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steelo

Starting a R/C track

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Hi everyone,

Well, Lexington, KY has absolutely nothing as far as R/C car tracks and was wondering if anyone had experience petitioning for a city to build one. We have several basketball courts that are extremely crime-ridden around the area and what I would propose is replacing one of these courts with an on road rc track. I think that it would entice younger folks to get out and build models and encourage innovation rather than the shootings we have had in the past few years.

I've tried googling how to go about this but am really at a loss where to even begin such a process....any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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Steelo,

IMO, the first place to start would be to form a group of like minded people who are willing to form a club with you.. Facebook may be of help here..

The next step would be to then have a few "social gatherings" where you and said like minded people could then hold a few unofficial race meetings.. For on-road, tracks can be made from simple low cost items like garden hoses, lengths of timber or PVC pipe, or perhaps you could approach your local fire station and ask if you could have some of their old redundant hoses to use to mark out your tracks.. Old plough disks make good corner markers, or cut some from MDF timber sheeting..

If things then start to grow member wise, you may then choose to form an official club, form a committee, and then look into some 3rd party liability insurance.. You may be able to get insurance cheaper through the RC racing governing body in your country, but you will need to check..

Once your new club has insurance, this should open a few doors for you venue wise, and perhaps you could then start to look at holding a few official race meetings.. After you have run a few official meetings, then perhaps you could petition your local council for the use of one of these "unused" basketball courts to race on....

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My city has a dedicated hobby park with an airfield for planes/helis/multirotor aircraft, a few circles for control line aircraft, a BMX track, and a soap box derby hill. One of the locals approached the city and asked for part of the open field to set up a dirt track and they granted him permission. He built it with volunteer labor and kept it in shape with volunteers for a year or two before moving on to something else.

I'm thinking if you have any local RC airfields it might be worthwhile to visit and talk with some club members about a track in some remote corner of the field. They likely operate on city property anyhow and can point you to someone in the parks/rec department. I'm betting they would enjoy the opportunity to run a car or two if someone or a few people maintained the track.

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If the basketball courts are already smooth surfaced then all you need to do is lay down your track barriers and work out a stage for people to stand on. If there's crime in the area then you won't want to store your timing equipment on site anyway. All the local authority really need to do is give you permission to use it, rather than take an active part in setting it up.

I'm also not sure that having an RC race track in a given area would make shootings any less likely than having a basketball court. You'll probably only hold a race meeting 1 or 2 days per week, so for the rest of the time it will be unoccupied for anyone else to get in and do whatever it was they did when it was a basketball court, be that play basketball or shoot people.

For the record, I've never seen a shooting at a UK racetrack but sometimes people throw their toys out of the pram if they think a timing system / scrutineer / martial / other racer has cost them a PB ;)

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What I'm trying to accomplish is to have the city create a simple r/c track using an existing basketball court. Even if it is nothing more than a track formed using fire hoses, I think it would draw a lot of interest.

We have several courts that are hardly ever used and it really should cost the city next to nothing to lay out a simple track. Heck, I would be willing to paint it if the city agrees...lol

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Finally got a response....

Mr. Stiehler,

Thank you for your suggestion about an RC track in Lexington. We are aware that this is a very popular activity and support it as it appears to be very a family-friendly activity.

Before 2010, there was a small, volunteer-built track at Masterson Station Park. When we converted the old deck hockey rink into parking for a new playground, it became necessary to relocate the track. We set aside an area near the playground for this purpose, but after several months of discussion the group we were working with said that they were having difficulty at that time fundraising for the expansion.

We recently learned through a Herald-Leader news article that they eventually overcame those difficulties and have built a new facility at Falling Springs Park in Versailles. (See attached article and aerial image from Google Maps.)

It is highly unlikely that removing a basketball court at Douglass Park to accommodate an RC track would be acceptable to the local community. Douglass has been home to the most popular local (possibly regional) outdoor basketball event each summer for over 30 years (called “Dirt Bowl”). The event is so popular that in 2005-2006, the City invested a significant amount of money to add a 3rd court and upgrade the entire complex.

