How to use to promote your mail-in races

redlinederby Sunday, 3/8/2020
Site manager

Organizing and hosting a mail-in race isn't as scary as you might think. Yes, it takes some effort and planning but you don't have to be super fancy and there are lots of resources here on the site to help you along the way.


Before you start

Please read through the Redline Derby Racing mail-in guidelines. It's a good checklist of things to consider when planning your race. We don't really dictate how you should run your races but some basic housekeeping is always good.

Register your track

You should register your race track in the Race Track Directory. This make's it easy to add track information to your race and will save you effort over time. Plus, people like to know track details so they can modify their cars accordingly. The Race Track Directory gives them a great spot to get all the specs. You can still post your event without registering your track but it does make things easier for everyone.

Post your race

Use the Mail-in Template Wizard to post your event for the public. The template wizard will guide through all the details associated with your race and create a template for your post that you can adjust to fit your needs. It's a great place to start and will save you a lot of typing. When you use the Mail-in Template Wizard, your race will automatically get added to the site event calendar and have the ability to track racer stats.

Report the results

You should report the race results and add them to your event post when your event is complete. This is another form that guides you through the process of providing a recap of your race. People want to know who won (and who lost) and this form makes it easy for you (and them). Plus, race result stats are tracked for Redline Derby members so this is a step you do not want to skip.

If you're hosting a race series...

If you're organizing an event that is made up of several individual races (a race series), you'll need to make a few additional posts related to your event so that all the information is connected.

You should create a new event for the overarching event itself. This will be used to report the final results of the entire series. You should also use this post to keep track of series points, schedules, and any other updates. It's also a good way to keep all communications about the event in one spot, rather than having people chase info down across different posts.

You should create a separate event post for each race in the series. Race result stats are tracked per event so a separate post for each one lets you report the winners for that individual race. A separate post for each race also lets participants talk about that race within it's own little bubble, rather than cluttering up other posts. However, if don't want to deal with comments across several races, you can disable the comments and link people back to the main event topic.

What about video?

Unfortunately, we don't have a way to host video on the Redline Derby site, so we recommend you upload your race videos to YouTube and then share the links in your posts. YouTube is very easy to use and works on just about every device and computer.

Worried about shooting video? Don't be. You don't have to be Steven Spielberg to take video of cars going down a track. You don't need to have music or narration or anything fancy. People just like to see their cars in action so as long as you capture those moments, everyone will be happy.



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madmax 3/8/20

Thank you , all the info in one post.

I will be working on this..

WIth regards to the track directory, We make many track configurations... so I just, fill in the form with the requested data and post a picture of each track? 

Most of my tracks are loose not fixed, but I do remake them almost the same each time. 

Can I delete an obsolete track once its been posted?

thanks in advance..  

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redlinederby 3/8/20
Site manager

Good question. It's best to register each layout as a separate track. This is for historical and tracking reasons.

Say you post a race with the ABC layout, but then you change that record to be XYZ layout for another race. That first race will still say "ABC" but would show the information of XYZ. Reusing a single track record can easily make things confusing if anyone is trying to learn about how cars perform on certain tracks.

If you make a different layout for every single race, I understand registering each would be tedious. But if you just cycle between tracks then it saves you the trouble of registering a track the next time. Once track ABC is registered, it's always there and will show up in your list the next time. 

And if you just take care to setup each layout the same each time, that's all you can do. As long as the length, downhill, curves, etc are pretty much the same each time within reason, you're fine, don't sweat it.

  • ok, I think I understand. I didn't want to flood the screens with 3 4 or 5 configurations.. but now it makes sense. I will register each track I know I will use in Tournament , League or Series Racing. I will start uploading some other track configurations when time permits, so people can see what they will be racing on. — madmax
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madmax 5/7/20

I am going through the mailing template. I have done a few test runs.

Do I have to run through the entire template each time I have a different class

Such as I select Stock, and I finish the template

THen do I go and select Modified and run through the template with the same track, same dates?

Or is there a way to have the track set, date set and the Classes each done separately?

Thanks in Advance. 

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LeagueofSpeed 5/7/20
Event coordinator

In the Template state Stock and Modified and you can edit the Template as you see's a template after all.

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redlinederby 5/8/20
Site manager

The step-by-step part is just a guide that acts more as a checklist than anything. The last step is that it prefills your post with all the information. At that point you can change anything you like. Add to it, delete from it, add photos and links...whatever you like. It's just like a normal topic post at that point.

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