During the colder months in Los Alamos we move our racing indoors. Starting in December and running through March is the indoor carpet racing season. Significantly different than off-road or asphalt racing, cars will run much faster and smoother on carpet, especially through the turns due to the surface providing a large amount of traction.

The racing surface we use is called Ozite carpet. It is a relatively thin material, only one quarter inch thick, and has very compressed fibers. This is the same carpet used all over the world for indoor races, even by the largest organizations at the biggest national and international races.

The following are classes that we will run during our indoor season. We generally require at least 3 cars for a class to have its own heat, but exceptions can and will be made.

• 1/18th Scale Mod
• 1/12th Scale Mod
• 1/10th Scale 19 Turn Touring Car

We have no restrictions on electric power systems, aside from the number of motor turns and brushless equivalent. Most club members are currently using NiMH batteries with one or two starting to use Li-Po. For motors, the club is starting to lean toward brushless setups.

The most popular class currently is 1/18th scale. Virtually everyone runs the M18 chassis by Team XRay. For power several members are using the Mamba 25/5400kV motor combination. Don't let these little cars fool you. They may only be a little bigger than a plastic model car but they can scream down the track at over 30 MPH, faster than many of their larger counterparts!

This past season, 07-08, was the first time we ran 1/10th scale on the carpet. It has started somewhat slow, but looks to be a keeper for the years to come. Being that our carpet track isn't very large, the 1/10th scale cars can seem a little cramped. This being the case, we generally limit each 1/10th scale heat to 4 cars.

Everyone runs foams on our carpet with softer rears and harder fronts. Only a couple people in the club use traction compound so the carpet stays basically dry. This is in contrast to some clubs where the majority of people use traction compound, which will end up getting spread over the entire track and soaking into the carpet, allowing for even faster cornering speeds. So if you are used to a lot of traction compound from another track, you may find our carpet to feel a little bit loose.

There's nothing quite like the speed and adrenaline of carpet racing. It really needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. Whenever we are doing our Winter racing feel free to drop on by and race, or even just to see what it's all about.