younger boy and make him not want to race again.


He also pointed out that at his age he just wants to race but wants to really just have fun with the car and at completion lvl well it is completion and most fathers become over spenders to give their kids the best kit to get them to win races.


I think here lies the problem. The kit they use.


On the day there where I think I counted only 4 kids under 13, and the rest where well adults with toy cars and we had 1 woman driver.


What if we had a series like the clio cup?


RTR cheap series where kids up to a set age can race each other but the only thing is that it’s down to driver skill and not the car.


The car will be a brushed rtr car and no modifications are allowed. I think one exception would be tires due to surface changes. This will mean that it’s really down to the individual driver and the fact that someone has beaten you is just down to practice and time behind the wheel so to speak.


Now im not saying RTR TA or lossi cars but more the £100 - £150 mark where the cars are cheap to run and even cheaper to fix. It means the costs are down and well fathers that already come there to race their cars might actually bring their sons and daughters (We need more woman drivers) with to actually try it out.


What you think am I just the only one that has noticed this or are there others and if you have any good suggestions please inform me.


Thanks Vince

At Surrey and Hants on Sunday we have a heat for the Novice/Junior's and there were 6 of them, ranging from 6 years to 11 years of age.

Mixture of cars used from Vega, B4.1 RTR, Losi 22... so now real lack of kit. I think we've all gone on the fact that a quality car does have less issues, and when your running two kids AND yourself at a meeting you do not want to be repairing cars!!!

As a father myself and back after a 20 year break I was shocked at the lack of kids, that's why we always run a kids race as a stand alone.

They have zero pressure and crash and bash about like no business. As far as I can recall, only two cars had minor breakages over 4 rounds and 3 legged finals. Most of the cars top end is tweaked down though which helps.

Good luck with trying to get the kids racin' :thumbsup:

makes a lot of sense, and is something I've often banged on about when I was more active at club level.

one of most amazing things about the tamiya eurocup (especially the m-chassis and tl-01 chassis classes) was how close the competition was. those were the days!

we only have 1 under 16 at our club. its a real shame since we hold the club nights at the local high school and no one goes to that school :(

When I was 11-16 I think there were 8 or so from the school racing.

Clubs need to invest a bit to get more younger drivers there...

If you have a club buy 4 cheap cars and get people to bring there kids with to give it a go. yes they will break something but its a quick fix. Plus if you have a fathers and kids day you can have the dads vs the kids with the same kit and you might find that dad and son go and buy the same car to have fun and join the club.

I mean yes it might be a bit expensive for the club but have a open day where people can come try the car for a 5min heat for like a £5 or £10 and you cover your cost for the cars plus you get people to actually see that it is not that expensive to buy and run a £100 RTR car.

I also blame sponsors and Car manufacturers for the same reason. I mean someone like annsman that has a car for £100 should donate cars to the clubs and get them to have a annsman cup or something like that... I mean if you have driven with the car you will want the same car when you go buy one so not only are they making there money back they actually investing in the future racers.

What you'll find is that a lot of the dad's don't have time to take their kids to a track. And consider the cost of everything its cheaper to buy them GT5 or Forza for the console they already have than to buy couple of hundred pounds worth of rc stuff and spend £5 a week to go racing.

Also we see it in the shop a lot that they don't want to invest too much in it as a lot of kids nowadays seem very fickle and loose interest in something at the drop of a hat!!

Yes rtr kits have come a long way but its the use it now mentality that has ruined a lot of it as the passion to build something and use it has gone. So when it breaks chuck it in the cupboard and move on rather than fix it themselves.

I think Stu's comments above are quite valid about games consoles being what kids are really into, they can play on line, chat to their friends, do whatever with out the parents having to leave the house and actually take them anywhere.

When I was younger I got into cars because my mates brother had them, loads of us were into them at school, what do they talk about in the playground now though ? Xbox and how to complet a level on a game...

If shops or clubs could go to schools and get the kids interests with demo's that would help. I think the manufacturers need to take note though, I've got back into this now because I can afford it but if I hadn't done it when I was younger I probably wouldn't be doing it now. Everything is SO expensive now though.

The clio cup series idea is a good one. One make series, cheap speedo ( what's the cheapest brushless set up ? ) and a basic chassis, I'd like to do that myself just for the cheapness. I've been looking around and a lot of people you ask advice from seem to just bang on about how much they've spent as opposed to telling you how you can start cheaply.

