21 replies to this topic

[sergioloro]

the last turn at roosevelt 1937 was high banked? like Daytona or something like that?
short question, short answer!!
see you

sergio loro

[kstrt]

I think yes

[Steffen]

I have some footage of this event showing Bernd Rosemeyer driving through a banked corner. So if the final corner was the only banked corner, the answer is 'YES'.

[Don Capps]

Ah, not really. There was some very slight banking in several turns and it was as much for drainage as for increasing the speeds through the corners. The did not have any turns remotely banked as much as even Indianapolis much less the AVUS -- which is perhaps where the image of Rosemeyer came from.

[HistoricMustang]

I believe the lower right corner is location of the former Roosevelt oval horse track and purpose built road circuit for the 1936 and 1937 Vanderbilt Cup Races.

Please give me your feedback.

Henry



http://www.kolumbus....an/gp366.htm#38

http://www.kolumbus....an/gp366.htm#38

[Mark A]

Yellow - 1936
Red - 1937

[Paul Taylor]

67 degrees from the vertical maybe, rather than 67 from the horizontal...I think he got the two mixed up.

If that's the case, then it's 23 degrees of banking which looks about right to me (???)

[Frank S]

Way I understood it, the 1936 track had too much fiddly stuff, and the cures introduced for 1937 included straightening out the infield a bunch, and putting in the banked "launch" turn.

Add'l info for those who've not seen (managed to avoid?) it:
Amateur photo from 1937

[Paul Taylor]

And one of the original circuit under construction:



The circuit design could easily have been designed in the 1970s or 1980s, very modern for it's day IMO.

[HistoricMustang]

This indicates the two different layouts.

Henry

http://www.kolumbus....snellman/t8.htm

[taylov]

Originally posted by HistoricMustang
This indicates the two different layouts.

Check out - newsreel footage of the 1936 race, with a period non-pc commentary.

Tony

[Boniver]

the reed circuit is OK (1937) and only the last corner was a banking of 18°

the yellow (1936) circuit is not OK
see air-foto on

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

[Mark A]

Originally posted by Boniver
the reed circuit is OK (1937) and only the last corner was a banking of 18°

the yellow (1936) circuit is not OK
see air-foto on

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

You are right on the 1936 track (just amended mine), looks like a lot of the circuit websites have got it wrong.

[fines]

When I first saw a clip from the computer game "Spirit of Speed" (or similar name, the one about 30s racing), I was surprised to see a wall-of-death like version of the banking - perhaps that's the source of the confusion?

[Rob Semmeling]

Can anyone answer this: what kind of surface did Roosevelt Raceway have? Brock Yates describes it as a hard-packed mix of sand and gravel, but other sources speak of asphalt.

Also, as far as I can tell the track hosted just four races, is that correct?

03/10/1936: 40-mile motorcycle race
04/10/1936: 40-mile motorcycle race
12/10/1936: Vanderbilt Cup
05/07/1937: Vanderbilt Cup
06/09/1937: Pan-American race - cancelled

[David McKinney]

Plus at least one ARCA meeting (25/07/37)

[Vitesse2]

The original (1936) circuit was loose-surfaced. It was re-profiled for 1937, including the banked turns, and hard-surfaced.

David has nailed the only other race meeting, although it was held on a shortened version of the circuit, using an infield loop. The 1938 Vanderbilt was scheduled for July 4th: not a very clever selection, given that it was the day after the French GP!

After it went bankrupt in early 1938 it reopened under new owners for midget racing during the summer but closed again in September after a fatality and a betting scandal. The National Midget Championship was run there in August 1939, apparently on a newly-constructed one-mile dirt oval, but a stock car race advertised for September was cancelled - I've seen claims on the net that it happened (but never with any results attached!). That was the end - finally - and it was converted to a trotting track in 1940.

[Rob Semmeling]

The original (1936) circuit was loose-surfaced. It was re-profiled for 1937, including the banked turns, and hard-surfaced.

Hard-surfaced as in asphalt, then? Or hard-surfaced as in hard-packed?

[Vitesse2]

Hard-surfaced as in asphalt, then? Or hard-surfaced as in hard-packed?

OTTOMH, I think some parts were asphalt and some concrete, but I'd need to check further.

[Vitesse2]

Small correction to my previous post - the 1939 oval was a half miler. There's an aerial photograph of the whole track on Howard Kroplick's wonderful Vanderbilt Cup site, which seems to show a mixed surface:

http://www.vanderbil...raceway_in_1939

I'm sure Howard can give you chapter and verse though.

[Tim Murray]

This is from a contemporary article in Popular Mechanics in the run-up to the 1937 race:

Instead of a surface composed of sand, clay, asphalt and tar, the new track consists of a rock and asphalt mixture – virtually a stone road with an asphaltic binder.

[Rob Semmeling]

Thanks all, that certainly helps.