Quote:
Originally Posted by peetbee
Personally when I've done nationals I've not wanted to travel miles only to become a spectator after practice has finished due to me stuffing the car into the track markers!
The trouble is, as most people are doing that, it means not much business for the shops. I know of one shop who in order to support a national properly stocked up on a lot of extra parts and he's still carrying a lot of them as no one needed them. Repeat that experience everywhere and would you want to spend the weekend chasing a few sales?
What we don't know is would everyone stop carrying their own spares if they knew they could buy replacements instantly (obviously apart from people running Tamiyas!  ) |
Still got most of the Schumacher spares left for the CAT, but eventually sold the £3000.00 pounds worth of tyres/wheels/inserts etc !!!
Most drivers carry good supply of spares for their cars and get tyres etc in advance, which is a wise move.
If there are regular GOOD shops in attendance, then drivers would probably carry less spares or at least worry less about breaking things.
Of course there are now a few variations of a model eg; the B4 or B44 available, so stocking spares for those cars isn't really a problem, as its only going to be the more specialist conversion parts that pose an issue and they are the bits the drivers need to make sure they have.
Most shops (myself included) only have good stocks of the mainstream stuff, because otherwise it'll be stuck on the shelf.
Yokomo,Tamiya,losi (except the 22) seem to rarely be asked for in my area so are only ordered in specially. The new CML conversion for the B4 will have to be catered for now, because it's possibly going to be the next big thing since the X6 conversion, but your average shop isn't aware of these things unless they are on the circuit.
I ordered the schumacher spares for Talywain for the 2009 National without realising that practically all Schuey drivers are team drivers and have ALL the spares. I'm just assuming here, but i imagine spares for the RB5 and Durango would be available from their team drivers too.
I sold a lot of Associated and X6 spares, but most of the bits asked for were the more obscure items that break once in a blue moon,which i had most of. Consumables were quite handy to have, such as glue,sensor leads, balance conectors and pinions etc.
There's no real answer,but having shops where they have a driver and racing experience, so they know what breaks and what drivers are likely to need is bound to help.The potential is, that they will probably stock what your after. It also means that the cost of travelling to an event is not an issue because they were going anyway.
I put £115 worth of diesel in my transit to go to Stotfold, but i had 2 of my mates with me and i was going to race anyway so it didn't matter.If i had just been going to do shop, then i would have had to sell £500 worth of stock just to cover the fuel and toll bridge cost.
As it happened I sold a bit of stuff and learnt that there were other items that i should stock (cut stagger ribs) and had a great weekends racing
Local shops to the track are a good idea too because the cost of travelling is nothing. A travelling shop just isn't going to make enough money to justify the costs or effort. Believe me, there is a lot of effort that goes into taking a successful shop to a meeting especially when you have to get your quantity orders right.
If drivers need items prior to an event, then contact a shop thats going and ask them to take the parts etc and pick them up there, or find out what stuff they stock, just in case the track jumps up and batters your car
