Home Racing World

I'm in the planning stages for another routed track. It will be approximately 6' X 20". For you oval racers out there, do you prefer a "D" oval, or a paperclip design, or a tri-oval?

My track ended up being a tri-oval due to the way I banked the corners. I really like it, over say a paperclip, since the front and back stretches have to be driven slightly different. I can go deep into corner 1, but have to let up a little early into 3. My track is 16' long, and around 7 wide, 4 lanes at 4.25" spacing.
When I made a corner, I laid out all 4 lanes plus inside and outside edges on a full sheet of 1/2" MDF. I didn't go a full 180 degrees (turn 1 and 2), instead I stopped at 170 degrees. Then routed just the inside lane. I did the same thing for 3 and 4, just mirror imaged 1 and 2.
Then I cut it out the inside and outside edges. Laid it on the table and used a ratchet strap at widest point to pull it into a bank, trying to get to 180 degrees. Didnt quite make it, but I lined up the back stretch at right angles to corners and screwed it all down with shims under the banking. The front stretch was rough in with and I used a home made plastic/flexible fence to do the inside lane. Search engine "Luf's router fence" for an idea.
Once the inside lane was done, I made a router guide out of plexi-glass and a couple pins and routed out the other lanes like you would on any other track. Routing on top the banking was a worry at first, but ended up just fine.

Do you have a picture of your track that you can post. I would be interested to see how this turned out.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5259

Its on here from a few years back. Long Creek Speedway. Not to be confused with my road course with similar name.

Depends on your space I suppose. A "D" or Tri-Oval is nice if you have room.

I stayed basic and never regretted it.



20 feet is a good stretch. For 1/32, 18 is more than enough. Suppose the number of lanes will dictate overall length. Anything longer just ends up being a "motor" track. Being that ALL motors have a variance, and the longer the straights then the side by side racing is diminished. Even a couple hundred RPM will basically kill the equality.

I have had ovals 24 and 20. The best have been 18 or 16. Good close racing.

My intentions are to build a replica of this 7/16 mile short track that I used to race at, the outer large track. The radius of turns 1 and 2 are 2/3's that of turns 3 and 4, and turns 4 and 1 align. The highest elevation is the exit of turn two, turns 1 and 2 are banked more than the relatively flat turns 3 and 4. This was a fun track to race on so I'm hopeful that will transition well to smaller scale. I want something driving a bit different at each end.

20 feet is a good stretch. For 1/32, 18 is more than enough.

We'll be running 1/25th scale hardbodies and Womps. I thought about shortening it to 16', but the table is already there.

Another option with routed tracks is that you can have squeeze sections that are different at each end of the track. For example I have seen a four lane track that squeezed lanes 1 and 2 at one end and lanes 3 and 4 at the other end.

The 7/16th mile track shown would make a great slot car oval track. I wish I had the width to build a track with such a wide radius turns as 3 and 4. My experience is a 1/32 scale home wood track works best with 6-8 degrees of banking max. On the track shown, I would bank turns 1 and 2 at the 6-8 degrees and turns 3-4 I would shim the outer edge about half an inch for a slight bank of maybe 2 degrees. It would drive really well. Whatever you build, make a plan that suits you and then plan some more! You cant over plan a wood track. Good luck!