Same problem went I went to Kidderminster event the other weekend, only a couple of kids, think 9 and 12 were the youngest.

I'm not sure rtr is that good long term, unless they have a decent model shop or get to know people at a local track who can help quickly. If you build it your self (or with the help of dad :D) you will have some idea on how to fix it. There are probably lots of people who buy rtr, have a breakage, then they just sit in a box, never to be used again. I do like the idea of a one make series, makes good sense.

Maybe a motor limit to keep it a bit more consistent, but to be honest if i put a 6.5t in my sons car he would be slower round the track than with a 17.5t. Not sure how many weeks most clubs run leagues over, but 5 or 6 tops for juniors would be good, with certificates for all, and small medals etc for top 3.

My lads only six and another problem he has is non of the clubs run weekends, and finishing at 10 on week nights is too late. Going to take him to a few over the summer months to get him some practice.

getting demonstrations in primary schools would help. promote it as accessible father son activity.

I think in quite a few areas the lack of model shops selling race quality (even cheaper RTRs that are race worthy like the Ansman stuff) is also a deciding factor. How would most of the potential young racers even know RC racing exists?

Again, I feel this is down to a lot of model shops realising that so many people buy abroad for reduced costs that there is little to no point in stocking stuff for racers.
For that reason all you tend to see is the cheaper (£50ish) RTR cars you can't really get spares for on the shelves and maybe the odd Tamiya kit.

Very very sad, when I started racing at Alcester Buggy Club in the mid 80s about 1/3rd of the drivers were in the junior classes.

Promotion would certainly help and it is relatively easy for a club to run a demonstration event at school open days, local carnivals etc. but that rarely seems to happen.

Shame, how long will it be until the lack of younger interest breaks clubs and we all have to head to Hong Kong / China to race as well as buy the parts?

grumble over ...

Sorry totally disagree with costs. I think it has got CHEAP in terms of cost and inflation.

Kits have remind fairly low, you can run a meeting on one lipo (£30 to £90 new) instead of old Nimh's (£45 min and you'd need 5 sets at least. Spares are VERY low as well. So cost IMHO is NOT the issue.

Technology is the issue and also lazy parents. As said above, consul generation (although we had them in 1990 :cry:).

I'd be very interested to see some costs of purchases in 1990 as I cant remember what race fees and kits truely cost.

Another thing that would help is a bit of TV advertising but the only time it is on TV is Motors TV at about 11pm! apart from the odd time MK Racing appeared on Top Gear!

Yes I see your point but as I said when I've asked people have often said to me about getting certain ESC's and when home from the track and checking prices they're phenomenal money. ESC's seem to be the most expensive thing these days. If you imagine that in the eyes of a dad who is getting his child into RC and doesn't want to go down the RTR route you would add up all the costs and the little electronic box is generally over £100. When I used to run brushed with NiMh's fair enough I had 3 sets of batteries but the speedo was only £20, so although your saving money with Lipo's your spending more on ESC's. For the first timer that is an expensive outlay. And as was mentioned before kids are quite fickle these days and if they're going to loose interest that's a lot to waste along with the rest of the outlay. I just think it would be nice to see a budget class, there aren't any budget speedo's now are there unless you get from China / Hong Kong ?

The Tiverton club has a junior touring car class and championship, and seem to always have at least 7-8 drivers :thumbsup:

well i got 2 sons one 14 and one 12 the 14yr old not interested in any thing but xbox but the 12yr old loves racing and actually beats me most of the time, he races micro,tc and now going to do 10th buggys allthough it can be pricey he only has one new car an MI1 tc as a christmas present the others are all my old cars, as most will know we all want the newest car out so instead of selling them cheap just give them to your kids, also trccc dont charge a race fee for juniors so if they brake something every other meeting it dont matter as you saved on race fees so maybe more clubs should do free entry for juniors it might help :thumbsup:

Taken onboard, how I miss my condom cover speedo!. The fun we had when we dumped and the servo stuck!.

BUT take an AE B4.1 RTR, 2.4ghz, Brushless, just add Battery and charger for just under £250 all in. That's bloody good value to get racing.

Yes, it wont win you the World's (oh it did! lol) but for entry its not 'that' bad compared to other hobbies.

