WHERE'S WALDO: The spotlight of sponsorship

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

While instant access to information has been a powerful tool, perhaps the largest impact of the Internet age has been the instant amplifier of anyone’s voice. Social media has vastly improved how widely, and rapidly, good news can be spread. This is especially true throughout the RC industry, but the opposite is certainly true as well - it’s easier than ever to smear companies, blast drivers and tear down the community with a fiery rant.

And that’s why it may be the best tool yet to hold today’s generation of “sponsored” racers and “professional RC drivers” accountable for how they act on and off the racetrack.

Twenty years ago, the stigma of the unapproachable pro was the stuff of legend. The top drivers in any region typically kept to themselves, and were often forgiven for their unsociable attitudes because they won races. When one of the industry’s top stars melted down on a turn marshal or threw his car in the pits, there were several layers of filtering that prevented the story from spreading - among them teammates and brand-loyal witnesses who tamped down the severity of what happened, as well as sold-out print media with 8-month lead times.

Those layers of protection don't exist anymore. For one, "sponsorship" is no longer reserved for the fastest drivers who keep to themselves and focus solely on winning - in fact, it's quite the opposite. Nowadays, the local track's Sportsman hack can reach roughly the same number of people as a regional champ, and receive a similar amount of support, even if it's through infamy rather than all-out effort. A handful of amateur-hour pundits no longer needs a printing press and wholesale fulfillment firm to reach an audience, eliminating the financial risk of dragging innocent names through the mud to gain exposure. And less than three weeks ago, we reported on a smashed Sanwa on live streaming video before the ROAR Nationals buggy final had even finished.

Just as the scope of sponsorship has changed, so too have the tools with which these representatives should be kept in check. Everyone at the track with a smartphone (so, everyone at the track) can record the Brand X-contracted-customer’s conniption for the world to see. In a closed-off world where ruling organizations are interchangeably scapegoated or vilified to suit one’s intentions, and companies put the credit card numbers on file over quality of representation, publicly shaming those that act up might be the only way to stop the dirt that truly harms our hobby from getting swept under the rug.

By attempting to leverage social media as a means to gain market share - and thus ingraining RC culture into everyday life - a sponsored racer doesn't really have "off" time anymore. Any driver with a deal should be held over the fire for what they say on the drivers' stand and off — manufacturers should treat a driver who makes discriminatory comments on the same platforms they've been tasked to use for promotion as they should when one threatens violence on the drivers' stand. No matter how successful a racer might be, or how friendly he is to his team manager, any company has a limit for the number of times they can be told about a driver screaming about killing turn marshals, telling fellow competitors they don’t belong, or using one’s vehicle as a weapon before they act to scrub the scum from their reputation.

And it’s not just the outwardly boisterous that contribute to the negativity that RC racers are constantly complaining about on Facebook; unfortunately, those who tire of not having their pointless pearls of wisdom heard tend only to get louder. Waiting until Monday morning to complain about trivial nonsense like trophy quality, track conditions or general dissatisfaction with the race program might feel cathartic but comes across as wildly hypocritical. No amount of effort offered or exercised entitles someone to be destructive. If you really want to look out for the well-being of the hobby, its retention of younger racers and the overall impression racing events give to the uninitiated - and not just to “be right” — the delivery of your all-knowing astuteness means as much as the information itself. The roots of the secular proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” can be traced back nearly 1000 years for a reason: even in martyrdom, messaging matters.

Some may ask where the line should be drawn, but it doesn't matter - these racers shouldn't be anywhere near the line. If someone can actually make the argument that not appropriately awarding the Novice winner at a trophy race may scare away the next generation of racers, or that not coming down hard on aggressive driving will ruin our miniature motorsport — but turn away from young adults being "savage" blasting potential customers on social media, or blasting potential customers off the track — that double-standard should be addressed. Apologies after appropriate attention only appear empty.

I’m totally serious about this. Maybe the proliferation of 50% sponsorships isn’t a bad thing at all, but rather an opportunity to actually get the RC racing community to actually work together to create a better environment. The fact that a number of racers will assume this article was written about them reinforces my point — if your first reaction to reading this is anger, look in the mirror. Then, take a deep breath, unplug your keyboard, close your mouth, and drive your RC car.

I’d rather dozens of drivers get unfairly blacklisted from various teams and tracks because they carry around a borderline amount of unwanted baggage than continue to watch track owners pushed to the brink of quitting, especially by those hiding behind the veil of “just trying to help.” Team managers don’t want their inboxes flooded with hate mail, so take note of the custom t-shirt of your track’s token terror and start forming politely-worded letters about how their representative’s attitude is eroding your local racing scene.

And if that doesn't work? Well, use the power of social media to arrange a boycott. If words don't talk, money will.