# Rock County Raceway



## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Inspired by Pete McKay's bullring ovals, I decided to build one on the south coast of the UK. That was nearly two years ago - but the build has finally started.

The 6ft x 2ft frame and table was built this weekend. It is light and portable.










The outside track is 13ft long. The addition of a 6" radius 1/8 curve at turns 1 and 3 adds 'something' to the driving experience. I need to dig out two extra Tyco 9" radius 1/8 curves - I know I have them somewhere...










I sandwiched two lengths of PVC 'angle' between the frame and the mdf board to make an integral barrier, which looks the right height.










At each end will be a 3 1/2 inch high curved barrier, disguised as advertising hoardings with ads you'd expect at the local short track.

The electrics are ready to go in - UK-standard 3-pin driver stations with adjustable brake switches. Timing will be LapTimer2000, IR sensors and a light bridge.

We'll be racing X-tractions, T-jets, Tyco widepans and Life Like M cars - hopefully by the end of the month 

I'll post more as the build progresses.


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## rbrunne1 (Sep 22, 2007)

Great start :thumbsup:

Keep posting pictures as your build progresses 

Bob B.
Clifton Park, NY


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Sweet!! :thumbsup:
Bullrings are always fun.


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## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

Woodcote, you live in Brighton? My Grandfather was stationed there during World War II. He carved his name and address into a bridge crossing the rail lines. I know this because someone there once contacted him and even came to meet him.


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

It's a small world  That was long before my time, but my mother just about remembers 1944 and having GIs camping in their road. Although they could have been Canadians. One of her father's uncles had emigrated to Calgary to work as a police inspector and was shot dead there in 1933 - there is a memorial to him (Joe Carruthers) in the city, I believe.

Maybe the bullring should have been named after my Canadian relative - instead it is named for Mrs Woodcote's mother who grew up in Rock County WI and hung out with her friends at the local short track most weekends. Now she lives in Brighton. A small world indeed...


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## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

I'll have to try to remember to look next time I'm in Cowtown(Calgary), I hope to be out there in October. Some of my relatives went and found the bridge too. They took some pics and charcoal rubbings of the carvings. Very powerful, it brings him back if only for a short time. Cool story behind the track name too. Must be cool having a mother-in-law interested in racing. Whats that like Lol!?!

By the way, I found these websites...

http://canada.odmp.org/officer/248-inspector-joe-carruthers?printview=1

http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&TN=IMAGEBAN&AC=QBE_QUERY&RF=WebResults&DL=0&RL=0&NP=255&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MR=10&QB0=AND&QF0=File+number&QI0=NA-2861-37&CISOPTR=DF=WebResultsDetails


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

First a track build update: All the wood was painted with gray primer this evening (it is evening here already).

Thanks for the links Plymouth :thumbsup:

Do you have a location for the bridge - a street name or area? We have a lot of railway bridges in Brighton, but it would be really nice to go and find it and say 'Hi'. I'm hoping your grandfather wasn't part of the Dieppe raid in 1942 

Sadly, I don't think the mother-in-law was ever very interested in the racing. Just there was nothing else to do in town and that's where all the local teenagers went to hang-out in the 50s. And then she escaped to Chicago


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

The District 6 cop shop in Calgary has a good sized plaque on the wall with Joe's picture on it,i'll ask my buddy who's a dectective up there,if he knows anything about Joe


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Wow, thanks Hornet :thumbsup:

We know a little about Joe - that he went to Calgary from Maryport in Cumbria. He worked his way up the ranks and was promoted to Inspector in charge of the night force in 1932 - the year before he died. He returned home once or twice and brought some amazing gifts - mostly native American (Cree?) stuff which was incredibly exotic in the north of England at the time 

What we don't know is anything about his personal life in Canada, although one of the links Plymouth found suggests he was engaged to be married when he died. 

What has become imbedded in the family folklore is the image of a handsome young man in the red mounted policeman uniform, riding on a horse chasing villains across the wild frontier, whilst trading with native Americans. I suspect reality was a little less technicolor.


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## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

woodcote said:


> Wow, thanks Hornet :thumbsup:
> 
> We know a little about Joe - that he went to Calgary from Maryport in Cumbria. He worked his way up the ranks and was promoted to Inspector in charge of the night force in 1932 - the year before he died. He returned home once or twice and brought some amazing gifts - mostly native American (Cree?) stuff which was incredibly exotic in the north of England at the time
> 
> ...



