Permanent indoor but not on carpet would be good, best start looking for a warehouse that can open the roof and have a few bags of grass cuttings dotted about ;-)

all good points lads

I started in 91/92 on grass with 27t stock motors any more and I couldn't do 5 minutes without dumping the batteries (now im old my batteries last longer then my concentration or bowels !!

I agree with youngsters and fast motors too this can be the playstation generation where you can turn off all realistic features like crashing turn on abs TCS anti crash everything you like and racee flat out without crashing !!

thanks to us oldies !!

I help in running an indoor Astro track.

What indoor gives you over outdoor is consistency of running, no abandoning a days racing due to rain. This allows us to run racing EVERY Sunday throughout the year.

This consistency encourages racers to invest in their gear as its worth their while as they know they will get good use from investing in expensive kit.

We can also provide a practice evening EVERY week so newbies can practice & become confident before they tackle a race day.

We tend to change the track every 3-4 months, sometimes just reversing it which can give a totally different feel to the same layout. We have a chap in the club who has great ideas for track layouts & builds all our jumps. The challenge in designing tracks is that it needs to be challenging for the experienced drivers but also possible for the newbies to get around. There's no point in designing a track for the top 10% of racers in the club and the rest of us mere mortals spend all our race day rebuilding our damaged cars which equals no fun for 90% of the club members which doesn't make sense. Getting the balance right is the challenge!!

We try & put some 'character' into the astro by placing bits of wood under the astro & placing sleeping policemen and large sheets of perspex around the track.

Its impossible to keep everybody happy & I personally like racing outdoors but only get this opportunity a few times a year.

We have talked to other clubs who had to close down, who raced outdoors, due to a typical UK/Irish summer; too many rained out days and racers tend to drift away and go elsewhere and take up an activity that guarantees an outcome regardless of the weather!!

I agree that an ideal solution would be an indoor dirt track but the expense & maintenance would make it extremly difficult for a small club to keep running & maintain.

The club I'm involved in has grown and has attracted a lot of new members over the last 5 years due to being based indoors, so from a club running point of view indoors works for lots of reasons.

Had a very pleasant day indoors today away from the weather. Commented a few times that one particular car was set up well to go ferociously quick from one crash to the next.
Seemed to be enjoying it though

I totally agree with you. Astro track is amazing outdoor or indoor. Perhaps for indoor tracks carpet may be more suitable but any kind of surface these two make a difference.