WHERE'S WALDO: Off-road tracks are too far out of control

0 July 22, 2014, 9:28 p.m.

7/23/2014
By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Off-road tracks are too far out of control.

Yes, today’s cars are more capable of handling crazy Supercross-style terrain than ever before. Yes, we have more battery power, and even the stock class has plenty of punch to clear insane jumps. Most 1/8-scale electric buggies are so fast that they turn what’s typically a triple-double for even the fastest 1/10-scale cars into one long jump. Nitro racing isn’t immune from the Terminator-like invincibility of today’s incredible technology, either - with how sticky and awesome today’s tires are, and how great the cars handle, they’re capable of navigating over and shredding through obstacles that would’ve made cars of less than a decade ago beg for mercy.

Joey "The Dirt" Christensen is famous for saying "it's not called 'The Nitro Easy'" when asked to describe the courses built for his signature event - and that's part of the allure. Once a year is great. Not every darn race.

The problem is that these tracks often don’t promote good racing. They reward drivers for taking risks and penalize those who can’t clear that buck-and-pray gap 15 times in a qualifying run. It’s as though the track is everyone’s toughest rival. Qualifying is just as much about surviving and holding on for dear life as it is about going as fast as possible. And heads-up racing in the finals? Forget about it!

Here's A1 of 2WD from the 1991 IFMAR World Championships in Detroit, a title eventually won by Masami Hirosaka. If you've never watched these, you should.

We all look back at videos of race tracks from the 80s and 90s and laugh at watching cars of the era bouncing across what looks like a normal straightaway by today’s standards, meandering through a couple of switchbacks and hopping over a jump or two. The difference, though, is that those tracks pushed the cars of the corresponding time period as far as they needed to go to make the race challenging without turning an A-main event into ten separate survival challenges. What’s the point of funneling ten cars into a rhythm section that’s difficult to complete ten times in a row with no one else on the track? It’s even worse when those cars are expected to keep driving around the track for 45 minutes or more - talk about a snooze fest.

Off-road enthusiasts love to knock on on-road racing, but there are only so many ways you can configure left and right hand turns. As such, the racing is often closer - and the separation between drivers is often narrowed down to how well each one executes proper car setup and driving, rather than simply minimizing mistakes over obstacles in which he or she is doomed to stumble over at least once. If you’re so worried about making it safely through the next ten feet of track layout, how on Earth are you supposed to worry about setting up a competitor for a clean pass? Following behind someone until they crash is boring for all parties involved.

With ten cars packed in a track that takes less than 10 seconds to complete, and the line between success and failure is just hundredths of an inch wide, you have no choice but to have competitive racing.

It cracks me up how many times in the last couple of years I’ve heard the highest level of pro-level drivers complain that a track layout is too easy (yet heaven forbid there not be enough traction - but that’s for another topic). I understand the reasoning for those who assume they’ll be at or near the top of the charts - it’s more difficult to greatly separate oneself by executing repeatedly on an easy track than it is by cleanly navigating a difficult course - AND THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT.

Never mind the fact that tracks described as “too easy” end up being “just right” for the vast majority of paying attendees to large national events, not to mention the club racers that will have to endure the layout for weeks after the event has passed. It’s almost without fail that all off-road races on these “simple” courses end up being more fun to watch. In fact, within just 30 minutes of arriving to last month’s ROAR Fuel Off-Road Nationals at Thornhill Racing Circuit, I was told by at least two drivers they thought the track was “too easy.”