We've got plenty of kids racing at Bury - I know because all the adult drivers (who's kids aren't racing that is) never stop complaining!
I suspect that's part of the problem. The vast majority of our younger drivers are the sons/daughters of those who raced as kids themselves. Father and son now both race, which is great for the family but does mean that Dad can't get that serious.
Clubs with tight rules, where people get super competitive and arguments happen after racing incidents are not the place to take your child. Bury isn't like that, so we tend to attract them, but at the cost of our more hardcore racers going elsewhere.

I'm not convinced you need a spec class - in fact it might be counter productive because many new drivers turn up with a car they already have. They don't want to buy new stuff. What we do is much simpler, we run a 'Fun' class. 2wd, 4wd, Short course or Stadium - doesn't matter. The only rule is that if you get too good we bump you up to the relevant adult class.

We've also got a few club cars available to rent. Currently I think its a Master Smacker and a couple of old Academy's all with basic 540's and NiMH's. To date they've not seen much use but we don't really publicise them so that might be why.

I haven't been racing for 24 years but as a kid I went racing with my grandad. This Sunday me and my grandson went racing at bury buggy club, there were a few kids there and it was a really friendly place, he is now hooked and this is partly due to the warm welcome we received :thumbsup: we are now planing on going ever week

The local onroad clubs all seem to have a good amount of young drivers. However they do focus on skill not balls out speed so there is a more gentle introduction to rc racing. Most importantly it depends on the clubs attitude. Kids need to come first, anyone that doesn't like it needs to put up with it and make do or leave, you only need a couple of arseholes mouthing off to marshals to put most kids off.

From my experience racers will usually tell you that you need this high spec ESC and that it's better than anything else. You never seem to see a racer pointing out they are running with the cheapest equipment. For beginners the racers should be recommending the Fusion Xceed or Etronix Fusion combos when in reality the racers suggest whatever they use, and how many new buggy racers are recommended a 7.5T or 8.5T motor when they would be faster with a 10.5T or even a 13.5T.
Nothing wrong with setting up your own 'Clio cup', if your local shop sells a cheap RTR buggy then make that the car to use, it doesn't matter how basic it is as long as it's relatively cheap and everyone in the class uses it.
Why does it need to be brushless? For beginners there's nothing wrong with the kit 540 motors when the intention is to get round the track rather than the typical buggy setup which appears to be as much power as possible that can only be used on the main straight and then try and control it round the rest of the track.

I've got a good example of this. Some newbie racers came to my club, they had 20 year old Tamiya TA02 tourers with the kit motors in them. They first visited Phoenix Raceway, only to be told by the racers there they needed the latest spec cars and top spec motors, ESCs and batteries and had to spend £800 on their top spec cars before they started. They didn't go back there and Phoenix eventually closed due to older members moving on and no new racers coming in to replace them.
They came to Stockport and were told what they already had was good enough to get them going. The next week they turned up with what they had, and as they didn't have a fast charger the other racers charged their batteries for them. They ran in with other novices with their basic cars and kept on coming racing after that.

There are two points that have to be addressed to get more kids into the hobby. We are always going to be competing with video games, something we never had during r/c cars heyday in the 80s.

First you've got to get them to know about r/c racing in the first place. Not easy to do, but having spent last weekend hiring r/c cars out at a local classic car show there is plenty of interest from kids wanting to have a go. To me that is the hardest part, getting them to the club in the first place. Once they have seen what racing is all about and that most importantly club racing is fun and not serious then they usually want to start up with whatever they have.

Once you've got them interested you've then got to do everything to get them racing, just getting them running in the first place with whatever they have is a start, whether they are slow or not BRCA legal is irrelevant.
We always run a novice heat with everything that isn't fast enough to run with the others all mixed together, the last thing you want is some idiot who isn't capable of avoiding a car in front of him shouting because the kid he just crashed into isn't going as fast as the others.
Then help the kids and treat them the same as your adult mates. Don't hang around in your own little clique but get to know the kids and help them out. Charge their batteries, help them sort out their handling problems, give them spare parts when they break their cars. All gets them involved with the club and keeps them coming back. Finally if anyone doesn't respect the kids tell them to go race somewhere else.

We keep things fun and just like Bury the number one priority is enjoying yourself, not race results. Amazingly we also have plenty of kids who race regularly. Show them a club made up of serious hard racers with high end cars and they won't be coming back.

Some good stuff already in this thread.

At our local club (Chippenham - www.cmcc.org.uk) we happen to have a lot of juniors coming in to the club at the moment. We must be doing something right, and it is things that all clubs should be doing.

