ASK Cubby – Your Logical Questions, My Irrational Responses

“Fix It Or Shut Up

Cubby,

With you always ranting against ROAR and rc racing, why don’t you put your money where your big mouth is and fix it?

(name withheld by request)
Michigan”

Cubby- Well hola there Mr. Name Withheld By Request. As always, thanks for taking the time to write in, and of course a sticker kit is all yours if you have ones big enough to send us your snail mail.

Yup, you got me there bud, I certainly do love melting down on racing. However, you aren’t privy to the numbers that I am. The sales for racing oriented vehicles is abysmal! When I talk to the more important suits at the big names, all I hear is how bad sales are for the racing segment. And not just “normal” bad for our industry, but even worse.

I have no dog in the rc racing fight. My checks don’t depend on it, and more importantly, I have wayyyy too many other things going on. However, I am not going to leave your question unanswered, or feed you some BS.

If someone put a gun to my head and said “Fix rc racing or you are dead!” this is what I would do…

1. I would have a sit down with the various companies that spend the most on racing. I would start simply with the question, “So how’s your ROI with racing now days?”. Of course I know the answer to that question, it is terrible, but that would be my starting point. If Happy Flower Racing Company isn’t making any money with the way racing is right now, why in the hell are they still cutting those checks to drivers and paying to fly them all over the world? If you aren’t making money at it, either get out of it, or fix it, and at this point only the manufacturers are capable of doing that. With me preferring not to see rc racing killed off (still a huge fan at heart), I would like to see it fixed. Right now the big factory drivers love ROAR! And why not, all the rules are written to benefit them. What they are not written for is to help sell cars or to promote the hobby to a wider audience.

2. I would then pitch this… Stop freak’n sending your guys to ROAR events! Hell, the next time you think that is a good idea, simply go down to the bank, withdraw 20K, then go out in the parking lot and burn it, it would do just about as much good for the hobby.

3. Then I would pitch… Let’s get all you guys in a room (the manufacturers) and not leave until a new sanctioning body is worked out. A new sanctioning body made by the manufacturers that not only promotes fair racing, but also is worlds ahead in marketing. The factory guys wouldn’t like it, but let’s not beat around the bush here, they are employees not unlike the guys that work in shipping, the guys that design new cars, or the guys that put together ad campaigns. From there on out you’ll only pay to send them to the new sanctioning body’s events.

4. Ya I know, the drivers will cry about not having a sanctioning body that bows down before them at the slightest whim, but what they underestimate is their own ability. If you were to put the elite guys on a track made out of sand, or snow, or grass, or ice, they would still beat the local Joe Blows. So hey Mr Factor Shoe, would you rather not get a check and still hit ROAR events (because so few cars are being sold), or would you like to make even more money as sales actually improve?

5. I would also really enforce the scale realism side of things. Gone would be cars that don’t remotely look anything like a real life vehicle. Would that kill off 2wd buggy? Would it kill off 1/8 nitro? Nope. You can absolutely still use those platforms, but simply give them a face-lift to something that the mainstream can recognize.

While you may hate me ranting about the state of racing, you aren’t even close to how torqued off I am about the sad state that it is now in. RC racing is near and dear to my heart and will be to the day I die, and I am soooo tired of seeing a very cool aspect of our hobby going down the drain.

So there ya have it folks, just one letter this week as I am out of the office on “special assignment”. Shoot me your questions, rants, and chest beatings to thecubreportrc at gmail dot com. If, and it is a very small chance, your letter hits our front page you’ll win one of our stickers packs. Better still, “Letter of the Month” winners take home one of our t-shirts.

YOUR Cub Reporter