Hoping for Advice - Braid drop hole cracked edge of the slot

[Slowracer]

Hi everyone - I'm a newbie building his first routed slot car track.
I'm at the point where I'm drilling the braid drops using a 1/4" bit - and as you can see from the attached photos, the drilling resulted in the slot chipping near the drop.

Would you recommend refilling the slot, gain, and holes with bondo and re-routing the slot and gain, and trying again to drill or maybe sand using a narrow file the gain drop?

Or - do you think this is passable and won't create a problem? I'm just concerned that a car's guide may catch where the crack is and flip the car out of the slot while racing.

In addition to the braid-drop holes, I included a couple of photos of the track as it currently stands.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or guidance you can offer.

Victor

[mattb]

plug those holes with some bondo and sand smooth. Drill 4 new holes a few inches away and use a 3/16 bit, braid will fit thru a 3/16 hole easy and you will still have some space between the hole and the slot. Looks like you'll have a nice track.

[4424ever]

Ditto when we build the drag strip I used a1/8 bit and filed it out to a slot
the braid fit nice and snug which made a very smooth drop for power taps

[TuscoTodd]

That looks like a NICE layout shaping up!!!

[Fathead59]

Was just wondering if after you put the braid in the hole that you drilled , couldn't you put a small dab of silicone around it ? You could use a bath tub silicone .

[Fathead59]

And very nice looking track I might add

[2cool]

Beautiful track! Beautiful space to put it as well, love the rounded windows. What is the footprint?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Matt's advice is the way to go. And I should tell you that just about anything that you run into, including a redesign, is Bondo City. I don't know of anything that isn't better repaired or redesigned with good old Bondo. I have repaired my track and others when something has fallen on the surface and chipped the slot, and after sanding and painting, the repair is invisible and very tough.

What grade is that MDF? Either the color in the photo is unusual, or that looks downright stony, even though obviously very smooth. Nice design, by the way.

[ken weir]

Bondo is the cure for sure. Also offset the braid holes so they are directly across from each other.

[chappyman66]

Yup, Bondo. Put a piece of 1/8" plywood or plastic with wax paper over it in the slot, Bondo the holes. Pull spacer out after the Bondo hardens and you should have a smooth slot. You can sand or file if needed.

Then redrill an inch away or so.

Beautiful room and great layout.

[Slowracer]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
To answer some of the questions - the footprint for the overall track is 8' X 23'
Regarding the MDF grade - I don't know - I purchased what was a homedepot at the time when I was shopping.

Thanks again for suggestions and the compliments on the layout. It was inspired by the track build at cloverleaf racing with the double decked straight.

I'll post some more pics once I make some progress.