View Point - Why should we travel away from our home track to race?

Why should we travel to other tracks to race?

Obviously this topic is a two edged sword. The track owner does not want his racers leaving their home track to race somewhere else, while at the same time he would love to have racers from other tracks come to visit his track to race. The racers view point can vary concerning this from “Why should I travel when I can race here?” to being excited about the opportunities presented by racing elsewhere. This point of view will look at the racers view point first and the track owners view second.

The local racers view point of not wanting to travel is usually because of two reasons. The first reason not to race elsewhere is convenience. It is simply more convenient to race close to home and not travel. It does not cost as much to race at home since you do not have the traveling expense plus you do not have to buy parts or cars to fit into another tracks program. When racing at home you are comfortable with the track and know it better than you could possibly come to know a track you visit. You will naturally be more competitive on your “home” track and less competitive on a strange track. Going off to a different environment to race in is a very unsure scenario. It is completely understandable for a racer not to want to venture away from home to race.

The local racers view point of wanting to travel to race is one of an adventurous person who is always wanting to improve his skill set. Where a track that you are not familiar with is more difficult to drive on, it forces you to increase in your abilities as a racer. Traveling to race allows you the opportunity to cultivate a completely new set of racing friends. Racing with new friends allows you the opportunity to learn things these people are doing that your local racers may not be doing. By combining the technology of both locations you gain in your overall technology. Thus, you have learned set up techniques that your local friends may not be aware of. It is then up to you whether you should share this information or not. After all, you were the one who took the initiative and the expense to travel elsewhere to race. Racing at other locations than your home track adds another dimension of excitement to racing. You have the pleasure of the anticipation of the event you are going to, the excitement of actually being in a new racing environment and racing with people whom may or may not be more advanced than you, you also have the pleasure of meeting and getting to know these other racers and making new friends.

Whether you should travel to other raceways to experience new adventures can only be answered by you. It boils down to how adventurous you are. Some people will enjoy these experiences and some will just dread the thought of having to race a bunch of people who are probably faster than they are. Then there are those who are locked into convenience. None of these views are right and none of them are wrong. It all depends upon what is correct for you.

The view point of the track owner falls into two directions also. He can look at it as losing a racer on a given day and that racer possibly spend their money on parts at another location. There is not much a track owner can look forward to concerning a racer traveling elsewhere to race. However, there is the possibility that this racer can learn of new technology and bring that technology back to the local track where other racers will want to spend money to have this technology themselves. There is also the possibility that people from the track a racer visits could come to visit his home track. This would undoubtedly bring extra sales to the slot car track in parts to be legal for them racing in a class that is new to them.

The major view point issue is not whether a person travels to race elsewhere or not, in how the racer and the local track owner perceive this. The local racer needs to understand the investment that a person has made to bring slot car racing locally. It is not an inexpensive venture. The local track owner should be respected for this investment and the local racer should support the local track by purchasing every thing possible through the local track. The local racer needs to understand that when he travels, if it is on a local race day, it diminishes the local racing experience. At the same time the track owner needs to understand the desire to improve ones racing skills and the adventure involved in traveling to race. This added excitement might be the thing that keeps a person interested in racing where racing against the same people week after week might leave them desiring more excitement.

The end result is both the track owner and the local racer need to understand and respect the opinion of the other while not demanding the other accept their opinion as the only way to do things.