Jump to content


Photo

Strange, ridiculous or amazing parts of race tracks

Started by Andrew Hope , Jul 04 2011 22:05

  • Please log in to reply
213 replies to this topic

#101 backfire

backfire

    • Member

  • 118 posts
  • Joined: March 12

Posted 11 April 2012 - 14:29

I remember that the Rouen track still had a cobbled hairpin bend when I was there for an F2 race in 1978.

Advertisement

#102 LittleChris

LittleChris

    • Member

  • 3,729 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 11 April 2012 - 19:20

I remember that the Rouen track still had a cobbled hairpin bend when I was there for an F2 race in 1978.


Also at Rouen, Scierie corner was cobbled too at least until 1962

#103 Allan Lupton

Allan Lupton

    • Member

  • 4,052 posts
  • Joined: March 06

Posted 11 April 2012 - 23:12

A pedant he say that Nouveau Monde was paved with setts rather than cobbles when I was last there in '62.
No idea where Scierie corner was so don't know about that.

#104 LittleChris

LittleChris

    • Member

  • 3,729 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 12 April 2012 - 09:30

A pedant he say that Nouveau Monde was paved with setts rather than cobbles when I was last there in '62.
No idea where Scierie corner was so don't know about that.


Here you go Allan :wave:

http://www.etrackson...rouen55-70.html

Strictly speaking Scierie was paved with setts as well


#105 Allan Lupton

Allan Lupton

    • Member

  • 4,052 posts
  • Joined: March 06

Posted 12 April 2012 - 10:00

Here you go Allan :wave:

http://www.etrackson...rouen55-70.html

Strictly speaking Scierie was paved with setts as well

Thanks Chris - I never got to that end of the circuit so the name didn't mean anything to me - but I should have looked it up.

#106 LittleChris

LittleChris

    • Member

  • 3,729 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 12 April 2012 - 10:52

Thanks Chris - I never got to that end of the circuit so the name didn't mean anything to me - but I should have looked it up.


If you had been there in 62 for the GP, you'd have seen the Jackie Lewis / Graham Hill argy bargy :)

#107 Allan Lupton

Allan Lupton

    • Member

  • 4,052 posts
  • Joined: March 06

Posted 12 April 2012 - 13:36

If you had been there in 62 for the GP, you'd have seen the Jackie Lewis / Graham Hill argy bargy :)

I was at Les Essarts in '62, but mostly at Sansom where I could watch NGH reviving his kerbside mechanicing skills some laps later.

Edited by Allan Lupton, 12 April 2012 - 13:37.

#108 LittleChris

LittleChris

    • Member

  • 3,729 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 12 April 2012 - 14:12

I was at Les Essarts in '62, but mostly at Sansom where I could watch NGH reviving his kerbside mechanicing skills some laps later.


Sorry, I meant if you'd been at Scierie ( I noted earlier that you were there in '62 and assumed it was for the GP )

#109 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 28 July 2012 - 10:16

Back in the 1950's and early 1960's, the Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut had a "Sand Safety Strip" between the asphalt oval and the outside safety fence, which was meant to slow cars down before they hit the safety fence. As speeds increased, the strip had the effect of sucking cars into the fence.
The strip was paved in the early 1960's, thus widening the track.

Posted Image

#110 GMACKIE

GMACKIE

    • Member

  • 13,125 posts
  • Joined: January 11

Posted 28 July 2012 - 10:45

Safety fence???????

#111 D-Type

D-Type

    • Member

  • 9,704 posts
  • Joined: February 03

Posted 28 July 2012 - 12:25

There's two fences here: the low level stretched steel cables fixed to I-section posts and the high level one behind it with square mesh fixed to circular poles. I think we can consider these to be the safety fence and the debris fence respectively.

