24th-Feb-20, 12:51 PM
Rock County Raceway, part three - racing and tweaking the MaxTrax oval
The set-up was merely functional for the first two events in June 2016 - the track was attached to bare wood and I'd taped the foamboard barriers from the Tyco oval around the edges. For the first race, John created a fantastic mascot - a very realistic foam rubber rock with the RCR logo on it. The rock now sits in the infield of the track at every race night...
Six of us had a great evening of racing that first evening, as we did a week later, when four of us proved that we could tweak the format with everyone racing and no marshals. The smooth track surface was perfect for our usual heats-and-finals format - using marshals with six or more racers, track calls with four. However, it also delivered exciting crash-and-burn action to start the evenings - crashes were now entirely the fault of the drivers, not the quirks of the track. We also developed a hybrid format over the summer - a 'four crashes and you're out' system using three penalty cards each. That added an extra dimension to the two-minute finals when we were low on numbers.
A break of six weeks until the next two race events gave me time to iron out some minor issues, add a dedicated track call button and make the look of track a little more pretty. The original Tyco oval had the local short track vibe I wanted - including basic scenics. Second time round, I realised I didn't really need the details to impart that vibe - it was the track itself, plus the character of the T-jets and the racers that creates the atmosphere...
The new track gave us closer racing, with the innermost lane not necessarily the best lane, as it clearly was on the original oval. The smooth surface allows racers in the outer two lanes to use more power through the turns. In the first six evenings on the new oval, we had race winners from all four lanes and an overall lap record of 1.535 seconds in the second lane out from the inside (blue).
There was plenty of interest in the first MaxTrax raceway in the UK and the only organised T-jet racing this side of the pond. SuperTires sponsored the first summer season on the new Rock County Raceway - all runners were shod with the latest Pro Series silicone tyres. We also had a visit in August from Tony Baldock, the 2016 top rookie at the Fray in Ferndale - the biggest event on the US T-jet racing calendar. Tony drove into victory lane for the feature race that night and set fastest laps across all four lanes, records that have since been broken.
For the start of the 2017 season, Paul and Cheryl sent us this fantastic new Victory Lane...
Also new for 2017 was a second T-Jet class. The original racing was all based around the Johnny Lightning and AutoWorld Thunderjet 500s - modern reproductions of the 'Tuff Ones' version of the Aurora T-Jet. These have the wide rear wheels and tyres that give extra grip and a slightly unnatural stance...
We named the new class T-Jet 'Nostalgia' and allowed Aurora and Dash versions of the T-Jet to run with the super-detailed Vincent wheels and a pre-1967 bodyshell...
And there was also a new cat who added to the race night entertainment...
For 2017, three races were held in the Spring and two in Summer...
The racing - split between the two classes - continued to be incredibly exciting. The lap times - on the inside and outside lanes - came down for the Tuff-Ones cars and the Nostalgia class settled in around a second slower per lap - or about 15 laps less over two minutes. With the skinny wheels and harder compound tyre, the Nostalgia cars had to be treated more gently, especially accelerating out of the corners...
The inability to accelerate hard out of the corners did cause particular problems for the cars in the outer lanes, although the August Nostalgia race was won from white lane. It was a case of gradually learning a different way of driving the oval. Here's a video of the entire Nostalgia A final from April 2017...
By the end of the 2017 events the lap records were down to:
However, before we went racing again, there would be a gap of at least a year. Building work - to make the basement habitable in winter - took four months in 2018 and then I didn't get my act together to organise anything last year. There are a couple of dates pencilled in for this summer. A new set of reed switches is ready to be fitted and a couple more tweaks can be expected - especially to the Nostalgia class.
The Rock County Raceway does have its own website with some of the history of the build, class regulations and full race results: www.rockcountyraceway.org.uk
Just as the Californian oval racers demonstrated to me back in 2008-9, the Rock County Raceway shows you don't need a big track to have a lot of seriously nerdy fun.
The set-up was merely functional for the first two events in June 2016 - the track was attached to bare wood and I'd taped the foamboard barriers from the Tyco oval around the edges. For the first race, John created a fantastic mascot - a very realistic foam rubber rock with the RCR logo on it. The rock now sits in the infield of the track at every race night...
