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I'm just curious if anyone applies spray glue to their tracks? If so, what mixture do you use?

Anybody with a history of glue on their tires is asked to put the car away or leave my track.

Have not used glue in quite some time now and I have to say I don't miss the mess

No additives on any of our club tracks.
Bob

I would think :think: that glue would be limited to commercial tracks. Have seen or heard of anyone running glue for home.

Dave

I can not imagine what a mess that would be! I don't like to run silicone tires on my track!

Natural rubber or urethane on my track. I spent a lot of time of time putting the rubber down.

We called it 'tire goop' when I raced with a bunch of guys on a commercial track. I never understood why the owner allowed it, but it was popular. All we had back then were foam tires - I still have a new set of the orange ones.

Slothead

Traction compound is mostly used with foam tires and spray glue is seldom used on home tracks. Foam tires are almost always used on 1/24th commercial tracks and after a while a mixture of rubber dust and traction compound builds up on the track surface and on the braids where it eventually caused poor electrical contact. When the cars start to slow down the track is stripped with naphtha, however the cars will have very poor grip after it is stripped. Running cars for many laps will eventually restore the grip, but usually the track would be treated with spray glue to quickly restore grip. Spray glue is diluted traction compound, if I recall correctly it is one part Parma Tire Traction or Champion Tire Bite and three parts naphtha. The traction compound might be diluted more than that.
If I strip my HO track it also has to be conditioned. All of my cars have silicone or silicone on sponge tires, except one car with sponge tires that I use to clean and condition the track. I apply a little traction compound to the tires and wipe off any excess. About 25 laps in each lane is enough to condition the track. If the drack is dusty I wipe it down with a treated cloth and then run laps with the car that has sponge tires.

My slot racing history comes from racing 1/24th scale lexan wedges on commercial big high banked tracks where originally everyone glued the braking zones leading into the corners. The practice got so out of control it eventually lead to track owners banning the individual drivers from applying glue and it was replaced by the spray gluing technique. When I switched to 1/32 scale I still wanted the same feeling of speed so I embraced the use of traction magnets to increase the tire grip but in a controlled way. I still feel the need for speed and my routed mdf track was built using chalkboard paint in the corners which has iron filings imbedded. It has much less of an effect than steel rails but still improves the cornering grip. We use no tire goo on my track and only tire cleaner on the tires.