I would have to say that being with the City of Calgary police would mean he was not wearing the Mounted Police Uniform. That was reserved for the RCMP or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Back in 1933 it wasn't nearly the wild frontier you might think. Although population would have been much less than it is now, It still would have been a bustling metrolpolis. The itmes he brought back would likely have increased greatly in value as there are many collectors for older Aboriginal art.

As for the bridge, I'll look into it.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Hi Plymouth,

Great links about Woodcote's relative. I was trying to work out what the relationship would be: Great Great Uncle or something I think? 

Good work on the track Woodcote. I am looking forward to unleashing my Dodge Daytona Magnatractions round it and the LifeLike Ms. 

I should really crack on with my driver stations or you'll leave me behind!

Cheers

Gareth


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## tossedman (Mar 19, 2006)

Woodcote, 
I managed to get by City Hall this afternoon and grabbed a couple of quick pictures of the Police and Fireman Memorial. Not very good, hard to take good pics of polished granite. Let me know if you want better ones and I'll stop by with a real camera. 

I think he'd be your great grand uncle by the way.

Here's old city hall with the memorial in front of it.









Here's one of the funeral.









and lastly the memorial itself.









By the way, racing on that track will be fast and furious.

Cheers,

Todd


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Thanks Todd, those are amazing photos. Much appreciated 

I'd found an article from the Calgary Herald about the memorial being unveiled in 2006 - but to see those photos up close is very moving. I shall print them out for my mother to see. She was born just a few months before her great uncle was killed.

And yes, the uncle of my grandfather would be my great grand-uncle, I think?

Thanks too Plymouth and Hornet for your knowledge and on-going research.

I found those missing 9" radius turns yesterday, which was a relief. A couple more coats of paint, some track cleaning and some wiring and I will be ready to put everything together at the weekend. Gareth - I'm sure you wont have to wait long.


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

*this weekend's progress*

Plenty of distractions this weekend, but some progress was made on the build.

All the (Tyco) track was well cleaned and the rails and connections polished. I then soldered power wires onto the underside of two 15" straights - which was far more tricky than with AFX track. I may have to re-do this and grind away more plastic before I start.

The power wires go through holes in the table top and into a terminal block. I tested out the connections with the prototype driver station I've built - fused and with a variable brake switch. I'll eventually fit four of these in a panel.










Once all the connections were good, I laid out the track and started to fix the cork surrounds. Time was getting on and I wanted to run some laps, so I left the cork only just started.










I ran a MicroScalextric chassis to give the rails a good clean with its braids (a good UK trick) and then ran a couple of Life Like Ms, an X-traction and a AW T-jet - all running nicely, but not race-tuned.










I took some video which I'll put together and post in the next couple of days. Gareth will be keen to know that the track is excellent in all 4 lanes for all the chassis. Four cars racing head-to-head is going to be awesome :thumbsup:

Running the T-jet was useful as I spotted places I need cork run-off that I hadn't considered (on the inside of the straights for the fishtailing). Hopefully I can get that cork finished during the week and design and build barriers for the ends. A day's work next Saturday and we could have some racing


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Okay, so I threw some video together 






The X-tractions and T-jets will be great. Four M cars - or anything faster - will be completely insane :woohoo:


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Man, that looks great! :thumbsup:
Makes me wanna get back to work on mine.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

The LL-Ms are just insane on that track! Laptimes in the sub 2 seconds or less? Hectic times at RCR are ahead! The TJet looked good fun and the X-Traction was fantastic with a good blend of all out speed and some huge tail slides. Mighty fine work.

Thanks to being at home and not at work, I also spied your photo of inside your driver station. Do you have any more? You know they scare me!


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Life - as it has a tendency to do - got in the way of the build.

This week I did re-solder the terminal tracks - first grinding away some plastic to expose more of the underside of the rail.

So we are now back to where we were six weeks ago, but with more robust wiring and a revised work plan


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

The track is now fixed down with cork borders added and gaps filled. It does look a bit of a mess. With some sanding and cleaning-up, the track surface will be ready to paint.


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## gonegonzo (Jan 18, 2006)

I'm looking forward to seeing more .

Good progress regardless .

Gonzo


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Very sweet lil Bullring ya got there Woodcote :thumbsup: and a cool thread in itself


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

Please let us know the products you use to fill and paint. That is always a topic that surfaces from time to time and having recommendations from a guy who's used specific products himself is a real help for others. :thumbsup:


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

I had the opportunity to have a quick run on Woodcote's unfinished Bullring last weekend. I ran a brand new Xtraction and it was a lot of fun as was my 4 gear van! 

