The newest area track,
RC Hobby and Track in Elk Grove is up and running for over a month now I think. Lots of people have been stopping by. Biggest negative issue so far for them was not buying and installing
CRC racing carpet. They do have an
Ozite product laid down, but it's not traditional racing carpet. In the first weeks racers were seeing tons of fluff balls and fibers working their way into vehicles. Ruined bearings and lots of time spent pulling pubies out of everything. Reports are it's way better but not perfect. Looks like they absolutely need to vacuum after every race and practice session to keep it manageable.
Hopefully the problem gets solved before the indoor carpet racing season begins. The track is in a perfect geographic area for many area racers.
The best thing that could happen to the place, in terms of generating way more business, would be for them to drop 60 yards of clay and dirt in the place and groom a wonderful electric indoor dirt track. There's never been one so close to the city since Chicagoland Hobby had their dirt track in the back of their store in the 90's. Dirt would draw a huge crowd.
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Hope this place does well. Also hope they do make a dirt track. I'd be there twice a week if it was dirt.
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned that to them quite a few times as I'm hearing your same message from lots of other racers.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned a dirt track to one of the guys there. He said it would be bad for the carpet and the dirt in the air would settle on it and be bad for it and need vaccuuming. I'm pretty sure the only bad thing settling on that track is the carpet itself. I really like the location, but the parking could be questionable. The main man, Brian, is great but he seems to be surrounded by lesser things.
ReplyDeleteThe carpet is awesome and so is the traction, I don’t know what the difference is in CRC ozite and the carpet that’s there, Just because they did not drop 2-3 grand on "brand name" carpet does not mean its a 'biggest negative'. This is a brand new carpet - of course it’s going to fuzz, at last years Hurricane race their CRC ozite was shedding more than my German Sheppard.
ReplyDeleteThere is plenty of parking even when the place is full. Especially on the weekends.
Plus there is a full block in front of the buildings on both sides of the street where you can park.
I am sure that when he decides the time is right he will spend the money to buy the other part of the shop and all the clay you want to play with.
Right now I am really happy to have this great track in so close to Chicago. Buy some extra $0.50 bearings on ebay or better yet from Brian and quit whining, support the track and stop spreading silly rumors.
Which track in the Hurricane series from last year jammed up and ruined bearings........Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee or Winthrop Harbor?
ReplyDeleteIt does not matter which one I am not going to add to this track bashing, we are all very lucky to have these places in a first place.
ReplyDeleteGo there, support them or loose them.
Where did anyone "bash" in this blog post? Bash to me, is making an undeserved negative attack in an internet posting.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like someone has an ax to grind.
ReplyDeleteI don't read it that way. Their track needs racers to show up and those racers to want to return regularly. I'm confident once they solve the carpet issue all can be just fine out there. I think there's just some racers who really want it to work out really badly.
ReplyDeleteIt's good all of this is getting worked out now in the Summer before the indoor season actually begins.
I had the chance to take a drive last night to meet Brian and visit his facility. After a brief introduction and some small chit chat, (he is a busy guy and there by himself, like me at times). I decided to see for myself at what has become the hot topic of the "fuzzing"carpet.
ReplyDeleteMy first impression of the carpet was, "wow is this stuff thick", the density is much much thicker than the CRC type, hence the name "super tough".
The well lit track area with the darker colored Ozite gives a very different feel from what most of us are used to. This does not detract from it but adds it's own personality to the venue. Much like Undergrounds high vaulted wooden beams and skylights do for that venue,or the steel support columns of Trackside.
I unfortunately did not bring a car with me, long story and I will spare you the details of my own R/C woes.The last track design is still very visible with the new track overlaid in spots. As I pointed out later in the evening to Brian and Staff, the 3 mains areas that, in my opinion are causing the issues now, are the three turns that were shifted to create the new layout. The right side of the track remains the same as the first, so little "fuzzing" should be occuring there.
The carpet nap through the existing "old layout" is laid over nicely through the turns and seems pretty stable, but shedding fibers are minor in the older run part of the track.
We discussed some of my own trial and errors to get decent traction and a groove going with minimal "fuzzing" ( I tried all kinds of things here in the beginning of my endeavor).
The guys at EG know what they need to do to stabilize the carpet,and they are working on it. Until there is a huge number of laps run on the entire racing surface, "fuzzing" is going to occur when the layouts change, much like it did and still does on occassion here depending on the layout, until the "groove" for that particular layout is run in.
I will say this, it's a neat place, they have lots of plans for the future. It's an easy drive for me later in the evening to get away for a couple of hours, and next time I will take a vehicle of some type with me to run.
Eric Whiteside
The Track at Harbor Hobbies
Hi all
ReplyDeleteI just want to thank everyone that has came out and supported us in the past few months we really appercepate it. We all know that the carpet fuzz has been an issue since the start, and we tryed a number of different things to try and fix it with same result it would go down but never would go away. So at this time we have decide to to put crc carpet down. I called and order it yesterday and was told we should have it next week. So well let everyone know when we are going to lay it down. If there are any questions please post them.
Vic
Rc Hobby & Track
So is that an admission that cutting the costs and getting the cheaper carpet was a mistake? And all that talk about how it was good carpet and the trucks were ruining it and the other tracks have had the same problem and this would be OK after some grooming. You can shave a turd, but it's still a turd.
ReplyDeleteWow great news, I guess then all the whiners out there will have less to cry about. Just goes to show that Brian is all about the customer service and taking care of racers.
ReplyDeleteNow they just need some new "regulars" to go with the new carpet.
ReplyDelete