The Retired Report – RC Racing is COOKED

You heard what I just said, rc racing is COOKED. It’s BENT AF, as it has now become literally a race to extinction. Who allowed this to happen? Why doesn’t anyone actually fix it? Welp, I am Cubby, and welcome to a good ole’ fashioned Cub Report. Let’s start ranting, shall we? 🙂

You may not have noticed, but in 2024 there have been not one, but two IFMAR world championships cancelled. The powers that be allowed the IFMAR worlds to come to a complete standstill during Novid-19 (WTFreak!!!), and now, they are cancelling world championship events due to low attendance and various other problems. Recently the IFMAR 5th scale gas and 1/10 nitro world championships (which now has been moved to Bangkok) got the axe, and the other world events, are not expected to have high levels of attendance any time soon.

IFMAR world championships are supposed to be the pinnacle of our sport. Yet, the powers that be, treat them like garbage. WC races are often held at rather sketchy venues, in places that nobody wants to go. Can you blame real racers for just staying at home?

However, I think more so, people have left racing, or refuse to jump into the melee, because racing hasn’t changed since its inception. RC racing has never evolved. The last time I raced, maybe 3 years ago, it really wasn’t much different from racing back at R & R Hobbies in Quincy Illinois wayyyyyyy back in the day. And while racing back in the 80s truly was a blast, it’s FREAK’N 2024 now days! Society changes over time, our race rigs are much different, tracks are much different, yet, we still have “in less than 5 at the tone”.

From local racing, to the big time, rc racing just keep on getting smaller. So, why won’t anyone fix it? When I look at the people who “run” racing, they just don’t care. Their vision is far too small, they think just holding an event is good enough, regardless of how many entries there are, and virtually zero time is spent on people actually having “fun”. It’s become nothing but a cash grab, with that cash pile basically shrinking to nothing.

Many, many years ago, I said that if Traxxas were to jump into the scale game, they would crush it. That’s exactly what they did. Now days, with the industry on a downward trend, all companies are looking for new revenue streams. My fingers seem a bit reluctant to type this sentence, but if Traxxas were to ever decide to jump into the racing game, and I’m not taking about producing race cars here, I’m talking putting on an actual race series, ROAR and any/all the others are D O N E. Traxxas would do it right, with big promotion, solid venues, and solid pay-outs/trophies/etc. To any and all in the rc racing game, seriously guys, you keep screwing around running things into the ground, and someone else WILL start cutting the checks needed to make a LOT of cash off of rc racing. The sport of rc racing is inherently FUN, seriously it is, but you’d never get that feeling if you went to any rc race now days. I think if Traxxas were to ever get into the event promotion game, not only would the racing be more legitimate and fair, they’d also probably manage to retain the fun part of it. I’d doubt I’d see random racers cursing some marshal at one of their events, or some drivers throwing a new transmitter across the pits. I’d bet I’d see a bunch of new faces actually ENJOYING competing against others with toy cars.

To boil it down, racing community, you screwed it all up. You didn’t change, you didn’t evolve, you kept hitting the repeat button until only the guys with grey hairs would show up. You left so much MONEY on the table because of your lack of diligence, and more so, lack of a vision going forward. I don’t know how rc racing is going to turn out, but right now, I don’t know if it lives another 5 years. Seriously, I can’t see high level rc racing going forward like it is today.

However, as John “Bluto” Blutarsky once said, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”? We all know it’s not over until it over. Will the powers that be take a step back and realize GIANT changes are needed? Will some large multi-million dollar company just step in and do the job for them? My crystal ball came from Wish, so it don’t work so well, but me for one, I don’t want to see rc racing die. And that’s exactly what it’s doing right now. The Bat signal has been put up, will anyone answer the call???????

YOUR Retired Reporter