Parking Lot Racing tracks
 

My neighbor and I practice at the nearest parking lot and have not been to an actual on-road track yet. One is coming in the next few months and there is one within an hour. My question is to those of you that have been to multiple on road tracks.

1. What is the average length of a straightaway for 1/10th TC?
2. What is the average lane width for 1/10th TC?

1. The average r/c straight at indoor US carpet tracks is usually as long as the space allows (a bit longer if the straight goes into a sweeping corner).

Sorry for the vague response, but a smaller facility is going to have a smaller straight. The track I currently race at is only 60' long. Many national carpet events have a track that is around 80' x 36' (CRC sells Ozite racing carpet in 12' wide rolls).

2. The average lane width can also vary by facility.

Again, sorry for the vauge response. I've raced on smaller tracks with some lanes as narrow as 4 feet wide. If a track primarily races smaller cars (1/12 or Mini Coopers), the lanes tend to be narrower. If the tracks allows larger cars such as a Slash to race onroad, then the lanes tend to be wider.

ROAR is one of the governing bodies for R/C racing in the US. While not all tracks are ROAR sanctioned, many use ROAR rules as guidelines for their own tracks. ROAR requires a minimum 8 foot lane for 1/10 onroad carpet and 10 foot lane for paved. Here is a link to the ROAR rulebook (http://www.roarracing.com/downloads/..._Rule_Book.pdf)

----------

Basically if you will be racing indoors the straight will be 80' or less and the lanes will tend to be 8' or less. If you will be racing outdoors with nitro/fuel powered cars the straight can be longer than 100' and the lanes will be 8' or wider.

1. Varies, but usually whatever the longest length of the track is, and it is usually opposite the drivers stand.

2. 8' is common for indoor carpet (all I have raced) and is used for 10th and 12th scale. It is wide enough to pass but narrow enough that you have to work for it.

I have designed many RC tracks and have just design and finished my latest track for Hobbytown in Fresno Ca. It is 120'x70' the back straight is 14' wide and the front straight is 10' wide.
The main thing I have found is to make the lanes the furthest away from the drivers stand wider then the lanes right in front of the drivers stand.
Tools needed to build a good track
1) A scale drawing I use quadrel pad (3 squares= 10')
2) 100' tape
3) chalk line tool (to layout the straights)
4) Chalk and a string to layout the radius of the corner

Great work there. What do you use to complete the track? Do you use track dotes (blow disc) for the corners. What do you use to for layout completion?

The reason I ask is I am seriously considering starting an on road track/club in a parking lot in the St Louis area. We haven't had a good asphalt program here in a number of years and those that have tracks can't get their $hit together to have a good program outdoors.

Vivo this is exactly the answer I was looking for. My track will be portable so I can not paint the parking lot like yours. However what I would like to know is what do you use for the interior boundaries.

Thanks for your help.

We use fire hose of Various widths, In the places where the cars cross we use 4" hose in other spots we use 2" hose. and we use plow disc for the corners, Were racing tomorrow we hope to have 40 cars in 5 classes. mini's, gts TC silver can, 17.5 blinky, open TC, Novice. we started racing here after 7 years of no racing.

So glad to see Fresno getting back into some on-road racing! Fresno is where I got my taste of rc racing in the Montgomery Wards parking lot in 86. I will have to come down and check it out. To bad they couldnt re-do the blacktop before the new paint. Say hello to that Yo Dog guy!:sneaky:

I ran the races at Montegomery Wards back in 86 that was a bad ass track. I had a lot of fun back in the day. Leaving for the track right now we are supose to be getting some of the old racers back today, and the guy's from Visalia to race 17.5 today. To make the A main will be tough today.

Great information here guys. VIVO the layout looks Awesome.....
We are running a parking lot series and just need to fine tune a few things. We are also unable to paint the surface but the fire hose and plow disc's will work well.

Video of the track at Hobbytown Fresno with fire hose plow disks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3vRFejQ3Ns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2dYD...feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCz_e...feature=relmfu

You guys should have your own thread! I will be there next summer. What classes do you guys run?

We race 175 on blinky\17.5 intermediate GT 3 GT bodies silvercan motors\ Tamiya mini's using silver can motors\ Novice any car.\ GT 1 that is a open touring car nitro tc and open modified tc. We race every Saturday non series races are free (every other race]` Series are 5 races $100 1st $50 2nd $25 3rd in hobby bucks to the series winners

So Cal has similar asphalt tract except that your track is a lot better vivo.

We have a portable setup we use...it is all kept on a trailer. We move the trailer to the location and set up the track and drivers stand, then break it down each race day. It is alot of work and with a few guys takes just over an hour to set up and just under an hour for tear down.

The barriers we are made of 2x4's some sigle some double! then we use plow discs for the corners and such...so the setup it is quite a heavy and takes up alot of room easily over filling a full size truck bed. We use 2x4's since we run mainly 1/8th scale Nitro GT's. they are big heavy cars and a soild barrier is nice. We have a 100'-110' straight depending on layout, our area we set up in is about 130'X85'

I have heard of many places using old fire hose, as well as PVC pipe. It really depends on your budget and how "portable" you need it to be. I have heard of people just using rope duct taped in place with plow dots on the corners...just be careful of the layout on opposing lanes, the cars will "jump" small barriers quite easy causing some hard collisions. But with 1/10 scale stuff the issue is not as hard to deal with vs the 1/8th scale we run alot.