Tips for Solo Racing During Lockdown

Like most of us, you're probably locked down, wondering how you're going to have fun racing alone. The nice thing about slot cars is that there is still plenty to do, even if there's no one else to do it with.
Here's a list of things you can do or think about during the time you have to yourself. These are in no particular order of preference.

1. Tune your cars into their best, fastest shape. The first one's a no-brainer. Getting each car up to its fastest lap speed will help sort out a lot of things for you. It'll tell you if you need to buy more cars that are competitive, it'll tell you which cars are maybe too fast/slow to be competitive, and it can also tell you which cars need more love than a little oil and grease. If you have enough cars, it can also help you sort those into classes based on run times [and likenesses]. So getting down to the roots of each car, rebuilding from the ground up, making up custom settings for each individual car, and testing/timing those cars can give you multiple sessions of competitive racing, even if you're by yourself.
2. Consider changing your track layout. Nothing is worse than a boring track. And it could be a great design, one that you've worked years on, and be awesome. But it could still get dull and predictable. It's totally possible to get sucked into a zombie-like state when you've gotten too used to running laps on the layout you've had for years. Even if you think you have a limited space and you've used it to its fullest, try changing the design anyway. Consider stripping down some of the bells and whistles. Add difficulty where there wasn't before. And don't worry about losing your current awesome layout. Just take pictures of it before tearing it down and you can always look at the pics to get it back together. Make it a weekend layout. I've changed layouts hundreds of times and found loads of great challenging racing. It's how you discover new possibilities in track design you may not have seen before.
3. Consider your racing surface. You might be rug racing, considering making a table to put the track on. Or you might already have a table, but are looking at doing something a little more scenic and permanent. Think of your options. If you have the space to devote to making a table, you could design something that is up against the wall, or in a corner, or even in the middle of an open space. And you don't have to have a layout design you love to make a table. You could just make a table based on your available space, and then worry about designing a layout afterward. And that may be as far as you ever go. That's where I am right now. I've pretty much given in to the idea that I likely won't ever commit to a permanent layout, so I won't be adding scenery to my table. I've covered it in fake grass and will likely stop there. That gives me lots of options for track design. And if I ever change my mind and decide to go further, all I have to do is take the fake grass off and I have my table ready for scenery. 
4. Hardware satisfaction. Consider things like your power supply, controllers, if you have digital then all the digital stuff, lap timers, etc., and whether you're getting the most out of them. I know I didn't like the standard Carrera controllers, and am very happy with the Slot.it controller I have. Not everyone needs one or wants one, but if you're frustrated by the lack of control you have over your cars, something like a better controller might be the type of upgrade for you. And if you want a better distribution of power than the standard wall wart the track comes with, a decent one will cost about the price of a slot car.
5. Challenge yourself as a driver. It's easy to put your car on the track and try to get it to run a fast lap. If you don't go fast enough you can just go faster the next time around. Easy, right? No real challenge to the driver. Try running a multiple-lap race, the more laps the better. I do it all the time and find it to be a lot more challenging getting a car to maintain a fast consistent speed without going off the track. Making it so you have to do 50 laps makes the driver more important. The car can do 50 laps, no problem. But the driver has to work with the car. And since each car is different, it requires a different understanding of the intricacies of the car. And it may come down to you going "this is a shit car and it slides out in the corners all the time...it'll never be competitive", and that may be just the way you have to drive it to get the most out of it. It might be a totally different driving situation to some of your other cars. And while a car might get around a lap easier than another one, it doesn't mean it's going to be easier to drive all the time. It might be so easy to drive that you don't push it as much out of it's relative smoothness. Weirder things happen. I've had plenty of times when I've thought that a car would do great in a particular race, only to have it clearly not do as well as other cars. But that's what racing's all about, isn't it?

So there you go. Some of those suggestions could probably be expanded upon to be their own posts, but I wanted to get the ideas out there. It's super easy to get into a thing where you're buying cars, running them around the track and not getting the fun out of it. 

Slot cars are fun. Don't be afraid to explore possibilities.