Low number of racers

[HBRULEZ]

In the last year or so I've seen a drop in the number of racers at my local indoor club on Tuesday night (srccc). I know doing 4 minute races is not helping, but the club chairman has told me this is because of people not helping set up or put away the track. There are major road work (A13) planned to start by the club at the end of the year, that I believe will kill the club, unless we (the club) can get new people racing here. Last year the club was in racer mag. (the 10 year issue) but this didn't really boost numbers much.

Please help me find way of getting more racers to this club I love to racing at.

All ideas will be relayed to the clubs chairman.

Thank you.
Paul Purkiss.

P.S. The clubs website is www.southendrccc.org
If someone wants to come along. Thank you again

[Skiddins]

Local publicity;

Find a reason/excuse etc to get local paper down to the club.

Is there a fete or similar where your club can put on a demonstration etc.

You need to find a very public way of showing what you do etc.

Skiddins

[Nes]

A post code on the website would also be helpful. Was a bit of a pain to find it when i came down for the first time for the winter series.

[terry.sc]

You have to get word out to the locals, which really means non racers. Racer magazine won't help as the only people reading it are already racers and most aren't anywhere near you. To get new regular racers you want to attract new people rather than trying to attract racers from other clubs.

Demos at local fetes shows what the cars can actually do to the locals, finding a good reason to get something in local papers gets the most publicity and attracts plenty of interest. Posters and leaflets in the local model shops will do the most to attract new drivers.

Then once you've got them there you need to be newbie friendly. Once they are at the club have one or two people who will spend the time talking with them to keep them interested. A beginners class using standard kits with 540s for example makes sure the newcomers don't have to spend much to start racing and making sure the experienced racers make them feel a part of the club and get them all involved with helping the new drivers, so they stay for more than a few weeks. Let the regulars ignore the new drivers and they'll soon all leave.

[MoGGo]

I think the Eastbourne club have struck gold with their arrive and drive cars. Complete setups including batteries avaliable to use for a small fee. Lets the newbies 'try before you buy' and gets them hooked without any hastle. Club sorts the cars out and charges the cells etc, little jonny just turns up and drives it.

[Straightspeed]

He's a few things we have done at my local club. Numbers are on the up, with 45 entries last night. We're not a huge town (much smaller than Southend) and we're now close to turning people away.

Get the support of the local model shops. Get them to promote your club when they sell kit's, by giving out a flyer. Make sure they stock and sell kits that can be used at your club, they will benefit from repeat sales of spares/hop ups etc, and you'll get fresh blood. Try and get them to provide a presence at a race night. Our local shop, which pitches up on site each week, offers hire cars, which is a good idea.

We introduced Tamiya Mini and Sportwerks Recoil Class's, aimed at beginers (could be Mardave, Tamiya TT-01 etc etc) Three heats of Mini's last night, (and ten or twelve Recoils) the 1st two Mini heats populated by fresh blood who were all new members this year (08).

We race in a school hall, and do everything possible to x promote. Support the School fete's, posters etc etc.

Offer a budy system for all newbie's. Get an experienced racer to talk them through, lend them kit, etc, etc for the 1st few races. You've done the hard bit and got them started, now keep them keen, and they'll keep coming back, and bring a few mates with them.

[Terry]

The problem is when you're doing all the normal club 'promotion' and 'publicity' (.. the usual stuff that has worked well up to now) only to hear that people are buying electric or nitro RTR Monster Trucks etc and don't come anywhere near a club. Seems it's the way things are these days, clubs with dwindling numbers is the reality :(

_____________________
Terry Stockham

[Straightspeed]

The problem is when you're doing all the normal club 'promotion' and 'publicity' (.. the usual stuff that has worked well up to now) only to hear that people are buying electric or nitro RTR Monster Trucks etc and don't come anywhere near a club. Seems it's the way things are these days, clubs with dwindling numbers is the reality :(

_____________________
Terry Stockham

Thats where a good relationship with a local shop can help. I do agree, folk want Trucks, Nitro etc etc, but, and it's a big but, if the shop staff can actually sell the idea of racing, without the risk of losing a sale, a few will be converted.

