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mud4fun

Why are races mid week?

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I'm looking to sign my two youngest daughter's up to a local club (and the BRCA) because they want to start club racing. However, after reading all the info from half a dozen clubs within an hour's drive of us they all seem to run their races mid week.

York off road club uses the Robin Hood Raceway which is about 45 mins from us and Worksop RC club is about 10 mins further. According to their schedule they run race evenings mid week with the last race finishing at approx 10pm. As a driver you would be expected to help clear/pack up afterwards so don't expect to get away until 11pm. Add on an hour's drive back home and the kids would be lucky to be in bed by midnight. This is clearly no good as the races are on school nights and it would be unacceptable for them to be going to bed so late when they have school next day. (They have to be up at 6am to get washed, dressed, breakfast and on a bus to school).

Is there a reason why the club's don't run races on Friday or Saturday evenings when a late finish time would be less of an issue?

Seems their current race schedule will put alot of younger people off entering or joining?

 

 

 

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My local club runs indoor on a Thursday night. I don't go for the same reason. Not getting home till after midnight! They said that the school hall is booked up by other people the other days, and a local church uses it on a Sunday. I guess that's what happens when you use someone else's venue.

When I raced as a kid it was all out doors on a Sunday morning. However, most clubs (certainly near me) have sold up land etc, and moved to school halls, even for off road buggies)

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In my localised experience, indoor and temporary tracks tend to run on evenings and permanent outdoor tracks run on weekends.  The venues for the temporary tracks often aren't available on weekends as they are booked by other things, and Fridays and Saturdays are often booked up also for weekend evening entertainments.

Permanent tracks tend to do weekend events, but as the tracks are hired by various different groups, it's not always the same event every weekend.  For example my local permanent tarmac track tries to run a "clubby" (basic club race day maybe with club season championship points scoring) twice per month during the summer, but it also gets booked out to host various national events throughout the year, and also there needs to be some weekend downtime for maintenance.  So there isn't the schedule space for a race every weekend, nor do the committee want to give up every weekend to hosting race events when they work all week.

I'm not sure where Workshop race but I know RHR host nationals on weekends, it might be worth contacting RHR direct to see if any clubs run weekend events.  I know Tamiya Junkies hire the circuit one Sunday every month for a RWYB bash, I try to get up there a couple of times per year.

I think Bingham Model Raceway runs club nights on Fridays at their outdoor track just off the A46, a bit further for you but at least you don't have the school night problem.  I'm not sure if A1 Racing Club at Grantham run any weekend events.

If you were racing touring cars it might be different - I don't know if there's an indoor touring club near you, down my way I've got 3 indoor carpet clubs within an hour and another one that's probably 70 minutes away and they all run on week nights.  It's so much easier to find venues for tourers because you just need a school hall and some carpet, 3D racing needs dedicated land (even if it's just a patch of grass somewhere) and we all know how expensive that is these days :( 

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I have visions on opening my own rc track one day... not that it really may happen but I had a idea to make the working time from 5pm to 10pm.

 

basically I would like by 10pm to have all the children out of the club and have the adult folks enjoy a beer or two.

 

so I can understand why clubs are running that late. 
 

also my club would have on weekends a RC school for schooling youngsters to race and setup. That needs to be paid in advance for upcoming 3 months. So basically children on weekends and over weekend until 10pm.

that would take for granted I have my own space and unlimited time to be there.

 

also from my expirience if the kids are too young it is more of a pain to race with them,  then if they are older.

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Thanks @toyolien @Mad Ax, yes that makes sense about the shared venues being used for other things. 

OK I will contact RHR and get some more info.

@Fabia130vRS yes, I can imagine how very young kids could cause issues at a race event. They caused me enough trouble even at home!! :D However my daughter's are in their mid teens now and have a good amount of experience in driving RC cars so I'm hoping they should get on fine.

 

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30 minutes ago, Fabia130vRS said:

I have visions on opening my own rc track one day... not that it really may happen but I had a idea to make the working time from 5pm to 10pm.

