Straight - Near or Far side.
 

Hi Guys,

We're going to start laying the track this week, so age old question, straight near or far side of the track?

Far.

Always.

Unless you run a diagonal straight. Which is pretty cool sometimes.

I got confused on a diagonal straight especially going away from me - LOL

Matt - make sure its wider than wide being at the far side as its always going to look smaller so give them plenty of room.... :)

Thanks for the advise Tony, we have more than enough room so i'm thinking maybe 5m wide minimum, maybe more.

Always on the far side for me, otherwise it is difficult to see what is happening at the end of the straight in your peripheral vision.

I laid a track with the straight on the far side today and got flamed for it.
As far as i know no one but me has driven it yet!
Or track is rectangular so it's pretty long but I think it adds some variety.

Some people have some strange ideas, me, as long as the depth perception is there, i don't care where the straight is, or which direction you go along it.

Some of us don't have perfect eyesight, even with glasses, far side is much more sensible. So you can see the wiggly bits on the nearside properly.......

I've now driven one track with the main straight on the near side - the rest was all on the far side or at least not parallel and close to the rostrum - though I have no very distinct preference, I think if I'd be given the choice I'd put the straight on the far side.

Agreed, straight always needs to be wider the further away it is as the further away the less acute your viewing angle so is so it looks proportionally narrower. The other thing is you can see the whole straight on the far side with just your peripheral vision without moving your head, if the straight is under the rostrum you will need to move your head to track your car as well as your eyes, making it harder to judge at high speeds (trusting a bit to luck!).

Do we really need straights? Would we not be better off using the track for a series of corners and have a long sweeper instead (would solve the problem for lining cars up for the finals). Sometimes I feel the straights take up a lot of room, especially at smaller clubs, e.g indoors.

This thread was for our outdoor track, we have a 20 acre feild and a 12.6 metre rostrum at out disposal so space is not an issue. Taplow (Janos era) had sweeping straights, they were good tracks.