Strange, ridiculous or amazing parts of race tracks
#51
Posted 06 July 2011 - 12:40
As for their comment about English horse racing, they were, and still are, too arrogant for their own good.
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#52
Posted 06 July 2011 - 12:50
But I have no time for horse racing at all.
#53
Posted 06 July 2011 - 12:58
There is also the point of it being the AJC's facilities, and they always regarded the motor racing as very much secondary to the equestrian pursuits.
#54
Posted 06 July 2011 - 13:11
- an impossible hairpin with permanent yellows
- a narrow bridge or arch with no overtaking
- at least one railway crossing, preferably making cars take off a bit
- tram lines along at least one straight
- a point where two straights face each other, divided perhaps by a barn?
- a really dangerously sited pit entry
- a pit exit passing through a tunnel under the track
- a section paved with some sort of slippery paving slabs
- a corner paved with cobbles
Sounds good to me, but lets see what the Risk Assessment says....
#55
Posted 06 July 2011 - 15:08
Something like the Oporto tramlines, I expect...
#56
Posted 06 July 2011 - 16:51
#57
Posted 07 July 2011 - 05:39
#58
Posted 07 July 2011 - 05:51
If you raced an outfit. For cars and solos it was the other way aroound.
#59
Posted 07 July 2011 - 06:14
In Australia, we have an expression that fits that situation.........it's called "Going for a row of dunnies". That's the more polite version!At the old Alexandra Park circuit in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, there was a corner called SUICIDE BEND . Going off there you were confronted by a steep drop followed by a row of ablution blocks. You were literally and figuratively in deep sh*t if you went off there…
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#60
Posted 07 July 2011 - 06:50
There was one at Polo Corner at least, and there was great mirth the day (October 14, 1962) when David McKay visited it while still seated in his 2.7 Cooper.
#61
Posted 07 July 2011 - 10:57
A bit like Hamley Bridge.[Bell Bay Speedway] Turn 1 is uphill to turn 2 over a crest down to turn 3 and turn 4 starts to go uphill again. And it is egg shaped as well, 1-2 is wide open whereas 3-4 tightens up considerably,,,, and the pit gate is about 100mm inside the posts, doesnt sound much until you hit it sideways!! Ask Peter Denton, it was h u g e! With apologies to Daryl EastlakeThe former North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina featured a back straight that went uphill and a main straight that went downhill.
#62
Posted 07 July 2011 - 16:14
So, the perfect 'Strange Park' race track would have:
- an impossible hairpin with permanent yellows
- a narrow bridge or arch with no overtaking
- at least one railway crossing, preferably making cars take off a bit
- tram lines along at least one straight
- a point where two straights face each other, divided perhaps by a barn?
- a really dangerously sited pit entry
- a pit exit passing through a tunnel under the track
- a section paved with some sort of slippery paving slabs
- a corner paved with cobbles
Sounds good to me, but lets see what the Risk Assessment says....
almost we need to add a boardtrack extreme high banked curve section
and a really off cambered corner
and a bit of dirt track with ruts
and a high crowned paved bit too
and a corkscrew too
Edited by ray b, 07 July 2011 - 16:16.
#63
Posted 07 July 2011 - 17:02
#64
Posted 07 July 2011 - 17:06
Every now and then, a major cycle race gets caught at a railway crossing. Imagine the ruckus if the GP circus was halted by an opening bridge to allow some gin palace to pass through...Of course, modern tracks are far too antiseptic to qualify - though the otherwise forgettable Valencia "street circuit" does cross a swing bridge. I had thought that said bridge was welded shut for the duration of the Grand Prix weekend but according to Martin Brundle (during qualifying for the recent European GP), it is opened each evening to allow boats to pass.
What used to happen on those long distance events like the Mille Miglia - were there ever any railway crossing incidents?
#65
Posted 07 July 2011 - 20:17
Every now and then, a major cycle race gets caught at a railway crossing. Imagine the ruckus if the GP circus was halted by an opening bridge to allow some gin palace to pass through...
What used to happen on those long distance events like the Mille Miglia - were there ever any railway crossing incidents?
Isn't there a Hans Herremann tale of driving a 550 under the crossing barriers during the Mille Miglia, just in front of a train?
More prosaically, I'd like to nominate Russell at Snetterton in the year before it was tightened - when half the field of any given race was excluded for cutting the kerb too much - and then in the next year when it was so tight Pedro Chaves broke the gearbox in his F3000 Reynard because they didn't have a first gear low enough.
It got better after that.
The tram lines at San Jose were some of the daftest things I've seen recently - I actually called my dad after the first lap and told him he had to watch the next restart.
