Space
The first thing required was a realistic assessment of the space required for the track, access to the corners, and room for pit space.

Also taken into account, was to the probability that the track may be moved from it's planned location. A footprint of 20' x 9' was selected so the track would fit in it's initial location in the basement, but would also fit in the bay of a garage.

Once we had determined the space available, we proceeded in selecting the type of track, layout, and lanes.

Free standing vs. table top
When reviewing home tracks on the internet, it seemed that most were of the "table top" design, consisting of a frame with a large, solid surface for the track. A few of the "free-standing" tracks based on construction techniques used on commercial slot car tracks were also found.

Tracks oriented towards scenery and modeling seemed to favor the table top design, tracks oriented toward speed, banked turns, and racing favored the free standing design.

Since our interest was in club style racing, the free standing design was selected.

Lanes and lane spacing
While many home tracks run 1/32 scale cars, we were planning to run primarily 1/24 scale. Home tracks reviewed on the internet had between 2 and 6 lanes with lane spacing from 3 1/2" to 4 1/2". Top priorities for us in determining the number of lanes and spacing were providing for competitive racing and the maximum lap length allowed by the available space..

This led us to select 4 lanes to provide for competiton and still allow turns that were not too tight. With a 2 lane track, the lap length and curves may have been better but the competition element was compromised. With a 6 lane track, the lap length was too short and the inner curves were too tight.

Because we were interested racing and space constaints allowed for relatively short straights, lane spacing of 4 1/2" with 5" gutters was selected - resulting with the track surface being 23 1/2" wide. With the short straights, passing was going to be difficult so we wanted to allow enough room to allow for side by side racing in the curves. Some home tracks squeeze all the lanes together in a few turns, that technique seems to inibit passing so we opted for even lane spacing for the entire lap length.

Layout and access for corner marshalls
A "hill climb" layout was selected because one side of the track could be placed against a wall. By placing the long side of the track against a wall, we were able to use more of the floor space for the track rather than walking aisles.

For a free standing track, you also need to allow enough room to walk inside the track to marshall the cars. Since the track is only 4 lanes, some sections can be marshalled by reaching across 2 sections of track - the width of both sections is about equal to the width of an 8 lane commercial track.

If you go for a table top track, any width over 6' may require the use of a "grabber device" to retrive a car from the middle of the table.

The "hill climb" design also has the benefit of a wide radius bank turn with a long straight leading into and exiting the turn. Half the lap was a "speed section", the other half was the "flat track" section.

Another of our considerations for selecting the "hill climb" was the the track could be raced in either direction.

Materials
1/2 MDF was selected for the track surface. 3/4 plywood was used for the triangular style legs. While many home tracks successfully use copper tape, we opted for braid, recessed below the suface by .010".

Design tools
We started by drawing the track as a pencil drawing using a t-square and triangles. While this seemed to work, it did not provide the accuracy needed in determining the angle of the curves and the length of the sections.

A computer design tool, Auto-Cad 2000, was used to make the actual plans. This is a commercial grade drawing software program - I went to the lab at the local junior college and used their computer to make the 2 drawings below. Similar drawings could be made from home PC software drawing programs.