A MOMENT WITH MIKE: Time to Change Social Media Race Reports

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Mike Garrison

0 Feb. 25, 2020, 10:33 a.m.

By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

A Moment with Mike is a weekly opinion column where LiveRC’s Mike Garrison gives his take on hot-button issues, general topics, and conversations within the RC industry. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of LiveRC.

As another weekend of racing has come and gone, racers fill the social media feeds with their personal race results and reports from around the globe. While each report is from a different racer from a different track with very different experiences, the one thing that too many share in common is “disappointment” and “frustration”.

First and foremost, I want to make it clear that it is okay to be disappointed and frustrated once in awhile. The key phrase there is "once in awhile". Unfortunately more often than not I find myself reading reports from the weekend ending with someone consistently talking about how disappointed they are in their results, how frustrated they are with the weekend, and so on.

In any form of racing there can only be one first place finisher, and too often anything less than that is considered a disappointment. While I do love the movie Talladega Nights, it’s time to stop living by the motto “If you’re not first, you’re last.”

The reason behind majority of the social media race reports is to keep friends, family, and primarily sponsors up to date on your racing efforts. The obvious goal that everyone has for you is to win races, but not everyone can and/or will win - and THAT IS OKAY. Sometimes you might lose, and believe it or not, it’s not the end of the world. If it was, my world would have ended MANY D-Main finishes ago.  

It’s easy to get burnt out on racing (and reading race reports) when the focus is solely on disappointments, frustrations, losing. It’s okay to be disappointed or frustrated in your results, but rather than focus on the lows it’s important to take time to recognize the highs  – such as what you learned, what you felt you succeeded at, what changes you made or will make to go faster, how you improved in one area or another, and/or the highlights on and off the track from the weekend (ex. How funny it was when Mike’s car got glued to the pit table). 

There can be a LOT of disappointment, frustration, and burn out when racing does not go your way (trust me I know), BUT there can also be a lot of satisfaction, success, confidence, and enjoyment when you take time to notice and acknowledge all that DID go your way – even on the “worst” of weekends.

For all who are going racing this weekend, I challenge you to focus your race day and after race reports less on the negative results, excuses, and feelings, and more on the positive experiences, learning, and overall good times that a weekend of R/C car racing can offer.