However, we remain open to the possibility of finding a partner who has the resources to develop, program and help maintain an RC facility in Fayette County, but perhaps in a location other than where the Douglass courts are located.

In the past, we have learned that building niche facilities without local grass roots support is, most often, not very successful. Therefore, finding and developing relationships with other individuals who also desire a place for this activity in Fayette County would be a great start toward creating an organization that could be the potential partner we would need to move forward.

I hope this information is helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any additional questions.

Regards,

Monica J Conrad

Director

LFUCG Division of Parks & Recreation

469 Parkway Drive

Lexington, KY 40504

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That's a very nice letter she wrote even if it isn't the answer you were hoping for.

If you know of any racers that are members of a church, you might look into setting up a temporary carpet track in a fellowship hall or a church basement. Just a thought. There might be other facilities that are used very little and might be open to letting people come in (as long as they're responsible and don't cause damage or accelerated wear on the facilities).

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I have access to 8+ grass pitches, one full size astro, one MUGA and a full size indoor sports hall. I would love to see racing but there is little or no demand around here

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It's great to get a letter with that much detail in. Most we normally expect is either no response at all or a short but polite decline. It looks like they would be willing to support you if you can form a venture to take on the work involved.

Firstly I don't see why anything needs to be converted - you can put pipe or guttering down on any smooth tarmac surface and call it an RC track. You might have to run a broom over it first to get rid of some gravel. Maybe the local authority would be amenable to giving you permission to use a basketball court for 4 hours one night per week.

My local club hires out a civic hall one night per week. Other nights the civic hall hosts a local cinema, hosts comedy shows, birthday parties, weddings and music events. The club keeps the carpet, barriers and timing equipment in a garage next to the civic hall.

Another local club rents a tiny patch of grass from the rugby club to run a buggy club once a week in the summer. They keep their equipment in an old shipping container on the site. Opposite that, there's another shipping container full of stuff that a local motorcycle training school uses to run training courses in the car park, which they also rent off the rugby club.

Another club rents out a school sports hall.

In all these examples, the club puts the money up-front to hire the venue and reclaims the costs from race fees. To get enough members to make it viable, you need to be prepared to get out and meet others who want to race, and you'll need to keep the enthusiasm going when people start to lose interest (believe me, many of them will, especially if it takes a few months to get started).

Before you start taking money off people you'll also have to consider a club committee, treasurer, some kind of rules - I'm not sure what the laws are where you are but it's worth making sure you're not at risk of breaking laws. In the UK we have the BRCA which provides insurance cover and a framework of rules to help a club get started, provided all club members are also BRCA members. If you have something similar then they are definitely worth looking up as they'll have helped hundreds of other clubs get started. They may even put you in touch with other people in your area who are trying to get a club started.

I hate being a killjoy but it sounds like you'll have to do a lot of legwork yourself instead of expecting the local authority to build a track for you. Keep at it and see if you can find some others to help you out :)

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Thanks everyone, I agree that it was a very nice letter even though it wasn't necessarily what I wanted to hear.

I have responded back requesting the use of a less utilized court in which I could create a simple track using materials like fire hoses, cones, etc. I explained that should the track need to be removed, I could return the area back to its original state in a few hours.

Hopefully this takes off, I'm going to try to use facebook and social media to connect with folks with similar interests and see if I can get this going and possibly start a basic club.

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Are you on RCTech? There is likely a regional forum on RCTech for you, that would be a great place to ask questions and get local support. We have successfully done exactly what you are trying to accomplish up here in Seattle with the city parks. We have a really nice off road track, great lighted driver's stand, sprinklers, carpeted jumps, etc. This was so successful, an on-road track is being built right next to the off-road track.

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No, I'm not on RCTech yet but I will definitely check it out this weekend to see if there are any local members.

Thanks for the info!

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It's great to get a letter with that much detail in. Most we normally expect is either no response at all or a short but polite decline. It looks like they would be willing to support you if you can form a venture to take on the work involved.

Firstly I don't see why anything needs to be converted - you can put pipe or guttering down on any smooth tarmac surface and call it an RC track. You might have to run a broom over it first to get rid of some gravel. Maybe the local authority would be amenable to giving you permission to use a basketball court for 4 hours one night per week.

