A Blank Sheet of Paper...
 

Tell me...

If someone gave you a blank piece of paper and said draw me your ultimate off-road track for 1:10th scale buggies/trucks, what would it look like?

I only ask as we are hoping to secure the opportunity to build one next year and I've already trawled the interweb for inspiration and was just interested to know what others would want for their ultimate track...

I'm not going to spoil you with my initial ideas, but I'm keen to see what flows... :thumbsup:

I would suggest a start with an all astro track, without too many features, get the rostrum sorted and race on it a few times. You will have the opportunity to drive many different track layouts, and you will get a feel of what you would like and where to put it.
Try to avoid single track layouts, variety does help!!!

Jumps, many people want to jump now a days, make sure they are consistant across the whole face of the jump, doubles are cool, tabletops are safer for all levels of the drivers.

Make some technical section as well, you don't want the track too fast!

And good luck.

I'd say aim for an open first couple of corners so you avoid too much crashing at starts. Then as DC says, keep your options open so it can be changed alot

Nice open flowing tracks are better than tight twisty ones :thumbsup:

What looks good on paper doesn't always work in reality, start with lots of space and something simple and work from there, you can't have a great track right from the word go, unless you are RHR :thumbsup: but they had lots of experience and also knew what they wanted and some had already been there and done it.

I would talk to people who have been building tracks like

Paul Bradbury
Lee Martin
Tony Truman
Kevin Lee

They have the knowlege of what you will be looking for.

Take a look at Kidderminster or Stotfold, add a couple of well constructed jump sections as DC suggests and I think you will be on to a winner.

As DC says keep options open, I think we can have something like 192 layouts at Kidderminster!

For me the worst thing is to get to a tack that is little more than a collection of jumps, there is no flow and I don't find it fun to drive at all. I was a little concerned when I first went to PDA for that exact reason but fair play to the PDA guys the track is really hard but when you get it right it flows far better than you'd imagine from looking at it! PDA is the exception that proves the rule .. can't wait to get back there!

You need to have some flowing sections (although no reason why they can't be over elevation / surface change features like Kiddy) where people can get involved in a bit of racing, over taking. Well that is my opinion any way.

Hope that helps and I look forward to racing on the resulting track when it's built, the more permenant tracks in the UK the better if you ask me :D

Or you could get rid of all of those people and use ONE man Mr North. Great track designer.

A

Not really a fair comment ash? Northy is very good at designing tracks, but bradders helped alot at RHR, pidge and truman have designed and built PDA, kev lee was the man behind stotfold!!!

Scott, get on down to Stotfold (not a million miles from you) and have a word with Kev Lee (he's there most Sundays). He will be able to point you in the right direction as he has years of experience building astro layouts.

As DC says, make it interesting enough that it's not boring and make it so it can be varied. :thumbsup:

If you're going to put decent size jumps in, make sure the landing zone is large and preferably a downslope, flat landings are :thumbdown:.

Something to bear in mind with your rostrum also is to have it away from the track, not as close as possible, all drivers will have a better view of the track this way, and if you put the straight under the rostrum you need it set back otherwise you're into the first corner at such a rate your head moves with the car and you dont get a good perspective for your braking point.

Will the track be open to anyone or just people that live within the surrounding area?

I take it you will not be applying for a national either?

^^^ Good point about the rostrum. A elevation change would be good too, But I suppose it would have to be at the back of the track so that it doesn't block other parts of the track from view.

Also, it would be good to see boxes for kids to stand on whilst marshalling, possibly one of those baywatch chairs so they can get a good view of their Zone, there is nothing worse when a short arsed kid cant see your car stuck behind a pipe, (apart from when he eventually realizes that it is stuck and runs out in front of another car which puts him on his arse) :thumbdown:

Thanks for the thoughts and comments so far...

I think some committee members will probably make some visits in the new year to other clubs just to get a feel of scale and layout.

I personally have always like the idea of elevated sections, I remember watching at a Worlds many years ago in Basildon I think and they had a proportion of the track furthest away from the rostrum on an elevated section.

I've always like the idea of a cross over - table-top in one direction with a shortish tunnel going through. I guess the only down side would be marshalling a crashed car in the tunnel...

...rake anyone? :cry:

What would you say is the optimum length for the main straight - is 50m too much?

I also agree on the view that the design should provide variety, that's a certain, especially with the space we potentially have.

Remember also that we are a small new club so we don't have visions of grandeur of running regional meetings, let alone nationals! We shall learn to walk before we run and I would expect the track and it's facilities to grow gently throughout 2010 and well into 2011 first.