Sealing an on-road track

[crackerjack]

The blacktop on our on-road track needs to be sealed. Has anyone done this before? What did you use to seal it. It looks like the normal driveway sealer you get at the hardware store will make it too smooth/slick.

Thanks

[NotWalkinBlind]

As far as I know, "normal driveway sealer" is basically the only product on the market for sealing asphalt. There are several grades of that stuff, mostly based on durability... the more durable ones are thicker and more expensive.

For on-road, smooth is good, btw... the slickness? It's the same for every racer, and your tires last longer than if it's rough, and it should be no problem... if it is, that can be taken care of by spraying sugar water on it on race day.
:cool:

[InspGadgt]

We just had our LHS parking lot repaved a couple of years ago and I remember it quite well. We had at least 2 races on it before the contractor came back and sealed it. Traction was superb before they sealed it for both foam and rubber tired cars. After they sealed it foam tired cars couldn't get grip to save their lives unless we sprayed lots of sugar water. Unfortunately the sugar water played havoc on the tires of the rubber tired cars later on at night when the track cooled.

[Grizzbob]

Actually, a few weeks ago I went to a TCS regional race in Memphis, & on the parking lot we were on, it needed some sealing(the sucker was ROUGH!), & they used something called Black Magic, it's far from cheap(& I'm not sure where it comes from, but you might check the Yellow Pages for construction supplies), but it worked GREAT, has a particular kind of grain in it that both sealed the surface & gave our tires something to grab. We ran on both Saturday & Sunday that weekend without needing a drop of traction compound, sugar water, VHT, or anything else(all I used was some cleaner like Simple Green on my tires), worked out very well.... :cool:

[crackerjack]

Thanks for the info everyone. Our main concern is that we seal it with something that doesn't make the track so smooth that no one can get traction. I was thinking that maybe the cheaper grade of driveway sealer might be better. I've done my driveway with both and the cheaper stuff appears to sink in more than the good stuff.

Any other ideas woiuld be appreciated.

[rcguy2477]

I wouldnt seal the track unless you had plans on doing it every year. After the surface has been races on for a while, it starts to become very slick, worse than it was before sealing.

[soreloser]

http://www.sealmaster.net/ here is a place to look for different types of sealers for blacktops.