I know a few people who have done this.  Remember that every RC track once started with one person thinking "can I build an RC track near here?"

I know someone on the south coast who had a spare unit, too small for a regular touring track but big enough for micro drift, so bought a number of identical cares and hires it out for birthdays and parties.  Then he built a small crawler course into the walls complete with all sorts of crazy obstacles for the kids to drive over.

Local to me, a local hobby shop owner had his unit on a farm, and he agreed with the farmer that he could have use of a small patch of land to build a dirt track.  We had a couple of races there in 2019 but terrible weather spoiled attendance numbers, 2020 was supposed to be its first national event but world events got in the way.  It's taken a huge amount of work to get the track built (lots of digger time building tabletops and ramps, getting power fitted, sorting drainage, building a timber driver's rostrum on the overlooking bank which is suddenly too small to have a decent grid thanks to social distancing) and as it's dirt it needs a lot of maintenance to keep it operational, but at last there's the hope that I'll have an off-road track within 30 minutes of my house.

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We used to run indoors on a Wednesday night for a few reasons.

1- Venue availability,  if your venue is booked up at the weekends (our venue was an indoor electric Go Kart track, so Friday nights - the weekend wasn't available) 

2 - Cost, it's generally cheaper to hire a venue mid week.

3 - Gives a bit of joy to the mid week!! 

4 - If during the championship race season, racers will be setting their cars up for a different tracks, our championship is outdoors on grass (for now), so you'd be changing just about everything, which is not something you want to rush ,either after a club meet, or the morning of a National Championship meet (when you could be a 5hrs drive to a track down south) 

5 - If you are racing at the weekend, you don't want to break your car, and not get it fixed for Championship racing.

6 - People running the club, are generally RC racers too, and want to race in a Championship at the weekend themselves (unless it's their club holding the event) 

7- If you've got alot of 18 - 25 (ish) yr olds, weekends are about partying (I remember those days!! 🍺🕺😂😂

8 - People have less commitments mid week. Weekends are taken up, visiting relatives, DIY etc etc

9 - Running a club at the weekend takes alot of planning. If you clash with a big meeting not that far away (couple of hours) you'll not get many turning up.

If you want to contribute, if you explain you need to head off early as you've kids, and you assist with what you can setting up, then I can't see anyone complaining. Just because it finishes at 10, doesn't mean you need to stay until 10. All depends on the number of people,  and the number of finals. If you're in the E final, then once you've marshalled you could be possibly away for 9.

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On 22/01/2021 at 7:41 AM, Fabia130vRS said:

I have visions on opening my own rc track one day...

Go for it man!! 

I'd try and start, by seeing if theres anyone near, that'll be interested. Then have a meeting in a public car park, or somewhere else that's free, more to see who actually turns up, it's all well and good people saying they'll turn up, but 80% usually don't (forgot, something else takes priority as life does etc) 

We went for an indoor venue, as outdoors is tricky, as you'll be pretty much, out of action, for 5 months a year (unless you go for an Astro surface, but you'll need to sort good land drainage). Indoor it can be raining, snowing or pitch black outside , and you can still have a meeting.

If you want to open a full ,purpose built venue, it isn't cheap!!  

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21 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

If you want to contribute, if you explain you need to head off early as you've kids, and you assist with what you can setting up, then I can't see anyone complaining. Just because it finishes at 10, doesn't mean you need to stay until 10. All depends on the number of people,  and the number of finals. If you're in the E final, then once you've marshalled you could be possibly away for 9.

This is how I used to race.  I worked 5 minutes from the venue but I lived an hour's drive away.  I finished work at 5:30, before the race meet started, so I'd be there by 5:45, I'd have all the tables and chairs set out before the race director arrived to start building the track.  Most clubs really struggle to get people to help out with setup or teardown, so I was doing my bit - and IMO it's quicker to get a job done when you're the only one there.  A dozen helpful people all trying to set up tables and chairs just get in each other's way.

