Each track is 48' feet long and the assembly consists of 4 total tracks (with room for 2 more). Each of the tracks are continuous from start to finish (no joiners). The finish line is called 'The Judge'. Basically it has 4 photo-detectors that determine the finish order of the races.

The total slope is 24ft long. It starts 6ft up and ends about 2ft off the ground where it is joined to the 24ft long, flat, straight section. The track stays at least 2ft off the ground to help reduce the wear and tear, on the back and knees, from picking up the cars at the end of the run.

It takes about 2.5 hours to assemble the complete track. Most of the time is spent running each roll of track through the 1 inch washers that are spaced 12 inches apart on the base. These washers help keep the track flat and consistant from start to finish.

The total material cost of the track, including the finish line, lumber, hardware, and 4 rolls of track, was about $490.00. Total design time was about 12 hours and total build time was about 52 hours.

We are exploring the idea of a velcro setup for the track instead of using the 1 inch washers. This may help decrease the setup time and wear and tear on the track. If approved, we will post the new design here.

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Web Posted: 07/06/2004 8:00 PM CDT
South Texas Diecast Collectors News

On Saturday, July 3rd, the Geoffrey's TRU store on Ingram Rd. and Loop 410, in San Antonio, promoted a special Star-Spangled event to celebrate the July 4th holiday. There was lots of Food, DJ Music (provided by Paul who is a South Texas Diecast Member), Face Painting, Funnel Cakes, Cotton Candy, Prizes, Sno-Cones, Games, and a Cake(moon)walk. Our club also pulled out the Club's Hot Wheels race track and raced a few cars. We also had members present at the event to help promote Hot Wheels collecting and our local club.

(Click on the pictures to see a larger version)

In order to race, the participants had to buy one of the Hot Wheels that were on display in the store, register their cars, and race them. The races were set up 'double elimination' style and there were 4 groups of racers.

These were the final 4 finishers of the day and each received some cool Hot Wheels prizes. Shown here (from left to right) are Dakota (3rd place with the Rapid Transit FE), Krystal (4th place with the Spectraflame2 Series Silhouette II), Jeremy (2nd place with the Sega Game Series GT Racer, and Damian (1st place with the Spectraflame2 series Ballistik).

The GT Racer from the first group was undefeated until it ran against the, once beaten, Ballistik (the winner from the 2nd Group). It was a close race but the Ballistik barely pulled it out at the end. These two cars, with one loss each, switched lanes (lane 2 and 3) and ran one final race to determine 1st place. It was a photo finish but the Ballistik again won by a hair. "The Judge" LED finish line worked great and was a big help in determining the winner of the last two runs. It was that close of a race.

Here is 1st Place winner, Damian, with his winning Ballistik and the cool prizes that he won. Damian and his family also won a free 1 year membership to South Texas Diecast Collectors for his 1st Place finish. Congratulations Damian!

The event started around noon and ended close to 5:30pm. The club had lots of fun and it was great pulling out the race track to make sure everything is ok for our Santa Rosa Childrens Hospital trip on July 22nd.

—ROBinator