New track designs and style.

[Team mad rat!]

Hi guys.

With the new championship on the horizon what are people's thoughts with the track layout and style?

Is there anything we could do, as a club, to make racing even better? Personally I would like to see the track be a it more "off road" whether this is bigger jumps or different surfaces. A few bigger jumps and maybe some gym mats to make an uneven surface in places could be the answer. This would create endless ideas for layouts and track designs. Easier said than done I know. But how could we make this possible???? Storage and track design to cater for buggies and gt12's is the biggest problem. Removable jumps sounds do-able if we can find storage and the mats might just have to be placed on part of the track that the gt12's don't use.

Is this just a pipe dream or could something like this actually happen?

I wanted to attend the AGM to discuss this but I was unfortunately working.

Post any thoughts and ideas below and let's see if we can come up with a solution.

[Jon.d]

I agree we could do something to shake it up a bit maybe make 1of the 3 jumps we have a little higher by adding another length of pipe underneath its an easy job and if it doesn't work then its easy to undo instead of making a jump then nobody likes it gym matts are a good idea id like to implement that but I don't think we should introduce new surfaces as we are a carpet club and getting your car setup is a challenge on its own

[Team mad rat!]

Thanks for the contribution Jon d. I knew I could count on the buggy rep to step up to the plate. With regards to the new surfaces I didn't mean it in that sense I meant using the mats to create a new surface in places like we do with the tarpoline. New surface and grip etc to mix it up abit.

I was speaking to lee akeroyd earlier and he likes the idea of bigger jumps and the mats but doesn't feel it will happen at the club any time soon.

Who do we need to put this purposal too? Eric???

[ericd2477]

Any ideas are welcome, you need to talk to Andy Ridley . But dont expect him to do it on his own, you will need to help .

[AndyRids]

Variation in jump height has been played around with before and the bigger hump used to raise up (a 2m section is another option), it all depends on the track design and location of a higher jump cos as is evident at any race meet and was highlight at the AGM - 40% of the members are Juniors and there safety along with any members safety is key.
One of the recent track designs (if not the one before the current one) had a higher jump, not sure if you raced that one Team Mad Rat (wish people would put there names on somewhere if there not obvious so you know who your discussing a topic with ).

Anyway what I'm trying to say is it's possible.

We could use the mats as long as they were covered and we ensured they didn't get damaged.

Think the best thing I can suggest is put some track designs together with optional features in and pass them onto me and we'll see if we can make them work.

Please note though additional features require additional work laying the track and if your only suggesting and not taking an active involvement in the club (i.e. helping lay and take up track/carpet/etc. at the beginning and end of the night, then don't expect others to push the boat out for you).

We try to encourage people to get involved in the club and not just turn up expecting a perfect track to be laid for them, so please do your bit and get involved.

P.S. The agreement at the AGM with regards frequency of track design changes was a the beginning and at the mid point of the Series, we now have two Series in the year a 'Spring/Summer' and a 'Autumn/Winter' the agreement was we would run the current track until the mid point of the 'S/S' series and then introduce a new track after the usual vote, so get your designs in then I can work them up before we vote.