#112 Duc-Man

Duc-Man

    • Member

  • 1,394 posts
  • Joined: November 08

Posted 28 July 2012 - 13:07

Safety fence maybe in the sense of keeping the drivers safe from spectators getting on the track during the race?
You never know what those crazy people are up to. Look at LeMans every year! :drunk:

#113 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 14 October 2012 - 12:13

I have stumbled across a report of a mile-long indoor sports car track. From "Billboard" magazine, 17 March 1958, p. 38:

SPORTS CARS Mile Indoor Race Event Pulls 33,000

CHICAGO - About 33,000 people attended a session of Grand Prix indoor sports car races at [the] International Amphitheatre here Saturday and Sunday (8-9). The unique event featured an indoor track of nearly a mile. Its course was through the Amphitheatre's arena and through its vast exhibit halls, A brick wall and a pillar in the wall between the two sections of the building were removed to clear the way.

People, paying $2 up, watched the races either from the arena seats or from the "infield" of the exhibit halls. Average speed of the cars was 72 mph. Some hit more than 100 miles an hour.....North exhibit halls in the building were used for pits by the cars and drivers. About 200 sports cars were displayed in one area. Some 35 participated in the races.

Building manager ME Thayer said the event was highly successful and that plans were being mapped for repeating it next year.



#114 Ray Bell

Ray Bell

    • Member

  • 80,244 posts
  • Joined: December 99

Posted 15 October 2012 - 02:14

Here's a good one...

Okay, where does the circuit go?

Posted Image

Well, it goes here:

Posted Image

And then it leads to this exciting downhill ess-bend:

Posted Image

Just one of the tricky corners on the original Watkins Glen road course.

#115 Lee Nicolle

Lee Nicolle

    • Member

  • 11,069 posts
  • Joined: July 08

Posted 15 October 2012 - 02:19

Here's a good one...

Okay, where does the circuit go?

Posted Image

Well, it goes here:

Posted Image

And then it leads to this exciting downhill ess-bend:

Posted Image

Just one of the tricky corners on the original Watkins Glen road course.

The autumn scenery is very nice too.
I hope the speed limit was higher for the racing!! load limit should be fine.

#116 Ray Bell

Ray Bell

    • Member

  • 80,244 posts
  • Joined: December 99

Posted 15 October 2012 - 02:34

Nicer than that, Lee...

Posted Image

Posted Image

It's everywhere right now... and Lake Seneca is extremely picturesque, while the vineyards on the other side of the lake are attracting a lot of wine buyers.

#117 275 GTB-4

275 GTB-4

    • Member

  • 8,274 posts
  • Joined: February 03

Posted 15 October 2012 - 09:54

Nicer than that, Lee...

Posted Image

Posted Image

It's everywhere right now... and Lake Seneca is extremely picturesque, while the vineyards on the other side of the lake are attracting a lot of wine buyers.


Those cracks in the pavement are a worry....

#118 alansart

alansart

    • Member

  • 4,420 posts
  • Joined: March 07

Posted 15 October 2012 - 18:15

Those cracks in the pavement are a worry....


Not uncommon in that part of the world. I believe it's due to hot summers and pretty cold winters.

#119 BRG

BRG

    • Member

  • 25,949 posts
  • Joined: September 99

Posted 15 October 2012 - 18:34

Not uncommon in that part of the world. I believe it's due to hot summers and pretty cold winters.

They could cover them with astroturf. ;)

Advertisement

#120 Duc-Man

Duc-Man

    • Member

  • 1,394 posts
  • Joined: November 08

Posted 15 October 2012 - 19:04

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.


As we could see at the korean GP.

#121 Obster

Obster

    • Member

  • 195 posts
  • Joined: March 05

Posted 15 October 2012 - 20:31

Interesting thread...
I never understood the positioning of the Adenauer Forst chicane at the Ring. Right in the middle of a fast, flowing section...a blind chicane!
Even if you know it is coming up, it is tough to slow down enough.
Then, right back up to full chat...thinking, WTF?

#122 Lee Nicolle

Lee Nicolle

    • Member

  • 11,069 posts
  • Joined: July 08

Posted 15 October 2012 - 21:41

Those cracks in the pavement are a worry....

No holes what are complaing about. Far better than most of Adelaides metro roads. It is called a lack of maintenance though that is seemingly tourist drive in some stunning country

#123 Ray Bell

Ray Bell

    • Member

  • 80,244 posts
  • Joined: December 99

Posted 16 October 2012 - 00:58

Originally posted by 275 GTB-4
Those cracks in the pavement are a worry....


