Question for offroad racers about new track
 

I own a hobby shop in California and a local fairgrounds has approached us about opening an offroad rc track at one of their vacant arenas. My question is this, the fairgrounds does not want us to add clay to the soil, and currently the ground is just a dry dirt surface more on the hard side. They don't mind if we bring in clean fill dirt for jumps, just no clay. I want to find out from racers if its okay to race on a regular dirt surface without any clay added. Is it hard on the cars? Is it to slick?

Please any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to spend alot of money on equipment and then find out that drivers think the track sucks because of the surface.

If you use the dirt that is there, it will take work to maintain the surface if 1/8 scale use it. If the dirt is loose, use step pins. We had a track in our area but was closed down due to poor maintance. It will take alot of watering to keep the dust down. What area are you planning to set up this track? Is the soil sandy or does it turn to hard packed when it is dry? Have somebody with a r/c test the dirt to see if it breaks up.

Thanks for your response,

The area the fairgrounds is proposing we use is a rodeo arena that doesn't get much use. The dirt does not have any sand and does turn hard packed when its dry. We are going to go out and test an 1/8 scale to see if the dirt breaks up.

I was told by somebody that if we can't ad clay to the soil the track would be no good and people wouldn't want to race because it would eat tires and be hard on the cars. Not sure if this guy is just being to picky or what. In your experience is this true? Watering and track prep is no problem.