by Florida_Slotter » Sun Aug 03, 2014 7:39 pm
I just returned from Thunder Shores Raceway. All I can say is as much FUN as I had today should be illegal!
The track is a 4 x 12 3 lane oval. The racing action is tight and one whole heck of a lot of FUN! My trip today solidified few concepts in my mind. First one is that there is so much FUN to be racing on a small oval that I will soon be building one. My "Trackpass" is good for use during a day, but the track must be removed from the living area of the house before the sun goes down. My oval will be 4 x 16 or there abouts. Basically it will be made from 2 sheets of MDF - hopefully 3/8 MDF. It will be portable so when we have beautiful winter days, I can set the track up outside so it can be enjoyed with outstanding weather to boot. On days that are raining or hot, we can set it up I the family room as long as it is removed the same day. No overnight parking is allowed.
It will use 3 7/8 inch lane spacing. Why did I chose that dimension? Well I was handed a hand built radius tool tool today with that dimension lane spacing. So all I need now is some 3/8 MDF. I will have to call my cabinet maker buddy and order the MDF at his pricing. Woo Hoo, "Martin's-Ville" is coming to fruition and soon.
Doing some pseudo semi-scientific testing today revealed that a small oval is a track where setup is much more important that motor output. I had one of my cars that had a very competitive 16D in it. As it went down the straight, it started to pull away from the next car in line, but that was close to the end of the straight. I think the extra speed was a detriment to making the turn. It just makes sense to have FUN and not have to worry about such things.
We ran one heat today where all 3 cars were within 6 inches of one another at the end of 25 laps. BTW - I did not hear any words being spoken during that particular heat. I think each of use were just too busy to spend time trying to trash talk. Of course when the power went off there was a whole lot of deep breathing and chatter coming around. It was just a FUN time.
Photos? I now our host Pete Ross took a whole bunch of photos today. He will send them to Larry of Fubar and then the posting will be made. Lots of photos of the cars, the track and the results. Hopefully our ugly mugs were left out as we don't want to scare any little kids.
All I can say is that it was a super day today!
I hope y'all had fun as well.