Least its away into the Autodrome. May be you could speak to the guy you know about letting us hold an event at the same time the have the first weekend of the UAE Touring Cars.

They usually have a big family day to encourage spectators. And they usual contact all of the car forums and they get them to arrange car stands. This could draw extra awareness to the sport and could be another step on the ladder to a permeant event there.

Im guessing once the RTA becomes aware they will destroy the place. May be worth trying to take the drivers stand so we can use it somewhere else. Although im sure this could be seen as stealing!

As for the Movenpick area, we could use those roaddomes to make a decent portable track. But i seem to remember them being really expensive

i'm in too

andy is right we will have to dig into our pockets to make this happen, as no will give us the money.

i think monthly contributions are good for maintenance etc, but we would most likey need a lump sum of money to get the track up and running once one of the two sites gets a go ahead.

i think we should also plan for that - not sure what that amount would be - but we would need to look at what would be required to get either track running and work backwards from that to get an initial contribution amount.

for the offroad track we were all asked to put in 500aed (some put more) and time and effort building the track, those who did that are now entitled to use the track for free, while others who did not contribute have to pay a daily rate to use the track.

we all spend thousands of dirhams on this hobby every year so contributing a few hundred bucks a year to have a decent track should really not be much of a problem

anyway, thats my 2 fils worth

im in for this project

just let me know how i can support

Thanks Paul,

I knew we would have your support. And I feel the main difference between ourselves and the off roaders, is that our facilities should be easier to maintain, and wont require much back breaking work to get it done.

Over the next week or two, we will see what response we get from our members and see how we can proceed. The major requirement right now is a drivers stand, and I dont think it will be too expensive to expand on the one that is at Meydan. It is not to small to be useful and expanded, and I like the fact that at worst, it is at least portable...

Following that we will take suggestions from all potential contributors as to how to utilise funds, and a vote with strong argument in the positive, will be how we proportion monies. Initially we would need to consider items that cannot easily be vandalised or removed.

Either of the venues that we may get will probably not allow us to keep non-members out, and all non-member users will be asked to contribute, and this will be backed up with the help of awareness as to how the facility came about.

Cathurga,

Hope you've been well mate.

Try approaching the guys at the outdoor Karting venue. I think they might be keen on letting you use an open area they have. The only issue that might impeed would be the temporary mosque in the very close vicinity of the area, i.e. noise issues.

But if you're running electrics, I can't see that being a problem. And if everyone remains respectful by not running the cars while it's prayer time, I see no issues.

As far as being charged for the area, who builds and maintains what, that's something you'd have to work out with them.

Give me a shout if you want some contact details mate.

All sounds good to me.

I'm a bit concerned about the RTA though.
I think we are better off just using what is there, and if any one complains then so what, it was like this when we came.

RTA won't have any procedure / mechanism to let us use this space so they will just tear it down if we try and formalise it.

Greg, yep my thoughts exactly, but .....it depends on how we put it to them, and whether we spill the beans on the location.....they would need to torture me, or bribe me with a new venue to get that outta me....I am a salesman, I know what to do... LOL

is anyone going out to the meydan track this weekend? if so when?

im keen to test it out

Ill be there on Friday earlyish afternoon. Prob around 3-4ish, Will be giving the F1 and the mini a blast. Then i think we may be racing on Saturday. Will be giving the F1 and the mini a blast.

Andy if we are racing the mini's on Saturday are we going with sports tuned or silver cans?

i think we'll be racing at mayden on saturday. not sure about the motor though.

OT: @ paul.. your PRO is waiting for you!

Hey guys,

I will probably go down the the track on Friday to do some testing. I need to see if the ladder will fit across, or seek an alternative. If I get everything sorted, we can race there on Saturday. I would recommend we use the silvercans in the mini's we know everyone has them and if I only report back on Friday evening, people may not have time to change them.

The silvercans do ok on the track we 'engineered' last week, and it was a lot of fun. I will post in the SSS thread on Friday eve, so keep your eyes on that.... Right now though, assume Meydan Mini racing, Saturday 5:00pm. It is a new track to some, so I think it will be a little different to the normal session...and std silvercan motors

Can I suggest a little earlier start time on Saturday.
Seems we will have mini and also people keen to try out F1 and Touring cars, plus I think we will just need extra time since it is new track and will take longer to get organised.