That's an uncommonly strange comment, Mick...

Cracks like that are prevalent in roads all over the place. In this case, the roads are little-used country roads which haven't seen a racing car in sixty years.

#124 wolf sun

wolf sun

    • Member

  • 842 posts
  • Joined: September 05

Posted 16 October 2012 - 09:32

Interesting thread...
I never understood the positioning of the Adenauer Forst chicane at the Ring. Right in the middle of a fast, flowing section...a blind chicane!
Even if you know it is coming up, it is tough to slow down enough.
Then, right back up to full chat...thinking, WTF?


...as can be seen in this series of clips filmed there during 'Touristenfahrten' in 1970...





#125 275 GTB-4

275 GTB-4

    • Member

  • 8,274 posts
  • Joined: February 03

Posted 20 October 2012 - 11:32

No holes what are complaing about. Far better than most of Adelaides metro roads. It is called a lack of maintenance though that is seemingly tourist drive in some stunning country


True Lee..they are "shockers"...especially the intersection with 6 person-hole covers...

For me, the most strange, ridiculous, AND amazing part of a race track was the Flag Point at the entrance to the overbridge at Oran Park...the thoughtful "designers" (a term I use loosely) attached a welded, expanded mesh metal platform to the armco....so when you were flagging, twenty feet above nothing, with Tonnes of cars heading straight for you before throwing it sideways over the bridge....the tiny little voice in your head said..."OK, if one comes in, you jump up in the air so that you don't get your ankles broke!!" :| :rolleyes:

#126 byrkus

byrkus

    • Member

  • 1,011 posts
  • Joined: October 01

Posted 20 October 2012 - 12:11

Interesting thread...
I never understood the positioning of the Adenauer Forst chicane at the Ring. Right in the middle of a fast, flowing section...a blind chicane!
Even if you know it is coming up, it is tough to slow down enough.
Then, right back up to full chat...thinking, WTF?


On the other hand, how would that part look without that said chicane... Flat down Fuchsröhre, flat through left-hand corner in the bottom, flatout uphill - and then, a fast right hand corner right over the crest...? Flugplatz (Quiddelbacher Höhe) would suddenly seem just so easy and ordinary.;)

#127 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 23 April 2013 - 22:18

The former Gloucester Park speedway track at Onehunga, Auckland

Posted Image

It is very unusual to see an oval track with turns of different sizes.

Source: http://www.historics...cester Park.htm

#128 Rob G

Rob G

    • Member

  • 11,615 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 24 April 2013 - 02:54

It is very unusual to see an oval track with turns of different sizes.


It's fairly common here in the US, although the differences in radii in your photo are more extreme than I've ever seen before. But we have the egg-shaped Darlington and Gateway ovals, the three-cornered Pocono superspeedway, Phoenix, Disney World, Rockingham, and the dearly-departed Nazareth oval, to name a few.

#129 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 27 April 2013 - 09:58

The Thoresby Park sprint circuit in England has a chicane with tennis balls on top of barrels. Every tennis ball knocked off a barrel adds 1 second to the competitors' time for the course.

#130 hillsprint

hillsprint

    • Member

  • 31 posts
  • Joined: August 11

Posted 27 April 2013 - 13:37

Aghadowey circuit near Ballymoney, Co Antrim, is used for motorbike racing and car sprints. The circuit at one point turns 90 left through a pair of large steel gates onto a short straight with a tall wire mesh fence along its right hand side, this section is known as The Chicken Run, it then leads to a sharp 90 right which has on it's outside at the edge of the track, the toilet block for the adjacent stock car stadium. Unsurprisingly this bit of the track is known to the competitions as Shithouse Turn. Who says we Irish aren't eloquent? :)

Edited by hillsprint, 27 April 2013 - 14:50.

#131 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 24 May 2013 - 06:37

Williams Grove Speedway had an overhead bridge to allow spectators to cross the track from the infield to outside the track, and vice versa:

Posted Image

Source: http://pa.gov/portal...281_1360017_43/

Were there many other US ovals that featured similar overhead bridges?

