marco m

Hi every one I have been thinking about building a parking lot race track in my home town . We a good place to build it and how do I get the word out that there going to be racing I have race tracks 2 hrs away from me that race indoor carpet but would to do some parking lot racing too any one have any ideas were to start? Any ideas would be great

(0000000000)

iTrader: (2)

Old school/grass roots way is to get old firehose and some milk jugs filled with sand.
For prep, a push broom would be a good start. Ream a couple holes on the top of a coke bottle and shake/spray it on just the corners.

Milk crates to store everything, and double as a driver stand.

DC power available through their car battery, as most racers will be driving to the track anyways.

PA system and lap counter are nice, but not necessary for a startup track. Simple is the name of the game.

Keep in mind that this is all fine & dandy for starting up a track. Once you have a group of regular racers, you'll want better facility equipment....and liability insurance.

sakadachi

iTrader: (1)

Weather conditions can be a bitch if you need to drive 2 hrs away to set up your track.

I usually setup my parking lot track 15-20min from my house knowing weather will hold for a few hours. I only bring a bag full of marker dots and a deck brush. I charge off my car battery and bring an inductor just in case for soldering. It's usually only a couple of us bashing, but plenty of fun. Beats just going up and down a side street.

JimmyMac

iTrader: (2)

Put the word out at local hobby shops. Go to those carpet tracks and pass the word out to them. Post it up on here under the appropriate forum. Get some pics up of the track. List rules, classes, and race dates. It's all word of mouth right now.

valk

iTrader: (13)

In our case we have a deal with the municipality to use one of the parking lots not used on weekends for outdoor racing. Its very cheap and the lot is maintained by the municipality.
Our outdoor track is made up of flexible wood outer barriers assembled with wingnuts and smaller of the same for the infield straight lines. We anchor them with sand filled firehose "sealpups" so its not as bad as hitting clicktrack.
We used to assemble corners with plastic stripa secured to the wood ones with wingnuts but got a score with old playfield carpet/turf material that we cut in the shape of corner islands.
Setup takes 30 minutes with 5 guys with the turf so much better than building all the corners with strips, nuts and weights.

We race 1/10 touring stock, 1/10 nitro tc and world gt outdoors.
On the west coast, weather is an issue but keep an eye on that days before. Generally with a 40% or greater chance of rain we won't set up. But also we wouldn't sey up for less than 10-11 people.
With the growth of offroad lately, getting the requisite number of racers for outdoor onroad has been really tough. They just don't want to bother helping with setup when you could just show up at the offroad track and race..

Indoor is nice and conventient but we charge $25 if you race two classes. Plus I practice weekly. So costs quite a lot. Outdoor much cheaper like $5/class as our deal with municipality is just that great.

I like outdoor racing but getting people out on a nice day for 8-10 hours is getting tough.

nitrodude

iTrader: (8)

I would imagine the first thing is to get permission to use the parking lot from the owners

(0000000000)

iTrader: (2)

+1 ^^^

Having a couple friends bash around a make-shift track after hours at the Home Depot is one thing. Holding an actual organized race is a completely different beast. Focus on the basics for now. Organize a time and place to get the make-shift track together. You'll quickly find a common "class" or two, to run together in. If not, then the buck stops here.

If you got a handful of guys who are interested in taking this a step further, start booking a venue and getting insurance.

SpeedySST

iTrader: (6)

You could also use spray chalk for corners. It will wash away with the first rain.