I was intending on making this a tutorial on how to make a killer backyard track.  As it turns out, I have no idea how to make a killer backyard track.  So instead, this is going to simply be an article on how I did it, not a reference on how to do it.  See the difference?

It all starts with my backyard, which since we just recently moved into this new house, doesn't have much in it yet.  We've got a few plants and a playground set for my two girls and that's about it.  What we I do have is a lot of dirt, and a lot of rocks.  Dirt = good, rocks = bad.  It took all of about 5 seconds of driving back there for me to pick up more than just one rock in my spur gear.  After about the 10th time getting in there with a small flathead screwdriver to get those dang rocks out every 2 minutes, I just learned to live with the rackety sound of rocks in my gears.  (I'll be working on gear cover mod shortly).

So I figured the best thing to do would be to get rid of the rocks.  So grabbed our 24" bush broom out of the garage and began sweeping the dirt like an old woman from Argentina.  Instead of getting rid of the rocks however, I just swept the rocks into piles that defined the boarders of the track.  I figured this would work out well, as long as I stayed on the track, I could keep the rocks out the gears.  Not only that, but the rocks make it impossible to get any kind of traction whatsoever.  I needed the wheels to be planted on the hard packed dirt, just like at the track at my LHS.

After sweeping up most of the rocks, I had a pretty good outline of where the track was.  The width of the track varies, and is about 5 feet wide all the way around, with some spots being wider and others being more narrow.  This is a pretty good width for the track, and I can stay within the walls of all the rocks most of the time.  Except for the times when it seems as though those rocks are a magnet and my truck just wants to drive right on them the whole way around the track.

Now for some jumps!  Since it had recently rained, a lot, I had a pretty good mud puddle going on in the middle of the track.  So that's where I started digging to make my jumps.  After I dug up a good portion of the ground, I was able to make one big jump, and one small jump right around the long, but shallow hole I'd just dug.  After that I was pooped.  So for now all I've got is the two jumps, but so far it's enough.  The rest of the track is pretty technical, so I can work on my driving and cornering skills, but then when I want to catch some air, I can just cruise back and forth on the two jumps.

Jumping this truck is so awesome.  As I come around the one corner, if I can hit it just right, I can launch the truck over 10 feet and land square on the ground and keep running.  I found that I have to keep the throttle nailed while in the air, or else the truck will want to land on its top almost every time.  I probably need to make the angle of the jumps slightly steeper, but for now they work well, and the dirt has dried so it would be a pain to change.  But as long as I keep the throttle full bore, it will jump high and far and stay parallel to the ground.  Wow, it feels good to hit the jump and sore and land and keep running.  I should have made the jumps wider (of course that requires more dirt, which meant more digging) but at less than 2 feet wide, I almost always end up on one side or the other.  So if you can, make the jumps as wide as the track.  If I get some more dirt, I'll definitely be making the jumps wider, and making more of them.

So this is what I got accomplished one Saturday afternoon while my wife slept.  Little did she know what she was going to wake up to.  I drug out some old spare tires from my Honda as well to throw onto the track to make it more authentic.  The tires make great spots for the corner marshals to hang out as well.  If I had any.  And the tires make great things to run into so you can break stuff.  I through in some 1x4, 2x4 and 4x4 boards and a hose I had laying around as well to define some areas of the track.  The key here was to use whatever I had lying around, and not spend any money.  If I feel like the track is worthy of it, I may buy a ton of dirt from a local landscaping place, and really trick this track out.  Until then, it's going to be nothing more than a small backyard bashing spot.