Really tricky to get the pattern right of braking into the tighter Turns 1 and 3 before smoothly piling the power back on through Turns 2 and 4 while controlling some pretty wild tail sliding action....all the while pumping in laptimes of 3 or 4 seconds! 

I'm very much looking forward to a full four lane race on the finished track. I see carnage ahead!


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

*tjd* - I've used Polyfilla, which is just a standard filler, what you call spackling compound in the States. Something that claims to be flexible is best - but I think they all do make that claim 

Paint is a standard acrylic primer. The one I got from a DIY/trade store claims to be ideal for all surfaces...

I've painted one of the straightaways this week, just to see how it looks and see if there are any issues before I do all of the track. The plan is to run it at the weekend and see what happens.

I also needed to shoot some pics of Nascars, so it made a handy backdrop. Hopefully you get some idea of what the finished track will look like, with the extra width on the outside, the green infield, checkered victory lane and clear lexan sheet 'catch-fencing':





































*Gareth* ran an Aurora 4-gear round the oval last weekend and it could prove to be an interesting class to race - especially with some of the bodies available


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Okay, after tarting-up one straight for some pics, it's back to the hard grind of building a whole circuit to race on.

I've tested the track this week and learned some lessons from painting that one straightaway.

First, the paint comes off the rails fine, but the paint that got on the slots is a [email protected]@ard to get out - a good half hour for just one slot over three 15" straights 

That's going to take a couple of evenings to finish - and come up with a way of keeping paint out of the slots for when I do the rest of the track.

Running some laps on the fully cleaned-out lane we already have a racing line of rubber (or, most likely, dirt) being laid down on the matt grey surface. It looks quite cool, but I'm not sure about maintenance. Maybe a coat or two of Future floor polish will be in order to protect the surface.

The most worrying thing is that we have a little bit of a power-drop on the painted bit. It's more pronounced on some cars, but is just about noticeable with all. I'll see if that is replicated on the other lanes as I clean them.

Anyway, this is what the track looks like as of this week:


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

I am concerned about the power drop. That sucks the big one. Any idea why? I am guessing that it could be due to paint getting into your track connectors somehow and making them less conductive. 

Maybe I should look at soldering before I head to paint and filling. 

Does anyone else have any experience of this or some advice?


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

I certainly need to get the volt meter out. And maybe go over the rails a few more times...

It's problems like this that make me glad it's such a small project


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

It's not a voltage drop on the track, my voltmeter is giving the same reading all the way round 

Confusing, but actually very good news.

So is it the paint on the track surface? Its there added friction? Or is it some residual paint on the rails?

I've been running 3 Life Like Ms and the one that was running the best is now running the worst (it has 'O' rings on the fronts). Likewise with the two X-Tractions I've been using as test cars.

I cleaned the cars' pick-ups and whacked the power up to 20volts and all the cars were great. To be honest, I'd run the track before at 20V and it was more fun.

Still confused, but not so worried. Plus I cleaned out another slot.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Wow, I missed your last few posts. Track is lookin great!!! :thumbsup:

I painted one track with spray primer and Thunderbird with brush on latex.
I'm not sure which method you used but I have some ideas about the speed drop.

1. your track connections. paint interference?
Your rails may test good, but voltage may drop with a car/load on the track.

2. paint residue on the rails. are you sure you got it all off?
The smallest traces, even invisible with the naked eye, can cause arcing.
The changes in performance, and your shoes on your cars indicate this may be a problem.
The voltage drop in #1 can also contribute to excessive arcing.

3. loss of traction
At 20v, these torky little cars are dying to get up to speed in a very short distance,
flat paint is not very sticky, and will continue to roll off on the tires. This may show up 
more once you paint the corners. I would think sealing it with a light, brushed on layer 
of Future would be a good move, but I'm not sure how it would look or work.
You might try it on a spare piece of track.

The loss of speed/power could be one or a combination of any of these.
Hope this helps.

PS - I use disposable fingernail files to clean out my slots.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

NTxSlotCars said:


> I use disposable fingernail files to clean out my slots.


What an excellent suggestion! Do you mean the lolly stick type ones covered in emery paper? The ones that set my teeth on edge when ever I hear someone using one! If so I need to get a few of those ready for the 31st October which is the start of track decorating day.

I'm following your suggestions closely as, although I'm using Tomy track, I do expect to be faced with the same challenges and issues that Woodcote has right now.

I will get a thread up on the board sooner or later so you can see what is taking place!


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Thanks for the tips Rich - getting rid of every last spec of paint has made a big difference.