#132 Rob Semmeling

Rob Semmeling

    • Member

  • 913 posts
  • Joined: December 02

Posted 24 May 2013 - 15:43

A pedestrian bridge connecting the grandstand area and infield was built at California's Oakland Speedway (1931-1941) in 1938.

#133 Rob Semmeling

Rob Semmeling

    • Member

  • 913 posts
  • Joined: December 02

Posted 24 May 2013 - 15:46

Tacoma Speedway (1915-1922) in Washington also had a bridge over the track.

#134 Collombin

Collombin

    • Member

  • 8,657 posts
  • Joined: March 05

Posted 24 May 2013 - 16:59

Were there many other US ovals that featured similar overhead bridges?


Indianapolis of course, the longest lasting of which came down after the 1956 race.

#135 Rob G

Rob G

    • Member

  • 11,615 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 24 May 2013 - 17:26

There is one at Dover International Speedway.

#136 chr1s

chr1s

    • Member

  • 456 posts
  • Joined: December 12

Posted 24 May 2013 - 21:28

Did'nt the Chimay road course in Belgium have a norrow bridge, that was only wide enough for one car in the middle of a long straight, so everyone had to get in line to go over it?

There was also a similar situation at Andestorp, where the main straight was a runway that was wider than the rest of the circuit. It then narrowed back down at the end, a bit like a motorway with two lanes coned off!

#137 LittleChris

LittleChris

    • Member

  • 3,729 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 24 May 2013 - 23:10

Did'nt the Chimay road course in Belgium have a norrow bridge, that was only wide enough for one car in the middle of a long straight, so everyone had to get in line to go over it?


True, unfortunately Yvo Grauls found out the hard way that 2 into 1 doesn't go. :(

Great circuit though, reknown for the slipstreaming battles out in the country toward and back from Salles village, but the really skillful part was the run downhill through the ultra quick curves to the start finish line and into Chimay itself (before the town section was bypassed in 1985 . Fortunately some of this section is still part of the current circuit, though buggered up by chicane. Haven't been there for a while but the supermarket as you get into Chimay from the S/F line used to sell the eponymous beer at a VERY reasonable price :clap: There was also a restaurant heading back up the road toward Beaumont that had wonderful trout from the nearby Lac de Virelles.
.

#138 Michael Ferner

Michael Ferner

    • Member

  • 7,200 posts
  • Joined: November 09

Posted 25 May 2013 - 15:45

Williams Grove Speedway had an overhead bridge to allow spectators to cross the track from the infield to outside the track, and vice versa:


Were there many other US ovals that featured similar overhead bridges?


Winchester (IN) and Dayton (OH) had one, too. The one at Dayton was peculiar, as it was near Turn 4 which, of course, was steeply banked - left quite a narrow gap for the cars to slip through! :eek:

#139 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 25 May 2013 - 22:26

One unusual feature of many speedway tracks in England, Australia and New Zealand back in the 1950's and 1960's was the use of 44-gallon drums, painted white, to mark the inside of the track for stock car races. Naturally enough, as races progressed, the odd drum got knocked over, often into the path of an oncoming car or cars, with often spectacular results. You'd even get the occasional stirrer who, when winning wasn't everything, would cruise round inside the track bunting ALL the drums out onto the track.

Here is a photo from the Brafield circuit in England in 1957 showing the drums in their correct places:

Posted Image

Source: http://www.oldstox.c.....201955-6 .jpg


Keeping on the speedway theme, the famous "bullpens" corner at the Sydney Showground:

Posted Image

This was the area where bulls were released when the Showground was hosting a rodeo. The gates (under the yellow signs) were held closed by several large chains and padlocks which hung over the gates towards oncoming drivers. As well as the chains, the poles that supported the gates were to be avoided at all times.


Advertisement

#140 wildman

wildman

    • Member

  • 294 posts
  • Joined: September 00

Posted 25 May 2013 - 23:13

Pretty sure the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is the only one where the cars are routed through the middle of a baseball stadium.

