so ive been building out a small indoor track in my warehouse space, got about 60x40 feet to work with and im trying to figure out how tight i can push the gate spacing before it just becomes frustrating instead of fun. right now i have 8 gates set up and it flows okay but some of the gaps between them feel too generous, like theres no real penalty for a bad line.

background: mostly flying 3 inch builds in here, toothpick style, so not full 5 inch pace but still quick enough that the spacing matters. ive watched some of the multigp tiny whoop track layouts for reference but scaling that up to 3 inch feels off, the proportions dont translate cleanly.

anyone built something similar or have a rule of thumb for gate spacing relative to prop size or speed class? or is it just one of those things you iterate on until it clicks

honestly theres no formula that works universally, it really does come down to iteration. what i found building our club track is that the problematic gates are almost never the ones you think ? you'll obsess over the chicane and then some random straight with gates too close together becomes the one that kills everyone's lap times because the approach angle is awkward.

for 3 inch indoors i'd start thinking about minimum 8 feet between gates on anything with a turn involved, more like 12-15 on straights if you want pilots to actually have a decision to make about their throttle. the tight stuff is fun but if every gate requires the same input it gets monotonous fast. what kind of gates are you using btw, the soft foam ones or rigid pvc?

we had a similar setup last winter, smaller space though maybe 50x30. what made the biggest difference wasnt the spacing honestly it was the gate angles ? tilting them like 20-30 degrees forces a different entry line and suddenly a section that felt boring becomes actually challenging without moving anything. worth trying before you start pulling stakes