Starting RC Racing – An Example
So you fancy getting into RC car racing? Great choice! It’s a fun, safe and relatively cheap way of competing in motorsport. You learn new skills, meet a bunch of new people, and enjoy competitive racing without needing a second mortgage.
What does a race day involve?
Race meetings do vary a bit, but here’s a typical Sunday at Bedworth RCCC.
Things to bring
- Folding table and chair if you have them, or you can pit out of your car boot, or borrow a table from us.
- Mains fast charger.
- Any spare parts you have for your car, plus extra batteries if you have them.
- All tools for working on your car.
- Water, lunch and snacks. The sports club bar opens from around 11am for cold food and drinks, but it’s a bit of a walk, so you’ll want something with you, as race days can get hectic.
- A reusable mug to get a free tea or coffee.
- Appropriate clothing for being outdoors all day! You’ll want lots of layers in the winter, and a baseball cap and sunscreen in the summer.
Arrival and set-up
- Check our Facebook page for arrival time. It’s around 8am in the summer, later in the winter.
- Set up your pit area. Ideally bring a folding table and chair, or you can pit out of your car boot.
- Run an extension cable to get mains power for your charger.
- Get your car checked over by the organisers. We’ll look for common issues like body height, ride-height, trim not straight, things catching.
Practice
- Now it’s time to get some practice runs in.
- Check in with race control to find out when your practice runs are. We publish this online the evening before the meeting too.
- The main aim of practice is to learn driving your car round the track. It’s much harder than driving in the street!
- You’ll get at least three 5-minute runs with other new drivers.
Qualifying
- Qualifying then starts around 10.30am.
- You’ll get three 5-minute qualifiers, usually with 4 or 5 other new drivers in your heat.
- Qualifying heats use a staggered start, a bit like rallying, where each car starts when it’s number is called.
- In qualifying you’re racing against the clock, so concentrate on getting round with as few crashes as possible.
- Don’t worry about the other cars in qualifying, you’re not racing them, you’re just trying to do as many laps in 5 minutes as possible.
- There will be around 45-minutes between each of your races. So you’ll need a mains fast charger to get charged back up for the next race.
Finals
- After qualifying we’ll sort the finals (main races) based on the qualifying results.
- If you’re brand new then you’ll likely stay in the same race for the finals.
- Don’t worry, we’ll let you know what’s going on!
- You then get two 5-minute finals. These use a grid start just like in full-size motorsport.
- If you’re brand new and don’t yet have a lap counting transponder then you won’t get any lap times I’m afraid, but you can still practice racing against the competition!
Then it’s time to pack up, head home, and plan what changes you want to make to your car for next time. Tinkering and car maintenance is as much a part of RC racing as the racing itself.
Initial Costs – £170
To get started in our ‘rookie’ class, you don’t need an awful lot! You’ll need a car with electrics, a fast charger and a couple of batteries. At Bedworth we only race 1/10 Electric on-road cars. The most popular starter cars are the FTX Banzai and the Tamiya TT01/02.
The FTX Banzai is a higher spec car with alloy shocks, ball-raced drivetrain and adjustable suspension, so this is what we usually recommend. It’s marketed as a ‘drift’ car, but to go racing it just needs some race tyres; we have loads of spare sets of these at the club for free.
Budget:
Car – £130 (includes all electrics)
Second battery – £15
Fast charger – £25
Race tyres – £free
First race fee – £free
Total – £170
Second battery – £15
Fast charger – £25
Race tyres – £free
First race fee – £free
Total – £170
Month Three – £90
Okay so you loved your first couple of race meetings and you’re hooked, what next? Well you’ll need to invest in a couple more things.
You’ll need a lap counting transponder so you get your laps recorded by the timing computer. One of the most fun aspects of racing is seeing your progress, both against yourself and the other racers. For that you’ll want to see your laptimes!
You’ll also need BRCA membership. This provides third-party liability insurance, and as a club we can only allow you to race three times before you join the BRCA. Sorry…
Finally, you’ll need to start paying our club race fees. These are £12 for adults and £6 for juniors.
Budget:
Transponder – £50
BRCA – £20
Race fees – £6 or £12 per event
Total – £80-£100
BRCA – £20
Race fees – £6 or £12 per event
Total – £80-£100
What else?
Over the coming months you’ll need some of the following, depending on how often you race and how much effort you want to put into it.
Club membership – £35 for adults or £20 for juniors (under 18). This gets you discounted race fees and lets you pit in our indoor pitting cabin (space permitting). You can race without joining, so this one is entirely optional.
Spare parts – £20? The Tamiya and FTX are ideal entry-level cars. They’re strong, simple to work on, and spare parts are cheap. You’re bound to have the odd crash though so budget for the occasional repair bill.
Tools – £20. Household DIY tools are okay to start with, but you’ll likely want some proper race tools for changing tyres and working on the car. Long-term this will make the hobby a lot easier, and keep your car in better condition.
Pitting table, chair, gazebo/tent – £? This is up to you. How comfortable do you want to be? If it rains will you still race, or take a day off? Our indoor pits has tables, chairs and power, so that’s always a good option for club members.
What about all the expensive kit I see others using?
If you walk around the pits you’ll see tyre warmers, fancy setup gauges, and some expensive looking cars. Fortunately you don’t need any of that stuff to enjoy RC racing. Like a lot of hobbies, with RC you can spend lots of money if you really want to… but the better driver will always beat the bigger wallet. Lewis Hamilton talks about his early days doing karting (and RC cars; google the Blue Peter video) using tyres from the bin and the cheapest cars they could find.
Our new SportsTC class is aimed at simple cars that don’t cost a fortune, and don’t need lots of fancy equipment to keep them running.
If you do fancy getting a more expensive race car at some point, there are always good second-hand cars available from around £150. Anything else you might need can be bought gradually, with bargains always around.
I’ve been racing 25 years now. I started with a Tamiya, and then upgraded to a second-hand car bought from another Bedworth member, selling the Tamiya to another beginner to help with funds.
Dale Burr
Prices and suggested equipment from January 2022.