#141 rwhitworth

rwhitworth

    • Member

  • 145 posts
  • Joined: January 06

Posted 27 May 2013 - 19:41

If I remember correctly, the early-70s Zwartkops circuit (not the current one), near Pretoria, skirted a drive-in cinema. This included parking-meter-like poles where the loudspeakers were mounted, and humps so that the film-goers could park angled upwards towards the screen. There was one corner where a miscalculation could lead to an exciting adventure over the humps and (hopefully) between the poles!

#142 Graham Clayton

Graham Clayton

    • Member

  • 1,362 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 09 August 2013 - 02:41

The 18-hole Brickyard Crossing golf course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has four holes located on the infield of the speedway:

http://www.brickyard...tualLayout.aspx

#143 Michael Ferner

Michael Ferner

    • Member

  • 7,200 posts
  • Joined: November 09

Posted 09 August 2013 - 22:29

When was that changed? It used to be nine holes inside, and nine outside the Speedway.

#144 Lee Nicolle

Lee Nicolle

    • Member

  • 11,069 posts
  • Joined: July 08

Posted 10 August 2013 - 00:27

If I remember correctly, the early-70s Zwartkops circuit (not the current one), near Pretoria, skirted a drive-in cinema. This included parking-meter-like poles where the loudspeakers were mounted, and humps so that the film-goers could park angled upwards towards the screen. There was one corner where a miscalculation could lead to an exciting adventure over the humps and (hopefully) between the poles!

Bathurst had a drive in on conrod, though it was not part of the track edge.

#145 Collombin

Collombin

    • Member

  • 8,657 posts
  • Joined: March 05

Posted 10 August 2013 - 19:41

When was that changed? It used to be nine holes inside, and nine outside the Speedway.


I guess when the place was butchered for Bernie.

#146 wildman

wildman

    • Member

  • 294 posts
  • Joined: September 00

Posted 10 August 2013 - 22:09

Virginia International Raceway's signature corner is the Oak Tree Turn, so named because there is a giant oak standing on the inside of the corner, right at the apex.

The VIR oak, sadly, is no more: http://virnow.com/20...ak-tree-down-2/

#147 Rob G

Rob G

    • Member

  • 11,615 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 11 August 2013 - 02:59

The VIR oak, sadly, is no more: http://virnow.com/20...ak-tree-down-2/

Yeah, I was very disappointed when I heard that it had fallen. I was wishing that they would plant another one in its place, but I knew that would never happen.

#148 Michael Ferner

Michael Ferner

    • Member

  • 7,200 posts
  • Joined: November 09

Posted 11 August 2013 - 09:32

http://public.fotki....-1006rw008.html

This telephone pole at Chula Vista's Speedway 117 (not 177 as per caption) made for some spectacular photo ops in the early eighties. I wonder if anyone ever "caught" it!

#149 Magoo

Magoo

    • Member

  • 3,718 posts
  • Joined: October 10

Posted 12 August 2013 - 03:31

Williams Grove Speedway had an overhead bridge to allow spectators to cross the track from the infield to outside the track, and vice versa:

Posted Image

Source: http://pa.gov/portal...281_1360017_43/

Were there many other US ovals that featured similar overhead bridges?


The Indianapolis Motor Speedway originally had one -- it's visible in this amazing 1911 motion picture footage.


http://www.macsmotor...dianapolis-500/



.

#150 Collombin

Collombin

    • Member

  • 8,657 posts
  • Joined: March 05

Posted 12 August 2013 - 13:57

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway originally had one -- it's visible in this amazing 1911 motion picture footage.


Just to clarify, that bridge is at the entrance to turn 2 and was taken down 1912, whereas the one I mentioned that came down in 1956 was the backstretch one that connected the two halves of the golf course - the bridge Vuky so very nearly hit in 1955.

Back to The Nostalgia Forum


Quick Navigation 
  1. Autosport
  2. → Forums
  3. → The Nostalgia Forum
  4. ·
  5. Terms & Conditions
  6. Cookie Policy ·
  7. Privacy policy ·
  8. Contact us ·
  9. Forum rules ·