Race Tracks You Have Been On?

[Stroker]

What race tracks have you been on and what do you have to say about them?

 

Anyone been on the Nurburgring?

[mckeann]

i've done a fair few european ones in both cars and bikes. Only done the nurburgring in a car, its amazing. Takes an age to learn where it goes, but when you do, its the ballsiest thing i've ever driven. I've also done Spa in a car. Its probably the best F1 track in the world. Cambers, vertical variance, fast and flowing, it has it all.

 

In terms of moto gp or WSBK tracks, i've done:

 

Jerez

Aragon

Portimao

Le Mans

Nurburgring GP

Valencia

 

They are all good, but Aragon is probably my favourite as its such a fast flowing track.

 

 

Doing Brno in two weeks time, cant wait. Have some videos on my Vimeo channel. http://vimeo.com/user8012090/videos

 

Will post up the Brno videos when i get back

[johnnyrod]

These are all UK tracks...

 

Cadwell Park: Like a rollercoaster made of tarmac. Medium-speed, with quite a range of corners from braking-is-for-wimps Coppice to the mainly-blind run onto Park Straight. Plus of course the Mountain, where you wheelie just about anything.

 

Mallory: Slower track but has the longest right-hander you've ever seen. Paddock is in the middle so you have to get in and out between sessions. Not desperately technical.

 

Oulton Park: much like Cadwell in that it's a technical, medium-speed rider's circuit.

 

Rockingham: Massive oval with twisty slow infield. Inernational cofiguration uses a bit of the oval as well (making it medium speed), National only the infield. Very wide, grippy, front-endy, ideal for a first outing, lots of fun on a smaller bike where you can take some scalps. Rubbish for spectators though, you can't get near anything interesting.

 

Silverstone: Various configurations. Stowe is fairly simple and fine for CSS but I wouldn't go there for a track day. Southern (now International) I'll be riding tomorrow, went there for CSS L2 some years ago. Wide and fast is the best way to describe most of Silverstone I think.

[YellowDuck]

Most folks on the forum would not know our dinky local tracks here in Ontario Canada, but there is one that I ride each year that has a storied past - it hosted F1 races back in the glory days (1967 - 1977), and the American LeMans cars still do a round there I think. Mike Hailwood won an FIM grand prix motorcycle round there in 1967. Mosport (now called Canadian Tire Motorsports Park - yuck) is extremely fast, with mostly fast sweeping corners and huge elevation changes. The back straight is so long that you have it pinned in top gear for many, many, many seconds, and my bike with its current gearing will just barely approach the rev limiter in sixth before the braking zone. That's the Andretti straight, which follows Stirling Moss corner - cool eh?

 

I spent many weekends in my younger days, sunburned and pleasantly half drunk, sitting on the grass above Moss corner watching Can-Am, GTP and Superbike races. It is like a dream come true for me to actually ride that course rather than just spectate.

 

Okay, it's not Interlagos but for us it is very cool. We are going tomorrow but unfortunately rain is predicted. If I get any good GoPro footage I will post it up.

[kcarbis]

On a bike

 

Laguna Seca: Awesome, iconic track. Going through the corkscrew is a thrill and more than a little intimidating. The main straight isn't all that straight and crests a hill blindly. Very exciting. Most of the turns are quite fast, very fun track.

 

Sears Point (nee: Sonoma Raceway, nee: Infineon): Very technical, off camber turns, lots of elevation changes, esses, and of course the bus-stop chicane. Its a great place for a CSS event because it has everything, its near impossible to get through turn 2 without perfecting the basic visual skills, two-step and three-step. I did level 3 there and I'm glad I did level 3 on that track.

 

Miller Motorsports Park - East: Very fast and flowing track. Astounds me that there are 13 (or 14 depending on how you count) turns on just the east side, I can't imagine how challenging the full track must be. Visual skills here can be quite challenging because the environment around the track is desert and can be very similar from turn to turn. The track is big and wide so its a nice place to learn as its pretty easy to stay out of each others way.

 

Streets of Willow: Very tight, bumpy and technical. Some elevation changes and surprising number of fast corners for such a tight track. I'd have to defer to the instructional staff but I suspect that if you are quick here you are going to be quick anywhere.

 

In a Car

Thunderhill: It's been a while, but I enjoyed Thunderhill. Its a small, humble facility but very fun.

Pahrump: Reminds me of Thunderhill, humble but very fun, though probably not worth a trip just for the track. Woth it if you are already in Vegas though.

Portland International: Meh, as much as I'd like to sing its praises (because I love that city) this isn't much of a track.

[khp]

I think we went through this some years ago, but I'll have a go anyway:

Denmark:

Jyllandsringen

Ring Djursland

Norway:

Våler

Rudskogen

Sweden:

Anderstorp

Ring Knutstorp

Sturup Raceway

Gälleråsen

Kinnekulle Ring

France:

Circuit Val de Vienne

England:

Silverstone South

Germany:

Eurospeedway Lausitzring

Nürburgring Nordschleife (not a racetrack, imho - far too dangerous for that)

Czech Republic:

Autodrom Most

USA:

Willow Springs ("Big Willows")

Streets of Willow Springs

 

All accumulated over the last 15 years or so.

[Stroker]

Why do you think the ring is too dangerous?

[khp]

Stroker: have you ever been to the Nordschleife?

 

There are several (compounding) issues:

- Lack of runoff

- 3-high Armco

- Mix of anything from the Ringtaxi (BMW M5 with pro driver for hire; look up Sabine Schmitz) over locals that do 100+ laps per year, sportscars-with-plates to tourist busses going 40kph on the same strip of tarmac.

 

Just the death-accident rate of at the Nordschleife should tell you that it's very very dangerous.

Read this warning page from Ben Lovejoy's Nurburgring page:

The Ring is an incredibly unforgiving place. With the exception of a handful of bends, there's no run-off: if you fail to make a bend, you're going to hit something hard. Worse, most of the bends and crests are blind, so the chances of one accident leading to a second one are also relatively high.

 

I personally knew Joerund Seim who was killed there - he's the one that was killed in the oil-spill mentioned on the warning page (he slid in oil others had spilled).

 

I had a car in front of me let out an oil mist, which causes the rear tyre to go sideways on me in one of the turns (the one before the carrousel).

[Stroker]

I have not been to any track i do know the ring and and the Isle of Man TT course are two things many hundreds try to master every year without success.

[YellowDuck]

Here is some video from Mosport on Friday. Most corners are 4th gear, except the hairpin which is second, and corner 3 which I take in 3rd. The back straight is long and almost scary (I don't really like super high speeds that much - thank heavens I am not on a bike with actual power). Probably from the video you don't really get a feel for the elevation changes, but they are pretty extreme.

 

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[EricG]

In a car (long ago)

 

Mullholand drive, for Highland to Laurel Canyon, then for Coldwater Canyon on.

Sunset Bl. Coming out of UCLA toward PCH

PCH north of Ventura County

Various roads in the LA Crest

I5 north of Castaic

Various areas in Malibu.

A bunch of roads outside Palmdale I can't remember the names of anymore.

Griffith Park

 

All in my young and foolish days, all in cars, and we didn't close the roads back then.

 

[mckeann]

Brno

 

[ANORXIC'51]

 

From right to left:

-Brainerd Int'l Raceway-Competition Course (Brainerd, MN)

-Infineon/Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway (Sonoma, CA)

-Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI)

-Barber Motorsports Park (Birmingham. AL)

-Motorsports Park Hastings (Hastings, NE).