News from DeBary Glen

[Modlerbob]

Our new track we have named Palm Bay Raceway in honor of it's origin is now operating on three of it's four lanes. Three of us older disabled racers were able to repair the copper tape on three of the four lanes. I will be enlisting the help the help of one of our younger racers to climb up on the table and patch a couple of splits that are out of our reach from the perimeter. We have started rubbering in the lanes that are operable and are finding that the Paul Gage soft urethane tires have enough traction to make racing possible, challenging, but possible and fun. Soon we will have the permanent driver's stations installed along with the trackmate timing and lap counting system.

[Florida_Slotter]

ModlerBob,

That was "Team Two and a Half Men" at their finest. Between you, me and Jim, we have a total of 4 functional eyes, 5 functional arms and 5 functional legs. Of course when you add in all the decreptidness, it takes it down the 2.5 total people! Of course with almost 200 years between the 3 of us in age, and still playing with little toy cars, it was a lot of fun just being there.

Yep, a litte bit of work to repair some breaks in the tape from moving the track and we had 3 of the 4 lanes up and running. We just need someone a bit lighter and much more limber to climb up and patch that break on the back of that 4th lane and we should have all 4 lanes up and running for 'test & tune'. It will be a few weeks to get the money saved up to put the TrackMate timing system up on the track. But I see that coming along.

I hope to have the new driver's stations built here soon. I have Ralph Thorne Racing building placards for the lanes and if they look as good as the other great work that Ralph turns out, I think they should really look professional.

Then it will be time to put in another order at Slot Car Corner. I would like to get a set of the controller holders for "Palm Bay" and also "DeBary Glen". Since we have the ability to use our commercial controllers, I'd like to have some holders so you can stop throwing yours on the floor all the time. :D

Right now I'm thinking of talking to you and some of the other club members about doing some racing on Friday nights. I know you have not considered that as there was another slot car venue that raced on Friday nights. Since they are no longer using that night, it might just be a better night to race as most folks do not have to get up and go to work on Saturday morning. Just an idea. Of course we can race one night on "DeBary Glen" - like the Slot.It Group C races and perhaps another night on "Palm Bay" with a completely different class.

From my point of view, those Carrera Stock Cars were a blast to run around "Palm Bay". As the traction came in, the lap times started to drop and the "fun factor" really started to rise. Plus having a "DeBary Glen Stripe" on the left rear quarter of your car when running the red lane is just so much fun. Time it right and you can gain a lot of ground.

Day one was awesome. I'm looking forward to Day two!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Wish I was closer:)

[Modlerbob]

Day three (Wednesday) was awesome. All four lanes working and getting more of the bugs out, literally out of the slots along with left over sawdust and dust bunnies from the time it sat idle in the original owners garage. We hope we have all the splits in the copper tape patched now and the Paul Gage tires are "rubbering in" the lanes nicely. It looks like on this 65' track that about an 8 second lap is going to be what we are looking at based on my cell phone stop watch.

So far we are having the most fun with the Carrera classic NASCARs, the Carrera Can Ams and Carrera Ferrari 458s. The slot.It classics with PG tires are very smooth and easy to drive and even the Scaley classic F1 Lotus and Gurney Eagle stay on the track mutch better than I had anticipated. BTW this was all at 10v power setting.

I still like going balls to the wall on my Scaley sport track and eventually I expect on race nights/days to have at least one event on each track. So no matter which style of racing racers prefer we'll have you covered.

[Modlerbob]

Here are some images of the new track.

[torquemutant]

I have had the pleasure of running on this track. All four lanes in this layout can offer the racer a robust rhythm in cornering and sprinting through the straights, if you got stones that is. :D Overall surface is smooth as anything possible with today’s track construction. Once the new drivers’ stations and the timing program are complete, in a couple weeks, scheduled races will begin. Don’t even think that it would be best to wait until construction is completed before you can try out this track. Knowing Bob and Marty is to know that improvement on anything and everything is an ongoing project in itself… those two never stop.