MODEL CAR NATS- WHAT'S WRONG?

[il cavalino]

Just had a look at the results from the Model Car Nats held at Mobile Raceways and was disappointed by the number of entries or rather lack thereof.

The most entries in any one class was twelve, and there were entries of four and six in other classes. And the proposed Plafit Group C enduro was cancelled.

THIS WAS THE PREMIER MODEL CAR EVENT OF THE YEAR.

Added to the cancellation of much hyped PEC series suggests that something is wrong.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

Geoff

[Tony.A]

Hi Geoff,most of the entries werefrom locals,hardly anyone came from interstate so the interstate peopl are the first ones to ask as to why they were no shows.They certainly missed out on a great weekend of racing.

[Davnic74]

Just had a look at the results from the Model Car Nats held at Mobile Raceways and was disappointed by the number of entries or rather lack thereof.

The most entries in any one class was twelve, and there were entries of four and six in other classes. And the proposed Plafit Group C enduro was cancelled.

THIS WAS THE PREMIER MODEL CAR EVENT OF THE YEAR.

Added to the cancellation of much hyped PEC series suggests that something is wrong.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

Geoff

A big insult to Peter at Mobile Raceways thats the way i see it..

Were where you for the Plafit races Geoff ??? maybe you need to ask yourself whats wrong!

5 Victorians travelled to Dapto last year (8hrs) for this event and none of them could return the favour, no Queenslanders either!!.
As for the locals that only have to travel 30 min- 1 hr still couldnt make the effort to enter at least 1 class...but still no one can say why...And probably wont.
Piss weak IMO... NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

[stoo23]

Hmm,..Ge Whiz,...a Racer Critiscising a Very Long Time Racer AND Track Owner, for Not turning up to a Slot Car Race, when he is Running his Own Race weekend at His OWN Track,..Now That IS a First !!

I have raced Interstate at various Wing car events spanning over the Last 30 years and have Often if Not usually Always had the pleasure to Race against Geoff,..to be Honest, I'd venture he is one of the Most Travelled of the Current Crop of drivers about.

Let's think about this shall we?

Geoff, a Long time Wing Car racer, has scheduled a Very Famous and Very Long Time held Wing Car event at His Eminently Suitable Wing Car style track, BUT, he is Castigated for not turning up to an event, Held on the same weekend as his Own event for Mainly 1/32 Plastic cars, to be raced around what can Only be described as also one of the Better Wing car style tracks around, (it being Very Much a US Pro Style track from the late 60's early 70's),..NOT an arguably suitable 1/32 or Scale style track!,..???,..Hmm,..Now let's see here, as an older Ex Wing car racer, that also races 1/32 cars,..I KNOW where I would have been heading if I had suitable cars for Both events.

Perhaps some Real thought ought to be given towards running all the Slot.its, Ninco's etc, etc, at a Track that Eminently Suits both their Size and performance and could Provide Truly Exciting Racing , 'Appropriate' to their Scale!
Personally I find running 1/32 cars on Large Wooden commercial tracks with 100mm lane centres a Rather Dull experience.
I Rarely race 1/32 Plastic cars at HSC even,..especially as they race with Magnets!,..sigh.

I was Vaguely interested in travelling to Dapto, had even spoken to Pete Hopkins about it,..but without Transport and Only to have entered in one or two classes, would have required me to travel to Dapto on all 3 days!,..something I was Loathe to do each day, or to have to stay locally,..couldn't afford it!
To Travel all the way to Melbourne and have to stay for the weekend may have been arguably slightly easier than Dapto and perhaps more Fun, (as I atleast have Friends down there), But the Costs!, just to race plastic cars on a Kingleman!!??,
With All due respect to Peter and his excellent Track and facilities, is Not MY idea of a Whole heap of Fun !!

You Know, Not everyone's Spare cash Cup Runneth Over !!

If you look at quite a Number of the various Interstate events of all classes over this past year, there have Not been Huge numbers travelling around.
Some Can afford it,..I Can't !! and Neither can many others!
If You Can GREAT!,..but Don't Critiscize Others for their Unfortunate Financial situation,..I Bet Many of those that did Not attend,..probably Would have Liked to !!

[chadly]

Very correct stoo!

[il cavalino]

Wow, hang on a minute Davnic!!!

As Stoo points out it was a bit difficult to be in two places at once. Well done for yours and your family's attendance and congratulations on your results.(had it not been for you guys supporting the event there may not have been one) Can I point out that I loaned my cars to Ted Leone to enable him to race at the Scale Nats.

Can I also say that I have attended EVERY Plafit race that Peter has held at Mobile Raceways including the 2008 Scale Nats and the 2009 Plafit champs, as well as the two Major races at Hornsby in Dec 2009 and March 2010.

How about you?

My post was just questioning what were the reasons for the very poor attendance at the Nats!!!!

Geoff

[Davnic74]

No worries Geoff, although i wasnt criticizing you just mearly asking the question.

My "piss weak" comment was aimed at the local guys within a 1 hr driving distance not at yourself.

As for travelling interstate i was at the NSW State titles last year in December, but travelling is not always easy with 3 kids under 5 years of age.. (4.5yo, 2yo and 2 months.) so i think my family commitments comes first..

Stoo i agree with you re the financial situations of some as i am one of them, as mentioned above (3 kids) doesnt leave alot of time and spare cash for racing little cars and travel exspenses..

[WSMCR-Plucka]

Hosting events on the same weekend is the first problem.

Yeah local racers not turning up is and can be an issue but...

this is a growing thing only into its 3rd event and trying to find a date is the hardest thing.

I would have loved to have come but i was in QLD for the real drags crewing/photographing and so on (www.cacklingpipes.com) .

We had one guy come down from WSMCR and others were planning to go but date clashes and other issues popped up stopping them from going.

Yes having no racers from Hornsby or Dapto was a shame and it looks like non from QLD.

Now that i am not a track owner i can speak my mind a little freely. Agendas and "cliques" can and do dictate who races where and when and when a facitlity becomes offside with groups then these kind of events happen, its happened to us and it will continue to happen.

The other issue is running magnet cars on non magnet tracks, when a racer is used to racing on a particular track then when they find out tracks are not magnabraided then it may put them off.

I dont know but all i know is having 2 events on the same weekend may have seen a handful of racers have to choose one over the other.

Plucka

[jazzbell]

Long weekend in my opinion is not always the pick of dates. But 2 venues holding a major meeting the same weekend,whats the deal with that? Surely a change could have been made.

No mention about guy's from Adelaide. Remember last year at Dapto if you did not have the interstate entry's their would not have been a national event. Qld,S.A,VIC. As for this year take the Scriven family out of it, NO nationals.

Other than myself, nobody here in Adelaide runs any of the plafit stuff. (at thunderbird) We just do'nt have the tracks at thunderbird raceway. 32 scale only. I did not make the nationals this year but some of my cars did ,winning GT NINCO and NSR. I did not make the APC last year but still made the effort to send some guy's from Adelaide with my cars and pay for everything. I cant be at the APC this year but will still make the effort to send some guy's up again. This is why i chose not to go to Melbourne.

Plucka,as for magnabraid tracks i dont think this is an issue. Here in Adelaide we race three nights,up to 60 racers on a Friday night. We never race with magnets on any of these nights. The classes they run at the nationals the magnetic force on the motors would have no effect at all, even with magnabraid.

The issue we have at thunderbird,is the standard race car. Standard racing is for the kids and the newbie. Guy's here that race 3 nights a week will not go out and buy cars just for a meeting that will never be used again. I'm lucky because my son races so i can use his cars.

We are looking into next year. But 32 scale only with the 32 plafit. Rules will be different. I can say one thing,entry's will be 30 plus in every class.

We have to look and ask our selves how do we improve on getting the numbers at these events . What is really wrong?

regards shane a

team thunderbird

[bulsara]

I was there, it cost me close to $600.00 plus entry fees to attend, but did not feel it was a waste of money. I just feel sorry for all those that missed a great weekend and the Mobile crew that did a great job as usual. I would/will do it again. Do not invite the Scrivens next time they are too good and there is too many of them.

[Garry J]

A proper scale track would help, and I'm sure that's occurred to Peter.

After the last APC I must admit I have no interest in racing scale cars on either a King or a Kingleman; and Dandenong is such a long journey from Brisbane even with the generous help of Mr Tyler at the Melbourne end.

Hornsby is a much easier trip for me and the track suits the cars so much better.

[bulsara]

A proper scale track would help, and I'm sure that's occurred to Peter.

After the last APC I must admit I have no interest in racing scale cars on either a King or a Kingleman; and Dandenong is such a long journey from Brisbane even with the generous help of Mr Tyler at the Melbourne end.

Hornsby is a much easier trip for me and the track suits the cars so much better.

Hi Garry J,
Appreciate your comments. From a newbie's point of view what is the difference between a "scale" track and the one in Dandenong? I thought the racing was great, but I have only been in the hobby for just over 1 year. Still a lot to learn.

[lu05ke]

Howdy all,
I was all for attending even tho I just returned from my honeymoon to only run the SCX Nascar class like I did at last years Nats.
But as I raced at WSMCR with Magnets I only found out a few weeks prior to the event that the track was not magnabraid and couldnt convince myself to part with flight, accommodation and hire car money to simply put my car in the wall lol. (spent a fair bit of time painting and stickerin my car as its one of those plain white SCX shells so didnt want to kill it)
So I'm guessing Plucka hit the nail on the head in my case!

[il cavalino]

Not sure what makes a track "scale" as there are all supposed to be 1/24th scale but I think what Garry is referring to is a smaller track with a few more corners and not as many or not so long straights, which seem to suit the "scale" car better.

The Kingleman and Blue King tracks were built more for wing cars and flexi kars.

Hope that explains the difference.

King Willy

[bulsara]

Not sure what makes a track "scale" as there are all supposed to be 1/24th scale but I think what Garry is referring to is a smaller track with a few more corners and not as many or not so long straights, which seem to suit the "scale" car better.

The Kingleman and Blue King tracks were built more for wing cars and flexi kars.

Hope that explains the difference.

King Willy

Appreciate your feedback. I am in the early stages of slot competition so I tend to love competing on anything and everything. I am not a very good driver and will probably never be, but you give me a track and I will try to the best of my ability and love every minute of it.