Our new “What’s Cookin’?” series on RCSoup brings you an exclusive look at our hobby from our Team’s perspective. We’ll touch base on industry trends, rant about track politics, and give you our general opinion on just about everything r/c.  So grab a glass of iced tea, sit back and enjoy. Have a subject you want us to address? Leave us a note here.

“Tall Grass? Pee hard” – by Casey Rettke

You put in amazing effort, pour your hard earned money into it and its exciting although no one else gets it. It’s a small industry that by some reports is getting smaller. In a small industry with big heart, it is the unification of people that will shelter us against the storm of economics and popularity.

It’s 2:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning and you just finished rebuilding your vehicle. You followed the setup sheet ‘exactly’ and the camber/toe/ride height are perfect. The +1 degree rear hubs you ordered on rush look sharp and you can’t wait to feel the added rear grip. Your rig is sitting on the coffee table illuminated by a single lamp and it looks AWESOME! Clean, crisp, no slop and you actually ‘feel’ connected to it.

Even though you lag at work from the effort, even though your bank account is lower than it should be, and even though you had to put others on hold, you are pumped to hit the track. Race day finally comes and 2 quals later you are Bq. You bump into the A and manage to pass the pile-up on the outside. The announcer is freaking out because in the last 15 seconds of the race, 1st and 2nd tangle up, giving you the lead.

As the picture of you with a $5 trophy and a $60 trophy girl gains ‘likes’ on Facebook, your coworkers and family ask you questions about the event. It looks like you are having the time of your life and you are. As you try to explain what you are doing, the translation comes across as “I play with toy cars”. You explain to them that you have been working on this vehicle for over a month and frequently stay up late to do so. They hear “I play really hard with toy cars”. You tell them how many people are at these events and how these races are world wide, with some people making a living from it. They hear “I know a lot of people who play really hard with toy cars”.

Realizing where RC stacks up in this crazy world of ours is a bitter pill to swallow. Given the amount of time and money you spend on it, it makes sense that it would be pretty big, right? In 2011 BigSquid* published the findings of a report from the hobby manufacturers association which said that RC as a fraction of the industry (vs. railroad, models, general) accounted for $362 million in 2010….. On a national or especially world economy, this is less than peanuts.
(*http://www.bigsquidrc.com/new-report-on-estimated-size-of-rc-industry/)

The Hobby Manufacturers association* says that there was actually a decrease in the overall size of the industry in 2012 with RC being down to $259 million. Granted, I don’t have the numbers for 2013 but I believe that the diehards out there felt the decrease. I know it was the subject of many talks in the pits.
(*http://www.pmsa.us.com/HMA/Size_Of_Industry_Press_Release_2013.pdf)

The realization of how small the industry is should band us together as a unified, unique and growing segment of the population. Realize that it’s more important to grow the hobby than it is to call someone out for hacking you during a TQ run at a race that only impacts your own personal pride. Life does not stop because you are racing. If you are doing it right, it goes faster and you get more out of it.

So the grass is tall and we are small. Let us band together and pee hard enough for the big dogs to give us room to grow! Foster your fellow RC enthusiasts, enjoy the people over the competition. Because slow or fast, rich or poor, you can always have a good time with the people and that is the only true virtue we have to fuel our growth.