This post is to help serve as a small intro for those who might be new to racing. I really enjoy writing, so if I can educate or help somebody through my writing and experiences all the better. Feel free to ask questions, leave comments or contribute where you think it’s appropriate. I hope it’s of help to somebody. Let me preface this: I am not an expert racer. I’ve been racing for about 12 years off-and-on. I’ve always raced off-road and either ran 1/10 2WD buggy, 1/10 2WD Stadium Truck, or 1/10 Nitro Stadium. I’ve raced at a handful of tracks around Oregon and generally finish in the top 3 unless I break stuff. However, with my experience I think I can give a pretty good idea of how to help out somebody who’s interested in racing, but has little or no experience. Firstly, anybody interested in racing needs to understand what it’s really about. Most people coming into racing were “bashers” first. The two activities are completely and totally different. The racetrack and the racers that show up are there to turn fast, consistent laps and have competitive fun. I see people show up to races/practices that have never raced before and don’t really take the track seriously. You’ll have to understand that it’s not built to be a playground with individual lanes. If you want to race, please be mindful that it’s not an organized bash session. Take it seriously and have the want to improve your performance. With that out of the way, the first thing I’d suggest to any potential racer is to observe a race or practice session before you actually jump into it. If possible, show up on a race day or a scheduled practice at a local track and just spectate for awhile. Ask people questions, identify the fast racers and check out the facility. This gives a much better idea to somebody if it’s something they’re really interested in. It’s a totally different world from just bashing, so you should determine whether it looks fun. Take notes on which types of vehicles are showing up to race (short course, stadium truck, 4WD, etc.) and make sure you’ve got something similar to run. The races are grouped into “classes” and if you’re the only guy showing up with a certain type of vehicle it’ll will be difficult to work you into another class, if they even allow that. As a general rule, monster trucks and vehicles not necessarily built to be raced usually aren’t raced. All tracks should have a driver’s meeting before each race. You don’t need to be racing to listen in on the meeting and you should check it out. They’ll go over the rules of the facility and what’s expected of the racers and spectators. Pay attention to this stuff because there will be some golden information in there. They’ll probably also go over the the racing classes, who is in those classes and the racing order. Every track I’ve ever been to expects that you are to corner marshall the race that follows the one you participated in. And if you’re racing the last race, you corner marshall the first race. Most tracks run two heat races and one main event for each class. Some bigger events run three heat races, but more commonly it’s cut to two for sake of time. Heat races are used to determine your starting position for the main event. Heat races can last anywhere between 5 and 7 minutes depending on the track’s rules. Generally, your finishing position and/or lap count are averaged together from the two heat races and then compared to your competition. This determines where you start in the main event. Main events are sometimes longer than heat races, but generally they are the same length. At the end of the race day there will usually be another driver’s meeting to go over race results and sometimes hand out prizes for the winners.
Once you’ve decided that you like it and you’re destined to be the next World Champion you’ll need to prep your ride for the next race. The first thing I always recommend to a new racer is to get some appropriate tires. I realize not everyone can afford to buy new tires right away, but it’ll be almost impossible to learn how to race with poor traction. Tires are the biggest part of any vehicle and it’s really important to make a good tire choice. This subject could have it’s own how-to but I’ll give my best “too-long; didn’t-read” here. Generally, an off-road track will either be loose dirt, hard-packed dirt or some combination of both. On tracks with a lot of loose dirt (often called “loamy”) people often run long pin-style tires like Step-Pins or GooseBumps. This allows the long pins to dig into the loose dirt for more traction. On tracks with hard-packed dirt (often called “blue groove” or sometimes “dry slick”) people will often run really short pin/tread tires. Some tracks have areas that are hard-packed and areas with high loam and call for a tire with a combination of small and long pins. Look at what the fast guys run and copy them. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. After tire choice comes shocks. I always recommend rebuilding shocks often. I rebuild my shocks every 2 to 3 race days, depending on how much track time I get. It’s really surprising how quickly shocks can get contaminated. There’s a lot of great how-to’s out there to rebuild shocks, but generally just empty out any old shock oil, clean out the shock body with the cleaner of your choice (I love Simple Green for cleaning my R/C stuff) and refill with fresh, clean oil. Depending on the style of shock there’s different methods to “bleed” them of excess oil. Follow the directions in your instruction manual if you’re not clear how to do it. There’s a lot of different oil weights for all different needs, but 30wt. is a pretty good place to start if you haven’t found something you like better. Check your vehicle over for loose parts, nuts or screws. Your suspension system should be soft and smooth. If anything binds or feels tight you should investigate the cause. It’s often a bent hinge pin or shock shaft. Make sure all the wheels spin freely, but the wheels nuts are tight. Set your ride height so that your axles are roughly level with ground-level. Your vehicle should “settle” into its ride height. If you pick your vehicle off the ground the shocks should raise up for a little bit before the wheels come off the ground. I see a lot of new racers show up with their ride height jacked as high as it will go and that is not effective to control bumps and jumps. The shocks need to rise and fall, if your suspension is set as high as it will go you will never get any “rise” from them since they’re at full rise already. Once you’ve got all your prep done you’re ready to race!
