Ginger Speedway - A challenge

[Yannick]

Hello fellow track designers!

Below, you find a picture of a ginger.

larger version: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/63aeb44d.jpg

Now please design a track that is based on parts or maybe even the whole blot shape of that ginger, and then post it in this thread. Feel free to cut away pieces of ginger from the main lump, as you would do if you were in the kitchen.


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I've tried myself to come up with an example of one possible Ginger Speedway.
Here it is:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/41c9258c.jpg
To give you an idea of the scale, the straight in my design is meant to be around as long as the main straight of Fuji Speedway. But that doesn't mean anything for the scale of your designs. You can zoom in or zoom out, just as you feel like.
I'm not sure whether my design should run anticlockwise or vice versa, but I'm very well aware that it might be considered to be a bit far on the twisty side. Still, in combination with the long highspeed section centered around the straight, this should make it a circuit, on which to find a good car setup wouldn't be that easy.


Have a nice challenge and happy new year!

[Rockmunky]

Perhaps one of the most original challenges i've ever seen!

I'll have a go later, or at the weekend

[formula1fan]

That is truly one of the most original ways of making a track. Great job.

[Mr Pink]

Here´s my go:

I also tried to mix fast and slow corners and i´m pretty satisfied with the result.

[nickyf1]

um, thats the exact shape of the ginger...

[formula1fan]

That's what I was thinking!

[Flaming_Wuzzle]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

um, thats the exact shape of the ginger...

No it's not. Look closer. The only straight (near the middle) doesn't follow the shape of the ginger.

[nickyf1]

oh yeah... Doh!

[formula1fan]

Well, the picture makes it look like there isn't a bit sticking out on the ginger at all where the straight is!

[Flaming_Wuzzle]

Only working with the left side for mine...



(it goes clockwise, btw)

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Flaming_Wuzzle

Only working with the left side for mine...



(it goes clockwise, btw)

You've picked a nice part of the ginger for your track. It has a real old-style flow to it, but overtaking could be quite difficult. It might be possible at that section of corners on the top left hand side, or into the central hairpin, or maybe into the final corner, but the radius of the 1st corner doesn't seem to allow outbreaking.
Thanks for posting your track.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Mr Pink

Here´s my go:

I also tried to mix fast and slow corners and i´m pretty satisfied with the result.

Mr Pink, your track looks like it's destined for 24hour races or similarly long events. Am I right that the pitlane is located at the straight in the middle and that the circuit runs clockwise?

Thanks for posting.


Dear mytrackers, please keep posting further Ginger Speedways! Thanks.

[Mr Pink]

Yes and Yes, I should have thought it through more before posting it because some bends got a bit wierd as well as the scale.

[mandretti39]

My track runs clockwise.

[shambles]

I can't believe this! lol

[chemhead1]

I think it's safe to say where John Hugenholtz got his ideas.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by mandretti39

My track runs clockwise.

Thanks for posting the track. I think its blot shape looks very much like it could be a 1970s era Northern US permanent road circuit. It might work well anticlockwise, too.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by chemhead1

I think it's safe to say where John Hugenholtz got his ideas.

Well, in retrospect, Zandvoort, Jarama, Nivelles and Zolder look like they all might have been derived from gingers, so you're probably right on this.
To be honest, I was trying to come up with a Hugenholtz-ish design of a circuit, and to my surprise, I found this ginger in my mother's kitchen. I just had to share it with you. It's nature itself that produces natural shapes.

[Rockmunky]

Very true, and often the more "natural" of tracks, often are the best tpyes of circuits, as they have the best flow, and are generally much more challenging.
The Nurburgring for example, flows seamlessly through the German hills.

[Yannick]

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/0e7c6753.jpg

So now that I've found some time to actually draw it, here's my version of Ginger Speedway.
Located within a 5 minute drive from the suburbs of Dublin, it could host an Irish Grand Prix, if ever there was going to be one.
Track length is 6.8 kilometers, and the track runs clockwise.

