Tuesday Nite Crashers

[mattb]

A little different than most of your guys, we run 1/24 on a home made commercial style track. I've made a few changes since I first built it a year ago. It is 4 inch lane centers and 5 inch centers on the flat curve. That transition was the main change. I also added controller stations around the track to make it not as congested and to have someone close to all corners to catch de-slots. We have a lot of fun with a couple simple formulas for our weekly racing. I will post our race formats in a followup post. This is the first braided track I have built and first with banked corners and the elevation changes. I got a lot of advice from Harry and from SCC supplies and videos, Steve Ogilvie, formerly Ogilvie Custom Slot Tracks, provided plenty of tips on building this style track.

[mattb]

Race formats.
Crash and Burn
We started out running the same format we used when we ran for fun at the local commercial track. We just called it "crash and burn". You crash and you are out. The race lasts until there is only one car left or when any driver except the driver in the lead calls out "last lap". The race is finished by the first car to cross the finish line. If all cars crash out, the car closest to the finish line wins.

Saturday Nite Shootout
This style race we run until only 2 cars are left, if you get lapped you are out. The 2 cars left then have a 3 lap run off.

Pit Stop Race
This format, a complete stop is required at the end of a lap. The stop must be in a 3 foot area starting at the finish line. It must be a complete stop. The racemaster decides after which lap the stop is required and how many laps the race is. This is usually a stop after 2 laps and then 3 laps more.

Racemaster
We usually have 5-7 guys that race, so one of the odd men out will be "racemaster" and he decides what type of race we run and starts the race. One of the other odd men out will be the "catcher" to grab cars that deslot on the flat curve.

Needless to say we run lots of races and everybody wins a few. I run all the cars on the orange lane and make changes as required to get them equal. Fast time is 3.90. All the cars run 3.90-4.05. The two center lanes may have a .03 lap advantage, but it's not much and usually somebody will call out lane change every 20 minutes or so and then we rotate to the next lane. We have a lot of fun and scale and build quality isn't #1. Most cars are vac bodies and all have good nerf bars to keep them from getting busted up. I'm OK with this style car. I'm happy to have a group of guys that enjoy weekly racing. Too many slot guys that have nobody to race with, so it's good with me to race anything.

If I didn't race 1/24 I would really like to have a nice 1/32 landscaped road course,. Building lower powered Indy cars and Canam cars to run on a road course would be great. Not a complicated track plan, just a something requiring a little skill. I have my hands full with the big stuff for now, so I don't want to start anything else. If the 1/24 stuff ever ends, I would maybe go back to plastic and just do a 2 lane track at home. I have a lot of plastic and really like Monogram and the quality of Aurora 1/32 track.

[4424ever]

Nice track it sounds like you guys have a lot of fun!

[ourwayband]

Very Nice Track!!

[TuscoTodd]

Great looking track and from the sounds of things - you guys are having a lot of fun!

[Slot Car Corner]

Fun only. Go home if it's not fun.

This ^^^

Nice layout and great looking cars - thank you for sharing.

[Fast Co.]

Looks like a fast track and that's an innovative program of races you have too.