Old Awana tracks

[Jay]

At one time did Awana tracks use a different size center guide than 1 3/4"? We just raced on one and it looked to be 1 1/2", maybe 1 9/16".The cars were all over the place with about a 10% derail rate. The center guide was low too, maybe 3/16" max. That plus a greasey film left by whatever they used to wipe down the track with prior to racing couldn't of helped.

[gpraceman]

At one time did Awana tracks use a different size center guide than 1 3/4"? We just raced on one and it looked to be 1 1/2", maybe 1 9/16".The cars were all over the place with about a 10% derail rate. The center guide was low too, maybe 3/16" max. That plus a greasey film left by whatever they used to wipe down the track with prior to racing couldn't of helped.

That may not necessarily be because of the Awana plans. When I built our club's track, I could not find strips that were 1 3/4", so it may have been that the builder could not find that size and went with what he could find.

[FRANKLIN WHALEY]

The track may not have been level! Our state race was set-up under a shelter in front of a high school gym. Normally it has been done inside on the gym floor. For some reason this school wouldn't let our group use any of it's indoor facilities. The concrete floor was graded away from the building for water shed. With the race committee not knowing they would have this to deal with, they were not prepared to level the whole track. They put some shims under the first two sections, the ramp and first flat section. The last two sections were just laying on the slant of the floor. What was shimmed was just done by eye. I saw alot more cars than usual jumping the track. The sad part was that our rules say if a car jumps the first time, the race is re-run. The second time it's DQ-ed. This year when a car jumped once it was put on the DQ table. None of our groups cars jumped the track, but I still thought the cars that did should have gotten to run again due to the unlevel track.

[mrvoltz]

The Awana plans have the strip only 1 3/8" wide.
Most organizations use 1 5/8" wide now, and should be 1/4" high.
I have updated them and plan to submit them to Awana to bring them up to date.