We're lucky, in that we have two shops that offer support. One of them has a huge regular customer base buying Rallycross and Truggy stuff. We now have more than a few of there customers converted to racing EP indoors as well! The other, is attracting lots of young 1st timers to the club, and taking the time to get them in our feeder class's, and not taking the quick buck and selling the truck they came in looking for!

[Skiddins]

I think one of the problems is that Nitro has been made too easy to get into.

Everything these days is RTR so they can be run without having to build them up etc.
I admit that when I was young the thought of using a 'real' engine was exciting, but the reality, running in, breakdowns etc. is underestimated. Again, this is where the local model shop comes in, they really need to be asking the buyers what they're going to do with their purchases once bought.

Face it, most RTR's will run occassionally around the local park, then sit in the loft/garage forever after.

Skiddins

[Jim Spencer]

Hi All

First off - Watch this space for some news re club promotion over the next couple of months.

But in the meantime this is what we do at my club - and it works.

We do an 'Open' evening.

We write the article and send digital pictures to the local newspapers - easy work for the editor..

Basically goes:-
Have you got one of these lying around the house (picture of club racers with Cars in foreground) want to learn how to Drive It, Fix It & Race It?
Want to do all that for Free?
Followed by an optional night of club racing for £x (in smaller print..)

Come along to (Insert club address and the time you want them here)

Also copy the article onto A3 posters - send 1 to every secondary school in your area.

We last did it on a Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 5pm (with the club night starting at 5.
We started by just explaining what RC racing is.
And then went on to basic driving (once we had got cars going in straight lines, steering and throttles swapped over :D etc etc)
Litterally the 2 buckets 5m apart and driving in ovals and figures of 8 - that simple.

Then onto a really basic circuit.

And mixed into this small group discussions about the basics of charging, maintenance, repairs (trust me you'll have plenty of examples to work with) we end up with 4 small groups - driving, maintenance, set up, how the meetings work.

Have a couple of good cars to hand to demonstrate, half a dozen chargers and a handfull of spare crystals.
And you'll need half a dozen folk who know the basics and can explain it to others.
Every time we do this we get 15 - 25 folk turn up.

Works very well indeed as it totally removes the scary element from going to a club as a novice.
You would be very surprised how many cars are out there - and how many people are interested - but just don't know you exist and how to go about it.

[HBRULEZ]

THANKS GUYS. Lots of things we didn't think about. Keep them coming.
Was down my local model shop today, to find out they don't keep a lot of spares now as new cars/kits are always coming out making the part there got useless. As like me people want things there and then this can't be helping too. What can we do to help this part? (trying to buy a belt for a cyclone, they didn't have 1, it's on order. But somehow I walked out with a Mardave V12???)

[Mad Fox]

Hi All

First off - Watch this space for some news re club promotion over the next couple of months.

But in the meantime this is what we do at my club - and it works.

We do an 'Open' evening.

We write the article and send digital pictures to the local newspapers - easy work for the editor..

Basically goes:-
Have you got one of these lying around the house (picture of club racers with Cars in foreground) want to learn how to Drive It, Fix It & Race It?
Want to do all that for Free?
Followed by an optional night of club racing for £x (in smaller print..)

Come along to (Insert club address and the time you want them here)

Also copy the article onto A3 posters - send 1 to every secondary school in your area.

We last did it on a Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 5pm (with the club night starting at 5.
We started by just explaining what RC racing is.
And then went on to basic driving (once we had got cars going in straight lines, steering and throttles swapped over :D etc etc)
Litterally the 2 buckets 5m apart and driving in ovals and figures of 8 - that simple.

Then onto a really basic circuit.

And mixed into this small group discussions about the basics of charging, maintenance, repairs (trust me you'll have plenty of examples to work with) we end up with 4 small groups - driving, maintenance, set up, how the meetings work.

Have a couple of good cars to hand to demonstrate, half a dozen chargers and a handfull of spare crystals.
And you'll need half a dozen folk who know the basics and can explain it to others.
Every time we do this we get 15 - 25 folk turn up.

Works very well indeed as it totally removes the scary element from going to a club as a novice.
You would be very surprised how many cars are out there - and how many people are interested - but just don't know you exist and how to go about it.

As a total newbie to the hobby this sounds an excellent idea and I do hope other clubs will follow suit, finding somewhere to learn and then to race is half the battle, the other half is learning to drive and fixing things as well as what things are required for just general maintenance.