The Unprofessionals: Straight Lines and Circles

As far as domestic United States racing goes, beyond the normal on-road and off-road racing which I think will last the test of time, the newest trends are oval racing and no-prep drag racing. Both oval and drag rc racing have been around for a long time but much like the entrance of short course truck racing, new technologies and trends have brought these two types of racing to the forefront.

I think these types of racing bring back the purity of remote control car racing. It is not at all easy to do these types of racing well, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to at least get the car down the lane or around the track. There are also a lot more options and things you can do to get an upper hand still which for a lot of people is the exciting part.

Photo from Proline Racing

Beyond that it is nice to see some of the major brands create products specifically for the genres. You can see this with the Team Associated DR10, and all of the major tire and body companies providing options for accessories and other things. As more brands come into the scene products will become more easily available and the segments will continue to grow.

I think what was seen with the popularity of the Team Associated DR10 is that established off-road or on-road brands providing complete kits that don't require extra parts make it almost to easy to resist for conventional racers. I think that the same could be said for oval. Companies like GFRP and Custom Works offer complete kits out of the box but off-road racers that race for brands like Team Associated, TLR or Kyosho want to see a complete kit from their brand where they don't have to go out and buy anything else. The B6.1 is currently the most popular oval conversion car with probably over 10 conversion kits on the market, but you still have to buy a Custom Works Cage, Custom Works Body, and wings etc. The DR10 model for drag racing shows that if you just do it, people will buy it.

Photo from JConcepts

The other thing I find interesting is the battle between scale realism and performance. Brands have offered tread patterns or tire and wheel combos that look identical to the 1:1 counterparts, but still often on the oval side you will see racers using the popular 1/10th scale off-road tread patterns. This does make spec tire racing fun because the cars look extremely real. Same thing with no-prep, the SC rear tires look fairly real but I am curious to see if they continue to prove to be the best option.

I hope we continue to see these segments grow and I look forward to seeing the awesome products that come from it.

Photo from DE Racing