70 replies to this topic

[MG Brown]

This is a CNC-routed flat track being built for the 2016 ISRA Worlds and will be in addition to the "Midwest Monster" flat track, the Lazy 8, the tri-oval, the Gerding King, and the drag strip already at Mid-America Raceway Naperville.

 

The purpose of this thread is to keep racers that may not participate on other Slot Car Racing forums informed about the progress building this exciting new flat track. I would ask that people posting replies keep their comments in that vein. Thank You.
 
For best results- please direct any technical questions to Roger.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dushkwoneshe]

Looks oh so fine, MG...  Everything going to schedule?...
 
John

[Rob Voska]

170 feet!

[MG Brown]

More pix from Roger:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tim Neja]

Wow – that's looking really good!! Going to be a first class flat track – tough driver's track for sure!!

[Pappy]

Absolutely gorgeous track but I wonder how many turn marshal is will take to marshal it.

[Tom Eatherly]

Get enough racers, they'll have enough turn marshals.

Man, that track is is looking good, damn good. That track looks as tough as the "Beast" in Yorba Linda, CA (The Cave), maybe tighter.

[MG Brown]

As another racer said - "I love the smell of epoxy in the morning; it smells like victory."
 

 

[MG Brown]

Yikes, Stripes.

 

 

 

 

[Half Fast]

Hmm...

 

Won't the braid cover cover the colors as shown in the last picture.

 

Shouldn't it be striped on the outside of the recess?

 

Cheers,

[Steve Ogilvie]

That looks really painful and will take forever. There is a simple wheel pinstriper from Marshalltown that you can do a whole track in about four hours with once you get your colours at the right consistency. About $22 from Amazon. Whenever I needed a new one, I just went to the oldest paint store I could find and they usually had one. You have to mod it to make it work its best – bend the arm or bend up your own so it fits in the slot better. Lane Striping

[Zippity]

This is called "modern thinking."

 

Whether or not I agree with it, is a different story. 

[Steve Ogilvie]

Nothing modern about the striping tool. Pretty sure it was invented about 75 years ago.

[Half Fast]

That guy's back will be gone before he's forty. At least stand up the panels!

 

Ouch...

[Zippity]

Nothing modern about the striping tool. Pretty sure it was invented about 75 years ago.

 
I wasn't talking about the roller tool – but rather the painting of the slots...

[Steve Ogilvie]

Got it, sorry. We used to paint our slots too, but with clear polyurethane just to toughen them up a bit. Clear gets absorbed really well by MDF so you don't end up with blobs in the slots. We did this before we colour painted the track.

[MikeC]

We actually talked to Janis (the person pictured painting) quite a bit at the USRA Nats. He has reasons for painting it this way, and I can tell you from seeing his finished product in Prague last October, that he does awesome work!  

 

If you look closely at the picture, there are very thin stripes that are not in the braid recess. This is an ISRA requirement, since the lanes in Prague were not painted outside the slot and as the racing went on, the colors got harder to see. The thinking is to have the track surface as flat as possible. In this case, they'll be there, they'll just be very thin.

[Steve Ogilvie]

My tracks have been used in at least five ISRA worlds. If there is some sort of lane colouring regulation, it is new.  And as you just stated, their old idea did not work very well. Lane pin striping is always very thin, it does not affect how cars hand. I am glad you showed a close-up of the joints being used, I wondered what version of my joints are being used these days.

[Rob Voska]

In Prague the track did not have stripes. The slot itself was painted. Would probably work fine if the lighting was very good... but it wasn't. It was hard to marshal quickly. Therefore new rule.

[Steve Ogilvie]

If you want to be able to quickly see the colour of the lane you need a 1/4" wide stripe beside the braid on both sides of the slot. Nothing else works. And this has been standard for years. And no racers have ever complained. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

[wbugenis]

Were the slots routed with a CNC machine or the "router - fixture" method?

[Cheater]

See post #1, Bill.

 

CNC-routed.

[wbugenis]

Thanks, Greg. Not much comment on this being the first major track to be CNC-routed in the US?

I think all of the recent ISRA Worlds tracks in Europe were CNC routed - not common here.

[kvanpelt]

Slots were CNC-routed and the braid recess was done by hand.
 
Nothing wrong with striving for perfection! Keep it up, Janis!