Understand Track Design and Surface Preparation

2:49

45:58

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Larry Pollard's Abandoned Go Kart Track & Historic NASCAR Busch Series Collection

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What happens here

Larry Pollard explains that the track was designed and built through iterative testing. He and his friends would get into go-karts, drive around, and determine where to place or move walls to optimize the racing experience. They utilized heavy truck tires (Goodyear Eagle brand is visible) for track barriers. Vegetable oil was intentionally applied to the asphalt surface to make the track slick and promote drifting, creating a more exciting experience for racers and reducing tire wear. This practice, however, required regular reapplication due to rain washing it off.

Goal: Learn about the hands-on track design process and unique surface treatment.

Tools and materials

Concrete — Building up banked turns and hills on the track
Go-karts — Testing track layout and driving experience
Heavy Truck Tires Goodyear Eagle — Creating track barriers and safety walls
Vegetable Oil — Making the asphalt track surface slick for drifting and reduced tire wear

What they say

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rain's taking it off we'll have to get it all built back up to get it back where it was but that's all rubber there did the configuration change cuz it looks like there's lines in here that don't match with the walls yeah when when we when I first built it it was off the end of the building there so it was it was all together different it was a whole different course and then when we built the back stretch with the heels and put that bank Corner in down there we could change the whole the whole track just made it so much better more racing and using up the same area so how did you determine what the layout was going to be did you kind of mock it up and play with it before you built the walls or just yep he's get in a cart and I call Chris Harrington Todd Harrington uh CER uh Dennis well his dad uh Dennis Dennis seter yeah cuz we were doing their stuff so we' we' he'd come over to pick up his gear and I said Dennis let's jump on a couple carts here then we go out and race for about half half an hour and and he said wow we need to move that wall here and that wall there so it was pretty cool deal but you get some air over that hill right there yeah did you get fast enough to get air you turned them up you could but what the deal is keep on the ground right they there's a state law it's for not having helmets and for for not having helmets it's got to be 15 or 16 yeah and and at 17 they jump so it worked out perfect for no helmets 15 M hour and they gave you a pretty good ride over the hills you know it was kind of a deal working within the rules and the the trooper come down here one night and they parked on that road down there and they had the radar on the backstretch to see how fast they're going and they were 15 mph so we were perfect on our speeds and with the heels it made it feel like you're hauling butt you know I mean so it was a it's a neat deal it it worked out really good did you build the hills up with dirt and then put concrete over them y I'm sure there was a little bit of a engineering involved oh yeah figuring those out oh Monty Payne he he did them there's two all that it's all that is a big hill that is super cool it's all uh concrete from there all the way around the corner and we we built a bank Corner down there we thought that'd be pretty cool too and it it really it really made it a fun ride with banked corner with a grease on it did you ever have your own like

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