#66
Posted 08 July 2011 - 01:26
What, no loop de loop?almost we need to add a boardtrack extreme high banked curve section
and a really off cambered corner
and a bit of dirt track with ruts
and a high crowned paved bit too
and a corkscrew too
#67
Posted 08 July 2011 - 13:49
Bernie Ecclestone raced there a few times apparently.
Or Hednesford, built in the bowl of a former reservoir on Cannock Chase.
Or St Sampson's Harbour in Guernsey, where an oval track was marked out on the harbor floor when the tide went out. It boasting superb spectator viewing from about 20 feet up , on the harbour walls. It also featured fishing boats in the pits....
#68
Posted 08 July 2011 - 17:40
#69
Posted 08 July 2011 - 19:34
I recall an F1 event a couple of years ago where one of the front wheels was not secured following a pit stop. Fortunately the driver was alerted to the problem and drove a very slow lap back to the pits. The team were lucky that the loose wheel was on the outside for those extra 360 degrees.
#70
Posted 11 July 2011 - 12:48
So, the perfect 'Strange Park' race track would have:
- an impossible hairpin with permanent yellows
- a narrow bridge or arch with no overtaking
- at least one railway crossing, preferably making cars take off a bit
- tram lines along at least one straight
- a point where two straights face each other, divided perhaps by a barn?
- a really dangerously sited pit entry
- a pit exit passing through a tunnel under the track
- a section paved with some sort of slippery paving slabs
- a corner paved with cobbles
almost we need to add a boardtrack extreme high banked curve section
and a really off cambered corner
and a bit of dirt track with ruts
and a high crowned paved bit too
and a corkscrew too
Shall we add the new pitlane in Silverstone?
It's halfway underground and the driving bit is pretty tight as well.
#71
Posted 14 July 2011 - 12:15
#72
Posted 14 July 2011 - 13:29
I don't think any of that stuff is unusual...
Well, the grid being on a parade ground at Mallala is, and also the fact that it's an airfield circuit that doesn't use any of the runways, which were all grass.
My first recollection of motor racing was in the mid to late 1960's at Mallala, and the two things I remember was an open-wheeler cartwheeling off the track, and a fire hydrant being collected by a car and the remainder of that race was run with cars having to pass under a large water fountain which was dumping on the track and caused by the damaged hydrant.
#73
Posted 20 July 2011 - 11:56
#74
Posted 01 August 2011 - 05:57
http://www.themousef...hardpetty.shtml
#75
Posted 01 August 2011 - 06:05
#76
Posted 13 September 2011 - 00:51
http://www.mil-airfi...e-shelter-2.jpg
#77
Posted 13 September 2011 - 07:29
... Imagine the ruckus if the GP circus was halted by an opening bridge to allow some gin palace to pass through...
Well, they have the safety car, which has the same effect...
#78
Posted 14 September 2011 - 02:01
#79
Posted 14 September 2011 - 03:43
The Dipper and Skyline, Mt Panorama, Bathurst.
The Dipper in particular is extraordinary in itself. I was recalling walking along the little dirt path beside the circuit at that point. Here and there you're pretty close to the track but what... 15 feet below it. Quite remarkable to see and hear cars dicing above you!
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#80
Posted 14 September 2011 - 19:47
On a different tack, at Mid Ohio when I visited years ago the pit garages had a raised viewing gallery along the back for spectators - brilliant! a terrific close up view of what was going on without getting in anyone's way at all.
Steve
#81
Posted 14 September 2011 - 19:54
Picture I took in 1985.
Paul M
Edited by Macca, 14 September 2011 - 19:56.
#82
Posted 14 September 2011 - 22:28
What, like this????On a different tack, at Mid Ohio when I visited years ago the pit garages had a raised viewing gallery along the back for spectators - brilliant! a terrific close up view of what was going on without getting in anyone's way at all.
#83
Posted 15 September 2011 - 15:26
The Meadowdale International Raceway in Illinois featured a 180 degree banked curve that was known as the 'Monza Wall':
More unusual in my opinion were the two short straightaways at Meadowdale next to each other in opposite directions. The two roads were separated only by a guard rail.
#84
Posted 15 September 2011 - 17:58
#85
Posted 15 September 2011 - 20:14
Not really, the gallery was internal, imagine something like the Silverstone garages with a mezzanine walkway running the length inside. You had a plan view of the whole garage space and could walk through from one garage into the next.What, like this????
Steve
#86
Posted 16 September 2011 - 16:26
#87
Posted 17 September 2011 - 12:30
A new candidate for the ridiculous is the new Silverstone, specifically the exit of Club onto the new pits straight. On the outside of the track some num-nuts had decided to glue on pieces of green astroturf, although it looked more like carpet. At the 6 hour ILMC sports car race last weekend, every time a car ran slightly wide, sections of carpet would be ripped up and strewn down the track, mainly for the next car to run over and move along a bit. By the end of the race several bits had made their way to near Abbey. What puzzled me was that each side of the astroturf the surface had just been painted green. Does anyone know if there's a specific reason why this stuff is used?