Maybe we can schedule to start racing mini at 5:00, but those who want to have a bit more play time come earlier, say 4 or 4:30.

Mini - Silver Can
Touring - hobbywing 13T
F1 - Silver can ?

the straights look long!

motor up!!!!!

Yup.. i think we should use the black can for minis on saturday..

For future I agree, black can is the way to go.

But for this weekend it probably better to stick with silver can since we don't know if everyone has black cans. We should give everyone plenty of notice if we going to change the rules.

In the picks the track looks huge, but the straight has two cut out to make it shorter at each end (marked in dotted lines) and we are also putting a chicane in the straight to keep it bit interesting. Bottom line is that it is still good fun racing with silver can.

Even with touring car and 13T the shorter track is fine, and it is easy to bypass the chicane on the straight without making any track modifications.

Silver cans for the mini's worked well last week at Meydan.

Think i will have to stick a sports tuned in the F1 though as i dont have another silver can

Yep, on short notice,....for :

Saturday

Mini - Silvercan - Super Summer Series - 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Touring - Hobbywing 13T - Free Running - Anytime not between 5:00pm - 6:30pm

F1 - Silvercan/ST - Free running - Anytime not between 5:00pm - 6:30pm

tractorboy wrote:

As for the Movenpick area, we could use those roaddomes to make a decent portable track. But i seem to remember them being really expensive

I had a look at the road domes website again, and I see they have the "domes' seperately as an upgrade option. 25 of them for US$189. Seems expensive, but at under US$10 each, maybe not so bad...they have "SUPER GRIP" underside so would negate the MASSIVE spend we have on tape

...might be worth considering for initial spending...

What if we drill some 12mm diameter holes about 100mm deep where all the markers need to go on the Tarmac, put some 12 mm holes in the centres of the markers, then just drop some m10 bolts through ( to act kinda like a tent peg), they should provide more than enough leverage to hold the marker in place (without physically screwing then in), and then there would be no need for tape.

I vote for the road dome.
This will provide more freedom to layout a track where possible without redrilling the tarmac and a possible pissed RTA.
Without an official authorized area, you'll never know till when we have the facillity.

Hey Guys,

I have a little update on the facilities at Meydan. The drivers stand has officially been donated to Dubdrift, by the previous owner. He has kindly donated it as a gesture.

Whilst he will remain anonymous until we have determined how the RTA will react, I would like to recommend that he become an honorary member indefinately.
I dont know if he is a regular visitor to Dubdrift or not, but I am sure I speak for all when I say a big THANK YOU!

We have our first semi-permanent asset

Thats cooooool

who ever you are thank you very much

your the man!

Mister-e, I am with you on this. I know that the road domes would be a better idea, the drilling of holes is destructive to an area we do not own, and I am pretty sure the holes will get filled with sand pretty sharpish...

Nice suggestion though Paul, anyone else got any ideas?

cathurga wrote:

Mister-e, I am with you on this. I know that the road domes would be a better idea, the drilling of holes is destructive to an area we do not own, and I am pretty sure the holes will get filled with sand pretty sharpish...

Nice suggestion though Paul, anyone else got any ideas?

any one got a dust buster to suck the sand out the holes! hahaha

mister-e, i agree the road domes system as a whole is definately a better idea in terms of flexability etc - but from what i understand from andy's post it to buy just the domes and not the rails........(to replace the beacons we are using)

to be honest i dont think the RTA would notice a few 12mm holes in a massive parking lot.....the other way to do it to stop sand filling the holes would be to actually screw the bolts into the grounf leaving the head sticking out 10mm over which you could place the plates with hole in the center (wont be quite as secure but would work) (also using m10 bolts wont be a puncture hazard for car tires etc)

even thought the road domes have a so called "super grip" on the under side this will not hold the domes in place on there own, the system relies on the whole system being connected using rails and domes....the combined system will then use it weight, structural stength plus grips to keep in place...individual pieces will just move around - maybe a little less due to friction from the super grip

the difficaulty is that without making a relatively permanent fixing (bolting down something to attach the beacons to etc) we will always battle with things moving

with tape, velcro etc we will always be fighting a losing battle.....but it is the only way i can think of with damaging the parking lot

Actually, the velcro solution seems like a route we could follow, at least on the permanent corners of the track. The cutoff areas of the track would need other consideration...but imagine a mat of velcro stuck/nailed to the tarmac....you could just walk by it an toss a plate on it....job done...