Early racing and ROAR: the first organised RC car racing.

One reference work says the first RC cars were built by hobbyists, and the first organised races in the sources read followed in the late 1960s. In the United States the story centres on ROAR, which is still the sport's North American body. Britain's first meeting and its national body date from 1971, and Japan's national body from either 1971 or 1974, depending on which part of the same Wikipedia page is read. The sources for this period are mostly a governing body's one-line founding date, Wikipedia, trade-press history features and makers' own histories, which are labelled as claims.

ROAR, 1967

ROAR (Remotely Operated Auto Racers) says on its own About page that it was originally organised in 1967. Every source read agrees on that year.

• Wikipedia says ROAR was organised in 1967 by George Siposs and Norb Meyer with a small group of people.
• A 2012 post on the blog of Axial, a manufacturer, says Siposs founded R.O.A.R., then called the Radio Operated Auto Racing Association, in Anaheim, California, in 1967, and advertised it in Road and Track. This is a maker's account and is unconfirmed.

Wikipedia reports ROAR's claim to be the oldest RC car sanctioning body in the world. It is ROAR's claim, as Wikipedia relays it. How ROAR is organised today, with 12 US regions plus Canada, is on ROAR.

The first ROAR Nationals: 1968 or 1969

The year of the first ROAR National Championship is told two ways, and no ROAR document settling it was found:

• 1968: Wikipedia says the first ROAR Nationals took place in 1968 at the Sunset Ford dealership in Garden Grove, California, for 1/8 scale nitro pan cars.
• 1969: the Axial blog says the first true Nationals was held in 1969 in Garden Grove. The post bases this on its author's reading of a race video, and the video's own description gives 1967.

Both accounts agree on Garden Grove. Wikipedia's tables of ROAR members' world titles start with a 1977 title in 1/8 Sport IC Track.

Associated Electrics and the RC1

Associated Electrics, a maker, says its founders Roger Curtis and Lee Yurada, who both worked at Douglas Aircraft, opened a slot-car track in 1964. Its company history says that by 1969, when the slot-car boom had ended, it had shortly before introduced the RC1, a 1:8 gas-powered car that dominated its first race.

The date of the RC1's racing debut is given two ways:

• Shortly before 1969: Associated's own history (a maker's statement).
• 1972: LiveRC (Aaron Waldron, 7 August 2014) says Associated entered the 1/8 nitro on-road class in 1972 with the RC1, and that the car was so dominant it was outlawed.

1/12 electric arrives, 1977 and 1978

LiveRC's 2014 history of electric on-road racing says a demonstration class for newly created 1/12 electric cars ran at the 1977 ROAR On-Road Nationals at R. Rattey's Raceway in Massachusetts. By the same account, ROAR officially recognised the 1/12 electric class in 1978 with three divisions: 6-cell stock, 6-cell modified and 4-cell modified, with the 4-cell modified becoming the premier division. This is one trade-press source, and no ROAR document for it was read, so the details are unconfirmed.

A second LiveRC feature (Aaron Waldron, 6 October 2014) says the first 1/12 pan cars appeared in the late 1970s, with Associated's RC12e built on a flat fibreglass pan chassis. How 1/12 became a world championship class is on the world championships.

Off-road reaches the Nationals, 1984

LiveRC (Waldron, 7 August 2014) says Associated's RC10 made its debut in 1984 and swept the first ROAR off-road Nationals that year. The rise of off-road racing is told on off-road arrives.

Britain: the first meeting and the BRCA, 1971

Two sources put the start of organised racing in Britain in 1971:

• Wikipedia says Ted Longshaw took part in the first radio-controlled car meeting in England, for 1:8 scale cars, on Easter Monday 1971.
• Red RC's obituary of Longshaw (8 September 2011) says he took part in the first organised race in the UK in 1971.

Wikipedia's article on Longshaw says he formed the BRCA (British Radio Car Association) in 1971 and was its first president, alongside Keith Plested. Wikipedia's BRCA article gives the same founding year and Stafford as its base. No history published by the BRCA itself was found, so the BRCA's own account of its founding was not read. Wikipedia also says Longshaw returned to the ROAR Open National Championship in California in 1974 and 1975; that rests on Wikipedia alone.

Longshaw went on to be EFRA's president (according to Wikipedia) and IFMAR's driving force and first president (according to IFMAR), which is told on EFRA and Europe and IFMAR history. The BRCA as it works today is on the BRCA and national bodies.

Japan: JMRCA, 1971 or 1974

The founding year of JMRCA (Japan Model Racing Car Association) is given two ways, and both come from Wikipedia:

• February 1971: the text of Wikipedia's own JMRCA article.
• 1974: the infobox of the same JMRCA article, and the member table in Wikipedia's article on FEMCA.

The page does not explain the difference. Wikipedia's JMRCA article also says the association's first race was the First Japan-America Goodwill RC Car Race, held the month after its founding with the US Air Force Model Club at Tachikawa Base in Tokyo; that its first championship was held in 1978 for 1:8 pan cars; and that its first electric car championship followed a year later. These details rest on Wikipedia alone and are unconfirmed.

What the record does not show

• No ROAR history page giving the year of the first Nationals was found; ROAR's About page gives only 1967.
• No BRCA-published history of its 1971 founding or its first championships was found.
• No primary record of the 1977 1/12 demonstration class or the 1978 ROAR divisions was read.