Track to the Future! How to design & build indoor onroad tracks

RC Track Design & Build with go.atspeed.tech

I'm so lucky to have been involved in organising some amazing RC race series over the years. It feels like yesterday but 10 years ago I was designing tracks for the famous Rug Racers series and much more recently I've had the opportunity to design a track for the new and exciting Carpet Legends series. Both series use the same size track dimensions so instead of designing a brand new track for Carpet Legends I instead chose to use my favourite design from 10 years ago and bring it up to date.  Track materials have changed and improved in that time and Slideology curbing has transformed indoor racing. So it was time to remix a tried and tested design for a new era and a new series.

Thanks to Philip Staniford for the video.

In this article I want to share the whole process of how we designed and built the track for round 5 of Carpet Legends 25/26 with minimum fuss and effort.

This isn't meant to be the definitive way you must design & build a track but this method worked well for us.

1. Design

We all know as RC racers how important it is to use the right tool for the job. I wanted a design tool with Slideology curbing that could snap together so that I could design the corners in the software and not on the day. I needed to produce scale drawings that could be used to build the track so measurements were also high on my want list.

I've tried various things to design tracks before from open source desktop publishing apps to the Adobe suite of professional graphics apps. I was even shown a way to use Excel to draw tracks which I didn't quite get my head around. All of these options worked but never felt easy or intuitive and I couldn't work out how to get curbs snapping the way I wanted with them, and to produce a scale drawing required making calculations.

Introducing the go.atspeed.tech RC Layout Lab - a purpose-built web app for designing tracks using Slideology curbing and producing scale drawings.

go.atspeed.tech/track-editor/

When you visit the site the track that is loaded by default is the layout that was used at Carpet Legends round 5.  The stored corner configurations are also from this track but you can create your own tracks and store your own components. This makes reusing corners across tracks easy.

I tried to add to the track editor everything a track designer could want so please explore it and do check out the instructions towards the bottom of the page as this explains all of the hot keys as well as the more obvious features.

The track editor proved its worth in the build-up to the event. During an online meeting I could share my screen and make tweaks to the layout with the team. However those of you with keen eyes will note the actual layout we ran at Carpet Legends was a bit different to the design shown here.  That's because we didn't have enough Slideology curbing and our delivery of the new parts we needed didn't arrive before the event. So I had to redesign with the parts we did have. The parts inventory which shows the total numbers of each part used was crucial but so was being able to design new corners with the existing ones as reference.

2. Preparation

Whilst I love the way Slideology curbing looks on the track and the way it improves racing and reduces breakages I have one complaint. Clipping together hundreds of pieces of curbing on the day takes too long and means the volunteers who build the track are knelt down on a hard surface for a long time. Ouch!

So I came up with a solution to preassemble sections of curbing before the build so that each corner then only required joining 2 or 3 sections together. RC Layout Lab is built to support this too. You can zoom in on each corner and enable corner labels. Exporting this provides an image which can be printed and used to assemble the corner sections. All exports have a monochrome option for better printing in black and white.

To join the curbs you will need:

• Safety glasses!
• Hand saw
• Combi drill
• 1mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm drill bits
• 2mm ball head hex bit 1/4" drive (fairly long)
• 10mm m3 button head hex screws (for end caps only)
• 16mm m3 button head hex screws
• Vernier calipers
• Rotary tool or Dremel
• Sandpaper or sanding block
• Isopropyl alcohol
• Paper towel

If your curbs have been used clean them with isopropyl alcohol and paper towel. I use a decent spray bottle to soak several pieces at once before cleaning them down.

To get the screws in we need to remove some material from the curved curb sections. I have done a lot of these with my old Dremel but a cheap rotary tool that plugs into the mains, with a sanding bit is better. You need to remove these parts here:

Straight pieces don't need any material removing.

You must wear safety glasses whilst doing this. Please protect your eyes and remember "Your safety is your responsibility"

The sanding bit is the fastest for me but it does melt the plastic and make a bit of a mess. Let it cool down before removing it and, if needed, give it a quick sanding to smooth it out.

This is a fnished piece. The material should be removed before drilling holes.

To get the holes drilled start by making a template or jig. Sacrifice a straight piece and cut the end off one with a handsaw. Carefully mark where the holes go with vernier calipers and drill 1mm holes. Clearly label this template as the master template and keep it safe as it will be used to make templates for actually drilling the holes in curbs and means your holes line up across different batches.

