vtl1180ny

With the price of land around here a permanent Outdoor On Road track is not going to happen unless someone comes into A LOT of money or it's built on public land, both of which is not going to happen any time soon.

We have a group who have been running in a few parking lots around the area using everything from fire hose and split PVC pipes to Roadrails...

I know there are clubs who successfully hold racing in parking lots around the country and I want to know what everyone does to make it work. I'm sure there a re a lot more racers in the same position we are here on Long Island and I hoped to start a thread to help the racers out and maybe turn the parking lot bashers into racers also.

Any advice? Pictures? Board construction tips? Drivers stands? Links, whatever, please post what you have or what you know...

Core Creations

iTrader: (108)

First off, if you can make it in as visible a public place as possible. If you have a large audience of spectators chances are you will have a decent inflow of newbies (which are the hobbies lifeblood).

Second, if you want to get and keep "seasoned" racers, the surface and boards/pvc need to be in very good condition. Find a lot as smooth as possible. Maybe even a new lot. That way you should have at least of few years of good surface to use. And try to design and rotoate through good flowing , but challenging layouts. Not too many racers, especially new racers want to race the same layout for months.

Third, be decisive and show leadership in your track running abillities. If you show this people will respect and follow the track rules. If you act as your clueless things can get ugly fast!

Finally...make it fun. Be a little crazy on the mic. Let racers know where they stand "a lot" during the race. Make it exciting for the spectators. Give away small prizes, especially for the rookies. It's a cheap way of keeping everyone happy and looking forward to the next race!



As far as the physical track goes. I personally like either painted 2 x 4s or 2-3" PVC. Both are strong and easy to design layouts with. The PVC gets the nod of the 2 as it's very easy to keep stacked, doesn't warp and doesn't need to be repainted. Plus the connectors they sell at the hardware store come in every angle possible and work great at keeping the track together. Also make sure to have a good supply of weights to keep the track in place.

Also, make sure to replace anything that needs it and keep all equiptment as nice as possible. Racers don't like to see entry fees going into yor pocket while the PVC is breaking apart or things look worn and in need of replacement.

Good luck!!

chris moore

iTrader: (96)

The parking lot racing we do is not held by a club but rather hosted by one of the local hobby shops. The owner sets op the track using dots and flat 2X4's for the infield and 2X4's put together in an "L" shape for the perimiter. The outside boards are held together losely with coat hanger wire to have some give during crashes. No transponders not sure of the computer software but the race director counts laps manually. Its a true run what you brung fun atmosphere with the biggest classes being oval. We run all types of vehicles, trucks, touring, minis, monsters, pancar, you name it. Novice can run any R/C car/truck/mini in the novice class, once thay reach a consistent number of laps thay move from the novice to either truck, touring, etc. classes.

When enough show we will also run road course, minis, legends, whatever really. Its just about haveing fun really but the cometition is good and no matter where you finish you get at least a hobby buck(coupon good at the store) to keep the interest up. The number of entries varies but say yesterday we had 38 so a nice showing and lots of fun.

vtl1180ny

Thanks... I'm curious what everyone does for a drivers stand? It looks as though we'll have access to an AMB system, but no handouts so people will be required to have personals...

Any pictures???

chris moore

iTrader: (96)

In our case there is no drivers stand, unless you own or know the owner of the lot putting up a structure of some type would be frowned upon in most cases. If someone wants to thay bring a sm ladder/folding stool to stand on. I just stand on the ground, its not hard to see unless you plan on using a large PVC pipe or some other tall rail to seperate the lanes. Keep in mind that the harder it is to set up the more time/effort its takes and in my experence you will be the one doing all the heavy work as others will have excuses why thay are late to setup. And if you use rigid lane dividers there is a greater chance of impact damage. If your not doing this very close to the lhs peeps will get tired of; 1 breaking and not having spares to continue running or 2 get tired of bringing thier own store of parts with them.

vtl1180ny

We have a large contingent of 5th scales so our track layouts are pretty large. We pretty much all bring step stools of some type.

We're trying to get more safety minded this year. A few times we've had 5th scales wander into the drivers area which thankfully we tend to make a slow part of the track. Very few things are going to stop a 5th scale topped out at around 60 MPH down the straight...

chris moore

iTrader: (96)

Here we only allow up to 1/10 electic, the main reason is liability. If your going to run gas you had better have a good insurance policy because sure as I'm typing you will have some spectator get smacked and sue. I'm sure that the owner of the lot will require this, if not that guy is an idiot.

SWTour

iTrader: (9)

for our parking lot racing we have a trailer type drivers stand, but in the OLD DAYS when we very first got into local parking lot racing, we stood on either plastic milk crates, step stools, or other special built one man stands.

www.centralcoastrcracing.com is our web site, there are a couple pics of our drivers stand (It's under re-construction) it was built nearly 15 years ago, and racing died in this area over 10 years ago, and was just resurrected late last year.

The outer perimeter of our layout is done using PVC based Rain Gutter "DOWN SPOUT". The downspout if 3x3" square boxed tubing, and it's easy to make w/ wood, pieces to fasten it together. It's really gentle on the car if you crash into it (unlike WOODEN walls) and you don't fly over it like happens with Road Rails.

For the inner part of our road course we use regular rain gutter...it moves a little too easy, but we're always finding ways to keep it better in place.