That meant once my last marshalling stint was done, I could head straight off.

Also, most places I run at will run the junior heats first up to the As last, so as Wooders says the last heat of the night could be way before 10pm.  Race, marshal, then go.

On the flipside, if like me you have an irrational dislike of marshalling, a big perk of being in the A final is you get to marshal for the first junior final.  That means you do your final marshalling stint at the start of the round and your last final at the end.  So once you pick your car up after the final, your duties are done and you can talk nonsense with your pit buddies and help with teardown - all the stressy stuff is done.  Somehow I find I enjoy my final so much more when I know I don't have to marshal another race right after.

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I've got the feeling, @mud4fun you think club meetings (or RC meetings in general) are far more serious than they actually are. As I've said on my post,  it's more a bunch of RC nuts ,meeting up to run their cars.

I know at our club, if you turned up with kids (no need for 'signing up' thing, and you don't need a BRCA licence for 2 or 3 meetings, but I'd always recommend getting one, if you're planning on using an RC car out with you're own boundry, just for the insurance stand point), we'd all help to get you through the night, and make it as enjoyable as possible,  even if they made the A final, we'd just run the A final first to let you away (and I've marshalled for people in the past ,who needed away).

I'd put some cars in the boot, and head over one night ,with the intention of getting a feel of the club, they may give you some track time, just for the 3 of you to run round (Although it depends on how busy it is, if they've just reopened after lockdown, it could be quite busy with everyone allowed out the play!! 😂😂

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Thanks @Wooders28, you're right to an extent but there are other factors too. The kids are very nervous of running with other cars in case they crash and damage somebody's car and they are also nervous of the social aspect, mainly as they would like to be amongst more people their own age.

I used to be a member of a little after school RC club many years ago when I was a teenager and it was all good fun, not very serious. Then in my early to mid 20's I raced with a few friends once a week (or went greenlaning in the 1:1 Land Rover) followed with an evening of pool in the pub - fond times. In later years I also used to meet up with other TC members for bashing and we did quite a few TC spring/summer drives etc about 15 years ago. Again all fun and not very serious at all.

I think it is my own stupid fault for spending hours with the kids watching videos of races and club meets on YouTube. They only tend to show the better drivers (A finals) and the driver interviews make all the drivers sound like mega serious racers who are not really enjoying themselves. It all looks very serious, hardly ever see people laughing or joking about, tends to give the impression of seriousness even if that is not the case. Maybe we need some outtake videos of people crashing a bit more, people having a good laugh or joke to make them a bit more human? 

Anyway I think we are sorted now. We will be off to Robin Hood Raceway as soon as it re-opens and we'll take it from there.:) I'm hoping that we'll meet some regulars there and we can get advice about best local clubs etc from that.

Would be good to attend some of the events like TamiyaJunkies or Iconic RC run so my kids can get to do a bit of socialising, they'll be even more nervous in public now after spending a year confined to home! 

 

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8 hours ago, mud4fun said:

The kids are very nervous of running with other cars in case they crash and damage somebody's car

That's only natural, no one wants to damage anyone else's car.

 

8 hours ago, mud4fun said:

I think it is my own stupid fault for spending hours with the kids watching videos of races and club meets on YouTube.

Some of the races are brilliant to watch, people at the top of their game, but it is a job to those guys, so there's not alot of joking about in interviews.

 

One of young Dans first races when he was 5, don't think he makes it around the track once! , cuts at least one corner per lap, takes one or two out, but no one is bothered! 🤷‍♂️😂

 

 

 

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@Wooders28 that is brilliant! I will show the kids that tomorrow, will make them feel a bit more at ease. Much appreciated.

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47 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

@Wooders28 that is brilliant! I will show the kids that tomorrow, will make them feel a bit more at ease. Much appreciated.

In contrast, this was a few months ago, down at Southport, when restrictions where lifted. Practice and have fun.

 

 

 

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