Indy RC World - Garland TX Officially closing :(

[A Big Kid]

I'll date myself ...
Back in my youth SLOT CAR Tracks were the rage and in my home town we had no less that 5 such High bank 8 to 10 lane tracks nestled away in small business / small warehouse type settings.
Immensely popular it was hard to get track time due to the "Car Sharks" .. LOL & similar to Card Sharks had side bets and gambling going on that the typical street person/kid had no knowledge of. It was somewhat like Bowling alleys for years were the Leagues tied up the lanes and to get lane time was kinda challenging.

When the state or feds started cracking down on the illegal gambling the "DRAW" to use the facilities damn near crashed over nite & within a few years being now reliant on regular folks and kids to support these track facilities all the big Slot Car tracks were gone.

Not saying the same is happening or happened ... Just that it comes down to REVENUE

 

[CertifiedMike]

I'll date myself ...
Back in my youth SLOT CAR Tracks were the rage and in my home town we had no less that 5 such High bank 8 to 10 lane tracks nestled away in small business / small warehouse type settings.
Immensely popular it was hard to get track time due to the "Car Sharks" .. LOL & similar to Card Sharks had side bets and gambling going on that the typical street person/kid had no knowledge of. It was somewhat like Bowling alleys for years were the Leagues tied up the lanes and to get lane time was kinda challenging.

When the state or feds started cracking down on the illegal gambling the "DRAW" to use the facilities damn near crashed over nite & within a few years being now reliant on regular folks and kids to support these track facilities all the big Slot Car tracks were gone.

Not saying the same is happening or happened ... Just that it comes down to REVENUE

Money sure is stopping fun! Yay progress!

 

[Chubaka]

I'm sure there are plenty of folks here that would take on driving duties
View attachment 211271

That poor FLD. Hopefully it was a Cummins and not a Detroit or cat getting tore up.

 

[ahr43]

". . .and another one, and another one, and another bites the dust. . . " (paraphrasing a rock tune from the '80s. It was theme cadence of our formation runs in Army ANCOC).

Always tough to see yet another track sacrificed to "progress". -AC

 

[Shinook]

It's always sad seeing tracks get shut down. I enjoyed tracks when I had one available, but don't race. It feels like every time one shuts down, RC becomes more and more individualistic. Our local track seems to struggle keeping people engaged, it doesn't help that it's in the middle of nowhere and a long drive away. The most active track we had here was shut down due to noise complaints years ago when the city changed the noise ordinance specifically to shut it down.

We're lucky we have a growing RC crawling scene, but it's largely supported and driven by individuals, LHS helping organize events just isn't a thing here. I've tried to get a SMT racing scene going here and got 0 interest, shops didn't even want to help raise awareness. I thought a Trigger King type event series would be really engaging for people and easier to setup given the low space requirements, but I didn't even get one bite, from a shop raising awareness or an individual that was interested.

In the end...I don't necessarily blame them. Years ago I went to a now shut down comp crawling area near me that someone built of their own time on their own property. It was trashed. There was garbage everywhere and I spent like 20 min running around picking crap up that others just threw on the ground. This was a free place someone built for the community and no one took any pride or responsibility for it other than the owner. The type of person that shows up to these things, at least around here, isn't responsible and, as much as I want to involve my kids, a lot of them aren't folks I want my kids around given how they behave. Apparently the straw that broke the camels back on the previously mentioned track was an uninvited group showing up at 730a running nitros without permission, which irritated the neighbors. All this combined with the cost of real estate, at least here, has been booming so it's hard to place a track somewhere and even expect to break even, so it has to be a passion projects. Passion projects wear their welcome out quickly when you start dealing with the general public and all the drama associated with it.

It's a sad state. My kids are getting into RC and I hate they won't have the experiences I did going to the track and hobby shop as a kid.

 

[DavidB1126]

Today was the last day.

 

[CertifiedMike]

That was a sad video. That track looked like a lot of fun! What a shame!