Tips from Martin (SanPhoeno) 1-9-08

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your email.

Let me try and explain 3 lanes in the space of 2.5 lanes. If a track had three lanes with no mergers it would be a 3 lane wide track all over the table, like a plastic track. With routed tracks you get the flexibility to do things differently.

Of course my idea would only work if the track is large enough, say 7 seconds or more a lap. Keep in mind on a routed track you need a good 10ft minimum of un merged lanes to be able to pass someone.

Having been at it for a few years and a few tracks built and raced on, each track i think of building gets more and more complicated to keep it interesting for me. By putting mergers into a track compared to not mergers, its like an athletics race, in a 100m race they each have their own lanes but in a 800m, they start in their own lanes then have mergers tactics and other things come into it, so each time you run the race, it plays out differently.

Back to the design, with the first track, the autocross track, the corners at each end of the table were merged when i built it so only the inside and outside lanes could pass, the middle lane would not be able to run side by side with either lane. This was ok when people of different abilities and cars of different speeds are on the track, but when a group of competent or equal abilited drivers are on the track at the same time, there wasn't much passing. It is much easier to pass on a corner than a straight after merged section. Eventually I unmerged one lane at each end, the outside at the left and the inside at the right hand end.

for example, car A leads car B into a merged corner so only one can go through at a time. when car A gets to the exit point of the corner and is entering the straight, this driver gets on the gas sooner than car B, so car B is going to have a tough time passing down the straight. If the following corners are unmerged, car B, might be able to line up a pass on car A if they got a good enough run out of the first turn and down the straight.

If i was to build a new track, i would have some sections where the three lanes are unmerged, like the main straight, but have 4 or 5 sections of the rest of the track set up so lanes 1 and 2 are merged and lane three is unmerged. then lanes 2 and 3 are merged and lane 1 not. so over the course of a lap, each lane has the chance to get past the car in the next lane. Possibly a tight corner or two where all lanes are merged so its one at a time.

Driving around the same track, every 8 seconds is good but after an hour, you have a pretty good idea of the track, so having a real 'racing' element like this, makes each time you drive/race on the track a 'new' experience.

The other side of it too it on a table in most homes, a lot of people lay as much 'spaghetti' as they can and the track has no character or feel to it. By having less width of the track as it loops around the table, it allows for more scenery and 'feel' or realism.

Hope this helps and makes sense.

Anything else I can help you with, let me know.

Martin