Astroturf track question

[henry64]

Hello all. I live in America and one of my friends wants to start a local R/C club. Short Course off-road is very popular in my area.

We are exploring all of our options for getting some organized indoor racing going in our area. I was wanting to know some more information about these Astroturf type tracks I keep seeing online that are popular in Europe.

I currently race indoor dirt off-road and indoor carpet "off-road" (ozite track with jumps).

When these tracks state Astroturf are they inferring Astroturf-brand athletic surface ? Or do they mean inexpensive indoor/outdoor carpet?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[deano43]

They are referring to astro turf that is used on sporting field or artificial grass it offers plenty of grip depending on the astro turf but every track I've race on I've had loads of grip and if the tracks done properly it drys very quickly after its rained , to be honest I love it and have had some great racing on it. Hope this helps

[s22jgs]

My guess would be us Europeans like astro tracks due to the climates we tend to have.

A nicely sculpted dirt track is lovely, but as soon as it rains it will generally turn into a mud bath which is rubbish to race on whether its 10th electric or 8th nitro.

Also, certainly in the UK, alot of our natrual soil is full of stones and flints etc.

By running astro it gives a nice high grip surface which doesnt turn into sludge when its wet, and also offers a nice surface on which you dont chip the hell out of your chassis.

It can get very slippy when wet though, so always a good idea to have a nice harder set of spikes, schumacher greens or silvers etc.

Another good thing about astro is the fact that (certainly here in the UK) we have to pay to have certain things disposed off "properly". Getting rid of astro can be very expensive. This is why you will often seen tracks with white and yellow lines on them in places. Sports centres and schools will very often simply give away a whole sports field worth of astro to a club. The term something is better than nothing gets turned on its head. Nothing is better than paying out something lol

[super__dan]

Just throwing this out there, all types of stro are NOT the same. There are different pile lenght and some that require sand in them to hold together. Bury Metro's new track is more like a robust felt that is great as in the dry the grip is high but not mental and for astro VERY grippy in the wet.

[henry64]

Good info. In our situation we'd be using this inside a gymnasium so how it responds to being wet wouldn't be an issue. We'd be setting this up as something to use during the winter. I've been looking online and it seems there is a market here in the U.S. for used turf.

Are there any issues with any types of turf as far as static build-up is concerned? Any type to stay away from in that regard?

[lardy37]

dont know much about the grades but i do know its bloody heavy when in a big roll so not the easiest thing to move around:cry:

[SLEENAD]

There's a fantastic looking indoor astro track here in Belgium.

It's located in Charleroi, called black country arena.

Check out the following vid from this year's EIR, won by Tom Cockerill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCLPKsyjYRI

And a report for the 2nd round of European Offroad Series:

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/eos-rd2-charleroi/