I Need Your Help!

[Florida_Slotter]

[vins123]

Hi
how about all of them, you are planning to make it from mdf, i think you can make panel so you can change once in a while, not sure but i read somebody already did something like that...
Sylvain

[Florida_Slotter]

I like the way you think.

My wife does not.

[RazorJon]

I like the Tri-Oval :banana-dance:

[btaylor]

Marty, I have not tried anything but the Regular Oval and an inverted Daytona style, Both were fun, and that's not helping you decide! , But I learned something about track decisions when I built my road course. I first tried to figure out what I did NOT want, lane changers, squeeze area, and so on, That helped me get further along, then added what I did want, i.e., at least one long straight, as equal of lanes as I could get, and easy ,marshaling. Then factored how many people would actually race on it most of the time. I came up with a perfect (for me) road course that is challenging, semi fast with the right cars, and easy to marshal given its size. My point is only that, if you will be the primary person racing on this track, you will learn the tricky parts of the track and it will become easy to navigate without de-slots, but if you will have several folks racing, the action will be much different unless they race your track as much as you. A standard Oval with 3-4 racers at one time, Is a whole lot of fun, without to much downtime picking cars off the floor! Just my opinion of course, and there are no tracks that are NOT fun in one way or another. And I must admit, That I am somewhat of a Disciple of the K.I.S.S Method ,So I have a standard oval.
Bob

[davek]

Hey Marty, if I may call you by name. I am partial to M.I.S.Just my .02 Davek. See you in 2 months :flags-waveusa:

[Nor Cal Mike]

I like the Phoenix track but I would flip it so that you are accelerating out of the hairpin rather than braking into it. I would also broaden out the radius of the dog leg making it more of a sweeper. Another consideration would be what kind of cars are you going to primarily run on this track? I would think that if you are going to run a lot of open wheelers you would want to maximize opportunity for passing without tire tangling, end over end, crashes. In that case the standard oval might be best. But since this is wood, you can spread out the lane spacing in the areas that you want to allow some sideways passing for the open wheelers. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Oh my!

[slothead]

My oval is much like Thunder Shores - 4' x 14' with 2 lanes. I love it and the grandsons and I have raced a bazillion laps on it. You can get into a real rhythm on a symmetrical oval and spend hours hot lapping cars trying to nail that perfect lap.

That said, I wish my track was a bit wider for larger radii turns. 5' would be fine, 6' might be ideal. I looked at aerial photos of some favorite dirt tracks and was amazed to see how wide they were - not something I could tell from the grandstands. A track in which the length of corners is nearly the same as the straights is realistic. For a 6' x 14' layout with 3 lanes and nominal borders, lane spacing, and gutters, the middle lane would have about 47% of its lap length be in the corners.

If you want something different I'd vote for the Charlotte Motor Speedway look, but with realistic driving lanes. The track shape could look just like you pictured it, but make the track width wide enough so you can draw the slots in with varying radii and changing lane spacing. There might be a short straight section between those two slight turns, but race drivers will drive it as one big arc. Routing slots that replicate real racing lanes will make it more fun.

Slothead

[munter]

I would go with version 1 or 2 for the simple reason that I hate short straights...unless that is just the planning software.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I am a fan of giant sweeper turns, so I'm going to take a chance on disharmony and suggest example #1, with much wider end turns and a huge sweeper turning inwards to connect them, nearly touching the middle of the straight at the apex. The track forms a half dog bone, with all the fun of the long straight and high speed ends with the long, nearly full speed sweeper (which is a tricky thing to get used to, so the track stays interesting much longer), making a break from standard oval strategy driving. Just a thought. It takes up a lot less room, too.

[Ember]

You could pinch one corner on a regular oval to give you a tighter turn one end and a wide sweep at the other.

Or what about stretching out the kinked corner on a tri-oval and make it a D with a very gentle sweep. Give you a straight up one side and a "not straight" on the other.

[slothead]

Love this thread - shows there is no ideal track and there are so many ways to go. I agree with a dislike of short straights, but on a routed track just 'cause the track has a straight section doesn't mean the slots will. I've never driven a race car (would go karts count?) so just imagining what the fastest way around a track actually would be.

Slothead

[Florida_Slotter]

[Abarth Mike]

[Retro Racer 44]

Marty;

It depends a lot on the size you want to build and where you are putting it. A Martinsville/Louden paperclip shape takes the thinnest space, and if not too wide can be marshalled from one side and therefore placed against a wall. A Phoenix or Darlington would probably need a wider table and the rest would require a table too wide to be marshalled from one side. These would then have to be placed away from the walls and the walkway would need more space.

I recently finished a very small apartment sized oval. I posted pics under the thread title "The Minidrome". I was watching the race at Martinsville today (WTG Jr!) and was watching the preferred racing line. Although the ends of the track are semicircles, the cars run a path that is half of an oval, ellipse or even a parabola. They do this to soften the entry and exit of the turn so it is not as abrupt as a straight right into a circle. My little track has that racing line.

A Charlotte, Daytona, Pocono tri-oval makes for more interesting racing especially if the short straights are different lengths and different radii on the turns. If you are making it big enough, you could also use a lift out section to divert the cars into an infield road course like Daytona and other tracks have.

Will be following this to see which one you choose to build.

Cheers,

Keith