Well, just a quick note, I framed up the 7' X 40" 1/2" ply yesterday and threw a couple of coats of medium green on it in prep for the speedway being laid down today. I first centered the track and then taped it into place, making sure I had as little gap between the lanes as I could get.

http://home.earthlink.net/~amg_bodies/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mvc-122s.jpg

After nailing the corners first from the centers out I realigned the straights and then tacked the far end of each down with the exception of the center of the front straight. I took the middle 15" straights out and then wired the electrical fron the bottom...no terminal tracks here. After the wiring I reinstalled them and after drilling access holes tacked thyem down as well.

Pit road sits pretty far off the straights in the infield. In past tracks especially racing open wheel MT's we had a lot of cars touching tires and flying into the pits. Hopefully this will cut down on some of that. I removed the rails from two 9" straights and cut them to fit the front straight as an exit and entry.

http://home.earthlink.net/~amg_bodies/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mvc-123s.jpg

Next I dug out all of my Zip-Zap track barriers and painted them red, and after working up an outside wall hot glued them into place. I left an opening just outside of turn 3 for infield access, in testing this has already proven to be an interesting place to crash.

http://home.earthlink.net/~amg_bodies/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mvc-124s.jpg

The Zip-Zap barriers have a groove in the top that I'll be putting a screen into to represent fencing, I'll drill down into them for posts about every 6" or so. I kept the drivers stations simple, I had these nails left over from a few years ago, I drilled pilot holes through my plywood and after driving them into it I used my dremel to drill a hole in each one about half way down. I ran wiring through th nail hole and after soldering the wires in place and shrink wrapping the whole nail I completed the wiring to the power supply.

http://home.earthlink.net/~amg_bodies/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mvc-125s.jpg

Since we use alligator clips on our controllers all you need to do is clip into the top part of the nail and you're ready to go. In testing it worked really good. We don't have a dynamic braking option so we only need the two contact points.

I ran a couple hundred laps in each lane, even the outside lane 4, with various cars. Once the fence is up the crashes will be better contained but I was happy with how the layout looked. I did have a horrific Michael Waltrip style incident with an Eagle, running in lane 3 I just got on it too sonn and wacked the far side of the opening pretty hard, but the car survived without a mark. I'll work up a gate or something there in the near future.

What I would really like now is for everyone with a slot car business send me a business card for a billboard, I think that would be really cool. Anyway, I have a lot more stuff to do to it before the Mini Indy next month, this is just the start.

Nice looking oval. Keep us up dated on your progress. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Your On A Roll...Go MAn Go, dont stop now LOL

Looks like a fun diversion and i'll bet your going to wire this to Go Fast and Turn Left :)

It will be fun to watch you develop this!! :)

The back and short sides will have 1" X 12" shelving closing it in, on the inside there will be a mountain scene airbrushed in the distance. There's plenty of room for landscaping and I have plans for a large grandstand with bathrooms, bleachers in turn one and a concession stand. The infield will have pit equipment and some emergency vehicles. Since the drivers are positioned on the front stretch there won't be a flag stand but there will be some trees in the area behind turn 1 and turn 4. All this will take months I'm sure especially since most of it will be scratch built. Lighting is being considered, both track and competetion (green, yellow and red).

Had some heat races tonight running Eagles with AJ and one of the Hicks brothers. Things started getting heated, wheels began touching, pit crews began fighting, spectators were throwing bottles from the bleachers. At one point AJ and James went in side-by-side into turn 3 and I banzi'd the corner in a bump and run attempt. After the smoke cleared and the punches stopped I was backwards against the low wall without a rear wing, James' car over the wall sitting where the orchard will be shortly and AJ's car made it all the way to the floor. Visions of Kevin Cogan came to my head...and then everything went fuzzy....AJ had put a live cockroach he found in my shop into my Dr. Pepper, it was only after the laughter started I started looking into why. It was payback for the dead mouse he found in his pitbox earlier in the evening. Country living, gotta love it.

My 12 volt 2 amp transformer is on it's way from Scale Auto, cutting the power down will stop some of the horrific accidents like this (man that would sound so much better if Jackie Stewart said it) and make the racing a little closer. As if it needs to be closer. Sometime this weekend the fencing will be installed to keep the cars in the park but all in all everyone who showed up for the test session liked the track. So far we have three classes tested; MT/XT Eagles, Tomy Turbo Modifieds and TJ's. Once I get a timer I'll start posting some times.