Two questions to you guys:

1) Do you think someone like Roach would sell more cars than a 15th place RC racer? My take is "Yes" and that most other industries have figured this out.
2) Do you think we can make RC look professional/cool/exciting or interesting enough to not look "cringe" to the avarage person? My take is obviously "yes" as you can see in the video but let us know what you think.

Other than that, feel free to comment, and disagree if you do so, in the comments below.
But keep it civil and realize this video is obviously for fun and thinking a bit outside the box. So let's have a good discussion below!

Very nice of hellmer to invite me here. Thanks man 👍

amazing. two of the realest rc personalities. thanks for this gentlemen.

Great video guys!! This needed to be said. I live in Florida and the weather kills outdoor racing. One thing I don't see is the Manufacturers as a whole investing back into local tracks to help the sport/scene grow. I'm going to throw a name out, LANCE MACDONALD!!! This man built a track in Lake City Florida called Gateway RC Park and it's a permanent facility. He's growing the scene! Oh yes BTW this track will be hosting the next IFMAR World Championship! At the end of the day the manufacturers need to lend a hand. Guys like you fueled my passion to race❤

The biggest thing any track can do is lower the barrier to entry. Roach touched on one aspect of this and I completely agree - track layouts at the club level need to be easier and less punishing. This has two benefits - 1) it's just easier for a beginner to get around, 2) it's still fun to race affordable RTRs on a less challenging track.

That second point cannot be discounted or underestimated in how critically important it is. Dirt oval is huge in the US and it's the only segment of racing seeing significant steady growth over the last 6 years. That growth was driven by affordable RTR classes. Less than $400 gets you into a fun, exciting, and competitive hobby with an all in one package.

The same thing is happening at any track that can run a Losi Nascar - it's the biggest class anywhere that runs them and tracks just for them are popping up all over.

But most importantly with these RTR classes, they are open to ALL skill levels. They are not seen or treated as novice only classes that you are eventually expected to graduate out of. There are lots of people who can afford a $180 Losi Nascar but won't/can't afford a $1000 touring car. You kick those people out of the only class they can afford and they're gone forever.

If we lower the barrier to entry, and keep that barrier low even for skilled drivers, people will show up. It's that simple. Tracks/genres of racing that are doing this now are proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Anything else is just rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic.

Roach take on big racing events is spot on. I’m from SoCal and the big races we have here can extremely draining, and don’t really bring new racers in. I also notice the bigger races can create a very aggressive environment. I’ve seen some conflicts come about. Club racing on the other hand is relaxing and allows drivers to get to know each other’s driving styles and is more welcoming to newer racers. I’m at a point where I’m looking forward for just a chill club race.

Both of you are 100% right on track lay outs. I remember as a newcomer not going to one of my local tracks for a while because the lay out was just too busy and intense. I think the best examples I’ve seen of a well design race track is in SDRC and Camarillo (Roadrunners RC Club). SDRC has a huge triple in the middle but you can also double single and you aren’t loosing too much time. All the jumps are accessible even with a 21.5 2wd buggy.

Something that I notice has brought a lot of people into racing is cheap RTR cars. SCOR (which is hosted by Notch), has a pretty big turn out on Tuesday nights and their biggest class is the RTR Losi NASCAR  cars. I’ve seen 25 entries on just that class and it is still going strong. What I like about these little RTRs it’s that it is a gateway to other racing classes like Tamiya euro truck or even Touring Car. He runs a great program and his goal is to always get us out by 930pm since we all work the next day. On road racing is strong down here and I give credit to Notch and DROC, heck it got me to stop doing off road and do on road!

Hey guys I’ve been following both of your channels for the last year since I had a surgery. Absolutely love both of your channels content. I come from a snowboard/mountain bike background and was lucky enough to own a few hobby grade vehicles when I was  a younger pre teen. After an injury I got back into rc driving the past year for fun mainly but dabble at the track when I get the chance. I would still want to be able to watch the sport at the highest level.

1). Yes I agree fully manufactures need to find people that are making the sport look cool and back them for advertising purposes. These creators would reach beyond people that are already within the sport. This is very common in other sports that I am invested in like snowboarding/MTB. Whether or not they are considered pro is for another discussion and to be honest I don’t really care as long as they are trying to help grow the sport like an ambassador.



2). I tried to tune into the IFMAR World Series this past week and to be honest it was a snooze fest for me (and I’m already into the sport). I think this is definitely and aspect that could be captured in a cooler way. As far as the actual racing goes. I think we need to mirror super cross or motocross formats. These sports are heavy influences on the sport of off-road rc racing (especially in the US I can’t speak for Europe and the rest of the world) and we need to lean into that. The whole event can be broadcasted on live RC if people want that but the heats/ LCQ/ A main  needs to be a show. I’m going to be honest I’m not even sure how the RC format is laid out fully and that’s my point the event is sooo long and stretched out with too much boring racing in between I’ve never even gotten close to watching a full event so don’t judge too much on my take because it is a bit ignorant. Keep up the great work guys.

Just a random side note. I know energy drinks can be a controversial topic (atleast in the action sports world) but have any of these large events ever reached out to redbull/monster for broadcasting?? They have created plenty of other content for action sports and my guess is they could be very insightful for planning and broadcasting events like these.

