Indoor Winter Facility

[snap2]

Hey all,

For those of us who are on the lookout for a new place to race this winter, could someone give some input on what would make a good choice of facility.  You know, size, surface, power requirements, cost budget etc.

I've never run 12th scale, and never seen the track (other than pics), but I'm looking forward to getting into it this year and would like to help out finding a new place to run.

Damon

[haddow]

Size

The track itself is 36 x 72. We need extra area for a large scaffold drivers stand and room for corner marshals around the outside. The driverstand is 4 feet wide or so and we like to put it back of the edge of the track another 4 feet or so at least. The computer table needs to be beside the track and needs another 6-8 feet, so all told we need at least 40-45 x 80-85. This area cant have any posts in the way or at least 75 x 36 with no posts.

Surface

We cant really lay carpet on top of anything too soft (like other carpet), we need flat, smooth and hard. (and clean indoor racing in Saanich is way dirtier than outdoors in colwood, damn dogs!)

Power

we need AC power access, and good lighting.

Storage

This is paramount and we need to store the carpet and boards which amounts to a dolly of goods 4 feet high, 4-5 feet wide and 12 feet long.
We could get away with no storage if we can leave the track setup 100% of the time!!!!! More or less we need enough room to park a long compact car worth of track stuff.

Time

We need a 6-8 hour time slot on Saturday afternoon-evening-night.


Price

400-800 bucks a month if we can race 4 times a week.

(I personally think we can afford more through entry fees if we find a super kick-ass venue that allows us to race everyweek in the time slot we want) if we had 25 people every week, charged 15 bucks and raced every week (25x15x4) we could theoretically spend 1500 bucks although we wouldnt bank anything for other costs.



Some may argue we need more or less of this and that but the details above will get you in the ball-park.

[Blake]

All Jody's measurements are in feet.

We would also need some pit space area outside of the 45' X 85' "track" area.  Our current pit space at the Saanich Fairgrounds is a little cramped.  It's about 30' x 15' and can just barely accommodate 25-30 racers.

A heated area would be nice too.  The fairgrounds has heat in the pit area but not out in the track area.


Blake

[DekelzMan]

4 times a week would be great but I believe Jody meant to say 4 times a month

Mick

[haddow]

LOL, I subconciously did mean 4-times a week!! hehehe. The wife wouldnt like that too much.

Yes 4 times a month would be OK I guess. Although if we had a permanent place I would practice at least one other night.

[Tom]

On-site storage is not a requirement if we have a sufficient trailer.

We have had several storage solutions in the past.

1)  On-site.  This is obviously the coolest.
2)  Container in the parking lot.  We've rented a shipping container and stuck it in the parking lot, and just carried everything to the shipping container that we then locked.
3)  Trailer.  We've had a trailer in the past that we've loaded everything into, similar to the current outdoor arrangement.  If we were to do this route again, we would need to ensure we had a sufficiently large trailer; it'd have to be a 14' job to hold the carpet.

There may be other options available; this is just a list of what we have done in the past.

[Cody]

:lol: Hi, just to let you know I started to call a few different places for quotes on 12 scale winter racing.  (This is Cody's Mom, Laurie).  Here is what I have come up with so far:

JdF Banquet Room (somebody called a couple days ago from IROCC) $262.50 and not available every Sat., not available Sundays.

Sooke SeaParc Rec Centre 642-8000 (waiting to hear back from Dan)

  Sooke Pent. Church 642-4822 $DONATION....!  Will ask the Church Board if available Sat for us to use.  Suggested a few from the club go see Church and see if suitable area.  Has 1 pillar in middle of room so not sure if feasible but price looks right!  Room fits 100 chairs now and chairs may have to be moved sometimes.

  Sooke Baptist Church 642-3424 left a message today, apparently they have a large open Santuary with no pillars so this one might be a good location.

Juan de Fuca Church 642-6661 left a message today.

Knox Church (Sooke) 642-4124 had a large lower room and was only suggested donation of $10.00 hourly but nothing available...  :cry:

I work for Sooke School District - Poirier Elementary School, and was a Journey and EMCS before that so I was also thinking of calling a few schools for Gym quotes.  It would probably be cheaper to race on a Friday evening in the schools with a custodian already on staff as I think they work approx. 3-11pm.   Just a suggestion.  Another idea I thought of are empty schools... if they rent the Gym's out?  

Anyways I just thought I would let people know I called a few places and think a Church would probably be the cheapest way to go but don't want to be stepping on somebody's toes if somebody is already calling about this.  Call me at 642-5844 if somebody is already calling and at least you know of the places I have called today.  Thanks Laurie.

[Grinder]

I have a possible location as well at Beaver Lake school which is no longer being used as a school.  We would have about 2/3 of the whole gym and there are several class rooms we can use for piting and/or storage as well as the stage.  I will investigate tomorow.

[snap2]

Hey all,

Heres what I've got from Saanich so far:

Pearkes has Saturday nights available in their Field House, most nights anyway.  I haven't been to see it yet, but we used last year for my daughter's b-day.  The kids were racing bigwheels in there any getting into some fast and scary cornering, anyway, the room is big and bright, has good flooring, a smoke pit, power and heated of course.  I don't know about storage and it itsn't cheap, $36 per hour or about a $1000 per month. Heres the schedule they sent me:

http://www.lenargroup.com/images/Fieldhouse.pdf

I have an appointment to see them Friday.

Gordon Head has some Saturdays, but they close at 8pm. Allday Sundays are available though and I will see them later this week too. They run about $30 per hour.

Commonwealth runs $31 an hour, has a good room, but I haven't got a schedule yet and Cedar Hill hasn't got back to me.

The question is, is this overbudget? If not, I will be getting more info anyway and I'll let you know... and will Sundays work for racing?

I like the idea of contacting the schools Laurie and Kurk! I think you should look into it. Will Fridays work for us too?

Damon

[Grinder]

I think we need access until midnight.  I think we are fairly set on Saturday nights - Fridays are too uncertain for people and we want to maximize our turn out to keep our entry fees as low as possible.  The best option is to have every Saturday available to us.  I think we axed the Fairgrounds since we can only get 12 days total out of them...

[haddow]

no that is not over budget, keep up the good work. We have some schoolboard leads now too, all about the same price as you are talking about.

[Blake]

Wow, awesome work everyone!  I had no idea that so many people were on this!  Follow up on the leads, and keep posting here.

As Jody said, $40 per hour is very pricey but not out of our range.  We will pay that much for a NICE facility.

The Church idea seems promising.

I've checked in with the Boys and Girls club, Saanich School District, and St. Margaret's Private School.  As stated, schools are expensive.  The Boys and Girls club is $25 per night but may not have storage.  Also, parking is an issue.  I'm waiting to hear back from them.


Keep up the great work everyone!
Blake

[Tom]

I have a possible location as well at Beaver Lake school which is no longer being used as a school.  We would have about 2/3 of the whole gym and there are several class rooms we can use for piting and/or storage as well as the stage.  I will investigate tomorow.

What happened to it?  That's my old stompin' grounds; I went there from grade 3 to 5.

[Grinder]

Hey did you go to Prospect too?  How old are you?  They shut Beaver Lake down a few years ago.  The school board still owns it.

[Tom]

Yep.  Then Royal Oak, then Claremont.