How hard is it to find other racers

[bobbyraz49]

Good news here in Buffalo. We have added 2 new racers to our club and they really enjoy hanging out with us. We now have about 10 solid racers and a couple who race when they can.
We run 4 1/32 scale classes, T/A, Can-Am, LMP, and C-class. All are slot.it cars except for the T/A cars which are modified Scalextric cars.
I have a 3 lane track and the other host has a 3 lane track. We alternate track every other week.

[mattb]

GREAT

[GRUNZ]

you are building a digital track which means with the right software you can set up pacer cars that you can race against.
When I started this madness called slotcars, I knew nothing about it. I just went digital with the platinum set because 1) I wanted the simulations to throw strategy in the mix; 2) I really liked how the cars looked.
Initially, I had 2 people joining me (the wife was not really interested and I do not have kids). But nothing was really moving ahead...they were not vested in it as I were. The best thing was to join a local analog group that races on wood. From there I converted a few more to digital and now we race twice a week (one night analog on wood and one morning digital on plastic).

[silverspringsslotcars]

The Carson City track is closed to the public. As far as I can tell from the signs on the doors it is a slot car club now. The last time I looked there was a routed HO scale track and a routed 8 lane track. I went there once when it was still open to the public and you could run any scale slot car, but at that time their races were only 1/24th scale parma flex chassis type cars using the TSRF type motor. The sign had phone numbers to call if you wanted to be a member.

There are no other hobby stores that run slot cars (there are almost no hobby stores of any kind in northern Nevada).

Going to Las Vegas would be one heck of a commute for a Saturday race. It is 7-8 hours at 75+ mph with a few stops from where I live in Silver Springs.

I have a 2 lane routed track that I run by myself. It is for 1/32 scale cars. It is about 69 feet per lap with no banking and a large number of curves. I don't have a lap timer yet, but am in the process of building one myself. I know there are easier ways, but I was an engineer and so the challenge is there. If it works fine, if not there is always plan B (buy one).

Joseph

[frank9129]

If you are going to run 6 cars you may want to think out the turn marshalling. With kids you could be in trouble.
I do charity races at schools, churches, and scouts. I was thinking of a 6-8 lane track until I did the first Fall Fest at the local Elem. School.
Four cars into the wall on every lap cured me a 6-8 lanes.
My track is 4'x16' routed. I is just small enough to transport in my pickup truck.
Been a load of fun since I bought it in 2006.

[War Eagle River]

Figured it wouldn’t be to hard to find ‘good’ racers on Gulf Coast Florida. All the folks that come down here to retire and or escape the Winters, should be easy, right? Wrong. There are 3 ‘club’ tracks within 40 miles. All three are wood, 2 that run magna braid and cars with magnets, and ours, regular braid, no mag racing. Both magnet tracks have at least 8-10 racers every week. Our attendance varies from 4-12 racers. One racer from the 2 magnet tracks makes it over here once in a while, and 1 racer that frequents all 3 tracks. The deal is, the magnet racers can’t or don’t want to conform to our program. Shame. Went so far as to drop off flyers to the local Hobby shops, in the hope that would bring in some racers, to no avail. So where are they all at? Who knows?

[mattb]

Hard to understand the attraction of magnets over a good handling car with good tires. I think a lot of this has to with guys not having the ability to completely build and tune a scratch built car. I understand that. If I didn't build the cars that our group races the rest of the guys would probably be fishing.

The magnet cars seem more like running those kiddie slots where they can go upside down and around loops. That's just my opinion and we should be glad they are least involved with slot cars. Who knows maybe one or two guys will eventually race with you and enjoy building their own car and tuning it.

[War Eagle River]

[ourwayband]

We have a shop in Memphis,about an hour and a half from here.They have a nice large Carrera track.Store seems to have a decent amount of guys that race there.Not really a club,just guys stopping by and running.They run magnets only from what I see.They do tune the cars and also scratch build.Running with mags,running without,every one has their favorite.I just glad to see some guys into the hobby..As far as getting folks to the house to race,nobody around our area is interested...They will come and run my RC stuff though..

[tracyridge]

[mattb]

It's probably important that anybody new showing up is given a top notch car. That might help draw guys in.

[Modlerbob]

Here in DeBary, Fl. we have a solid group of three racers but we haven't been able to attract a fourth or fifth driver on a regular basis.

[War Eagle River]

Kind of hard to believe eh Bob? All the folks that come down here, retirees and relocates. That we would be turning racers away, cause we couldn’t fit them all in our house!