Dirt Oval

[chance]

What happened to dirt oval? I know there are still people racing DO, just check out dirtoval.com. What I'm asking is, why has it nearly disappeared?
Is it the cost or the lack of some place to run or the lack of coverage in the magazines?
Any thoughts or ideas?

[ammoace]

They race dirt oval here in Abilene when the track manager opens his track, which is rare. He is quite peticular as to who can race what. There is a guy that likes to race there but his is an older HPI 4wd and everyone else, I mean EVERYONE else has 2wd. The track manager will not even order parts for the 4wd drivers car. By the way, the track manager is VERY biased towards Associated.
I used to watch dirt oval in Houston when I first got into RC, circa 1986.

[chance]

ammoace, and people continue to support this "individual"?

[This message has been edited by chance (edited 02-13-2001).]

[ovalnator]

I race dirt oval here in Central NY, but its slowly diein, mainly for 2 reasons; one is the price of items such as batteries, chargers, and motors (everyone seems to think you need 3000's for a 4 minute race on a short track) and the other is that everyone buys/makes special conversions that makes everything els obsolete.

[Isky]

I think its because of lack of coverage. How ofen do you see anything aout off-road racing magazines??? ::gasp:: never! Also, look at on-road oval racing. Those cars are expensive, but they are FAST AS **** !! How fast can an off-road oval car go...not fast enough. Plus, often its full of Posers who think they look all big with those parts...very few are concerned about the average off-road oval racer.

[PeterV]

I think most track operators with a dirt track realize that there are many more opportunities with "off road" style racing than dirt oval. There are more cars for people to choose from, more products to modify those cars with, and more racers to spend money on them. Xtreme, one of our local tracks, sets up the dirt course so that the jumps and obstacles are in the infield and can be easily sectioned off to create a smooth dirt oval surrounding them, allowing both types of racing. This draws the dedicated dirt oval guys, as well as off-road guys looking for a change of pace. It's good racing.

I think the success or failure of any oval program is 99% regional. If enough guys want to do it, there will be dirt oval racing. If only a few guys are into it, and the track operator has to choose between a poorly attended dirt oval race and a money-making off-road (or whatever) race, oval won't flourish there.

I'm surprised the vast assortment of touring cars hasn't helped reinvent dirt oval; it's easy to sling a full-time 4WD tourer around in the dirt like a sprinter, and I would be stoked to see tourers with Parma Oval Outlaw bodies hanging it out on an oval. Anybody else interested?

[ovalnator]

I here you Pete! I have run my TC3 and MR4TC w/ both dirt oval "wedge" bodys and north east DIRT style bodys, and these things run great. They can be run as 2wd or 4wd, can run w/ foams w/ grooves in them, and hook up really well due to all of the adjustments you can make. I think anyone who races at a place w/ both offroad and tc tracks should try and get them to try dirt oval.

[chance]

With the touring car market being as strong as it is, that would be an ideal target for new dirtoval drivers.
I think the rally car buyer would be an even better source of new drivers. Those cars really are alot of fun. I don't think that market has boomed as well as it was first hinted at, as a result they don't have access to tracks that were built with them in mind.
The RTR gas trucks are a good place to start also (they seem to survive the crashes better). These would be a large source of new dirtoval drivers, if they were exposed to the thrill of a properly executed slide job, they would be hooked.
Anyway, there are a large number of potential recurits if they were exposed to dirtoval racing.
Everything moves in circles, what was a major player in the world of rc cars will at sometime become popular again.

[pp13b]

dirt racing would be good..

