Club success and longevity

[Racegamer]

Greetings All...

A couple of questions for those of you that have thriving clubs (at least prior to the pandemic):

1) What do you do to attract new members?
2) (Maybe more important) What do you do to keep people coming back to play?
3) What makes your club "special" - so that people want to be involved?

Thanks in Advance!

Bill W.

[War Eagle River]

Structured Rules & Race Schedule
Keep it simple.
Keep it interesting.
Always keep them guessing!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Bill, How about posts about what destroys a group? I have seen what doesn't wreck things and what does, and both are surprises.

[slothead]

I haven't raced in a club in decades but one good thing I remember is creating a way everyone can have a positive experience. One way is to have a non-qualifiers race or race for those who aren't in contention for a win or the championship. If a club had 8 members and race on a 4 lane track, have a race just for the drivers in positions 5 - 8, with the drivers in positions 1 - 4 doing the marshalling. If club dues fund prizes or trophies have some for a hard charger award or most dedicated racer, where the top runners aren't eligible.

[docdoom]

strippers

[Fathead59]

Would the stripers be for the guys who are not racing at the time or to distract the guys who are racing

[4424ever]

Both I’ve seen pictures of one such event and they are very affective

[oldspark]

Pictures?

[Silberpfeil]

Would the stripers be for the guys who are not racing at the time or to distract the guys who are racing

That's going to really mess-up marshaling.

[Fathead59]

Only if they are naked at the time , but I have a feeling that nobody will care which car will be on who's track . I also think guys will be crashing their cars on purpose just to watch them do their job

[Silberpfeil]

IMHO, this is a big part of a "thriving" Club....

[chappyman66]

Pretty much, yup.

[dw5555]

One way is to have a non-qualifiers race or race for those who aren't in contention for a win or the championship.

Qualifiers? I've never been in a club that has qualifications. You have the rules and ya run what ya brung and let the chips fall where they may.
Dave

[slothead]

Hey Dave. The idea for a nonqualifiers race comes from the dirt track everyone in the club went to on Saturday nights. They ran heats and a consolation race to fill the feature field of 24 cars. Typically over 30 dirt modified cars would be in the pits every race night, so 6 or more cars would be headed home early. Occasional races where run just for the cars that didn't or rarely made it into the feature race. We duplicated that in our races by having a feature race just for the guys that had never been in a feature or won a race.

Following the structure of local short track races we would have qualifying heats too. If 10 guys showed up on race night we'd run 2 heats for 5 cars each with the top 3 cars qualifying for the feature. Then we'd run a consi for the 4 cars that didn't qualify in a heat race to set the field for the 8 car feature. These races were all held on an 8 lane commercial track.

[Dogsbody]

Bill,
Are you spitballing or asking about a club in particular?

[Racegamer]

Collecting others thoughts and experiences to compare to own..

[jaws]

When I first started in a club, I found out about the club from the LHS. One of the members worked at the store. The store had a small digital track setup in front by the door when you can in. There was pictures of some of the other tracks in the club there also. I talked to the owner of one of the tracks, he was the Manager of the store. He gave me information about the club and told what type of cars they were running. He invited me to come see what is was all about. The club had a webpage that helped gain some information about the club. I bought a set so I could see if would what racing the slot cars again after racing in the 1960's. When I was able to attend a race at one of the racer's house, I bought cars before the race, so, I was all set to go. Well during practice before the race, I found out I had a broken guide. A couple of the guys came over and gave me a hand on getting my car fixed before the race. Thank you, Scalextric for including extra guides when you buy a car! The group accepted me and I am now on my 4th track. Oh, the clubs I race in are using analog tracks.

Jim W

The LHS has moved to a new location down the road and their track is located in the basement. We, both clubs, race on the store's track during it's rotation in our events. It allows everyone to have a place to practice and also race.

[Pappy]

I haven't raced in a club in decades but one good thing I remember is creating a way everyone can have a positive experience. One way is to have a non-qualifiers race or race for those who aren't in contention for a win or the championship. If a club had 8 members and race on a 4 lane track, have a race just for the drivers in positions 5 - 8, with the drivers in positions 1 - 4 doing the marshalling. If club dues fund prizes or trophies have some for a hard charger award or most dedicated racer, where the top runners aren't eligible.

I like slothead's idea.

Like a lot of you I've been in and out of slot car racing since the early 60s and one thing that always happens at commercial tracks is a few guys put a lot into it and naturally one of them always wins. Everyone else just quits because they know they can't win. If I had 8 members on a four lane track I think I'd have the top three drivers in the A main and have the other 5 drivers race the B main with the winner moving up to the A main. This would give them all a chance to win, place or show.

[mattb]

Bottom line is guys should have fun and everybody win every now and then. If you get one or two killers that have to win and take it serious as death, it may ruin the fun for everybody else.
Certainly not what it's like with many groups.

I had 3 guys race with me in the beginning, 4 years ago. We now have 6-8 guys show up every week. Guys race, guys set down. Everybody plays and everybody wins some.

[4424ever]

exellent rules to run by