The holes need to be marked 6.9mm from the bottom and 3.75mm from the inner edges. I do this by setting my calipers to these dimensions and using them as a gauge to score the lines.

The problem with the templates is they are made from plastic so they wear out with use. This is why we need a master template so we can create more templates as needed as they wear out.  Creating a template is now very easy. Cut the other end off your sacrificial straight piece and clip both strips together.  Now carefully drill 1mm holes through the master template into the new template.

Now we can take our template and start clipping it on to each end of each curb and drill 2mm holes.  I do this because when I try to go straight to 2.5mm and 3mm holes I get too much drift which destroys the template.

With all the pilot holes drilled I then drill out the 2.5mm holes and the 3mm holes.  Make sure you put the right size hole in the right place. The screws will clear the 3mm hole but screw into the 2.5mm holes so we want one of each in each end. The 3mm hole goes next to the clip and the 2.5mm goes next to the socket.

To then get them screwed together use the 2mm ball hex bit in the combi drill. Sometimes the holes won't perfectly align but some RPM from the drill and a bit of a wiggle always do the job. Do not tighten the screws fully. Leave a small gap between the head of the screw and the curb. If you tighten the screws the corner will not sit flat.

Once assembled the corners might not sit perfectly flat but they will be remarkably strong.  To fettle them and get them sitting flat I put them on the floor and stand on them then I pull the corner up to bend it where needed.

3. Build

When the time comes to build the track after the carpet is down and taped I suggest assembling the corners and placing them along with any barriers that are needed for measurements.  You will need either a long tape measure or a laser measuring device to get things measured out.  The 1m grid on the drawings can be used along with the measurements to get everything into place.

Then before you tape anything down stand on the rostrum and see how it looks. Make any adjustments you need to then get those corners taped down on the inside. A piece of duct tape every 20cm or so will keep them in place throughout the day.

Next place the Botts' dots and then fill in with barriers. The barriers should be placed so drivers can't cut corners but they don't need to be close to the apexes.

As a final touch we added corner numbers to each corner.  These are adhesive vinyl I cut on my Silhouette Cameo 4 which are then stuck directly to the track.

Thanks to Chris Morgan for the photograph.

4. Race

Anyone who has been involved in running a race meeting can share in the pain of track repairs.  Track repairs can absorb a huge amount of time throughout the day and cause meetings to overrun but they also impact the team too. The track team often compromise their own racing in order to keep the track in good condition, as well as spending the energy and effort required.

Moving the barriers away from the apexes eliminates almost all track repairs. The combination of curbs and Botts' dots does this very well.

But it's not just in track repairs where things get better. Most importantly the racing gets better too. Fewer breakages and more cars finishing races is more exciting. Drivers like myself who can overestimate their talent at times are no longer met with a barrier but instead wobble over the curbs and Botts' dots and still lose time without needing a marshal.

The addition of corner numbers made a huge difference as the commentator and race director could inform racers where cars were on the straight and under race control, but also every corner on the track. This made calling the action easier but also helped to inform drivers where there were crashes or marshals on the track.

5. Breakdown

Breakdown is easy because the corners are so strong. Volunteers quickly work out the curbs have been screwed together and flip them over to find the joins.

We're lucky to have such a great team of volunteers at Carpet Legends who put in the legwork on the day in both the build and breakdown. A small, dedicated army of volunteers really makes a huge difference when it comes to getting the hard work done.

This also means I get more opportunity to talk with the racers and share tales of victories and failures from the day as well as getting feedback from them. This feedback is crucial, as RC racers are all striving to improve and go faster it's only natural to get suggestions and ideas straight from them.

The feedback on the day was overwhelmingly positive. An amazing finish to the first season of Carpet Legends and a fantastic result for this method of designing and building tracks.

More to Come for Organisers & Racers

The go.atspeed.tech website is brand new and the track editor is the first web app which is hosted there. The plan is to add further web apps and guides (just like this one) to help race event organisers run amazing events that are fully booked.

And booking in or event registration is the next step for go.atspeed.tech. A far bigger project that is already well underway and will begin beta testing soon!

With thanks to Indoor Raceway Stevenage and SC Models for their continued support! The next event is the Carpet Legends GP 2 day event on 25th and 26th July 2026. Please get booked in!