When you show up on race day it’s important to check-in or register with the track director. If the track uses a transponder system they should go over how to use it with you. Otherwise, they might assign you a number and tell you where you can put it on your car’s body. Check out all your electronics and/or motor. If you run electric make sure your battery can hold out for as long as the race lasts and if you run nitro, be sure your engine is tuned well. Make some friends, chat it up in the pit area and enjoy yourself while you’re waiting for your race. Once you’re on the track it’s important to concentrate on yourself and only yourself. Don’t worry too much about what other people think of you or worry that you’re in somebody’s way. It might seem self-centered, but you’re there to learn and the people on the track with you had to learn once, too. Work on staying in the middle of the the lanes, go only fast enough to not crash and don’t worry about clearing big jumps. If the jumps are built the way they should be you can take them as single jumps or even just roll them. It’s important to learn how to race slowly and not just jump into being competitive right away. It’s much harder to learn fast than it is to learn slowly. Learn to be consistent and don’t be afraid to ask fellow racers for tips about tricky parts of the track. The fast guys should have the secrets figured out and shouldn’t have any problem sharing them with you. That’s what’s great about this sport; I’ve never been to a track where anybody kept secrets. The fast guys are always willing to help out when they can. Regarding vehicle handling, there’s a lot of changes that can be made to change how the vehicle reacts to jumps, throttle, steering and more. Put broadly, I wouldn’t recommend a beginner mess with too much of those settings. A lot of the setups that come with kits or RTR vehicles are pretty good and should be an excellent starting point. Learn to drive the car the way it is until you get to know exactly how it’ll handle. I can’t explain it much differently, but at some point you should be able to predict how your vehicle will react to certain conditions. Once you have that “sixth sense” you can start tuning your vehicle to change that behavior. But that’s a different article for a different day. I do have some general driving tips that could help if you’re having difficulty, though! A few tips that should help on the track: Brake before the turn, steer into it and accelerate out of it. Don’t attempt to clear a jump if you aren’t “squared up” with it. You’ll just crash and roll. Slow down if you have to, even if you slow down it’ll be faster than crashing. The same goes for the straightaways on the track. Don’t bury the throttle trigger if you aren’t “squared up” with the the track. There’s a good chance you’ll get out of control and hit the track pipe. Slow down enough that you can get straightened out before you go fast again. You can alter your vehicle’s attitude in the air. Applying the throttle in midair will help bring the nose up and hitting the brakes will sharply bring the nose down. This is especially helpful when landing jumps that have a gap. If you find yourself crashing a lot on a certain jump, just take it slowly until you can find a good speed and/or rhythm to make it easier. It’s faster to go slow than it is to crash! If you accidentally crash into another driver’s car on the track it’s polite (and good sportsmanship) to let them around you and try to make a clean pass next time. Other people should do the same for you, too! You will find that you probably pass more people by not crashing than by going faster than them. This is pretty normal, especially at “club-level” racing. The winner is usually the guy who crashed the least. I hope this helps anybody who’s new to the racing scene get a better picture of what it’s like at the track. If this post is well-received I might consider doing some other how-to’s because I think it’s pretty fun to write them up and if I can help just one person out, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. See you at the track, NEXUS
Very nice and well written post! The one little thing I would like to add to it. In my 20 years of RC racing and ~10 years of playing race director, there is one little piee of advice I cannot stress enough to new racers. "The fastest most powerful motor money can buy will not win you races". Especially in offroad you are not going in a straight line for very long. Plan for your motor to be strongest in the corners and short straights. Food for thought, Formula 1 road race cars do not run 5,000hp alcohol injected supercharged dragster engines. greg
