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I am, by no means, in love with every temporary circuit, but I'm not as averse to them as some, clearly.
Anyway, I thought I'd try to do a ranking, and to humor people, I'll even do a worst list to accompany the best list. I try to balance how interesting the track layout is, how attractive the overall setting is, and how good the racing for these cars has actually been. (On that last one, I'll apologize to Montreal now, but in the CART/ChampCar races there, I saw very little passing. Quite possibly, the DW12 would improve that.)
Best CART/CCWS/ICS Temporary Circuits:
1. Cleveland (both the 1982-89 and 1990-2007 layouts were very good)
2. Vancouver (1994-97, 1999-2004 layout is just below Toronto)
3. Long Beach (1999, 1992-98 and 2000- layouts are just below Surfers Paradise)
4. Sao Paulo (2010-13)
5. Surfers Paradise (1995-2008)
6. Las Vegas (2007)
7. San Jose (2006-07)
8. Toronto (1996-2015)
9. Miami (1995)
10. Belle Isle (1998-2001, 2013-)
11. Tamiami Park (1985-88)
12. Edmonton (2011-12)
Worst CART/CCWS/ICS Temporary Circuits:
1. San Jose (2005)
2. Miami (2003)
3. Las Vegas (1983-84)
4. Houston (2013-14)
5. Baltimore (2011)
6. Belle Isle (2012)
7. Meadowlands (1988-91)
8. Long Beach (1984-87 and 1988-91 layouts)
Toronto has been modified a bit for this year, with the relocation of the pit lane, and I'm guessing that will lead to at least slight realignments in the final couple of corners.
Compared to the 2003 layout, Miami 2002 had the slick parking lot, but didn't have the "ski jump" at the top of the front stretch, nor did it have such an absurdly short lap.
Yes, I think the improvements at San Jose from 2005 to 2006 were that drastic, and the increase in overtaking potential certain was that great.
For 1984-91, Long Beach had a box chicane of one form or another on the back stretch, which basically killed passing anywhere but into Turn 1.
The first iteration of Edmonton certainly wasn't horrible; it was nice, quick, and open. However, it always had more of a street circuit feel and just didn't measure up to Cleveland in terms of overtaking.
Trying to make street circuits into "modified ovals" just isn't a very attractive proposition, as seen with Las Vegas in the '80s and the second iteration of the Meadowlands.
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