I tried to take a pic this morning but the digital battery needs replacing, so I'm going to wing it with words here.

I laid down the new bull ring oval last night, I made sure the board was big enough (7' X 40") to allow some really great landscaping with bleachers, grandstands and even a snack bar. It will be a fully functioning 4-lane with a cushion outside of lane 4 for the cars that drift to use. Lane measurments average out to make this a 1/5th mile. It will use the Lapcounter 2000 for all the races. There are no terminal tracks, everything is wired from the bottom of a pair of 15" straights.

I'm not really happy with the way the AFX/TOMY track corners lay together, I have a small gap between the inside two and outside two lanes, but it's not enough to upset the cars.

OK, for the name: traditionally my tracks since 1967 have been named Pan American Speedway, after the track I grew up near in San Antonio, Texas. I raced a mini stock when I was in HS, and my father was a track official for most of the tracks life. It closed in 1983 after an 18 year run. The other name I considered recently was Yosemite Speedway since Fresno is less than an hour from that national park. However, that name is being used for a track being built in Chowchilla for real-world racing. Others like Fresno Raceway Park, San Joaquin Valley Raceway and Sunnyside Bowl (I live in the Sunnyside section of Fresno) were suggested. So, name my track and win one each of my vacuformed Outlaw Sprint Car, Super Modified and Sports Car bodies. Do your research, come up with something original for the Fresno area.

Bull Dog Bowl

That's amazingly good Stoosh except that the East Side Bulldogs are a particularly bad street gang, especially in my part of town. Still, I'll put it in the hat for consideration, thanks!!!

DogTown Speedway, DogTown Oval

I'm not really happy with the way the AFX/TOMY track corners lay together, I have a small gap between the inside two and outside two lanes, but it's not enough to upset the cars.



Yeah me too,and it does upset the cars.Dealing with it now and its a PITA.

Dont want to hijack your contest thread with it tho.

Mike

How about Tower Speedway, or Sequoia Speedway.....

Ahh...that Tower District, the Heart of the City, where the women are strong and the men are pretty. Sequoia is a good one....added.

Mike, my gap is down to about 1/8", I may stick some cork railroad bedding it in to fill it in. I've been running hard laps in Lane 2 and I've only caught the rut once so far.

Why don't you name it after your Dad?

Roger Corrie

The International Raisin Speedway

(IRS for short) :-)

(Added quickie logo for the infield)

Roger, my dad and I had a bad falling out about 20 years ago, we didn't speak again. He died in 2003 and I really don't have too much contact with my family in Texas anymore. I still have a lot of pictures from those days at Pan Am, from when I was about 9 until I left at age 20. My '71 Pinto mini stock is still in a garage somewhere in San Antonio, I've been told that it's still pretty much intact now 26 years later. I'd love to go get it, if for nothing else but nostalgia. It was the first race car I ever built as an auto shop project. I don't remember the grade I got for it though.

One of the drivers suggested "Dust Bowl" because I live in an area surrounded by grapes, figs and stone fruit. We're constantly having to blow out the shop because of all the dust that accumulates. We have a USAC Focus Midget that has so much dust on it right now you can't read the number on the nose.

I think once this runs for about a week I'll maybe take the top five and do a survey. We've got some good ones so far.

I don't want to sound presumptious (?) but why don't you name it after yourself...
McKay Speedway...
Or how about Electric Raceway...
Or to go with the fruit theme how about "Fruitbowl Raceway"...
Never mind on that last one...
Scott

how bout bowman grey stadium in north carolina thats what everyone calls it around here is the bull ring ?

The Greater Fresno Modelplex Gives you room for expantion of tracks. :p Tim

How about the M&M? AKA- The Mckay Motorway

How about "SHAVER LAKE SPEEDWAY" or "DOG HOLLOW"

Noddaz, being the humble racer I am I couldn't name it after myself. :) And Bowman Gray is Hallowed Ground, I'd never be so presumptuous...

Fruitbowl....sounds like it should really be located in the Tower District. :P

Slots of wrath. I guess that would be more of a team name.


Here is the problem with the gap. Nobody and I mean nobody in the modern world of slots makes a 90 degree curve. AFX, Tomy, Life Like, Tyco, Mattel are all the same. They are all just short of 90 degrees. Take four 90s of any manufacturer and make a circle. If all your connections are tight they will not be able to make the last connection.

What about Wine Ring Raceway or The Speed Grove (like vine grove)

The original Pan American slot car track was the old A/FX track that would break off the annoying little tabs. Now THERE was a great fitting 4 lane track. It was destroyed in the great garage sale fiasco of 1997. The replacement track was Tomy and fit pretty well, I don't remember the gaps in the corners being so wide. Anyway, it is a dirt track after all...

http://home.earthlink.net/~fsra/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mvc-609s.jpg

One of the other idea's my wife came up with regarding the naming of the track was to 'sell' the naming to a company, such as Hobby Talk Raceway (hint, hint). Or Scale Auto Speedway...hummm, I wonder if I still have Gary Beedles home number in Renton..

Obscure literary reference: one of my favorite books is Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." The main character hitches a ride into Fresno with a madman in a souped-up rod, driving eighty and passing everybody in sight. He refered to "buzzing Fresno", and I like the sound of Buzz City Raceway.

Mckay's "Thunder dome" speedway....

4 cars enter..one car leaves...