Cheers,

Great discussion here, gentlemen.  Something that I would like to add is that there is a huge untapped opportunity to tie RC in with STEM programs at schools... kids would love it and it would legitimately teach them so much.  This would help bring in beginners and could garner support from local municipalities.

Thank you for commenting. I agree on most of what you say.

One thing I actually think is debatable and I have a slightly different experience of is the track design thing.

My experience is that we've actually have had more problems with beginners breaking cars etc. when the track is to easy. Simple because it gets to fast.
One thing that we do now though is keep the jumps smaller than before to not punish a bad take off or angle as much but we do have more corners than before. Beginners also hit less curbs and stuff when the speeds get slower.

Again, thanks for the interesting comment.

Can't watch it now I'm at work I can't wait to watch what a great combination

I strongly agree with you on the last point.
Which I feel ties into the point you made about covering the race with at least 3 cameras and capturing close up and ideally super high frame rate action shots.

Also we should develop an exciting commentary style to go with it .. My idea is talking in terms of scale speed and power to make our little cars relatable to a wider motor sports audience.

My background is on the technical side of video post production and an idea that I am considering for development would solve these problems using technology.
The idea being to use RC as a way to develop a revolutionary automated motorsports broadcasting platform in the relatively low risk environment of RC racing and leveraging  the RC  community diy enthusiasm provide the development and share the profits.

to answer your questions:
1) For me personally yes .. Roach sells more RC product to me than any pro by miles .. For me personally the pro angle has never been enticing and generally if you have the talent to be a pro this seems to go hand and hand with some sort of social handicap and pros are often the worst explainers of setup and driving technique. However my opinions are almost always different to the general consensus, my impression is most people follow the stars and that is why the money follows the stars also.
2) I'm 100% on the same page as you are. The toy cars is a reaction to poor standard of presentation on social media of RC racing in general. Your production value is on a whole other level to Roaches and IMHO blows away much more popular creators like Kevin Talbot or MSM. Ryan Harris production values are quite good but I find the actual content is not very interesting, too slow without enough information that I can actually apply to my own driving.

PS: Roach RC and Hellmers RC are my favorite RC channels.

I have been hanging around at sea tac rc track which is a public park track that doesn't have races on it. It a bash track but has jumps that you may find on a 1/8 track. It's still good for practice for racing. It's interesting to see all the different people that are not necessarily into racing. Some things that I have observed.

Track difficulty totally is at play. There is a drivers stand that people could use but they decide most of the time not to use it due to crashing too often for how the track is laid out.

For newer drivers dirt oval is a good simple time. There is a section of the track where you can run a oval. I Sometimes get people to run around with me and most of the time they put on a bigger smile for a longer period of time with having other cars to actively drive with vs surviving the track.

A lot of people that are there are there are showing up spontaneously and dont plan a whole day around driving rc cars. The thought of having to spend more that 3 hours at one place is a lot for the majority of the public. Also the thought of not being able to run or have another activity to do between races kinda irks people too.

It really has taken the race brain away to listen to the general rc public in what they enjoy out of rc cars. It good to hear what other people are thinking about rc cars outside of racing to understand what makes each person drive rc cars.

As far as showcasing the races via cameras.  The races need to have a few tiny whoop style drones buzzing around like the last winter Olympics. The on board shots might work too if you like the aggressive view from the cars.

Yes 💯 agree the top races need this A/B final focus. Some elements from 8th to 10th. Bump ups, LCQ to add to escalation/ excitement. The Aussie worlds had a great intro section to a final drivers. Florida carpet champs know how to make a track look cool.

I agree local tracks could possibly do more get the track looking cool. Neon lights, jumping through neon hoops, give it some show and pizazz to make it a feast for the senses. I really like the many cameras on the cars idea.

No name rc podcast tried with their championship a few years back intending to amp up the media coverage in much of this style and ideas. It needs investment into the media companies to be able to more of this. For sure the live streams can be very dull as little context of what’s going on G final or endless qualification

1) yes. Roach can definitely sell some cars. In fact a couple of purchases were based on his information and his experiences on that car.

2) RC used to be popular. They filled up stands and everything. we probably need to go back to what they were doing and all those years ago. I know at my local dirt oval there's some people that prefer watching us race then watching the actual cars. But then again dirt oval cars look very scale.

Losi nascar did it right. It's growing!!!!

10:10 Hobbytech Xmid rtr ! It is excellent, rather reliable and easy to setup as it doesn't have the tunability of a more expensive buggy. Another option is to re introduce Tamiya cups, a Dt04 could be setup for Astro and would allow for a low budget to get into the hobby.

The taking care of beginners is a big one. Bad attitudes have turned many away from a dying hobby. I wish these companies would invest in starting rc awareness and clubs at middle/high schools to build a base of future racers. Yeah there’s a few young people here and there, but most of the rc racers I encounter are 35+ (me included) and we need fresh blood to supply the future of this hobby

Problem #1 the cost of land in the U.S.A
Problem #2 the cost of insurance. That it takes to run an RC track.

I thought they did a pretty good job at the worlds with the A final. I thought it was pretty exciting.