Because they want that it looks like gras beside the track?
#88
Posted 17 September 2011 - 13:58
Longford has a train crossing,,,, and a pub!
And a lot of ex airfield tracks have or had some strange things like bomb shelters, hangars, ammunition huts and parade grounds. The start line at Mallala is on the parade ground!
You forgot to mention the Esses under the viaduct and the 2 bridges.
Good track and 1967 sedan race rendition here ...
A little off subject but I used to do mudsprints in a cow paddock around a dam. Plenty of cowshit there.
Bullshit.
#89
Posted 19 September 2011 - 22:47
If Mark A's circuit map is correct (I'd love to know from whence it came) the cars had to pass through here:
http://maps.google.c...2,309.39,,0,5.8
Hard to imagine but I can't see that this would have looked much different even 76 years ago.
Edited by Barry Boor, 19 September 2011 - 22:49.
#90
Posted 19 September 2011 - 22:53
I'm not 100% sure about this one because I cannot find any reference to the circuit but in 1935 there was a Grand Prix in Bergamo, Italy.
If Mark A's circuit map is correct (I'd love to know from whence it came) the cars had to pass through here:
http://maps.google.c...2,309.39,,0,5.8
Hard to imagine but I can't see that this would have looked much different even 76 years ago.
There's a photo tour on Guidos site Barry
http://www.gdecarli....p?var1=2&var2=1
#91
Posted 19 September 2011 - 23:08
I'm not 100% sure about this one because I cannot find any reference to the circuit but in 1935 there was a Grand Prix in Bergamo, Italy.
If Mark A's circuit map is correct (I'd love to know from whence it came) the cars had to pass through here:
http://maps.google.c...2,309.39,,0,5.8
Hard to imagine but I can't see that this would have looked much different even 76 years ago.
Have a look at the pic on this page of Nuvolari past the arch at Bergamo:
http://www.alfasport...View.asp?id=491
#92
Posted 20 September 2011 - 07:32
#93
Posted 20 September 2011 - 21:52
I think that one beats the Donington arch for ridiculosity!
I went round the place in Google Earth (anything instead of studying!). Its a seriously insane circuit. One car wide for a good portion of the track around the arch. Loads of fast stretches leading to tight corners with brick walls or buildings. I know it was the 30's but still a crazy track.
#94
Posted 27 September 2011 - 03:01
The solution was a giant velvet curtain which was hang at the start of the escape road just beyond the right hand corner into Thillois, which blocked the effects of the rising sun.
#95
Posted 05 March 2012 - 11:33
The drop can clearly be seen at 0:35 in the following video:
#96
Posted 05 March 2012 - 22:06
Sand over the bitumen is far more commonsense, they also did that here at Victoria Pk [Adelaide Parklands Circuit] before motorsport effectivly decimated horse racing.I can't agree, David...
But I have no time for horse racing at all.
#97
Posted 06 March 2012 - 01:47
What puzzled me was that each side of the astroturf the surface had just been painted green. Does anyone know if there's a specific reason why this stuff is used?
The aim of the 'astro-turf' is to provoke wheelspin on those cars which leave the racing surface - to slow the car and thus discourage the practice of running wide.
Sadly - nobody has yet worked out how to secure the plastic grass sufficiently to cope with sverel hundred horse-power on regular and repetaed occurrences, resulting in "lawn clippings" and the like being scattered everywhere.
Mind you, the old concrete wall inside Honda Corner at Amaroo Park certainly deterred drivers from cutting that corner - didn't it?
The Noosa Hillclimb in Queensland permits road-registered vehicles to leave the property and return to the pit/paddock area via the highway - drivers are encouraged to remove their helmets before doing so.
#98
Posted 06 March 2012 - 01:56
I believe the 'gravel' was a product called something like Lytag - a very light aggregate material. It was pretty effective, as I recall spectating there when a mini lost its brakes and buried itself in the mound, up to A piller. When they dragged it out there was remarkable little damage, probably less that would be caused by hitting another car.
Mount Cotton Hillclimb in Queensland uses the fibrous outer husk from macadamia nuts as an arresting trap at the hairpin located at the bottom of the first loop.
Cars caught in "the nuts" seldom receive more damage than a light scratching of paintwork. Very effective, very safe and environmentally friendly also.
#99
Posted 09 April 2012 - 02:09
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#100
Posted 10 April 2012 - 18:20
http://imageshack.us...31/img002tl.jpg