Monday, May 20, 2013

I began making tracks in 2004, first by simply drawing a large oval on my aunts basement floor. My next track was drawn on a large piece of foam board and had more details (pit road, track name, etc.). 


But the first time I took an old pizza box and drew up a track I was inspired to add more and more detail which required me to begin to work in 3-dimensions. Soon I had a glue gun and scissors and was making a wall and fence and infield . . . . Well as you can see from the photos below I haven't stopped trying new techniques and adding new features.





This track has removable grandstands and is not yet finished. The Sharpie 500 (Mini Bristol) track was completed first in 2011. After many more tracks I came up with the grandstand idea in 2012.


The next three pictures are of a track I created based upon a street circuit through a city. (Think Sonoma meets St. Petersburg)

 The track shown above is not representative of any current particular track but is a personal design. Turn one has a "Watkins Glen" feel, where the cars slide off into the grass. The pit road is not in the middle of the track but goes around the back stretch.



 A complete resemblence of Martinsville before it was repaved in 2004. (Minus walls and pit road). The only changes are turns 3 and 4 outside groove are faster instead of turns 1 and 2.



Michigan Raceway was completed in 2006. It incorporates lights and a grandstand. It resembles Richmond International Raceway. I had to let this one go recently for lack of space.


Orlando Motor Speedway was my first "big" track, started in March in 2006 and completed in 2007. 
It features lights, a grandstand, stairs in the grandstand and three cars are showcased inside. The original look was flat and had no grandstands. This took over a year to complete with numerous changes. You can see why it is one of my favorites.


Nighttime racing at Orlando Motor speedway is quite bright with all the lights that are used in the track, more than is represented in this photo.



A "Mini-Old Bristol" Motor Speedway without pit road walls. This is the highest banking track I have completed at 40-45 degrees.The cars are NOT taped or glued but they stay up on the track because of a trick I used: a bit of hot glue is used between the apron and racing groove and is painted yellow! The cars on the straightaways are real rubber tires.

Finished in 2012, it took 3-6 months with many changes to the banking. There are more than 20 sections for each turn to obtain the high banking. This is one of my favorites because of the banking is consistent around the track.


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