32 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

In Graham Howard's "The official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix" (R & T Publishing, Sydney, 1986), it is stated that due to the narrow width of some parts of the Southport circuit used for the 1954 Australian Grand Prix, the Queensland Motor Sporting Club created 2 "no-passing" zones on the circuit. They were:

a) 150 yards at the causeway leading onto the main straight;
b) 40 yards on a narrow bridge at the start of the tight section beside the Nerang River at the end of the second long straight.

Have there been any other circuits that featured "no-passing" zones?

[ensign14]

The early GPs de l'ACF had "neutral" zones in the towns. Obviously there was no overtaking as we know it, given that the cars were started separately, but it's the same sort of principle.

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by Graham Clayton
Have there been any other circuits that featured "no-passing" zones?

Currently there is a "no-passing" zone at Donington Park! This is due to the construction work taking place in preparation for the 2010 GP.

[Ross Stonefeld]

The way things are going the entire track will be a no-passing zone.


The hairpin at Macau is a permanently waved yellow, no?

[Rob Semmeling]

Indeed, Macau is the first that comes to mind.

There was a 4 km long circuit on public roads near Liessel, the Netherlands, used for motorcycle racing 1968-1974. Sidecars were not allowed to overtake on nearly half the circuit. So if you were stuck behind a slower compititor, you were in trouble!

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by Stephen W

Currently there is a "no-passing" zone at Donington Park! This is due to the construction work taking place in preparation for the 2010 GP.

Pre-war Donington had such a zone through the bridge I believe.
If not always, then it did when the Grand Prix cars raced there.

[Phil Rainford]

Didn't they wave yellows on the first lap of a relatively recent Italian GP at the second chicane .....after a track marshall had been killed at the spot the previous year?

PAR

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by Phil Rainford
Didn't they wave yellows on the first lap of a relatively recent Italian GP at the second chicane .....after a track marshall had been killed at the spot the previous year?

PAR

I seem to remember that that was just on the first lap?

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by ensign14
The early GPs de l'ACF had "neutral" zones in the towns. Obviously there was no overtaking as we know it, given that the cars were started separately, but it's the same sort of principle.

I don't think that is true. The town to town races had neutral zones and the first Grand Prix had by-passes built around Vibraye and St. Calais, but no neutral zones.

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by ensign14
The early GPs de l'ACF had "neutral" zones in the towns. Obviously there was no overtaking as we know it, given that the cars were started separately, but it's the same sort of principle.

Originally posted by Roger Clark
I don't think that is true. The town to town races had neutral zones and the first Grand Prix had by-passes built around Vibraye and St. Calais, but no neutral zones.

The German Gordon Bennett race (1904), which was on an 87 mile circuit, had neutral zones in eight towns and villages

[Ray Bell]

The longer circuit in Parramatta Park had a no-passing zone along the river section...

The narrowness of the track and the trees lining each side of the road made it quite dangerous there, but I don't think the restriction was introduced until after the first meeting.

[Giraffe]

Originally posted by Stephen W

Currently there is a "no-passing" zone at Donington Park! This is due to the construction work taking place in preparation for the 2010 GP.

I was speaking to Chris Rea who was racing his Elan 26R at Donington last weekend after practice for the GuardsTrophy , and he said that the speed differential was such, he was waving through the fast Chevron's but they were having to stand on their brakes to avoid passing him in the "neutral zone". He said that it was quite unnerving having his mirrors full of them for the section.

[Barry Boor]

Maybe one of our Portuguese friends can confirm this but I believe there was a short section on the Cascais road circuit that fell into this category.

It was a bridge, and very narrow indeed. A fact I can vouch for personally, having walked across it; before realising, a few years later, that it was part of the circuit.

[Doug Nye]

Pre-war Donington had a no-passing zone through Coppice Farmyard - not necessarily, or perhaps that should be not just or not at all? - through the Stone Bridge. Indeed somewhere we have a photograph of cars side by side at the Stone Bridge.

DCN

[RStock]

During the 1959 German GP at AVUS , the Nordkurve was deemed a "no-pass zone" , but only if it rained , which it didn't .

[Rob G]

The temporary tire chicane put in at Barcelona for the 1994 Spanish GP was barely wide enough for just one car, but was it and its approach officially deemed a no-passing zone?

[rdrcr]

There's a no-passing zone below the yellow line at Daytona and Talladega (NASCAR only).

Didn't they overturn a win last year because of that rule?

[wenoopy]

Was one or other of the bridges on the 4.5 mile Longford, Tasmania circuit a no-passing zone? It was used for 2 Australian GP's and some Tasman Series races; Howard's AGP history doesn't mention any restriction, but my unreliable memory tells me differently.

The same memory tells me that the Vila Real sports car circuit in northern Portugal also had a no-passing area. Did I read it in a "Motoring News" report in the 1960's?

[bigears]

Originally posted by rdrcr
There's a no-passing zone below the yellow line at Daytona and Talladega (NASCAR only).

Didn't they overturn a win last year because of that rule?

It was Regan Smith or someone like that.

[Andrew Kitson]

The present no overtaking zone between McLeans and Coppice at Donington was a temporary measure for the MGCC & HSCC meetings last week. No idea what the Donington management are thinking of, but to have the big holes dug for the tunnel in this area, so close to either side of the track and not very well protected, no wonder the MSA has not issued a further track licence, temporary or otherwise. Dr.Palmer is rightly very angry, his FPA meeting scheduled for next weekend is cancelled, as are the following F3/GT meeting and Britcar with BTCC probably to follow. The cancelled meetings are moving to either Silverstone or Rockingham apparantly. Perhaps law suits will follow to test further the Donington finances. What a farce!

