Martin Simone came up this weekend and hung out for a while. We've been watching the Rolex 24 Hour on TV and thinking about building his track. We wanted another real world course but size is a consideration since he doesn't know how big of a place he'll be getting when he moves back to the Fresno area in March.

While I like the classic MT's, XT's and TJ's he's more of a magnet man, and the course would have to be designed for the higher speed cars. Coming up with something compact, high speed AND a challenge as well as a real world track was pretty easy.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/Daytona.jpg

This fits in an 8' X 6' layout area, the speedway corners are banked and back up by foam. The infield has those pesky 6" hairpin corners which means a driver has to find the mix between a fast car and one that handles. Timing and scoring will be done by a newly acquired AFX Pit Station, purchased off fleabay Australia for $65.

Construction may begin this spring with racing to begin as soon as Memorial Day if everything gets done.

Interesting...
But why only two lane?
And I hope the the banked turns ahve retaining walls to contain the cars at speed... :lol:

Scott

looks cool wil yoou use 12" bankes turns on the speedway corners or something else. It looks like will be a fun track to race on. mj

Scott the computer racing program we have is written for a 2-lane event. We also seem to have a slight absence of racers at the moment so 2-lane tracks are better for us. Finding another AFX Pit Station for the price we got the first one might be tricky too.

The banks are 12" radius and I'm certain there will be some sort of wall on the outside. The track is designed with modified can motored SRT's in mind. Martin will be home tomorrow so he can give a few more details on that. I think it'll be a blast even for pancake cars.

Cant wait to see it landscaped :thumbsup:

Landscaping will be at a minimum. There will be styrofoam around the banking and the entire track will be inset into either foam or OSB to make everything even. I'm not worried about weight so much since it won't be moved like Laguna Seca will be. I'm not going to spend money on things like buildings, trees or a lake, this will be a racers track even though it will be designed after a real world track.

With that said this design (Daytona) is only one of several designs I'm looking at. We did the Daytona mock up because of the Rolex 24 Hour, and while it meets my size restriction we're not completely settled on it. I won't drive a nail until March at the earliest and I'm sure I'll look at a few more ideas between now and then. If...IF I decide to do this track I would like to have it done in such a way as to remove the bus stop and the infield turns and just have a tri-oval as well.

That's cool but being a magnet car kind of guy I think you'll find that layout is too small. It's a more technical track at that size rather than speed for magnet cars. You need at least a 15' straight to let magnet cars stretch their legs. ;)

Playing with the design a little, got rid of the 6" corners entering and exiting the infield section. This also helps drop the cost needed for parts to buy.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/NewDaytona.jpg

Adds a bit of length to the circuit I think. Scott you're right about having a long straight to let the puppy's run, maybe the banking from the bus stop to the entrance to the infield may be enough. That's maybe just over 10', but I'm not sure if you can drive an SRT through the Tomy 12" banked turns wide open. The alternative is to take the bus stop completely out and have the three banks corners for the high speed section.

I'm not so much worried about high speed Slott as I am making it a fun, small track. The magnet cars I have envisioned are either Tomy Turbo's or Tyco HP-7's with tire and gear upgrades only, maybe vacuformed bodies. I don't think a full tilt neo car would be drivable here. Like Pete I'm going to have space issues and getting the most bang for the area I'll have available is important. I'm also not going to have hundreds of dollars so it will be well thought out but sparsely decorated whatever the final layout will be.

Pete I like this one better because it looks more like you shaved a foot off the width making it 8' X 5' now. We can even cut the corners off it to make the base tri-oval shaped. Cut it from the middle 2' of the tri-oval back at 45 degree angles towards the banks will make reaching the infield easier to marshal cars.

The banking will suffice for longer straights...you can carry quite a bit of speed through the 12" banks....bet you find you only need to lift for a second upon entrance...

Tippy toe in the infield...hammer down on the highbanks....should be very simular to daytona... :thumbsup:

Should be fun with a Turbo or even Tyco pan chassis for some paint trading and corner slides. And I agree with the 12" turns it should help. Maybe even try flat 15's. (?) The infield part should be fun and challenging. If Pete's helping, it's sure to come out cool. :thumbsup: I just enjoyed watching the Rolex 24 too and it got me revved up for the 2008 racing season! :woohoo:

I'm just spoiled with my aging, overly large layout. :p

Pete suggested going with can motor cars because it makes it harder to to cheat with them. I have some Super G-Plus cars that I prefer and I think there are about 12 different open wheel bodies available on Scale Auto's site for the SG+. Champ cars at Daytona? Maybe, why not? Or maybe SRT LMP Toyota, Mercedes and Jaguars instead. I tend to like variety and would lean more to allowing a class of lexan bodies on the track myself.

The big sweeping 18's at Laguna Seca can be run flat out with just about anything, including Thunderjets so I would entertain them as a flat corner. But the idea this weekend was to build a Daytona replica much as Pete's track is a Laguna Seca replica. I don't have that kind of budget, problem solving skills or raw talent to pull something that technical off, but a simple high banked tri-oval/roadcourse is right up my alley. I'll just let him do the foam work under the banking.

Something else we were considering was the F1 layout at Indianapolis, those would be flat 18" corners to be sure. He just hasn't done a UR 3.0 layout for it yet.

Some of the long tracks like the Indy F1 circuit would be hard because of the number and type of complex corners. I don't think it would fit into an 8' X 5' space and be a good representative of the real course. This design is quite obviously Daytona with or without the bus stop. Martin needs to establish a set area and work from there, the 8' X 5' layout is pretty universal and could work even in a small apartment or garage.

As far as the Super G+ cars are concerned, I've not worked on one very much so I really don't know anything about them. I got online on the Scale Auto site and did find 12 different SG+ open wheel bodies, plus a few that were the more expensive G3 cars. If it's an open wheel series there's a good start although you could also get duplicates and just repaint them in as many cars as you want. One thing Patto's has is a generous supply of F1 sheets in HO scale. And with the body clip I believe that the standard AFX bodies would also fit so the one chassis/many bodies rule could come into effect.

I'm looking for a signature series for Laguna Seca as well, and at just over $20 a car the SG+ could fit the bill. I don't think I'd like to see Chanp Cars at Daytona but there's no reason you can't I guess.

Pete and Martin,

You will not have to wait too long. AFX is coming out with a new DP01 Champ Car body on their new chassis due out by Sept. of this year. Steve Russell from AFX said the new chassis is going to be an in-line arm motor and the proto-type handles like a dream. Here are a couple photos of the body that AFX is going to produce. You will have your open wheel cars soon enough for your Seca track.

BTW, I like Martin's layout idea.

Sounds like a winner, looks even better. The thing I like about the SG+ is that it is more tunable than the can motor car and like Martin says, harder to scrutenize. We both came up with the "one chassis, many body" rule for both Laguna Seca and Daytona, the stickler with me is to have a common body for both tracks. Right now that's the LMP cars since open wheelers don't run Daytona. Tomy only makes two or three styles of contemporary LMP cars for the SG+ car, and I believe that only the Toyota and Mercedes are still commercially available.

Daytona is beginning to look more and more like the chosen circuit.

I'm willing to go with the Super G-Plus cars and open wheel bodies, not a problem. There are actually 14 unique stock factory paint schemes counting the twin-pack available on Scale Auto's website. That is assuming they are in stock there. Whatever cars are chose though knowing all of the aftermarket parts would be helpful in writing rules. I don't want to deal with someone saying "well my magnets are ceramic" and having them be zapped. I think the magnet marshal will help us there.

Magnet Marshal was sold on New Years Eve.