• We have a club car (Tamiya TT-01) that has a junior using it most weeks, and a few of those juniors have gone on to buy their own cars
• We don't go around telling people they need the best of everything to compete. In fact we mostly suggest a TT-01, Schumacher Mi1 or Tamiya Mini for people to get started with.
• We suggest the £10 Saturn 20 motor for newcomers to touring and it is also our spec motor in Minis - on our small club track, the Saturn 20 is barely any slower than the 13.5 "blinky" cars, so the low-budget racers don't get the impression that they need to upgrade to the fastest of everything to compete
• We have just been at the South West Model Show where we put on a racing demonstration (which usually gets a few spectators). This year some club members donated their old Minis for "Have-a-go" sessions which had a HUGE amount of interest, mostly from younger drivers, I'll wager there were 40 or 50 people having a go on the Sunday.
• We have the support of a local shop (MMR) who are trackside most weeks.
• The more juniors we get, the more word-of-mouth they spread - quite a few of them have brought their friends along, and then their friends have started racing as well. We also have a few father-and-son racers. Mothers and daughters are also welcome!

It may seem like hard work for clubs to attract members, and it may seem like there are no rewards at times, but basically you need to keep plugging away.

• Keep a cheap/simple class of racing on the rulebook. Avoid elitism.
• Have a club car at the track every week. I've seen club cars mysteriously become "personal" cars after they haven't been used for a while - don't let that happen.
• Promote the club. Get on the web, get posters in the shops, get out to the local shows, get in the press. If people don't know about you, they will never come.

If anything it is easier to encourage new racers in off-road right now. There are a lot more electric off-roaders available for reasonable money, and a lot of the intimidatingly expensive "pit-bling" that you would see at a TC meeting is unnecessary. A new racer with a B4.1 RTR or a short-course RTR is only a set of tyres and springs away from having a car quick enough for the sharp-end of the club A-final (actually that is more or less the case with on-road too, but it doesn't look like that when everyone is running tyre warmers and has their laptop on the table).


It's tough to sell RC to a generation that is used to computer games. RC is much harder to master, but the satisfaction of doing well is so much greater. It's a real-life hobby, only constrained by your own talents, not by the programmer's code.

Reading through I can see that there are two problems:
Cost.
20+ years ago when I raced at Harrogate buggy club I really enjoyed it until it became very much a cost thing. pushy parents and kids wanting the latest motors batteries and they took over! So I jacked it in and discovered Beer, girls and big cars!

So a cost class would be good not just for the next generation.
maybe a max cost for chassis, batteries etc. like the old stock brushed motor class!

Tollerence.
some people forget that this is a hobby and we do it for fun!
Everybody started somewhere, crashing, been slow!
People need to remember that! yes it is racing but it is not the money driven uber competative world of F1!
If you want that racing do the Regionals or Nats.

If people show poor sportsmanship on or off the track drop their best laps and they will soon learn!

Soap box rant over!

i think there is a lot of young drivers but this "facebook" generation is more into drift class today,they do not wanna to wait for spring and summer like we with buggys to race, that sort of bling bling cars are for them, like NFS that they are play when they are not racing :). Hiere where i am living it is a Fire Station where they are alowed to race whole year, also there is not top speeds or jumps where they could brake cars and that is the way is interesting so much to them.

As Terry says the cost bit tends to be exaggerated badly. I always made a point of explaining to new drivers at Bury that I was running a 20 year old RC10 kitted out with a brushless system off ebay - whilst mine is never the fastest there its far from the slowest either. Bury sees plenty of ex-racers coming back with their old cars - we had a meeting last year with 4 generations of RC10 in the same heat!

I really do believe that at most clubs if the best driver ran an out of the box B4.1 RTR they would win. Whilst it doesn't have a sensored esc, the motor is around a 10.5t, the shocks aren't the latest spec etc its actually quite good enough. Unsurprisingly the majority of our new drivers (of all ages) have one.

One thing racers could consider is keeping old but decent gear to sell cheap to new drivers. I sold my old Cat'98 to a lad that turned up with an HPI Brama for £40 - it was old and a bit worn out but still more reliable and competitive than the Brama. In addition I made sure it was set up for our track.

This is why I'm against cost controlled spec classes - ebay and some old gear makes for a better, more enjoyable racer than a 540 equipped out of the box Mad Rat and for less. What is needed is education not restriction!

Very true. I'm a teacher and my RC's have been into school. Whenever they do, the students love them and want their own. Several have bought them but without exception they all want to drift not race.

I think the cost thing is a bit of a given... to run a car costs money...

The annsmann brushed version was going for £100 all included at modelsport the last time I checked. and the XTC Edge I think they called where £80 all in. I would not go brushless simply because they are way to fast for some kids and you want to keep the costs down.

Yes they dont last as long I get that but thats not the point.

The point is to make them the same speed and kit like the above where its cheap to buy and spares are cheap so your costs are down. Its to get kids involved into it and get them to a club meeting. If you have a young drivers club race where all the drivers are young then you will not have the parents complaining about it unless you have to marshall for them (owww my ancles )

The playstaion generation or Facebook generation kids just need to have 1 race with the car against other kids there own age and my god they will love it. Plus there is a massive thing now where kids dont know how to talk to people outside facebook and so on so they actually meet kids there own age and doing the same thing outside and out of there homes.

When I went into modelsport yestersday there was a guy there that bought a rc car RTR for his I would guess about 7 year old daughter. He spent £100. The thing that struck me was the guy behind the counter. He never asked the guy what is it being used for and if she would want to race the car. Its was not a RTR that you would use in touring or nitro or 1/10th at all so technically if she wanted to take it to the next lvl and join a club they would not have the correct kit to start off with and would have waisted the £100 spent.

Its tuff cause we all have diffrent views on this but I wolud say to keep it simple.

Same car (not TA or Lossi £250 is not cheap when you strating a hobby)
Young driver heats at club lvl
Clubs going to school and introducing this to kids to show them its still around and just as much fun. (ultirnative to PS3 Xbox 360)

It will just die out if we dont actually do something about it and it will be one of those..."when I was young you could go racing these cars around a track with friends and have so much fun...agh that was them days"

yes, even if they are not racing well they own one just to show, it is more interesting to them and that is the fact. Few times i hade thinking to get one for my self, cause they are racing whole year and every night there is always 20 of them, we, with buggys must wait nice wheater and we are happy if there is more then 4 of us to race. I must also input like one mate already say, sometimes there are few dad's that sons are racing but if that kids are not racing well dad's are making problems, they are fight, they are yelling at kids etc. , and that is not good. we are all hiere for fun. That is not a place for frustated unsuccessful persons when they wase young and now they are pushing kids like there is fight for death or life

Ahh but Vincent - you missed my point and hit it at the same time! At Bury that girls car would be allowed to race (provided it wasn't nitro and could get round the track) so she wouldn't need a different car to start racing.

New racers find out of about the sport 1 of 2 ways - before they buy a car (and thats what makes them buy one) or after when they wonder what they can do with it. There are as many afters as befores. Making them buy a new car to compete in a restricted class even if it is cheap is a lot of extra expensive when they already have a car. We just let them race together. Yes, there have been times our Fun class has had an out of the box FTX Carnage (brushed) truck alongside a Durango DEX210 but when both hit every single corner who cares?
Why was there a 210 in fun class? Because the lad in question had started last year with something less competitive and got the 210 as a Christmas present. He's got too good with it, so now he's in regular 2wd but it was his performance that moved him, not the car.
Keeping it simple means anything goes as far as I'm concerned. When the kids can't control the cars it soon becomes clear that the fastest rarely wins you don't need a new motor etc. But if you get good enough to handle it why not?

Parents are a problem. On the whole, the ones I've met at Bury and Stockport have been great, but I also remember from racing as a kid myself the angry pit dad's. You get pushy parents in all sports to be honest but in RC younger drivers often need them there to pit and marshal for them so they can't be pushed to the sidelines as the junior footie team does!
So far we've not had much trouble there was just one incident last year where a marshal fed up of being rammed every lap by the same truck chucked it off the track not really knowing how young its driver was. People hate marshalling for them and hate being marshalled by them even more but thats about the biggest issue to date.

yes, i just wanna to say that parents are also one of the problems that kids are not racing today, Children today are more nervous than we were and if you are yelling they would be quick cooled from that hobby.

Im 15 years old and always wanted to race I have a few rcs about 8 scx10, sprint2 etc etc, So I got a saturday job £35 every weekend valeting high performace cars, like swindon towns fc cars and other very expensise cars it not easy, 7am to 5pm. I buy abit every weekend like the tyre warmers one weekend then the set up board trailing for second hand deals including the car , Dad has snap on account so thats the tools covered:thumbsup:. Its just got soo expensize these days guuna have to miss the first and second race, Because I ve just found out the local club Cotswold, Don`t do transponder hire so that will be another thing to get!

I race a HB cyclone wce I sometimes look at it and think its never ending transponder £55, 7.4 servo £75 tyres £20 etc etc thats why people arnt taking part well I cant for the first few,My mate went to go and race his hb lighting pro buggy at the local, and he was going to need £500 for the equiment for a year, then its the engine and car isnt up to the lastest model so he just pulled out of it thats why im wondering now is hb cyclone moore speed going to be competive, though is it down to your driving.

The thing is, you don't need those things to race.

Tyre warmers and set-up boards are a long-way down the list (actually a flat board is useful but it doesn't have to have an RC manufacturers name pasted on it). This is a big problem in on-road, people see these things in the pits and assume they need them. You don't.

All you need is a well-built car (it doesn't have to be an expensive one), the right motor for the class, and the right tyres for the track.

If you have spent the pocket-money you should have been using for racing on the "bling", then that is a terrible waste. Much better to be at the track than scouring eBay for stuff you don't actually need.

I race at Cotswold fairly regularly, and until now I haven't used tyre warmers. I put my 4-year-old car in the A-final of the BTCC in 13.5 last year, which is a pretty competitive field. I used one set of tyres for the whole outdoor season last year (half-a-dozen race meetings), one LiPo (which lasted me 2-and-a-half years before giving up) and the same 13.5 motor (which is still going strong after nearly 3 years).

RC racing does not have to be expensive. This is the message we need to try hard to get across - the "bling" is a personal preference, it doesn't actually make that much difference to your laptimes.

PS I didn't realise that Cotswold didn't have any "club" transponders. That is a shame, but I am sure they will still allow you to race.

All I neeed for my car now is a 13.5 and a decent servo Thanks for that I under stand were you are coming from. Louis PS tyre warmers were £10.50 off eBay and the set up board it just abit of mdf.

Club transponders are a bit of a problem as they are very expensive and no longer made. Some clubs use MRTs but they need plugging in so not as useful as the old self powered ones.

Transponders shouldn't stop kids racing, pen and paper would do if needed, they don't get any benefit from them. A few sets of wheels and tyres would be more important and fun for them, something to easy for them to change if they want to.

Haha This sounds like a funny scene to watch.. you will need to film a race and put on youtube.

I did understand your post.

I think having a set RTR car that you use will just help giving advice when they buy there own as people there will know how to fix them plus will most likely have spares if something goes wrong. (cars are modelled on the B4 anyway.)

It could be where maybe the club gets 6-10 companies to sponser a car for £100 or £150 with company colour on or something. Plus you might get your companie advertised on the club website as a sponser.

I dont know any company that cant afford £150 pounds for the car. Its not a massive sum to ask plus they giving to kids having fun and that is good Press for them in there Local paper "Compnay giving back to the kids of tomorow". So technically the club has no outgoings but might get more members which in turn creates more revenue. (im in marketing sorry)

I dont know how clubs run there finances unfortunatley but getting the cars sponsered to the club to get kids involved would be ideal.

I dont understand why our local club does no racing at all during school holidays? Is this not the time that kids are bored and have nothing to do?
The school halls are not used. Setup the track for a day or two and let the kids come and try it out.

It is slightly chicken and egg.

Budget wise you can get a kid up and running fairly cheaply, eBay alone is something we have now which wasnt an option back in the early 90s so deals are out there. But partly it is down to club availability.

My son Ben (7) and I are lucky to have SHRCCC (led by Dudders) as our local club and having a specific junior heat and finalse means that we have every incentive to head down there. Ben absolutely loves it and I'm allowed to race by the Mrs because he can!

Build it and they will come, as they say.

Good post this, thanks Vince.

I was the dad mentioned in the begining. My eldest son was in the 4wd class at the Spring Cup. He is only 9 but pretty handy. The main problem being he is just so unaware of the cars around him. He is concentrating 100% on his driving and not on any car coming to lap him. The guys lapping him were A finalists so should know better. However shouting abuse at a 9 year old is not really on. I do understand that its frustrating to get taken out/held up but hey its only fun right? I make a point of trying to educate him with driving etiquette and it will come with time but we shouldn't put them off.

The lack of kids racing is a big problem and I do think it is something we all need to address.

Spring Cup (which was very well run) was the same price to enter for adults and children???