Derby Talk

All,
What is the best way to find a local club and track that I can test my car on. I have no intentions to join a club but the more I read here it seems going to a race with an untested car is not a good idea. I am in the metro DC area.
Our pack does not set up the track for test runs and I don't want to ask about doing so (don't want to sound over zealous but I think I have caught the pinehead bug)
No skills

Good Morning, Noskills,
I'm going to guess at a lot of things. If you're getting into this and you will be in it for quite sometime, this is what I would do. Buy a piece of 1/2" plywood and build yourself a 2 lane track. You can buy 1/4" x 1 1/2" pine lattice strip at many places. This will save your cutting down 1/4" x 1 3/4" lattice strip to 1/4" x 1 5/8". Do your best with your car if this is your 1st year racing and observe how badly the car gets beat, if it does. You now have something to compare your next car to. If you race on a track that shows a readout, record the numbers of your car and the numbers of the winning car. If you continue to become absorbed with this activity where it begins to disturb your sleep year around, like it does me, you can contact Micro Wizard and have him build you a timer with a digital readout. You'll then know exactly what your car is doing every time you make a change to the car while testing. It will also show you how consistently your car runs. If you know what type track your Pack has then build your track to resemble the Pack track. You've got to get by Pack before you can move on to District.
Good Luck and Good Racing.
Cheers
Bill

Wood track or aluminuim track.


If you will be racing mostly on wood, building a wooden track or buying one, is the way to go. But more and more are using aluminuim tracks these days. They do sell one lane tracks.

As for clubs, The best bet would be going to one of the adult league forums and seeing if anyone is in your area, that you could go over and meet them and use there track and learn from them.

Sporty

sporty and bill,
I have about 20 to 24 ft in my basement. Do they make tiny tracks?
Spent all day with my Drexel and loved it. I have pine dust in my eyes and I don't mind.
Noskills

Yes. Although, performance on a track of reduced height may not always compare to a full-size track.