[Crandall]

I have herd of some tracks having a touring car dirt oval class. I guess it would be an equivlant to a hobby stock class for the real cars. I raced real cars (Late Model) on Dirt Oval for 4 years. I think Parma is the only one that makes a late model body for 200mm cars. Everyone else that makes them makes them for the wider cars that have the same width as the buggies. (Custom Works, Bolink) The Parma body dosen't look nearly as realistic as the ones from CW and Bolink. Most people I know of that race Nitro dirt oval are using converted Custom Works cars. The 4wd 1/10 on-road cars would fit in those bodies very nicely. I am unsure of how well they would do on dirt though. The tracks that have dedicated ovals ususally run foam tires to keep the track smooth. An Oval that was built into an off-road track would most likely get too torn up to use foams. I personally would love to run touring cars on a nice smooth dirt oval. I would just like see some of the nicer bodies that would fit the touring cars.
Charles
http://64.83.13.155

[ammoace]

Chance,
Yes people still support this "guy." But Dyess Air Force Base is starting a new R/C club and will have a paved road course in an abandoned parking lot. That will make it better for us here. Unfortunately this person also runs the ONLY LHS in the area. Not kidding, our Hobby Town closed because the owner, I know him, didn't like thier rules. He tried to start his own shop but it went under and now we are left with Mr. nice guy.... http://www.rccaraction.com/ubb/frown.gif
Good thing I have an internet connection and credit cards. http://www.rccaraction.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.rccaraction.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.rccaraction.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
Later,
AMMOACE

[FLYBOY7]

the track that i normally race at in Novelty Missouri has a large dirt oval around it's off-road track... so they run both oval races and off-road races on the same day with the same equipment....

although i didn't think it would be much fun, oval really is pretty cool.... running a nitro truck totally wide open for 6 minutes is a real blast, and makes for some wild racing....

[ovalnator]

Matbe we could start a poll to see how many people would be interested in running touring cars and electric and nitro trucks on a dirt oval w/ other racers.

If you get a bunch of people running a car you can buy off the shelf and be able to run it as a dirt oval car w/ little or no additional money spent on special conversions. This will help this segment grow, and will lead to a return of the sprint car class, east coast mods, etc.

[dwatier00]

some of you think that dirt oval is slow. i have tried the touring thing at our tracks in western ny and canada and they're a lot slower than the dirt tracks i have raced on.
the problem is that no one outside the east know what a dirt mod looks like so why would they like to race them. but late models and sprints race through out the country and parts of the world so why don't people want to race them. i think that is coverage and rc companies don't want to make them.

[OvalQueen]

Dirt Oval Rocks!! just look at my name.
I race at the tracks that Quicktemper runs & maintains.
As long as we have guys like that, we WILL have a track to go to.
Thanks QT for all you and CyberFish do. http://www.rccaraction.com/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by OvalQueen (edited 02-24-2001).]

[quicktemper]

i run a dirt oval track here in albany oregon. the electric classes are almost gone for what reasons i don't know but the gas classes are growing ! we run 1/10 gas truck's and the gas truck sprint car's. we have swithed to runing lap's instead of time's. i've put a pit lane in the infield of the oval and were runing 200 lap "A" main's or will be this summer! i'm also now getting good responce on runing a touring car class on the dirt oval. i see a strong summer race season comming for the dirt oval this year here! www.dirtcityrc.com (http://www.dirtcityrc.com)
doug,
dirt city rc

[ammoace]

I have a RC10L3 Oval coming in the mail. I bought it used and want to know if it will be competative to run it on a dirt oval. If so are there any modifications that I'll have to make?
AMMOACE

[ovalnator]

I tried my 1/12 oval car on a dirt oval, and Ill tell you what, its fast, but it helps if the track is smooth. All you need to do is groove the tires, and set the tweak so it lens to the left alot! If you want a 1/12 car to run on dirt, check out my post in the forsale forum; I have no need for 2 of them.

[ammoace]

Sorry ovalnator but I just spent my money on two 1/10th scale cars. They are the RC10L3 oval and the RC10LS. I am planning to run them on a street course and was trying to figure out if they can run on a dirt oval also. The dirt oval track looks smooth in the begining but after the gas modifieds and sprint ovals are done I'm sure it gets a little rutted and/or chunked. Lucky for the electric guys is they get the track first. But by the main runs the other classes have ran on the track as well.
Thanks,
AMMOACE