Lap description:
When you are thundering down the flat, long front straight, the track suddenly crests slightly at about the point where the runoff area of the first hairpin is closest to the straight. You are going at full speed in 7th gear here, so road cars and single-seaters from bygone eras would jump at this point. On from the entry to the first corner, the track is flat again. Turn 1 is a long, kind of Tamburello-ish right-hander that is taken at full throttle in 7th gear still. They have installed the speed trap at the corner's apex, because the fastest point of the whole circuit is in fact somewhere in that corner, because drivers need to lift the throttle, as they speed through the first of the Esses (Turn 2 and 3, both 7th gear, but lifting). Then, after a downshift, they accelerate again through the 2nd of the Esses (Turn 4 and 5, 6th gear accelerating), as they race on towards that long, multi-apex right-hander Turn 6 (5th gear all the way through), that goes around almost 180 degrees. Upon entering the corner, there's a sudden steep rise, for which cars need to be set up well to avoid grounding. The track goes uphill around about 90 degrees to the 2nd apex of the corner, a point where the racing line is somewhere in the middle of the road, in preparation for the sharpest of the apexes, which is the third one. By the time that is reached, the track altitude has already turned to moderately downhill. It continues in that fashion through a right- and a left-hand bow (Turn 7 and 8, 6th gear but even 7th for some) and fading to flat into the 1st hairpin, Turn 9 (2nd gear, for some it's 1st gear). There are multiple lines through the hairpin and in the corners leading up to it, which it makes it possible to squeeze your car through past an opponent, if you know how to do it. Right after the hairpin, there follows the corner with the least amount of runoff on the whole track, the right-hander Turn 10, to be taken in either 2nd or 3rd gear, through which you accelerate for the short, kinked straight that's next. Just before the kink (which counts as Turn 11), the track experiences another sudden rise, which reaches its highest point at the apex of the next right-hander, Turn 12 (3rd gear full or 4th gear lifting). Obviously, you can't see the corner's exit upon entering Turn 12, as the exit goes moderately downhill again. The next short straight follows in the same fashion and fades to flat in the braking zone for the 2nd hairpin that's up next. Turn 13 (1st gear), is the tighter one of the two hairpins and the slowest corner on the track. Setting up a car for Ginger Speedway isn't easy, since the track has so many different features on one lap, so you got to find a compromise, which will be that you'll prefer to set up your car for good performance in the fast sections of the track - so the other end of the compromise will be best seen by spectators here at the 2nd hairpin. As the hairpin lies across from the pits, the two main grandstands are located on both sides of the hairpin, looking towards the s/f-straight. Having gone around the 180 degrees, you pass through a slight kink to the right (just for the record, Turn 14), accelerating onto the 2nd-longest straight of the circuit, and ready for a slipstreaming battle with your opponent. The straight is flat, but the corner at its end, the fast right-hander Turn 15, which is the Ginger's main overtaking opportunity, begins to climb moderately uphill, on from its apex (yet another blind corner). Then, the corner fades out uphill into a bowed straight, which in turn fades into a fast right-hander with a sharp apex in its middle, Turn 16 (5th gear). Right after that apex, the track begins to steeply dip downhill, and then goes through a wide right-hand bow (Turn 17, 6th gear), at the apex of which the bottom of the dip is reached. On from there it's steeply uphill again, whilst the track bows back slightly to the left, to a few metres before the place where the 2nd sector times are being taken, where the track altitude is flat again. You need to avoid errors going through this section, otherwise you'll be passed under braking for the next corner, the left-hander Turn 18 (3rd gear). The apex of Turn 18 lies right at the beginning, then the corner opens up again to another, albeit shorter bowed straight, which closes in again towards the racing line. How you go through best through the next section, which is probably best described as a multi-apexed Esse of the slower type, consisting of the right-hander Turn 19 and the left-hander Turn 20, is fairly difficult, as there are basically two possible lines, depending on whether you decide to the the first of these faster or the 2nd. Personally, I'd think the quicker line would be taking Turn 19 faster than Turn 20, but that would mean leaving the door wide open on entry, so it's definitely not the fighting line. So you exit the section either in 2nd or 3rd gear, pushing on towards two right-handers, Turns 21 and 22 that are taken as a double-apex corner in 3rd gear accelerating. There is a mild hilltop in the middle of the bowed straight that comes next, so you can't see the next corner, whilst exiting Turn 22. The next 2 corners, the right-hand kink Turn 23 and the tight right-hander behind the pits, Turn 23 (2nd gear), are then already on the same altitude as the pit straight, and to be taken as yet another double apex corner, with an ever tightening line going through them increasing the risk of spinning. Once you are through here, there is just the final left-hander, Turn 24 (3rd gear accelerating) to pass, before you are back on the s/f-straight, clocking in the lap time of your first round of Ginger Speedway.

[MrTTraces]

ok folks here is my attempt at this.

Located on the outskirts of Leeds in Yorkshire England by the A1M and M1 Junction. Traffic or enviromental noise pollution issues - None

Feedback welcome thanks.

[Yannick]

Well, MrTTraces, I'm a bit confused by that blue line there. This is meant to be an alternate route to the red one, and not the pitlane, right?

[MrTTraces]

Originally Posted by Yannick

Well, MrTTraces, I'm a bit confused by that blue line there. This is meant to be an alternate route to the red one, and not the pitlane, right?

yup