had access to an indoor track for fun and racing? A low-cost track that anyone could enjoy. DBoots Tires has a racing program for you.
Like parking lot racing, it offers you an easy and affordable way to attract drivers
in your area. And the ideas pretty much the same, except that the focus is on indoor
racing. You just set up a temporary track for a day or a whole weekend and then
tear it down until its time for the next race.
Its a type of racing thats been
popular in Europe for years, and is now starting to take North America by storm.
The advantages are huge: you can hold a race anytime, rain or shine. Since its temporary,
you can set it up fastand tear it down the same way. You can set it up almost any
way you want, almost anywhere want. And, with the unique chemistry of dBoots tires, you
can hold races on virtually any kind of surface.
Theyre
comparable to conventional tires in price, but outlast them by a factor of two or even
three to one. Theyre available for almost any 1/10 scale driving application. Short-course
as well as two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive off-road. In a medium A and softer B
compound.
And in a wide variety of tread patterns. DBoots markets NanoByte, TerraByte, MultiByte
and BlockPass treads under the dBoots brand, and nine additional tires for ARRMA vehicles
under the ARRMA brand. There are forty in all.
Sounds great, doesnt it? Well, heres something else youll like: you can develop
a successful dBoots racing program of your own even if you dont: have the room; a
big budget to work with, or any previous experience with racing programs. Heres what well
cover: location, materials, track types, racing classes.
Location.
First option: partner with a local hobby shop. Thats a natural choice. However,
if the retailer doesnt have room, look for places that do: community centers, churches
with basements, school gymnasiums, vacant stores, machine shops and more. Once thats
settled, youll need three other things: track-building supplies, a scoring/lap-counting
system and a positive attitude.
Have racers bring their own tables and chairs for pitting
and youre well on your way to scheduling your first race.
The track we set up for this video is roughly 30 feet by 60 feet. You may go with a small
oval track, or a sprawling carpet track for off-road, packed with jumps, bumps and obstacles.
The choice is yours. Setup and teardown can take as little as fifteen minutes.
Materials. For your scoring/lap-counting system, for instance, what we recommend is the Robitronic
Lap Counter System.
The price for the complete system, including three transponders, is under
three hundred and fifty dollars. Extra transponders are about forty dollars each. And both can
be ordered through your local hobby shop. And when it comes to track-building materials,
the sky and your imagination are the only limits.
You can use just about anything
to make your track fun and challenging. Take track barriers, for instance. We made ours
from 10-foot sections of plastic rain gutter, which are available at most building supply
stores for about a dollar a foot. You can use them as is, or dress them up with spray
paint, decals or even simple vinyl designs like the ones we used.
And heres what we used for driving surfaces: metal racks from old displays, plastic sheeting,
rubber mats, leftover wood flooring and one by twos we formed into a rumble section.
We
even included some prebuilt features jumps and table tops that we store between races.
Track Types: Cost is also affected by track type. Here are a few basic examples.
Oval: This requires only an outer barrier, a middle barrier and some plastic or dots
for the corners. Duct tape or sand bags are easy ways to keep the barriers in place. Oval
tracks are great for concrete, tile, wood or carpet.
Road-Course: this also requires an outer barrier, as well as several barriers inside to form
the course.
Lanes on our thirty by sixty track are ten feet wide. We used bolts to hold the
track together. Like oval tracks, road course layouts are great on concrete, tile, wood
or carpet. Off-Road: This off-road track uses the same
basic layout as the road course, but adds jumps, obstacles and a variety of driving
surfaces.
The more creative your layout, the more fun
you and your friends will have. Remember that the name of the layout doesnt need to limit
the types of vehicles that race on it. DBoots-style racing is geared
more towards the weekend warrior than the hardcore racer. As a result, you have a lot
more flexibility in setting up racing classes and track rules.
Here are a few suggestions
for racing classes: Off-Road Rookie: this class is great for drawing
in the wanna-be racer and getting them pumped up about racing. Often called the Run what
you brung class, it allows drivers to compete with any kind of vehicle, and against drivers
just like themselves. Off-Road Buggy: a class for all brands of
1/10 scale buggies, including the ARRMA RAIDER. MEGA desert buggy.
Off-Road Truck: like the buggy class, this class would be open to all brands of 1/10
scale trucks.
A great choice here is the ARRMA. VORTEKS BLX.
Off-Road Short Course: short course racing could easily turn out to be your most popular
racing class. There are a huge number of good short course trucks out there right now, including
this one the ARRMA FURY MEGA. On-Road and Oval: while off-road and short
course are hot tickets right now, dont forget that on-road and oval racing are popular
choices, too.
The popularity of these classes varies widely from place to place. The nice
thing is that you control the racing program, and can offer the racing classes you and your
friends want most. Finally, remember that vehicles in the same
racing class can still be wildly different in equipment and racing potential. One of
the best ways to level the playing field and ensure a more exciting race is to require
all drivers to use the same spec tire.
The unique chemistry and wide variety of dBoots
tires make them a great choice for any indoor surface.
In addition, theres no rule that says that you have to limit race day to only one class
of racing. If you start with road-course racing in the morning, you could add jumps and tables
to the existing course and offer off-road racing in the afternoon. Thats the beauty
of dBoots-style racing: since your track is temporary, you can change the layout every
time you set up, until you and your friends get just the track you want.
Well, there you have it: a racing program you can run year-round one that can be
just as simple, flexible and affordable as you want it to be. It gives drivers a great
place to drive for fun or racing and it gives people whod like to start driving
a great way to see what all the excitement is all about.
The fast track to easy, affordable fun is out there.
Good luck and good racing from
dBoots!.
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