[Seebar]

Originally posted by Rob G
The temporary tire chicane put in at Barcelona for the 1994 Spanish GP was barely wide enough for just one car, but was it and its approach officially deemed a no-passing zone?

I think it was agreed upon by all the drivers that they wouldn't try anything there, but I don't know whether it was ever made official.

Something similar in Montreal 94 and 95: the drivers agreed during the briefing not to (try and) overtake at the emergency chicane. So I don't think they were an official no-passing zone, but a gentlemen's agreement everybody honoured.

[ianselva]

There was a no-passing stretch at the Porto circuit through the narrow streets when I raced there in 2005

[Ross Stonefeld]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson
The present no overtaking zone between McLeans and Coppice at Donington was a temporary measure for the MGCC & HSCC meetings last week. No idea what the Donington management are thinking of, but to have the big holes dug for the tunnel in this area, so close to either side of the track and not very well protected, no wonder the MSA has not issued a further track licence, temporary or otherwise. Dr.Palmer is rightly very angry, his FPA meeting scheduled for next weekend is cancelled, as are the following F3/GT meeting and Britcar with BTCC probably to follow. The cancelled meetings are moving to either Silverstone or Rockingham apparantly. Perhaps law suits will follow to test further the Donington finances. What a farce!

Same weekends at Silverstone or moved dates?

[Doug Nye]

Wenoopy...I do believe there was a no-passing stretch up one of the built-up streets after the long bridge on the Vila Real circuit. I remember whizzing up there as a passenger in Willie Green's GT40 after practice in 1969 and marveling at how narrow (and noisy) it was...

DCN

[alansart]

I have a vague memory that when the Woodcote Chicane at Silverstone was first used it was run under yellows on the first lap only.

[Catalina Park]

I have been in a race that had a no-passing section due to the track breaking up but I can't remember for the life of me which circuit it was. (CRAFT disease) It was an Australian circuit. :

They had witches hats in the potholes and a yellow at the flag point before it. We were told at the drivers briefing that there was to be no passing and no hitting the cones.

[Lee Nicolle]

Originally posted by Catalina Park
I have been in a race that had a no-passing section due to the track breaking up but I can't remember for the life of me which circuit it was. (CRAFT disease) It was an Australian circuit. :

They had witches hats in the potholes and a yellow at the flag point before it. We were told at the drivers briefing that there was to be no passing and no hitting the cones.

At a twilight race meeting in the early 90s at AIR the track on the short circuit we were supposed to be using was broken up so we had to race on the long circuit. That was ok in the day [except for the wrong gearing in the car, holding max rpm for about 500 m down the straight] but in the dark was really fun. Turn into turn 1 and it is dark except for our feeble headlights, and was dark all the way back to the short circuit. That was a non official passing zone as you could not see. What was shiny was grass and dull was track!

[Graham Clayton]

The Briarcliff circuit in New York that was used during the 1908 AAA National Championship had a speed check when the cars went through the town of Mt Kisco, which effectively was a "no-passing" zone.

[Lee Nicolle]

Senility is setting in. At one race meeting I competed at we were not allowed to pass at one corner on the first lap. I feel it was Mallala but the reason I cannot remember. Heavy rain maybe?
At the Adelaide GPs us support categorys were not allowed to use the kerbs, more than 1 warning and you were out. The Tourers got away with far more than us mortals but were too penalised for overuse.

 

Edit 8/9/18 there was a ban at least some years on passing into Dequeteville Tce, the brewery bend for at the very least F1 and Touring cars. Several bad accidents happened there

Which still applies now onto Dequettiville on the shorter V8 Stupidcar track where there has been no end of bad accidents inc a fatality

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 08 September 2019 - 05:43.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by wenoopy

Was one or other of the bridges on the 4.5 mile Longford, Tasmania circuit a no-passing zone? It was used for 2 Australian GPs and some Tasman Series races; Howard's AGP history doesn't mention any restriction, but my unreliable memory tells me differently......

 

I must have missed this at the time...

 

No, there were no 'no passing' zones at Longford, including on the bridges. Big hearts were required to do any passing on the Long Bridge, between Tannery Corner and Newry, it was approached at high speed through a curve and departed the same way into the braking area.

 

Heart-stopping though it might have been, Phil Hill famously passed Jim Clark there in 1965.

[Graham Clayton]

A temporary no-passing zone was used for the 1981 Monaco Grand Prix. Prior to the start, a fire broke out at the new Loews hotel (now the Fairmont) overlooking the hairpin. When the fire brigade put the fire out, the water from their tankers pooled on the roof of the tunnel and dripped through onto the track, making it very slippery. The drivers made an informal agreement that the tunnel would be a no-overtaking zone.

[rbm]

top of the hill at Pau on the first lap is a no passing zone delimited by a yellow line to narrow the road that you must not cross.

[Michael Ferner]

Maybe one of our Portuguese friends can confirm this but I believe there was a short section on the Cascais road circuit that fell into this category.

It was a bridge, and very narrow indeed. A fact I can vouch for personally, having walked across it; before realising, a few years later, that it was part of the circuit.

 

Yes, must be the bridge near the Marina - these days, the bridge is partitioned into a combined bike/pedestrian path, and the main road for cars, not two of which can pass at the same time - not even two bikes without dismounting!