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Tracks

a panoramic shot of a backyard rc track with a tekno mt410 monster truck parked on it, dirt and scrappy weeds and grasses and an array of jumps and turns make up the rough motocross style course

Current (2023-2024) Track

June 2024 - Running some laps with the MT10

Goal here is an MX-style track with reconfigurable layout. I'm adding one feature at a time cause I don't have a lot of time or equipment.

a gradient heightmap drawing of a track layout with course drawn with arrows a gradient heightmap drawing of a track layout with a different course drawn with arrows

a gradient heightmap drawing of a track layout with yet another course drawn with arrows a gradient heightmap drawing of a track layout with a fourth route drawn with arrows

May 2024 - Various routes on current design

I picked this spot because the eucalytpus trees drop enough here to keep the weeds from growing as much, and gophers don't seem to love it either. It also has a little bit of natural elevation change I can use.

Trying to be as low impact as possible:

Track Build Updates

a look from one end down a long dirt rc track, a car is in the foreground near a turn rough motocross style course

May 2024 - New tabletop turn and big air single, testing route with cones. Salvaged a pallet for a driver's stand.


April 2024 - running the MT410, needs to be mowed again


a hand sketch in black pen of an rc track with a tabletop, two sets of doubles, and a large banked turn

March 2024 - sketch of track as built


a photo looking down the main rhythm section of the rc track, recently mowed with double and tabletop and banked turn in the distance, with a wheelbarrow and shovel next to a new jump in construction

March 2024 - new double in progress


a photo in golden lighting, looking down the main rhythm section of the rc track, freshly mowed with double and tabletop, the banked turn in the distance

March 2024 - after mowing


an overgrown rc track with several jump elements hiding under the greenery an overgrown rc track with matted grass and several jumps

Feb 2024 - overgrown with new banked turn and crossover route


a dry field with brown mowed grass has a tabletop jump and double built in it

June 2023 - first elements of tabletop and double


a blue and silver SC10 short course RC truck is facing the camera in midair and about to come in for a bracing landing, a little too nose down and canting to its right side

testing out the double with the SC10


2003 Track

As a teenager my ambitions were greater than my abilities or bank balance. I wanted to build a 60'x100' track in the middle of a field.

a very complicated ms paint sketch of an rc course, with sloppy green strokes indicating elevation change

Optimistic original track design

While I did end up clearing and leveling a route, the surface was rough. My T3 with its 27T stock motor and 1500mAh NiCd batteries rolled over more than jumped off the ramps.

a much more restrained sketch of a euro-style RC style course, a modified square shape with a few jumps marked in green

Roughly what ended up getting built

It nonetheless taught me a few things about track building and ensured I took a more modest and iterative approach on my next attempt.

An overgrown field with lanes tilled into it, leaving tracks of brown dirt and green weeds

Original track after tilling

a somewhat groomed lane of an RC track, with a swept hard surface

Original track after raking away weeds.