How to Build an RC Short Track

Use a tape measure to measure the available space for the track. Transfer the track measurements to a piece of graph paper to scale and draw out a design for your short track within the confines of the marked space. Keep the track lanes tight, between four and six feet wide, with tight curves that test the driver's handling skills. Mark down any obstacles, such as jumps or sand pits, on the mapped track, but keep jump areas confined to straight sections where the vehicles have space to rise and fall back to the track without going out of bounds.

Mark the boundaries of your track area on the ground with landscaping paint, then use the paint and the graph paper map to spray out the design onto the ground. Use the tape measure to help you in spraying out the track, making sure to remain as close to your mapped design as possible.

Use a spade to cut through and remove any groundcover from the sprayed track lanes present. Dig down past the roots of the grass with the spade tip, and then pull up the turf in sections for quickest removal. Break up the soil after removing the grass with a tiller set to a 2-inch depth, and then remove the loose soil with the spade, leaving a slight depression for the track.

Run a vibratory plate compactor over the track to compress the soil for a solid track base. Cover the soil with landscaping fabric to prevent plant growth on your lanes. Overlap the fabric over the edges of the track about three inches and cut the fabric to fit with a utility knife. Return the two inches of soil you removed to the track, covering the fabric and compress it with the plate compactor. You will still have a somewhat depressed area where the track lanes run with a slight rise at the edges where the undisturbed groundcover lies.

Add a fine grade soil over the natural soil bed of the track to serve as the actual running surface. You can purchase the soil needed from a garden center. Build up the soil in 1-inch layers, compressing each layer until it's even with the surrounding groundcover.

Surround the track with 4-inch black drainage tubes to create a barrier for the vehicles running the track. Fill the tubes with sand and then bury them along the track edges, keeping half the tube exposed above the ground as the track barrier. The flexible nature of the tubing allows you to follow the contours of the track closely. Line both sides of the track with the tubing.

Build up the obstacles for the track. Add a sand pit on one of the curves, by dusting the track with a 1/2-inch deep layer of sand. Bury a row of four or five sand-filled PVC pipes about four inches apart crossing the width of the track, and then cover the pipes with outdoor carpet staked down with steel spikes and a hammer at the start, finish and between the pipes to create a rough obstacle for the vehicles to run over. Create angled corners by poling dirt higher on one side of the corner than the other, and then running the compactor over it to create a slope. Use the same process to create a small jump, building a mound of soil, and then compacting it into a slope that forces the vehicles to take to the air. Keep the obstacles interesting by spacing them out to add a level of skill to running the short track.