The wife and I got the chance last weekend to practice on White City's improved track. There's been plenty of talk and heated (flamed?) debate about their track layout and their club and what should be done with it, but with all that aside there have been some nice changes made to the track and I wanted to see what happened. Naturally, I'm pretty skeptical and pessimistic, but I was surprised to see a few nice change-ups. We took my TLR 22T and the wife's XXX-T CR out there for some practice laps. Greg and his pal (Patrick?) watered the track for us and let us have at it. The first thing I noticed was a small-ish berm added to the "first turn" off the front straight. I would like to see it built bigger and further into the turn so it's slightly more useful, but it's a step in the right direction to help carry speed off the straightaway. Right now the bottom part of the berm will get used most, but if the club gets more track dirt it can be built further out and more of it can be used and make the whole section faster. The rhythm section that used to come off the next straight has been completely reworked and is much nicer, likely easier to maintain, and much more racer-friendly. There's a single jump to land on a platform. That platform has a lip that takes you over a double, then a final double just before the hairpin corner. It's easy and a little challenging at the same time. The first two "sections" can be done easily, but if you're moving too slowly, you'll miss the double and if you're too fast you'll overshoot it and not have enough momentum for the next one. A definite improvement! The old rhythm section had too many jumps too close together and two separate "lanes". The whole thing is faster and streamlined. After the rhythm section comes two doubles. They're not enormous, but they're definitely bigger than any jumps that have been out there before. The wife's truck has a brushed 19T motor and they're clear-able with that, so most people shouldn't have problems with enough speed to make them. The second of the two doubles has a fairly large gap and it's fun to hit it with a lot of speed. After the double-double Greg has removed a section of the track in favor of a V-shaped 45/45-degree turn. I've been begging for something like this for some time now. I've always thought the track was very "square" feeling and it needed some curvature. This helps that out and opens up that section of the track more. The "bowl" corner is gone now and nobody will ever complain that it's missing. There's a small double that leads out of the far-left corner. It's nothing to get major air off of, but it replaces the old "split-double" that was there last year. That leads into a very hard-to-get-right triple. I got it right once, but found it easier to double/single it. I found I was able to control my speed better for the following corner. Then the S-turn. Nothing changed there, but the corner coming out is radiused off so the transition is nicer. Then there's the weird jump that I don't quite understand on the back straight. It's a single jump, but it has a small platform on the backside of it, with a downward slope. I just plowed through it each time and overshot it. I think it could be removed altogether and the dirt used elsewhere (the berm?), but that's all a matter of opinion. The corner out of the back straight has also been radiused off, which is awesome. I hated having to slow as much as you had to just to make a 90-degree turn. Now you can hug the corner and actually carry speed through it. The rest of the track is left unchanged with two small straights, one medium-sized double and one small double, but those were always okay with me. The track overall feels faster and more "refined". It's certainly not perfect, nobody will claim it is, but it's infinitely better than it used to be. I also noticed that the track is much more hard-packed than I remember it being. Either it got packed really well when it was remodeled or I have a poor memory. It's certainly not "blue-groove", but there's very little loose dirt. I hope to see some of you out there for races or practice. Klamath Falls has changed their schedule to alternate with White City, so there should be a race happening every Sunday somewhere. Greg also told me he's thinking about trying a weeknight race, too. Perhaps he can chime in with details.
good to hear improvements are being made. hopefully not too little too late tho. i know they can't stand the idea of advertising, but it couldn't hurt. flyers, craiglist, are both free forms of advertising. There are tons of guys/gals with rc cars in this valley with no readilly available track, and don't even know of this forum. and most of em would be first time racers. Hope they can get a turnout, and maybe draw the locals and maybe the klamath guys/gals back.
I talked to Greg about that. I told him I draw up a flyer (I'm decent with graphic design, I think) and maybe we can get it okay'd and distribute them. The reason (as I was told) that they don't advertise is that they'd rather have a small group of "good guys" over drawing a large crowd with a couple jerks. Still, I feel like you could weed out the bad people as they come. More people is ALWAYS good.
yeah they told me that too. that attitude is pretty ignorant. I ignored those illogical opinions and advertised anyway, and BAM we had racers, then those racers turned to volounteers, and helpers and track builders, lawn mowers (one of which has made a career out of RC since). all from advertising, if people don't know, then how can you expect them to go. segregation is always a bad idea, beggars can't be choosers Hopefully this advertising issue will be allowed, and people will come out of the woodwork to race and help again. that facility has amazing potential.
Maybe quit spreading "bad" about people who used to be there? If they want people build it, maintain it, and carry some self dignity and I'm sure a couple of us might tell people to come out there 8). Until then the larger group will not be out there if many of us have anything to do with it. People's opinions are there's and there's alone, there is no reason to single people out they like they do. In business you MUST deal with all walks of life, even if you CAN'T stand them. Statements like this just show how ignorant and childish the whole group is. "The reason (as I was told) that they don't advertise is that they'd rather have a small group of "good guys" over drawing a large crowd with a couple jerks."
Thanks for the post about the track Chris! I have been putting a ton of time and effort into the track. Makes the work feel rewarding to hear positive feedback and good constructive criticism about the work that has been done. Things are by no means finished. Hell, the great wall and the pyramid of Giza were both started with one brick. greg
