Ideas to start a Club Track
08-10-2007, 11:30 AM
#1
Ideas to start a Club Track
We have lost our commercial carpet track and a group of us are looking at starting a club track. I'd like some input on what other clubs have done to provide a carpet track in the winter. For us, we are talking 5-6 months. We have quite a few 1/12 scale and TC racers. I'm interested in temporary ways to put carpet down. I'd love to do a sub floor like Cleveland or Snowbirds, but I don't think this will work if we run every other week or twice a month.
So any thoughts or what your club has done would be helpful. We are planning a meeting on August 19th, so as much info the we can get prior to this would be helpful.
FYI I owned a commercial raceway back in the late 80' / early 90's and really understand how tuff it is to make a commercial go of a track is. Best part I have all the race stuff but carpet to start over.
So any thoughts or what your club has done would be helpful. We are planning a meeting on August 19th, so as much info the we can get prior to this would be helpful.
FYI I owned a commercial raceway back in the late 80' / early 90's and really understand how tuff it is to make a commercial go of a track is. Best part I have all the race stuff but carpet to start over.
08-10-2007, 12:34 PM
#2
before we had a permanent place, we had to tear down/put up every week..what a hassle, but here's what we had (and still have for use at "car shows" when we go mobile.
we have a cart that is approximately 13'-6" long w/a 12'6" bar that holds the carpet. We roll the carpet on this bar (bar has a huge "wheel" at one end to turn the bar).
The bottom of the cart held the 2x6's and brackets we used to hold the boards together. All of the boards are drilled the same way at the ends so anyboard, can go anyplace thus allowing us to change hte track anytime we got the bug. We used 2x6 boards around the "exterior" perimeter and 2x4 boards on the infield. If I did this over again I would look into synthetic boards or some sort of PVC setup. The pro's and cons are..PVC is light..thereby easy to "move" with a car and needs to be reliagned when it gets wacked enough time where the 2x's doesn't move as much..however..the 2x's...take a toll on the cars.
If your interested, I'd be glad to post some pics, but would take me a couple days to get them together.
we have a cart that is approximately 13'-6" long w/a 12'6" bar that holds the carpet. We roll the carpet on this bar (bar has a huge "wheel" at one end to turn the bar).
The bottom of the cart held the 2x6's and brackets we used to hold the boards together. All of the boards are drilled the same way at the ends so anyboard, can go anyplace thus allowing us to change hte track anytime we got the bug. We used 2x6 boards around the "exterior" perimeter and 2x4 boards on the infield. If I did this over again I would look into synthetic boards or some sort of PVC setup. The pro's and cons are..PVC is light..thereby easy to "move" with a car and needs to be reliagned when it gets wacked enough time where the 2x's doesn't move as much..however..the 2x's...take a toll on the cars.
If your interested, I'd be glad to post some pics, but would take me a couple days to get them together.
08-10-2007, 12:53 PM
#3
Excellent thread!!! I will follow this closely as here in south Florida I have a lot of places I can rent for monthly races, and with our weather an indoor track would be nice, but it would have to be capable of being set-up in the morning and torn down after racing, and portable, so I will order a pizza and sit back and watch.....
08-10-2007, 02:40 PM
#4
Before you get a club track, you will need a club. Meaning you will need a bunch of warm bodies that will get up early on a Sunday morning (or whatever day you race) haul all the stuff to the place, set up the track, race all day, tear everything down and bring it home. Five or ten guys isn't gonna cut it. They will get burned out real fast. It is key you get enough people who understand this is what it's going to take to keep racing alive in your area.
08-10-2007, 08:31 PM
#6
What kind of facilities could we look at for space? Would a church or school let us use a gym on the weekend?
08-10-2007, 09:16 PM
#7
grenade,
get ahold of Ruben from STOCKTON R/C
He does his as a temp surface in a large building at the fairgrounds.
We also have the BCRaceway in Orange County that does theirs in a basketball gym.
ROLL IT OUT - TAPE IT DOWN - use 3x3 PVC Downspout for Rain Gutters (it's square and closed) in 10 ft. lengths. Put VELCRO on the bottom side, and you can STICK IT to the track to creat your on-road style lanes...plus put a perimeter of it around the outside of the track. (It's pretty easy to make joints to fasten them together too) STAY AWAY FROM ROAD RAILS!
Oh, and stay away from 'The Club', just put ONE person in charge (YOU) and take ALL the heat and responsibility. A whole lot LESS letdowns...and you only have YOU to blame when things go wrong...or don't show up to help when you are counting on them. Hopefully you'll have 'friends' willing to help, but if you call it a CLUB and people join...then something happens to the CLUB - people always feel the 3 dollars they gave the club 4 or 5 years ago means THEY OWN something the CLUB had.
get ahold of Ruben from STOCKTON R/C
He does his as a temp surface in a large building at the fairgrounds.
We also have the BCRaceway in Orange County that does theirs in a basketball gym.
