Build your hosting rep with a Rip-n-Roll tournament
Hosting your first mail-in races is exciting but a lot comes with it - just check out the iceberg. Beyond just racing and getting your videos done, it also comes with a responsibility to protect and care for everyone's cars. We put a lot of time and effort into making our little cars so it always helps to know we're sending them to someone that will handle them properly before, during, and after the race.
The art of the Rip & Roll
One way to ease into hosting is with a Rip-n-Roll or Open Stock tournament. It's a good low-risk way to learn the ropes of hosting without having to worry about precious cargo. But more so, it's a great way to build some reputation as a host within the community.
A Rip-n-Roll is where people send you a brand new, carded car and that's it. You, as the host, get to crack them open and let 'em fly. No extra worries about policing mods or anything like that. An Open Stock tournament is pretty much the same thing but is often just loose (sometimes decorated) stock cars. As a bonus, you can usually just offer all the entry cars as the prize for the winner! Easy peazy.
I would try to host at least one stock/rip race in a season back when I was running RLD events. It was a great way to give rookies a low-risk and easy way to see how the whole mail-in racing scene works. It's more or less an even playing field and lets them mingle and learn with veterans in a friendly way. Plus, if you goof while you're learning, there's less room for anyone to bitch and cause a stink because there's very little at stake - it's just a good old fashioned Hot Wheels race.
Building your reputation
As the host, you'll still have to fill all the usual roles...shipping, handling, racing, videoing, promoting, communicating...all that stuff, but these simple races let you demonstrate consistency, transparency, and respect for the cars, which means folks will be far more comfortable sending you modded cars for future races.
All in all, just remember to just start small. We all did. You need time to figure out your system, establish your style, and build some trust with the community.
Discussion
Yep running a few pick your ride races is at the top of my schedule for my new track set up. However, I'm just finishing the final tweaks to the track and like an overzealous dummy. I'm currently signed up for about 12 races. Time time time is in short supply. I cannot sign up for any more races until summertime.
hope to be able to have a few races set up in a week or 10 days. the struggle is real.
While seeing and reading things about mailed in cars going into someone's Bermuda Triangle and never being seen again, the Rip & Roll is also something you can suggest to a new host that they do while they build up some experience.
I know we like to support those new to the hobby by sending in modded cars to race but we also know that can be a crap shoot on many levels, let alone just getting your car back. If someone new shows up and says, "it's my first race! Send me your awesome modded cars and it'll be great..." - maybe just reply kindly with some sort of, "it's great that you have a track and are excited to start racing but have you considered a rip & roll or stock tournament to kick things off? I'd be happy to participate in an even like that and try out your track."
Point being, touting the Rip & Roll isn't just for the new hosts to read and get ideas, it's also for all the racers that want to race while also reducing the risk of getting burned.
That's a good idea. I did a season of just the flea market cars before I took the leap into hosting mail-ins last year. It definitely took the pressure off of learning things on the fly with other peoples' cars.