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Do you Know How to Carpet Race?

If you love to race you RC car and you live in a place where winter makes outdoor track racing impossible, you might enjoy carpet racing.

Indoor carpet racing is a great way to still be able to race your RC car or truck and not have it exposed to the elements. Mostly popular in the midwest part of the country during the winter months, carpet racing is also gaining popularity in places where the winters are mild but the summers are blazing as an escape from the extreme heat.

Driving on carpet tracks requires different techniques for controlling your RC car as opposed to pavement or standard track racing. When you begin carpet racing with your RC car, first of all - get in all the practice you can. Do several practice laps and learn where you need to begin turning your car at each corner to avoid crashing or rolling. Your RC car will maintain a pretty good grip on the carpet track so you can push the limit and make sharper turns on a carpet track than you can on a pavement track.

Start off a little slow and then go a little faster with each successive lap. Make a note in your mind where each turning point is and then you can go out on the track and look like you've been carpet racing for years.

Use the creep method for taking on corners. Maintaining your speed around corners is easy if you let off your throttle slightly and then the resulting slight braking action will cause a weight shift to the front of the car. This lets the RC car hug the track when going around a corner and with practice you will be able to take corners faster than ever before.

When carpet racing your RC car, the inside line is prime position. Most carpet races have stagger starts that greatly reduces the chances of the first lap pile ups that you have no doubt experienced. Most of those pile ups happen on the outside lines, go for the inside and you can normally escape the damage if someone else causes a pile up.

Carpet racing is a blast with your RC car, ask your local hobby shop if there's a carpet racing track near you!
 posted by  Raceway RC Cars and Trucks