Alexandria Industries Makes World’s Longest Hot Wheels® Toy Race Track
Four kids raced toy size cars on the one-mile-long race track that was featured at the Hot Wheels World’s Best Driver™ Championship held during the Indy 500 race weekend.
Posted: June 28, 2013
The one-mile-long race track was featured at the Hot Wheels World’s Best Driver™ Championship held during the Indy 500 race weekend.
Having fun with its serious aluminum extruding expertise, Alexandria Industries (Alexandria, MN) created the world’s longest toy track for the Hot Wheels World’s Best Driver™ Championship held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the eve of the Indy 500.
The company’s team members created each section with aluminum extruding. The process involved heating a billet—or log—of aluminum and pushing it through a die creating the track shape. To make the precision curved sections, team members enclosed the track in a custom, form-fitting plastic mold and used a process called stretch-forming, which stretches the extrusion around the form tool to keep its track shape while bending.
“This project brought out the kid in our entire team,” said Tom Schabel, chief executive office of Alexandria Industries. “Working with Mattel to provide engineering assistance and create a new world record while bringing joy to so many young racing fans during the Indy 500 weekend was an honor.”
The track was assembled on the front straightaway of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where four kids raced toy-size cars during Saturday evening’s championship. Christopher Bienusa, a 12-year-old from Alexandria, Minnesota, emerged as the victor.
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