62 replies to this topic

[wolf sun]

As an aside, most of Hockenheim‘s former layout are still discernible on G**gle Maps or other such services.

[TJJohansen]

The most memorable race circuits have surely been those using roads whose layout and profile were dictated by their location's natural geography.  

 

Some of the least memorable race circuits have been built by obliterating natural geography to meet man's imposed regulatory requirements. 

 

I just feel uncomfortable seeing even a suggestion of 'modernising' such great venues as Rouen.  

 

DCN

 

 

 

 

 

T J

Edited by TJJohansen, 06 July 2020 - 08:43.

[Lee Nicolle]

Just following threads here on TNF is there  a track world wide that has NOT been changed?

Many Euro circuits have been to slow cars to Village GP specs. All the major Brit circuits have been. Though often for enforced and sensible run offs and gravel traps. If nothing else we do not need cars in the crowd, or at least often!

Here in Oz most circuits have been modded for the above. Bathurst has the chase and many corners widened. Losing the original character. Sandown is heavily modified both ends let alone the Village GP track for FIA standard. PI is shorter, the southern loop was out in the caravan Pk originally, and again widened. Mallala is shorter, northern hairpin was nearly in the next door wheat paddock and Clem reprofiled turn 1&2. Looks similar but drives differently.

Lakeside too is evidently different.

Calder has Mt Jane.

About the only circuit the same is the near defunct AIR which is 50 years old next year! In part because of its lack of use.

[GazChed]

Thruxton in Hampshire is still the same, very quick, configuration as when it opened in 1968. Once best known for the annual Easter Monday Formula Two race, it still holds British Touring Car Championship and British Superbike races.

The only change was a few years ago when Touring cars started flying off at the super fast Church corner and Thruxton was forced to improve the barrier. However the run off is, I believe, still much the same due to the land needed to extend it belonging to a farmer who refused to sell.

Edited by GazChed, 07 July 2020 - 05:58.

[wheadon1985]

Thruxton in Hampshire is still the same, very quick, configuration as when it opened in 1968. Once best known for the annual Easter Monday Formula Two race, it still holds British Touring Car Championship and British Superbike races.

The only change was a few years ago when Touring cars started flying off at the super fast Church corner and Thruxton was forced to improve the barrier. However the run off is, I believe, still much the same due to the land needed to extend it belonging to a farmer who refused to sell.

 
I'm currently sat in my office under the main grandstands at Thruxton as I type this...! Church Corner's run off is now very different indeed with work currently going on. With a lot of earth moved in, the runoff now elevates upwards and new Armco at the top. Some photos for you all. 

 

https://ibb.co/P5N1Zjh

https://ibb.co/MS5smZc

Edited by wheadon1985, 07 July 2020 - 12:40.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Lee Nicolle
.....Here in Oz most circuits have been modded for the above. Bathurst has the chase and many corners widened. Losing the original character..... Phillip Island is shorter, the southern loop was out in the caravan Pk originally, and again widened. Mallala is shorter, northern hairpin was nearly in the next door wheat paddock and Clem reprofiled turn 1&2. Looks similar but drives differently.
Lakeside too is evidently different.
Calder has Mt Jane.
About the only circuit the same is the near defunct AIR which is 50 years old next year! In part because of its lack of use.

Unbelievable that AIR is that old!

Mallala's reduction in length was caused by roughness of the surface in what was the fastest part of the circuit. They simply cut it back to an earlier turn at the end of the (curved) straight. But it was a fairly new circuit when that happened, maybe four years old?

Phillip Island's problem which necessitated the abbreviation of the circuit on the run back from the Southern Loop (or the moving of Repco Corner to be more precise) was that water seepage from the huge dam just up from the corner caused constant breaking-up of the surface there. It cost a couple of hundred metres of circuit length but didn't really change the character of the place, and they actually made a more interesting corner of it.

Reminding me of what Len Lukey told the PIARC when they were working to reopen the place after the Armstrong 500 debacle...

"What you should do is get a boatload of Ities out and concrete the whole place!"

[10kDA]

Just following threads here on TNF is there  a track world wide that has NOT been changed?

Road America in Elkhart Lake WI is pretty much the same. Though the removal of the Bill Mitchell Bridge over the track has made it much easier to figure out how to set up for the last corner, even though the track layout itself has not changed. I'm very glad a proposed chicane was not built when years ago it appeared Elkhart Lake might host a world championship motorcycle GP.

[bsc]

Just following threads here on TNF is there a track world wide that has NOT been changed?

Mallory Park still has the same layout (for cars - bikes use a couple of chicanes), and is also a couple of years older than the previously cited Thruxton. Lydden Hill dates from the mid 1960s and is also unaltered. The full Cadwell Park is unchanged (again, for cars) from when it was constructed in 1962

[MCS]

Did they not re-profile the Lake Esses at Mallory Park?   I am sure it looked different to me when I went to one of those marvellous midweek test sessions a few years back.  That said, it could be simply the passage of time playing tricks...

[bsc]

Did they not re-profile the Lake Esses at Mallory Park? I am sure it looked different to me when I went to one of those marvellous midweek test sessions a few years back. That said, it could be simply the passage of time playing tricks...

The Esses have the same profile, however the bank has been pushed back by quite a distance, plus some landscaping has been cleared. In consequence, it does feel a lot more 'open' than was once the case, in my view.

[GrzegorzChyla]

 And , of course an annual Midnight Sun race in northern Finland - eat you heart out Singapore . Add in New Zealand , Colombia and South Africa .
 

I love this idea, but I would go one step further - a 24 hour daylight race. That would be something new.

[10kDA]

I love this idea, but I would go one step further - a 24 hour daylight race. That would be something new.

And turning on your lights gets you DQ'ed! Of course this event really should have a 24 hr night-time race 6 months later as a complementary thing.

[GLaird]

Is it two winners, or are they aggregated as two heats??