My local club hires out a civic hall one night per week. Other nights the civic hall hosts a local cinema, hosts comedy shows, birthday parties, weddings and music events. The club keeps the carpet, barriers and timing equipment in a garage next to the civic hall.

Another local club rents a tiny patch of grass from the rugby club to run a buggy club once a week in the summer. They keep their equipment in an old shipping container on the site. Opposite that, there's another shipping container full of stuff that a local motorcycle training school uses to run training courses in the car park, which they also rent off the rugby club.

Another club rents out a school sports hall.

In all these examples, the club puts the money up-front to hire the venue and reclaims the costs from race fees. To get enough members to make it viable, you need to be prepared to get out and meet others who want to race, and you'll need to keep the enthusiasm going when people start to lose interest (believe me, many of them will, especially if it takes a few months to get started).

Before you start taking money off people you'll also have to consider a club committee, treasurer, some kind of rules - I'm not sure what the laws are where you are but it's worth making sure you're not at risk of breaking laws. In the UK we have the BRCA which provides insurance cover and a framework of rules to help a club get started, provided all club members are also BRCA members. If you have something similar then they are definitely worth looking up as they'll have helped hundreds of other clubs get started. They may even put you in touch with other people in your area who are trying to get a club started.

I hate being a killjoy but it sounds like you'll have to do a lot of legwork yourself instead of expecting the local authority to build a track for you. Keep at it and see if you can find some others to help you out :)

Mr Ax has pretty much got it bang on.

My advice - Dont try to do it all at once. Set up a club and a website and try to get some local like minded folk together.

Our local On Road track started out with a half dozen guys.

We got some cones - Small flat ones that they use for kids sports - cheap as chips to buy 20 or 30. You can set up and take down in minutes. Count your own laps, basic timer (Cell phone) to start and stop the race is all you need. Basic entry fee on the day for everyone (that gets banked to an account afterwards).

Later we moved to plastic drainage pipe but that moved around a bit, and was hard on the cars in crashes, something to do with the shape of the pipe.

So after the club had a steady membership (and spare cash). we bought some thin (5-8mm) plywood and cut it into 75mm strips then screwed two pieces together separated by little blocks of 75x50 wood every so often to make it rigid.

By putting a longer bit on one end sticking out, we could join them by poking them together in a male /female type thing. Curves were made the same way as the thin ply bends well and stays in shape when screwed together.

We made lots - amazing how far a piece of ply goes when you cut it into strips!

That worked like a charm, and believe it or not was easier on the cars as well.

One of the guys stored it at his shop and brought it down in a van - amazing how little space it takes when stacked in a corner and each piece is quite light. We became quite adept at making a decent track everytime, plus it meant that everyone was in the same situation of learning the track so a fairly universal car setup was a must.

We raced M chassis minis and F1's with silver cans in a controlled class, plus open and restricted touring cars. At best we had 15 minis on track!

We even tried Short Course trucks like the Slash and SC10 - with jumps - they were insane to watch and worse to drive on a narrow track - Very exciting for spectators.

We found that the mini class which was basically straight out of the box was great for beginners and getting people involved as it meant that people could buy a car package, build it and go racing(some folk still managed to be unbelievably fast though!) With lipos and 3x five minutes races you only needed one battery.

At the time we were racing in store car parks after hours, so twenty minutes to set up and sweep the track and we were off. A bit less at the end! The advantage was most places were happy for us to use the carparks as long as we did not damage anything and often they did not charge us at all which helped. We helped sell that by saying that with all of us hanging around it was like free security for their store!

We then found a Basketball court that was not being used and negotiated with the local council to lease the courts at a good rate and with a semi permanent site, we store the track onsite now. The council also lets us use a hall as a wet weather venue, but the hall has some challenges around the flooring and poles etc.

But it did take a few years and we needed to get the regulars to get the club funded.

Now we have electronic timing, electricity to charge cars etc and use of the clubrooms!

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Great information, thanks for typing that all up!

I will definitely try to start slow and see how much support I can get locally, then go from there

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