SUMMER ASPHALT RACING!

I hope the title has made many people instantly interested in this post.

John and I are looking at running asphalt again this summer. We took our cars out to Sandia Motor Speedway and ran them in the 1/4 scale asphalt track that is located there.

The track is freshly paved two years ago and has only a few minor cracks and one large one. It is 175 feet center of corner to center of corner, the infield space is 115 feet long, and 75 feet wide. The corners are banked 3 degrees and the straight is 2 degrees the transitions into the infield are very smooth and a touring car at carpet ride hieght can run straight through the center with out getting upset. There is a 15-20 foot tall driver stand already constructed, the track has a great outer fence, an awesome pit lane, good lighting for night racing, a water spicket, and electrical hook ups.

With all that said it needs to be thoroughly cleaned, there are weeds growing up around the track, the driver stand needs some new paint, and some boards replaced, we will need to set-up the track with boards from the carpet track, set-up the pa system, move the computer and amb from the carpet track, and a few other small items but those are the big ones.

There are a few things that we are still trying to overcome, John and I cant run all the races this year so we would need a group of two people or more to blow off the track, spray either VHT or coke syrup the day before the race, and then run the race program. We would need this once a month and John and I would do the other race each month.

I am also going to put up two polls on this forum. The first is to see how many people are interested, we need 20 people to regularly attend in order to pay the rent to Sandia, pay the cost of track prep, etc. The other post is rather we should track prep and practice Thursday nights to race Friday nights, or track prep and practice Friday nights and race Saturday mornings. We can not race Saturday nights or Sundays due to other activity at the park.

If you are intersted, have questions, want to support this please post here. Any donations to help get this up and running would also be greatly appreciated.

Make sure to tell your friends to come post and vote!

I’m in!!! I can also donate $100 to help! This is awesome!!

I’m willing to help run events or prepare the track as long as we can work around the dates that I’m out of town on business.

I also vote we have some kind of kids class. I known Aj would love to run his Mini on the outdoor track.

Mike H.

I totally forgot the mini class. That will absolutely be a class, so will novice. Sorry thats what happens when you get online at work. lol.

nevermind

you know im always for setting up the track !

Mike and Max if you two want to group up and become the second team to run races and set-up the track/ clean it off and spray it that would be great!

Sean Guthrie wrote:Mike and Max if you two want to group up and become the second team to run races and set-up the track/ clean it off and spray it that would be great!

Sean,

That sounds like a plan. Maybe some of Max’s driving skills will rub off on me.

Also, my wife said she is willing to help with sign ups and even try to announce a race or two.

Mike H.

Sean,

I am curious as to why move? Is the rcriot building closing? Just interested in the "why" this is being done...just to change it up?

Thanks

Paul

muddfoot wrote:Sean,

I am curious as to why move? Is the rcriot building closing? Just interested in the "why" this is being done...just to change it up?

Thanks

Paul

Paul,

I don’t mean to answer this for Sean but, this is so that we can run the onroad nitro cars. It will be outside on asphalt and will be separate from the indoor carpet track. To my knowledge the carpet track will stay where it is and a new indoor season will start up after the summer. Two years ago we raced the onroad nitro cars on the west parking lot but it has become bummy and has shifted so bad that we can no longer race on it. Plus it was very small and the Sandia location gives us a nicer setup for the nitro cars.

Mike H.

U guys runnin 1/8 nitro cars? Sounds cool.

I'll have to come check it out...when is the first tentative race date?

I know of only myself and I think Lebak that have 1/8 nitro onroad cars. I doubt we will be racing them because two cars hardly justify a class. I will be running mine in practice with hopes of stirring some interest. Most of the nitro racers (myself included) will be running 1/10 nitro touring cars and I bet the electric touring cars will make up our largest classes. I also hope there is a big turn out with the minis because I think they would be a blast on the asphalt. I put a 17T bushed in Aj’s mini for the fun of it and we have been running it on the street in front of the house with great success.

Mike H.