Oh oh.....and I wanted to ask.....have you ever thought of doing a 2 or 4 lane figure 8 in the inner lanes ?

IIRC...you use the large radius turns for the track proper.....maybe use the 15 and 18 after market for the track...and a 9 and 12 for the figure 8...the crossover section would take some hacking....but I did see the MM or old arorah track cross overs could be doubled...

ACK...where is the link.... :freak: :freak:

AH...here...check this out...Brooklands speedway (in case you havent seen it)

It was atlas and lionel track....scroll down to check out the 4 lane crossover...

http://www.geocities.com/brooklandsspeedway/speedway/index.htm

Toledo speedway still runs figure 8 races 1:1.....they are a blast to attend

Pan American did figure 8's later in it's life. I went to Google Earth last night, as of the last photo updates and it almost now completely gone, overtaken by the urban sprawl that forced it's closure. Sort of a hard moment for me. Take a look at 29 33' 52.29N 98 21' 00.99 W.

I like Thunderdome, or maybe even ThunderBowl, although that sounds like the bowling alley I hung out in as a kid. Since this actually represents a dirt track it would fit perfectly, maybe build a bowling alley off of the 3rd turn when I do the landscaping.

Origninally the corners were to be 15" on the outside, 12" then 9" for the inside lanes, but when the club split, away went some of the donated track that was to build this thing. As it was I had to buy all new track, so this is totally brand new. Each lane will have it's own transformer of course, which also got expensive since I only had 2 and have to buy 2 at almost $17 each. The big money will come once landscaping begins, I figure at least $100 to build all the bleechers, grandstands and fencing to scale specifications. I found some cool figures that are close to 1:64th scale, I get 10 for $3 and figure a good crowd would have been about 250 or so. I'm still debating lights.

I'll have a new digital battery sometime this afternoon, pics to follow.

Got A few for ya,

Ocean View Raceway Park.

Over the Hills International Speedway.

Park in the dark Motor Plex.

New battery for the camera is $61, I can buy a new digital for $80...pics will have to wait.

Tyco, we're about 140 miles from the ocean, at least until the big one hits. I think we got some good selections, I'm going to narrow them down and post the choices Saturday.

Pete - Since you have three major state parks near you (Sequoia, Yosemite, King's Canyon) call it Tri-Parks Raceway.

Another suggestion is 6th City Speedway since Fresno is the 6th largest city in the state.

Vukovich Memorial Raceway commemorating Fresno's own Indy family.

Or Ash Tree raceway (Fresno comes from Spanish "Ash Tree").
Jim

Jim, I know the Vukovich family casually, they lived in the same neighborhood I did and I watched Billy III race numerous times. I was supposed to be at the race at Mesa Marin the weekend he died but I had my appendix burst. I woke up with my family telling me he was gone. I considered that before anything else but instead we're going to have an event named for the family using our winged supers. I'm in the process of painting one like his 78C car he raced at Madera and Mesa Marin.

I think I have enough for consideration. I'd like to do this as a poll but I don't see the options to do so. So, here are the name contenders:

Bulldog Bowl
Buzz City Raceway
Dog Hollow
Dogtown Speedway/Bowl
Fresno Raceway Park
Greater Fresno Modelplex
Pan American Speedway III
San Joaquin Valley Raceway
Sequoia Speedway
Speed Grove
Thunder Bowl

Here's the deal; PM me (and please only PM's, this string is long enough) with yuor vote, just C&P the name you want to vote for. I'll run it for a week and tally the votes a week from tomorrow (Friday). If one of my idea's win, the next highest vote getter from someone else will get the bodies, I gotta be fair about that.

Well, it's going to be a hard freeze tonight, I need to get out to the orchard and try to save some fruit. Remember, vote only once and with the names suggested. See ya'll later.

Seems my PM's aren't enabled. The guys that sent their votes by e-mail, I got them and have tabulated your votes, thanks.

Break Neck Speedway...
Swift Current Sprint...
High Tail Hustle....
Itchy Trigger Speed Track....
Dead Bolt Dash....

....dunno...can't think of anymore.... :confused:

OK, the online voting is closed. Right now it's close between Dogtown Bowl, Thunder Bowl and Sequoia Speedway. My racers will vote tomorrow and Sunday, a winner will be announced on Monday and I'll ship out the bodies on Tuesday. After we established the names I discovered that the Tulare Fairgrounds track is called Thunderbowl, but I don't think there would be much of a conflict with them.

With only one of my drivers left to vote the name of the speedway has been determined. Marty Bauer came up with the neame Sequoia Speedway, and while it was close at the end, my guys decided of the three names in the chase, that was the best.

http://home.earthlink.net/~sequoiaspeedway/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/sequoia2.jpg

So, Marty gets the prize. Marty, e-mail me your snail mail address if you would, tonight I'll fire up the vacuformer and draw some brand new cars for ya. Included will be one each of my original designed AFX Sprinter and Super Modified, my full bodied 1990 "Sports Car" (which has never been distributed outside of my own team), my brand new full body Late Model, a long wheelbase NASCAR Monte Carlo off of one of my new molds, and the just completed today 1970 Pinto Min-stocker. I may toss in a few other pancake motor goodies.

Congrats to Marty. I will have another contest for something else in a while.

SWEET! Email on the way, glad I could help!

WAY cool!...congrats marty! :thumbsup: