109 replies to this topic

[swodem]

Moot point if he’s closing...??

[Zippity]

A long drop??

[Cheater]

He doesn't have any presence here on Slotblog, so trying to shame him isn't going to work.

There was an account started in May 2016 for Fasttrax Slotcar Raceway, but it never received full permissions because no name was visible. (And I always email new accounts that don't show a name to make sure they understand that is a requirement for full permissions.)

Looking at the raceway's Facebook page, the last three posts made by the page owner were July 4, Mar 2, and Feb 17. Can you say 'failure to communicate"?

It's all been said before...

A slot car raceway is not a 'build it and they will come" business. Not sure any businesses fall into that category actually.
The organized racing activities in a raceway will never generate enough revenue to pay the bills. There must be others sources of revenue or an ownership willing to cover the shortfall.
A slot car raceway is an entertainment business, it is not a racing business.
A raceway owner should not impose his slot car preference(s) on his customers; rather he should determine what kind of cars they wish to race and work to profit thereby.
A slot car raceway will almost never succeed as an isolated entity in a vacuum, with out of the norm 'house' rules and no relationship with the regional or national hobby landscape.
All businesses have a certain set of general business principles that must be observed, clean restrooms being just one of them.

Yet, the people who open commercial slot car raceways to a very large extent ignore many or most of these well-proven tenets time after time, year after year, decade after decade. With oh-so-predictable results. And it doesn't seem to matter whose advice they seek or receive nor how long they've been involved in the hobby as a participant.

Mark, I have a very hard time believing you're still bleating about a $13 motor that failed out of the box, considering the amount of money active racers expend on tires, braid, bodies, etc. Since the cost of this inexpensive motor has seemingly been so disruptive to your enjoyment of slot racing, I would suggest you find another hobby to pursue, although if Doc's info (which I have also heard) is accurate, the choice is likely not going to be yours, as I doubt you'll be willing to travel the distance to the next nearest track.

As long as I am ranting, please consider this. JK Products' gross profit on that motor is no more than $3, perhaps a little less or a little more. The raceway owner made roughly 60% more profit on your purchase. It would cost JK nearly double his cost of that motor to send you a replacement (and that's if JK didn't ask you to return the failed motor at their expense). You can carp about what's right and moral in this situation, but if you want to ignore the dollar and cents realities, your argument doesn't have much weight, at least with me. Oh, and find me an auto parts store that doesn't refuse to warranty electrical parts.

This thread is an embarrassment on numerous levels...

[Bucky]

You got to be kidding.

I am.

[Mr. M]

Locally, the stories coming out of this track are legendary. None of this sadly surprises me; the sources are reliable and consistent. A number of locals, successful track owners and experienced customers, have approached the owner to help in any way possible when the business started up. There is a lot of support and common sense within the local slot business ownership community. This is evidenced as an example by Bill Pinch in business continually since 1981, so he must be doing something right! Sadly, the response to a blown motor is endemic of a bigger problem in how to handle relations with the customer base.

[swodem]

Raceways owned and run by slot racers, not businessmen. Except for Swiss.

Swiss is an ex-racer. But he is also a thinker and seems to be a hard worker.
 
I think the world can be glad that most tracks are run by slot racers, there would be a lot fewer raceways if they were just run by ‘businessmen.’

[swodem]

Mattb,

My point is that if left to pure business interests, they wouldn’t have been started up at all!!

It’s the hobby interest that fuels the desire, not the commercial reaping.

A bit like the argument from vegans, that killing animals for food is cruel, yet if we hadn’t been planning to harvest the animal it wouldn’t have been bred, raised and fattened to start with...

[Cheater]

I'm getting close to closing down this thread, if for no other reason than to keep me from getting back on my soapbox about the utter failure of the industry and enthusiasts to work together to bring some stability to the commercial side of slot racing.

The more I reflect back on it, AMRC had it about 80% or so right. If nothing else, they provided their franchisees with a semi-workable business blueprint that unfortunately never really addressed retention of participation, among other negative aspects. Today, virtually every new track owner has to start from ground zero and with few exceptions they all insist they absolutely know what will work or succeed, without any evidence to support that insistence.

[MSwiss]

This thread is an embarrassment on numerous levels...

I enjoyed this, the same way I enjoy it when my 4-6 year old trio of grandkids, provoke my wonderful wife enough for a Come to Jesus Meeting.
 

My point is that if left to pure business interests, they wouldn’t have been started up at all!!

It’s the hobby interest that fuels the desire, not the commercial reaping.

Correct.
 
Without some sort of affection for slot racing, there is zero reason to open a raceway.
 
A top businessman, with no interest in slot racing, presumably would be smart enough to recognize commercial slot car raceway ownership as one with an inherently bad/tough business model, and move on to almost any other type of business.

[slotcarone]

And with that being said can we please close this thread down?!!