Little cars, big fun!

The Little Forest Raceway is a miniature radio controlled car club, currently based in New Plymouth. The club, which was established in 2014, is run by volunteers with the sole purpose of bringing this fun hobby to a wide audience. Scott Kendall, club president, shared the club ethos and what makes their membership demographic unique:

“We are a family-friendly club offering the chance to do something really hands on. We tend to find that most of our members have joined the club as full families - mum, dad and their children. We have the highest number of child memberships of any club in the country.”

Little Forest Raceway received a grant of $2,500 to support the indoor championship event in Hawera last May. “Our costs increased substantially this year for the venue hire associated with an indoor event, so we couldn’t do it without the support of grants or external sponsorship”.

“A lot of radio controlled car clubs focus on the top racers and build their tracks specifically for them, whereas, I’ve always believed you should build the track so that even the lowest ability racer can do the track and enjoy themselves. It’s harder to keep a new person in the sport than it is a regular racer, so regular events that cater to all abilities are important.” This particular event involved 400 cubic metres of clay being brought into the TSB Arena over five days, and landscaped to create a spectacular track for the 1/10th scale cars to race on.

Family-friendly activities and events play an important part in maintaining a connected, happy community. The event was held over three days from Thursday to Sunday, and attracted 48 competitors to take part in multiple races with approximately 3,000 spectators. Competitors travelled from all over New Zealand and Australia to compete, whilst the majority of spectators were local people who came to support the family-friendly free event thanks to publicity support from local media.