ROLL IT OUT - TAPE IT DOWN - use 3x3 PVC Downspout for Rain Gutters (it's square and closed) in 10 ft. lengths. Put VELCRO on the bottom side, and you can STICK IT to the track to creat your on-road style lanes...plus put a perimeter of it around the outside of the track. (It's pretty easy to make joints to fasten them together too) STAY AWAY FROM ROAD RAILS!
Oh, and stay away from 'The Club', just put ONE person in charge (YOU) and take ALL the heat and responsibility. A whole lot LESS letdowns...and you only have YOU to blame when things go wrong...or don't show up to help when you are counting on them. Hopefully you'll have 'friends' willing to help, but if you call it a CLUB and people join...then something happens to the CLUB - people always feel the 3 dollars they gave the club 4 or 5 years ago means THEY OWN something the CLUB had.
08-11-2007, 01:19 AM
#8
And we don't have any carpet or other forms of surface to cover the floorboards with
Although the floorboards do make for interesting racing haha, even the slowest driver could win there!After seeing this thread i might see if our club would like to invest in carpet that we could lay down for each race and that way we could have some of that glorious traction
hahaBut in the summer we just use a netball court
although we are currently talking about getting a permanent track in some spare space 
Anybody have any information on the carpet that gets used for RC racing?
08-11-2007, 01:41 AM
#9
Here in the UK virtually every carpet track is run by a "club" and is "temporary".
Generally the club hires a school or sports hall of some sort, the carpet is laid out first thing, held in place with heavy duty grey tape, markings laid out on top (PVC square pipe as mentioned is good), the racing happens, and everything is cleared up. Usually the carpet is rolled on long wooden battens and put into store in a cupboard or something on site.
Sometimes this whole procedure is fitted into a 3 or four hour window! With a few hands to help it doesn't take long too lay the carpet.
Unfortunately you can't always rely on getting many hands to help setup, so you will have to rely on yourself and maybe a couple of other dedicated people to do the bulk of the work every week. A lot of clubs I know use a track deposit system to stop people leaving early before everything is tidied away, but that doesn't do much about the late arrivals.
Generally the club hires a school or sports hall of some sort, the carpet is laid out first thing, held in place with heavy duty grey tape, markings laid out on top (PVC square pipe as mentioned is good), the racing happens, and everything is cleared up. Usually the carpet is rolled on long wooden battens and put into store in a cupboard or something on site.
Sometimes this whole procedure is fitted into a 3 or four hour window! With a few hands to help it doesn't take long too lay the carpet.
Unfortunately you can't always rely on getting many hands to help setup, so you will have to rely on yourself and maybe a couple of other dedicated people to do the bulk of the work every week. A lot of clubs I know use a track deposit system to stop people leaving early before everything is tidied away, but that doesn't do much about the late arrivals.
08-11-2007, 08:20 PM
#10
Just a suggestion...
Hi Mark!
As a club you could consider charging discounted racing fee's.
example:
Those who help set up $15 first car $10 second car.
Those who help tear down $15 first car $10 second car --on the next race day.
Those who help set up -and tear down $10 first car $FREE$ second car.
Those who "DON'T" help set up or tear down at all $25 first car $15 second car.
Just an Idea??
As a club you could consider charging discounted racing fee's.
example:
Those who help set up $15 first car $10 second car.
Those who help tear down $15 first car $10 second car --on the next race day.
Those who help set up -and tear down $10 first car $FREE$ second car.
Those who "DON'T" help set up or tear down at all $25 first car $15 second car.
Just an Idea??
08-11-2007, 08:38 PM
#12
Tech Adept
iTrader: (6)
What are club does....
Well here we don't have a permanent facility any time of the year.
In summer we race in a mall parking lot. We have insurance as a club which is the only reason they allow us to do this. We use 2X4's on their side for borders all the way around. Our track is usually about 50X100 in the summer. Set up the inside of the track layout with road rails. They work great for us so not sure why someone said to stay away from them. This is set up and taken down every race. Its about an hour set up and hour take down.
In winter we race in a school Gym. The track is 80X48 I think or 100X48. Anyways we have 3 rolls of carpet 16 feet wide and roll them out the length of the gym(Ozite carpet). Duct tape them at the seams. 2x4 borders around the outside again and road rail track layout in the middle. We change track layout every 4 months. If there is an area where cars are jumping the road rail we just put this plastic eaves trough stuff on top, which I think was mentioned all ready. This takes a little more than an hour to setup and take down each week.
One club member donates his trailer for the summer to haul everything and another club member has an enclosed trailer that he doesn't use in the winter which he donates to haul the carpet and everything in the winter. We race once a week. Our club charges 20 bucks a month for members and 10 dollars a race for non members. Also one club member's wife works at the school so that helps with the gym rental in the winter.
If you're looking for road rails we have an extra package that we have not used that we'd be willing to sell. PM me if you are interested.
