Home Racing World

So our little club here in the Champaign, IL area used to race at local store that had a great, big plastic layout. Local store decides that having a slot car track isn't worth the hassle, and takes it down. What to do?

We have a good relationship with another club, in the Terre Haute area. Member down there calls me and says he's got an old track for sale. Am I interested? Heck yeah!

This was last summer... I'm building a garage on the property, and only just got it ready for indoor activities. Decided that the track wasn't going to work for me. A buddy of mine says he'll take it, and put it in his basement!

We dug out all the parts this week and re-built a frame for it to sit on top of his pool table. Track is 10' 8" at it's longest, and 6' 7" at it's widest.



As of this afternoon, it's ready to start routing for braid. Originally had copper tape, but after taking the track apart to move it, it was going to be replaced.

Track has 3" lane spacing, and lane lengths around 40' or so. This is a tight, twisty track, so should prove interesting... This will be the second permanent track in our group. We have an 8' x 16' painted Scalextric track in Rantoul, IL that we race on now. We also have an 8' x 24' 4-lane routed oval that can be set up in about 45 minutes.

Hope to have this routed tomorrow after work, then we'll move it in pieces to his basement and re-assemble. A little filler, new paint, braid, and we're back racing!

-Jim

Nice find, that is a cool track!

Super nice track!!!

Look at all these new tracks being built :)

Well done guys.

Maybe a bit of history on this track?

I purchased the whole track, Trackmate timing system, power supply, controllers, etc. from a friend of a friend in Terre Haute, IN. The friend-of-a-friend was getting out of slot cars, and this guy knew I wanted a track. At the time, I was still building my garage, and had nowhere to put it. That didn't stop me, I went down and picked it up.




We brought it back to my place, and it sat neglected in the corner of the garage, covered in sawdust and other construction debris.

I had planned to scrap the surface, saving the electronics, and build a new track. Enter another friend that we race with regularly. He already has a 4-lane oval, approximately 8' x 24' when assembled. It's "portable" in a sense. He wanted a track to run on at home, and this would fit on his pool table. So, over the last few nights, he and I dug it out. We took it apart, removed the surface from the 1x4 framework, and built a new 2x4 frame that will rest on top of the pool table.

Last night, we decided to pull the trigger and rout it for braid. Having been equipped with copper tape before, it would require re-doing the entire track as it had been cut up to move.

Well, after a couple hours of work...



We had to re-rout the slot, then the gains for the braid. It's not assembled, we'll do that once we move it to his basement. With luck, we'll be racing in a month or so, depending on his schedule and mine.

-Jim

Challenging looking track. Looks fun.

That's a neat looking track. It's a bit tight and twisty, but I did some "Mental laps" on it in both directions, and it looks like it will have a nice flow. I am not sure which direction you will be running it, but it looks like a great candidate for reversing switches, as it should be a nice runner in either direction. Keep us posted as you finish it. Tracks like this are starting to get me stoked to build a routed track this Summer. I was holding out until I could build the track of my dreams in a huge space, but these smaller, simpler tracks could be the inspiration I need to just build something.

Have fun with it!

When can I come down and play :mrgreen:

Definitely thinking reversing switches. Plan is to run it clockwise starting on the long straight.

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Man I hate that the local store got rid of their track. It's the track I would use to test on for proxies when I would visit the Outlaws during Christmas and Thanksgiving. My 2017 cars are going to be a mystery :doh:

I'm up in McHenry county, there's a little action up here but not much. I run a very loose 1/43 series with some buddies and their kids, but other than that 1/32's and 1/24's mostly get raced on the neighbors carrera setup.

Bummer it's so far, from here. If things go right, and that's a big if, we'll have 1 plastic track, 2 wood tracks and a wood oval by the year's end. Another member is looking at building a 4-lane NINCO layout as well. All run no-mag. I'll definitely keep you updated as things progress, would be great to have you down to race!