So much so that three of us gave the half-finished track a good thrashing tonight. A makeshift light bridge gave us some laptimes too.










Amazon Europe provided crash barriers with ready-painted sponsorship:










We ran a very wide range of stuff. As I thought, the Life Like Ms and Tycos 440x2s were about as fast as we wanted to do without needing motion-sickness medication.

Before Gareth went off to catch a band, we ran an inaugural feature race with our M cars - 3 minutes, with 3 track calls each. After those calls it was every man for himself - but occasionally we all stopped.

At the end John (a former 1:5 scale RC oval racing champ) and me were less than a lap apart. I did 88 and John 87. I had been practicing though 

John took fastest lap of 1.030 seconds.

I know Gareth loves real-time racing videos, so I'll put together one tomorrow. It might be a bit boring for anyone but the three of us...

After Gareth headed off, John learned to love the Magna / X-traction cars, which are really perfect for this size oval.

The first of many fun nights on the Rock County Raceway - and definitely some motivation to get it finished


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Annoyingly, I got to the venue to discover the band were on at 10.45 and not 9.45 so I went home! I could have spent some more time driving. 

The M cars really are the limit of what you want to drive on a bullring this size! I really struggled to get that consistent quick rhythm and was crashing every other lap, sometimes every other corner in practise. In the race I was more consistent but Woodcote was kind enough to not mention that I was about 0.3 seconds a lap slower which means I was lapped every 5 laps and ended the race around 20 laps down. 

I enjoyed driving my X-traction and Tyco HP-2 van round. The Tomy Turbo I tried was interesting. It is too quick in a straight line and there's not enough traction in the bends. Maybe with a 90ohm controller or with the power turned right down it would improve.

Great fun though and I'm looking forward to more RCR racing!!


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Just so Gareth can replay the race and re-live his pain - again and again 






And the track will be all gray by the end of tonight :thumbsup:


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

We should actually have that music playing when we're racing! It really built the tension nicely. That or Zorba the Greek! That would be hilarious.


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

*And a few months later...*

...thirty-two, to be precise 

Anyway, the oval has been kept in a safe place and is now ready to be finished.










The track has been painted gray and all the paint removed from the rails. It is running nicely with AW Thunderjets and X-Tractions.

Reed switches have been fitted under the track surface and hooked up to Trackmate - everything working well there.

Here's some best times with an AW T-jet running at 18V over 50 laps:

Lane 1 (inside): 2.518 secs
Lane 2: 2.486
Lane 3: 2.468
Lane 4 (outside): 2.583 secs

Next up is painting the infield, adding barriers & hoardings at each end, fitting some catchfencing and then wrapping up the finishing touches to the track and the driver stations.

Race night is eight days away...


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Cool bullring!! Good luck meeting the deadline! You can do it!


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

*Build it and they will come?*

We're on for some serious basement racing tonight on the south coast of England :thumbsup:

There's still some work to do, but here's the Rock County Raceway _in situ_










It sure has been fun rebuilding and re-wiring the track after all this time.

Over the weekend, I got these four AW/JL T-jets painted and ready for action










Some of the guys from the club have kindly volunteered to help test out the track and advise on some of the finishing touches. They didn't exactly need their arms twisted... Hopefully I'll have time to take some pictures later and post them up tomorrow


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

Nice !

Personaly, I run my 13x4 Ho track on 13.5v 8amperes (amperes seems very important in how our ho cars are running), and it's just fast enough for us ! 

Have fun !


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## Peacefield (Jan 22, 2008)

I'm really digging the decals on those cars; especially #43 on the 59 Impala. Can I ask where you go them?


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

*More action on the Rock*

The T-jets came out again on the Rock a couple of months ago and I forgot to post anything here.










We also ran some Aurora and AW racing rigs










Are here's a video of the action 






The oval is running great with the pancake cars and we must arrange another racing session soon.

Peacefield - the decals are various Pattos peel 'n' stick.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

I've always preffered the informal home style crash and burn racing. My morning tea flew out my nose after watching the big pile up .... prior to completing the first lap. Classic!


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## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

We used to run our X2 Ovals at 12V 6 amp which was perfect. Ran a winston cup series for several years in the Virginia Beach area. Our Power supplies were flea market Car Battery Chargers. I liked them because they had the built in circuit breaker should something short out


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

I'd been thinking of dropping down the voltage to run Tycos and Life Like Ms so we can use the modern era Winston/Sprint Cup bodies. They are just too fast on the bullring at 18V.

But we do love the tail-out action of the pancake cars


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