motomanpat

iTrader: (2)

That is one thing I was thinking! Maybe a can drive or canned food for track time then I could donate what comes in to a worthy cause

motomanpat

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for sure! If I do get this place my sig will be a bit different though. More like I'm Poor now and I will trade Byrons fuel for track runtime that way I can run alsoand Monty will be around to tune my stuff if I can't get it right myself

houston

iTrader: (96)

i will make sure you have fuel if you have a place to drive toy cars

motomanpat

iTrader: (2)

You are the best bro We will see what happens,offer has been accepted and we are waiting for the power to be turned on so we can do our inspections

motomanpat

iTrader: (2)

There has got to be some more people out here that have tried to start a track!

rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

I haven't built a track, but I am looking for a place for a club to race. As has been mentioned, insurance and sanitation are #1. I guess some questions/issues that needs to be answered/addressed are:

1. What will ROAR cover and what doesn't it cover in your particular situation?

2. What does your home owner's insurance agent have to say about your endeavor?

3. What are you going to do about insurance for friends and family that accompany racers that are not ROAR members?

4. Safety, cooking and alcohol rules.

5. Rules about misconduct and how to ban someone from showing up on your property again.

The other thing too, is that I think a waiver will only cover your behind so far. "Gross negligence" on someone's part can be an issue. It's really important to find yourself an attorney before you find yourself needing one.

Good Luck with the track.

tc5 man

yea i would get insurance cause theres, always a idiot out there that will sue because they where turnmashing and. they hurt there axle or something like that even though it was there, fault and should not get a dime.

motomanpat

iTrader: (2)

Those are exactly the type of things that I would like to hear.



I have heard that monthly policies are about $75????

tc5 man

im not sure i havnt owned a track , but i know a guy who did run a track that. dint have insurence my guess ,is it might be $75 a month or cheaper.

Danny B

iTrader: (23)

put up a catch fence around the track area to catch runaways...I remember a story on neobuggy from europe a few months back about a youngster that got hit in the face by a runaway...not good, he was hurt pretty badly, apparently the track had no barriers to protect spectators...

Make sure to enforce throttle return devices on all vehicles!

Look into setting yourself up as a club and become a Non-profit Org...then you can charge nominal "membership" fees and track use fees to help off-set the costs. Insurance should be cheaper for an NPO and your personal liability would be reduced. I do know my pan car club is an NPO and we used to race nitro oval and electric oval and the insurance costs went down a lot when the Nitro Oval stuff died and we are now strictly electric...

I probably wouldn't approach your homeowner's insurance company about a nitro race track on your property, they would probably freak out.

as far as the track itself, finishing equipment is a must, you can't do it all with a skidder...we used a medium sized lawn tractor with turf tires, to pack and also pull the water wheel and chainlink fence drag around. and of course shovels, rakes and a hand tamper are all useful tools. a water source close to the track is a huge benefit, although being in the NW you probably get plenty of free track watering!

good luck!

tc5 man

hey a electric car or buggy, hitting you will hurt to lol.
yea a catch fence makes sense if ,a runaway happens like your avatar by the way bevis and butthead a classic man.

cdbias

Starting a track is a huge undertaking. Be prepared to get worked over but the benefits of racing close to home are well worth. Me and 2 friends currently run a track in Beckley,WV. You can check us out at www.elevationstationrc.com

A big thing is having help. You need just a couple of dedicated people that will help all of the time. From our expierience too much help can be a bigger problem. Everyone has different ideas on how the track should be and some of them won't even show up to race if you don't incorporate their particular ideas......even though the ideas might be very far fetched and unrealistic.

Layout.....keep it simple so you can get new guys involved as well. Build from one side to the other so that your not running equipment over sections that are completed. Jump landings should be atleast 2/3 the size of the takeoff minimum.

Website----IMO is a key component. You can't handle all of the phone call's and it is also an excellent advertising tool. It makes it very easy to announce track work days, race dates, and cancellations.

Insurance---Shop around. We were quoted anywhere from $3500 per year to $700 per year. Take a video so they know what your talking about.

Restrooms---We found that Port-o-potty's were around $80 per month. We were able to purchase a used one in very good condition for $150. It's only $30 to clean whenever we call.

Non profit organization---you can file for a 501(c) tax exemption through the IRS. You won't have to pay taxes and you can get large donations as well. There are a lot of companies looking for tax write off's.




There is alot more to say but we'll see where the conversation goes from here. Good luck and don't let it drag you down.

motomanpat

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the great reply! I would think it will be quite the undertaking but I am going to do one step at a time and put all my ideas(And other folks) on the table and get as much information as I can. I am mostly interested in having a track for people to play on rather than a racing atmosphere. The reason for this is I will have neighbors within ear shot and I also would like to keep the place low key as it is where I will be living.
If I had the cash I would build a horse arena on the property but that is not going to happen unless I come into big cash someday down the road.
Your track looks pretty cool for sure! I really like the non-profit idea. Seems like that direction might be the right fit. Generate some dollars to take care of the needed things like electric,garbage,insurance and a potty
Inspections Monday on the house so hopefully everything will be smooth.

Thanks again

marshon50

iTrader: (6)

I've built a track and ran a non profit club....my advice is to check out everything from a legal standpoint w/ the town you live in before doing anything.

Go to the town clerks office, find out the names and addresses of your neighbors and go meet them ALL. Tell them what your planning on doing and then show them a nitro car in action. Let them hear the noise from up close, from 25 yds away, 50 yds away, 100 yds away, etc. Also maybe have buddies w/ cars on standby so the neighbors can hear what multiple cars sound like doing the same distance tests. Basically if ALL your neighbors don't agree and give you the OK, then I'd seriously limit the amount of $$$ I'd invest in the project because they could very easily shut you down.

Town's have noise ordinances that usually state a certain decibel level is the limit, BUT also have an annoyance clause that says that if any noise would be considered annoying by a person of average sensitivities it's prohibited. Unfortunately for us loving nitro, the pitch of our nitro engines is the problem. I tested db's and generally you'll be fine, but the annoyance is where they'll try to get ya. Lawn mowers, weed whackers, etc are louder than a nitro engine, but their pitch is much lower. And no one is gonna say you can't run a lawn mower during normal hours because it's considered a normal part of life. Even though a nitro engine may be quieter, neighbors can claim it's annoying and negatively impacting their quality of life. You'll have a hard time convincing a town board that your nitro car is a necessity.

So what happened at my track? Ultimately we gave in to pressure and shut down. Although I probably spent $5K on it, and had a great 6 or 7 weeks of running, and met a lot of great guys, if I had to do it over again, I'd certainly do it differently. Good luck!

tc5 man

thats why your better off ethier renting, a piece of land wheres there is no houses around or , if you live around where there is no neighbors .

only the older people bitch, about the noice of the nitro engine lol.