In summer we race in a mall parking lot. We have insurance as a club which is the only reason they allow us to do this. We use 2X4's on their side for borders all the way around. Our track is usually about 50X100 in the summer. Set up the inside of the track layout with road rails. They work great for us so not sure why someone said to stay away from them. This is set up and taken down every race. Its about an hour set up and hour take down.
In winter we race in a school Gym. The track is 80X48 I think or 100X48. Anyways we have 3 rolls of carpet 16 feet wide and roll them out the length of the gym(Ozite carpet). Duct tape them at the seams. 2x4 borders around the outside again and road rail track layout in the middle. We change track layout every 4 months. If there is an area where cars are jumping the road rail we just put this plastic eaves trough stuff on top, which I think was mentioned all ready. This takes a little more than an hour to setup and take down each week.
One club member donates his trailer for the summer to haul everything and another club member has an enclosed trailer that he doesn't use in the winter which he donates to haul the carpet and everything in the winter. We race once a week. Our club charges 20 bucks a month for members and 10 dollars a race for non members. Also one club member's wife works at the school so that helps with the gym rental in the winter.
If you're looking for road rails we have an extra package that we have not used that we'd be willing to sell. PM me if you are interested.
08-20-2007, 10:52 PM
#13
Thanks for the input on what other clubs have done. We had our first meeting and have the start of what we need for the carpet purchase, 35+ club members and possible locations. If everything continues, we should be able to put on 2 or 3 pavement races between mid September and the end of October. Then start racing on the carpet the first of october.
Our thought is to run twice a month and keep the numbers higher. Tried to get the oval racers involved, but only one person showed. So we will have to get the on road up, then oval needs to be able to run thier own stuff.
How do you tape down the carpet for a temp surface? Any pictures??
Thanks
Our thought is to run twice a month and keep the numbers higher. Tried to get the oval racers involved, but only one person showed. So we will have to get the on road up, then oval needs to be able to run thier own stuff.
How do you tape down the carpet for a temp surface? Any pictures??
Thanks
08-21-2007, 07:11 AM
#14
taping
Hello Granade;
The most important thing is the quality of the tape--we at MCRC
have been taping are tracks for years and found good 3m duct tape
is the only way to go. We start at one end and make sure it is very
secure--may have to wipe the floor down first,after securing the end
have one of the bigger members stand at that end and have acouple
of other members do the poopy pants walk to the other end, this is
to stretch the carpet flat,than tape that end down. We have had
a problem with the duct tape pulling up the floor finish so we tape down
with blue 3m trim tape which releases a little easier,we duct tape over
the top of the blue trim tape.
Tell you what we will have and test and tune in a few weeks you and
couple of you can come to Montana for a lesson of track building.
Good luck and racing
SrRC
The most important thing is the quality of the tape--we at MCRC
have been taping are tracks for years and found good 3m duct tape
is the only way to go. We start at one end and make sure it is very
secure--may have to wipe the floor down first,after securing the end
have one of the bigger members stand at that end and have acouple
of other members do the poopy pants walk to the other end, this is
to stretch the carpet flat,than tape that end down. We have had
a problem with the duct tape pulling up the floor finish so we tape down
with blue 3m trim tape which releases a little easier,we duct tape over
the top of the blue trim tape.
Tell you what we will have and test and tune in a few weeks you and
couple of you can come to Montana for a lesson of track building.
Good luck and racing
SrRC
08-21-2007, 08:50 AM
#15
Hello Granade;
The most important thing is the quality of the tape--we at MCRC
have been taping are tracks for years and found good 3m duct tape
is the only way to go. We start at one end and make sure it is very
secure--may have to wipe the floor down first,after securing the end
have one of the bigger members stand at that end and have acouple
of other members do the poopy pants walk to the other end, this is
to stretch the carpet flat,than tape that end down. We have had
a problem with the duct tape pulling up the floor finish so we tape down
with blue 3m trim tape which releases a little easier,we duct tape over
the top of the blue trim tape.
Tell you what we will have and test and tune in a few weeks you and
couple of you can come to Montana for a lesson of track building.
Good luck and racing
SrRC
The most important thing is the quality of the tape--we at MCRC
have been taping are tracks for years and found good 3m duct tape
is the only way to go. We start at one end and make sure it is very
secure--may have to wipe the floor down first,after securing the end
have one of the bigger members stand at that end and have acouple
of other members do the poopy pants walk to the other end, this is
to stretch the carpet flat,than tape that end down. We have had
a problem with the duct tape pulling up the floor finish so we tape down
with blue 3m trim tape which releases a little easier,we duct tape over
the top of the blue trim tape.
Tell you what we will have and test and tune in a few weeks you and
couple of you can come to Montana for a lesson of track building.
Good luck and racing
SrRC
Where and when will you be doing this?? We have our two day race September 15/16 but other than that, I could make most weekends. What size track to you set up? Traction compound? If I drive that far, the car has to hit the rug!!!