Ok everyone John and I, mostly John. Have produced the schedule for the outdoor season. It keeps us mostly away from the quarter midget club who uses the same complex, keeps us racing on the weeks that the asphalt guys race so the track should have a better chance at staying good for a full week after we race incase we decide to do some practice nights or days following the race. We also have produced a flier ad will try posting it soon. Here is the schedule:
April 22nd - Practice
May 6th - Race 1
May 20th - Race 2
June 3rd - Race 3
June 17th - Race 4
July 1st - Race 5
July 15th - Race 6
July 29th - Race 7
August 5th - Race 8
August 19th - Race 9
September 2nd - Race 10
September 16th - Race 11

There is a lot of work to be done before the first race. What we want to do is work a couple hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Saturdays maybe even Sundays. I am going to post another topic but we are going to move the last two carpet races, the last race will be canceled, and the race that was supposed to be on the 9th is going to happen this weekend. That way we can start working on Sandia sooner. So this coming Thursday will be the last practice night. We will race Saturday and then start working on Sandia starting next Tuesday. A group of us are headed to Colorado for there big carpet race the weekend of the 16-17th and will continue work the following week and then we will try and practice on the 22nd. If the track is not complete we will work on the 22nd and 23rd and then practice when we are finished.

Forgot to post the classes we plan to start with:
Mod Touring Car
17.5 Non-Timed Touring Car
Nitro Touring Car
Mini
Novice
Spec Short Course - ARCOR's rules for 2wd short course
Open Electric Off-road
Open Nitro Off-road

Classes we want to run if track is as smooth as expected:
17.5 12th Scale
13.5 Timed 12th Scale
13.5 WGT

Other options:
1/8th Nitro On-road
1/8th Nitro buggy conversions
235mm 10th Pan Cars
VTA Touring Car

What time do you plan on working on the Sandia track next Tuesday? I should be able to come by and help after work.

I’m afraid I will not be able to attend this weekend’s carpet race because I will be in Phoenix.

You might want to try to get in touch with our out-of-town carpet races so that they know of the changes to the schedule. Just in case they don’t check the forum.

Mike H.

Highside20 wrote:What time do you plan on working on the Sandia track next Tuesday? I should be able to come by and help after work.

I’m afraid I will not be able to attend this weekend’s carpet race because I will be in Phoenix.

You might want to try to get in touch with our out-of-town carpet races so that they know of the changes to the schedule. Just in case they don’t check the forum.

Mike H.

mike thank you for considering us i will not be able to atend as i have to work this weekend hopefully ill see u guys at the sandia track soon with a mod car

Hey guys, I got slammed at work after posting that, I am going to be emailing everyone and letting them know whats going on. I appologize to everyone who can't make the race but it seems with the limited car count we have been getting anyway and the time crunch we are facing it just makes sense to move the races.

Are there plans to still work on the Sandia track this Tuesday night? If so about what time?

Mike H.

Not tonight we are hoping to have everything completed and moved out of the current building tonight so that we can start working on Sandia Thursday. I will send out emails and texts as soon as I know when we will be working. I am also still working on getting a set of keys for the complex that the track sits in so we dont have to rely on the people out there.

Sean,

Thanks for the update. Keep me posted on when the track work days are. I also have my donation I need to give you.

Mike H.

Ok guys finally starting to come up with a plan. We are going to make a trip out to sandia tonight at about six to drop off all of our wood and start to figure out what we need to do to the driver stand and facility before we start using it. If you want to help out you can meet up at the old carpet track at six, please text so I know to wait up or meet us out at Sandia shortly after six. 220-3104 is my number. Thanks guys.

Hey Guys, we were going to start working this weekend out at the track but I am going to cancel it. I checked the weather and the winds arent supposed to be under 20mph from 10am-6pm both Saturday and Sunday. We need to clean the track-can't with the wind, paint the driver stand-cant with the wind, hang plywood-I dont make a good kite, and a few other things so it just doesnt make good sense. We will go hard at it next week though assuming the weather is on our side.

Sean the ARCOR rebuild is next weekend just to let you know. It may weaken the cleanup turnout....

Ahh I didnt realize it was this weekend I thought it was next. Hmmm.... We Tuesday and Thursday night I am hoping we can work on the track and accomplish quiet a bit. This weather is really causing issues. I went to the track to drop some more stuff off on Saturday and I thought I was in a tornado it was miserable. We may just have to move the practice night back to Saturday the 23rd and work during the day of the 23rd, we will just have to see how it all goes. But this Tuesday and Thursday night lets try to work out at the track! I will be there by 6:30 maybe sooner but I kind of doubt it.

Sean,

I can help with the track Tuesday if you plan on working on it. I should be out there between 6:30 and 7:00.

Mike H.

Thanks to Mike, Tyler, Jeff, Carter, and John for helping with the track last night. No track work tomorrow, weather is questionable and most of us decided we got enough done that Saturday we can knock out a lot more. I didn't realize that it was ARCORs track build but Jeff, Mike, John, and I are all going to be out at the track at 10:00 I encourage everyone to help out one of the two local tracks I wish I could support both tracks but time constraints are closing in around me and I can't help but to cause a time conflict.