What Team Trinity's Ernie Provetti thinks about handout motors

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Press release from Team Trinity:
www.teamtrinity.com

Really?

There seems to be a movement rising of hand-out motors for major events! 

Let me say these are my personal opinions and I fully expect to receive the normal blow-back, but I think most times I bring a perspective that most people don’t think about “is this fiscally  beneficial to racers, hobby shops and manufacturers.

Holding hand-out events with a 10.5 Modified Motor to me sounds like you want to keep the base you already have. No newbie or amateur is going to be able to drive a 10.5 Modified. Who does this satisfy? The manufacturer providing it. I believe long term the track hurts itself and every other manufacturer feels “left-out” which might provide a negative reaction when tracks ask for sponsorships for race events or ask manufacturers to end these events?

A situation way worse than that is a promoter who sends a flyer out and promotes and event. No where on the flyer does it mention “hand-out” motors. Promoter collects entry money and then about four weeks prior to the event they announce it will be hand-out motors (by the major sponsor of the event) and they will not return anyone’s money. Is that fair?

As a manufacturer, why would I want to send my drivers to this event and why in the world would I ever sponsor the event? Paid drivers by a manufacturer cannot violate their contracts by running another manufacturer’s product even if it is a hand-out.

Why would racers want to pay the extra money for these hand-outs and extra motors if they will not use them in other events because they may be uncompetitive or last year’s model.

Have you learned anything over the years? The second we start “telling our customers what they can or cannot do” we lose them for good.

Having a manufacturer sell you an older model motor for what “seems like a good price” does not make a sponsorship! True sponsorships are manufacturer’s writing a check and not passing on old goods that your customers might not be able to use past this event!

Lastly is the race this weekend which I just pulled out of. Just about every class (17.5), Touring, WGT) is a hand-out motor. Once again never announced until about 2-3 weeks before the race. What motors? You guessed it one brand the promoter works for!

From a manufacturer’s standpoint, why would I want to pay travel to this event for my drivers, pay entry fees, send batteries so they can all run someone else’s hand-out motor so that manufacturer can basically “get rid of their old stock”

Honestly I hope this trend does not continue to major events like the US Indoor Championships and the Snowbird Nationals. Let manufacturer’s compete, we don’t need to exclude anyone! Let the racers buy what they want, represent the companies they want to and let the promoters get out of the business side of racing and concentrate on putting on better events for the racers.

Captain MAX &

Ernest N Provetti