Six of us had a great evening of racing that first evening, as we did a week later, when four of us proved that we could tweak the format with everyone racing and no marshals. The smooth track surface was perfect for our usual heats-and-finals format - using marshals with six or more racers, track calls with four. However, it also delivered exciting crash-and-burn action to start the evenings - crashes were now entirely the fault of the drivers, not the quirks of the track. We also developed a hybrid format over the summer - a 'four crashes and you're out' system using three penalty cards each. That added an extra dimension to the two-minute finals when we were low on numbers.
A break of six weeks until the next two race events gave me time to iron out some minor issues, add a dedicated track call button and make the look of track a little more pretty. The original Tyco oval had the local short track vibe I wanted - including basic scenics. Second time round, I realised I didn't really need the details to impart that vibe - it was the track itself, plus the character of the T-jets and the racers that creates the atmosphere...
The new track gave us closer racing, with the innermost lane not necessarily the best lane, as it clearly was on the original oval. The smooth surface allows racers in the outer two lanes to use more power through the turns. In the first six evenings on the new oval, we had race winners from all four lanes and an overall lap record of 1.535 seconds in the second lane out from the inside (blue).
There was plenty of interest in the first MaxTrax raceway in the UK and the only organised T-jet racing this side of the pond. SuperTires sponsored the first summer season on the new Rock County Raceway - all runners were shod with the latest Pro Series silicone tyres. We also had a visit in August from Tony Baldock, the 2016 top rookie at the Fray in Ferndale - the biggest event on the US T-jet racing calendar. Tony drove into victory lane for the feature race that night and set fastest laps across all four lanes, records that have since been broken.
For the start of the 2017 season, Paul and Cheryl sent us this fantastic new Victory Lane...
Also new for 2017 was a second T-Jet class. The original racing was all based around the Johnny Lightning and AutoWorld Thunderjet 500s - modern reproductions of the 'Tuff Ones' version of the Aurora T-Jet. These have the wide rear wheels and tyres that give extra grip and a slightly unnatural stance...
We named the new class T-Jet 'Nostalgia' and allowed Aurora and Dash versions of the T-Jet to run with the super-detailed Vincent wheels and a pre-1967 bodyshell...
And there was also a new cat who added to the race night entertainment...
For 2017, three races were held in the Spring and two in Summer...
The racing - split between the two classes - continued to be incredibly exciting. The lap times - on the inside and outside lanes - came down for the Tuff-Ones cars and the Nostalgia class settled in around a second slower per lap - or about 15 laps less over two minutes. With the skinny wheels and harder compound tyre, the Nostalgia cars had to be treated more gently, especially accelerating out of the corners...
The inability to accelerate hard out of the corners did cause particular problems for the cars in the outer lanes, although the August Nostalgia race was won from white lane. It was a case of gradually learning a different way of driving the oval. Here's a video of the entire Nostalgia A final from April 2017...
By the end of the 2017 events the lap records were down to:
- Tuff Ones yellow lane record: 1.511 seconds
- Nostalgia yellow lane record: 2.301 seconds
- Tuff One blue lane record: 1.535 seconds
- Nostalgia blue lane record: 2.551 seconds
- Tuff Ones white lane record: 1.612 seconds
- Nostalgia white lane record: 2.526 seconds
- Tuff Ones red lane record: 1.713 seconds
- Nostalgia red lane record: 2.593 seconds.
However, before we went racing again, there would be a gap of at least a year. Building work - to make the basement habitable in winter - took four months in 2018 and then I didn't get my act together to organise anything last year. There are a couple of dates pencilled in for this summer. A new set of reed switches is ready to be fitted and a couple more tweaks can be expected - especially to the Nostalgia class.
The Rock County Raceway does have its own website with some of the history of the build, class regulations and full race results: www.rockcountyraceway.org.uk
Just as the Californian oval racers demonstrated to me back in 2008-9, the Rock County Raceway shows you don't need a big track to have a lot of seriously nerdy fun.
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