Building the oval track

[Welder Dave]

One of the more experienced operators on here was interested in my oval track build so I'll try to put up some beginning to where I'm at now pics. It was originally going to be flat for motorcycles but they were kind of wishy washy in support of it. Then one of the car guys approached me about having mini stock cars on it. They showed more interest so I put a slope on it and then built the corners up for more slope. It needed some slope anyway because flat any slight depression would hold water. After a rain there'd be dozens of little puddles everywhere. Sorry I don't know how to make the pics. bigger.

 

[Welder Dave]

More pics. The gravel pit was kind enough to bring a grader over for a few hours. The 850J WLT and 792D cost about $25K! The dump truck paid for itself hauling a couple hundred loads. The top soil was stripped off and holes were dug to get the clay for the track. Then the bush that was cleared was thrown in the holes and covered with the topsoil that was stripped. Some more recent pics. to come.

 

[Welder Dave]

Here's some pics. from my phone up to present. It's a little hard to see the slope in corner. It's 3% at the bottom till about half the width of the track and I'd guess 4 to 5% at the top but it needs to be packed and cut down a little. The big hole was for all the clay to build the corners up. I'd guess it was at least 500 yards. Initial shaping of the piles of clay was done with the skid steer. I need to measure the width to see if the corners are wide enough. They need to be 65 feet wide. I scraped the infield down and will use that material outside the corners to make a more gradual slope if someone goes off the track. A 3ft. drop off wouldn't be good. LoL

 

[Welder Dave]

A couple more. It's smoother than it looks in the pics. but a grader operator is going to help me and show me some tricks how to transition from the straights to the corners that are banked higher. In between I've also hired the county grader for a couple hours and the operating engineers also did a couple days work putting the initial slope on the track. Unfortunately they got told they can't do any more work for people in the area.

 

[TCat]

More pics. The gravel pit was kind enough to bring a grader over for a few hours. The 850J WLT and 792D cost about $25K! The dump truck paid for itself hauling a couple hundred loads. The top soil was stripped off and holes were dug to get the clay for the track. Then the bush that was cleared was thrown in the holes and covered with the topsoil that was stripped. Some more recent pics. to come.

Wow that drone shot in the bottom right corner looks amazing. How big is the track? Are you going to charge these guys to use your track or just let them use it for free? Make sure to have them sign liability releases, you know how it goes these days, no good deed goes unpunished.

There is a guy around the corner from me with a small dirt track on his property, but I never see anyone using it. He seem's to keep it maintained anyway though. lol

 

[Welder Dave]

The track is about a 1/4 mile measured in the middle. Yes people pay to use it and sign a waiver. I have liability insurance. The biggest problem is getting people interested in helping to develop it so we can put on events. If I could find people to help with lap scoring and sign in I'd put on my own events. It seems bizarre to me that people aren't excited to have a new track. There aren't many tracks and it's more common to see tracks getting shut down than starting up. It's kind of depressing actually.

 

[Syleng1]

That is very cool. "Build it and they will come."
But you better add some solar powered Tesla charging stations for good measure. (LMAO!)
Most people now complain about the noise rather than going and having a great time like they did 50 years ago. They are stuck on crap like Netflix or Prime. Never leave their houses. Our local tar track is always holding on by a thin string with multiple owners over the last few years. Swap meets help drive business and those 24hr Lemons races also drive track interest from all over.
Best of luck to ya.

 

[Tinkerer]

Awesome project, Dave !
It looks great !
Word will travel fast after you have a few events.

 

[DMiller]

Sure looks a good purpose for entertainment in Multiple ways.

 

[TCat]

The track is about a 1/4 mile measured in the middle. Yes people pay to use it and sign a waiver. I have liability insurance. The biggest problem is getting people interested in helping to develop it so we can put on events. If I could find people to help with lap scoring and sign in I'd put on my own events. It seems bizarre to me that people aren't excited to have a new track. There aren't many tracks and it's more common to see tracks getting shut down than starting up. It's kind of depressing actually.

Man that's awesome. Great job there. Very cool!!!

 

[Welder Dave]

I have a gut feeling the car guys who used to run another track that was owned by a town (and shut down) aren't that interested in helping me because they don't have full control and part of the proceeds have to go to the track owner (me). When my name is on the property I have to have the final say on what goes on. When they first came out asked me about leasing it. They seemed to want to help but not so much now and made some poor excuses why it can't become a race venue.

I need to market to race quads because most MX tracks don't allow them. I don't allow them on the MX track but put some flat track tires on and they can fly around the oval at 80kmh. The track is multi-purpose for different vehicles.

 

[Georgia Iron]

Welder Dave,

I wish the pictures were better, we cant see detail. But that is an impressive track and it looks big, I gather that is must be at least 200' wide by 1000' long or 200,000 sg ft / 4 acres? I was thinking about how much work that must have been to make it. I have been in a motor grader for 5 days straight, layed down 7500 tons of stone and my neck feels like a really big guy gave it a twist. My feet are also cramping from sitting and trying to stay in the seat. My current job is a 500,000 sq ft building and they have a large crew of men running some really big machines moving the dirt. D9s, 30 tons trucks, big excavators. Going all day long for months.

It really looks awesome, I did not realize that you could do things like that in Canada, I thought the crown owned all the land and I have seen a lot that is wet bog type ground. Down here in the south they would make you get so many permits, silt fence, that it would just take the cost on up that much more.

You must have a lot of land to have a track that big. That is great.

 

[Welder Dave]

I have 80 acres. The track isn't that big. It's about a 1/4 mile around. It's 65ft. wide, the straights are 335ft. and the corners about 65ft. wide so about 530ft long and 195ft. wide. I think the total area cleared including the parking area is maybe 4-4 1/2 acres. I got the land re-zoned specifically to be an off road vehicle park on the advice of the lady at the county in charge of land use at the time. She was great to deal with. Other's in the county not so much except the public works manager. He was good to deal with and didn't think I should have had to pay to have the road to my driveway upgraded. The idiot county manager at the time basically said they wouldn't do anything to the road unless I paid $1500 and put up forms for a shop. Originally he wanted me to pay $3000 and I'd get half back once I built a shop. I couldn't afford a shop at the time but said how can I build anything? If it rains it's just 2 big ruts in a dirt road with no gravel at all. Glad he's gone. Talking with the lady who used to be in charge of land use but was now a counselor, she confirmed the guy was a dictator and nobody else could even voice an opinion. The land generally has a high water table and can be really wet in the spring if there's a lot of snow and it rains a lot. Had some really good luck this year. Ponds are less than 1/4 full instead of overflowing.

It would be really nice if the car and bike guys would be even a little bit exited about having a new track and helping to make it a racing venue. The MX track has been a lot busier this year which is good.