A simple circuit

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Designed not to have anything overly complicated, no bridges, one layout only. Yet having what many see as required ingredients of a hairpin, a chicane a fairly high average speed, a long straight, oh and a 90 degree corner.

With all those things together and still have a length that would entice top class events, here are the important details.

S/F length is 770m
The "interrupted" Back straight is 1km, that is 511m before the chicane and 495m after.

Overall the circuit is 4.355km or 2.72 miles, and it runs anti-clockwise.

As always comments, criticism and possible edits are welcomed.

[bio]

Simple, yet elegant, and, whats morre important, great track this is. All thumbs I have up

bio

[jab]

Lurvely, would make a fantastic national racing circuit

[Alexander86]

Looks real nice. Simple but very good.

But why have you placed the stands at the inside of the track, and the pit and paddock on the outside? Of course it's possible, it's not a major issue, and surely there are numerous examples of tracks with the same configuration.
As a team member I can tell you we like it a whole lot better to stay on the inside so paddock access, both at day and night can be controlled and thieves are less likely to steal your stuff (unfortunately this year proved there is absolutely no guaranty and stuff gets stolen at the inside paddock of major venues too).
And now the crowd have to move over/under the track creating bottlenecks and safety hazards.

Also, but with all due respect as a noob, I would advice you to move the wall at the inside of t5 (second part of the chicane) a bit to the outside. The wall is a bit to close on the exits of pretty much all the corners, but especially at t7 (90 degree corner) and t10 IMHO.

There are not a lot of overtaking spots (only end of SF straight), especially for mid- and high downforce cars.

But apart from these comments a great track. I can surely learn a lot from its simplicity!

[bio]

Wow, here we go again

Alexander, what you're saying about the paddoick's being safer (I mean theft) in the inside of the track surely makes a lot of sense.
But here we are talking about safety - accident-wise. That's why the paddocks are on the outside.
SBF will surely come in a short while with further explanation.

bio

[Alexander86]

I'm sorry if I restart an old discussion. But accident wise I don't really see the point.

Looking at crowd control putting the stands on the inside is just not a good idea.

And about the safety on the track: The pit exit is on the racing line, which doesn't seem safe to me. I don't think placing the pit entry to the other side of the track would be much less safe. So I fail to understand your point.

I'm interested in what SBF has to say.

[bio]

Alexander,
it's quite an old thing going on here, but there's nothing you should be sorry about!

The thing is, that if the pitlsane is on the other side of the road, it spits out the cars right onto the racing line where they caould easily meet incoming cars of much higher speed - not a scenario race directors dream about...

But you brought up a very interesting point with this theft thing - I don't recall anyone ever considering this here before. So you just gave me one more thing to take into account when i next get down to design a track, thanx for that!

bio

[Quintin03]

Bio, if the pitlane would be in the infield, the exit would better be halfway through the hairpin. Not at all dangerous. Theft safety and crowd control are some extra things to take into account from now on. Thanks for that Alexander.

Also, bit off topic though, what team do you work for. I don't need anything specific but the discipline and such is more than enough. I appologise if my curiosity offends you somehow.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Bio is quite correct regarding the pitlane and paddock placement, and the racing line. As he says it's a discussion that's been had many times.
In this case cars/bikes would exit the final corner on the right hand side. The natural line would then be to cross the track to the left side for the hairpin. The pitlane exit is far enough along which together with a "Don't cross" line would keep exiting cars/bikes to the right hand side of the road for long enough that they are not a danger.
Look at Barcelona, Nurburgring or Monza as examples of this. Maybe even the cloest example would be Hurgaroring as it's first corner is a hairpin right.

Alexander66: Whilst I accept your comments about the safety from a criminal element, another of the members here, LuiggiSpeed will point out that in terms of circuit building and general access, having the paddock on the outside is much cheaper than building road bridges or tunnels to get the team trucks and other vehicles into the paddock.

In this case there are the 2 500m straights that could easily have pedestrian bridges in place, to gain access to the infield. If you had the money then a road bridge or tunnel would work in either place as well, allowing the infield to be set up with "Spectator zones"

A personal rule of thumb is that which ever direction the first corner goes, the pits should be to that side.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Quintin03

Bio, if the pitlane would be in the infield, the exit would better be halfway through the hairpin. Not at all dangerous.

I'm really not sure how a pit exit halfway around a hairpin can be that safe, coming down a 700m+ straight missing a braking zone by a few metres and straight on into a car exiting the pits.

Feel free to draw on any of my designs to demonstrate how you would do it safely. As I said at the beginning possible edits are welcome.

[Quintin03]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

I'm really not sure how a pit exit halfway around a hairpin can be that safe, coming down a 700m+ straight missing a braking zone by a few metres and straight on into a car exiting the pits.

Feel free to draw on any of my designs to demonstrate how you would do it safely. As I said at the beginning possible edits are welcome.

Like at Taupo is what I mean. Do you understand me now?

[bio]

SBF,
we seem to agree once again

BTW, I submit a new design in my thread after like half a year and you don't even care to comment about the race direction?

(Just kidding)

bio

[bio]

Gosh... The Taupo pitlane exit seems one of the most potentionally dangerous ones I've ever seen... I would definitely not take responsibility for it just because an infield paddocks area is safer theft-wise... I guess I could hire a pretty good and ample security personnel for an outside paddock and pitlane from tenth the money I had to spent on damages and lawsuits for the accidents resulting from such a pitlane exit arrangement

(Kidding again)

bio

[bio]

On the other hand, Taupo is a real, real eye-candy.

bio

[Alexander86]

I just reread the whole topic and saw I was very wrong, because I assumed the track to be clockwise. Now I totally agree with the placement of the pit exit for safety reasons. Stupid me...

This also affects my comment on the placement of the barriers and them being to close to the exit of the corners. Again, sorry!
Although I still think one wall should be moved. At t8 (first part of the chicane) I would move the wall a bit further from the track, cause if cars collide under braking or lose control the barrier will probably bounce them back onto the racing line. If you move the wall a bit this is less likely.

Quintin, I work as a junior mechanic (mainly tires, rims and exterior) and "gofor" in the Dutch Supercar Challenge for the organizer/promoter and his (kids') team. The cars are a Mosler MT900R, a Mini Cooper S Turbo and occasionally a Lotus Esprit V8 Twin Turbo.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Alexander86

This also affects my comment on the placement of the barriers and them being to close to the exit of the corners. Again, sorry!
Although I still think one wall should be moved. At t8 (first part of the chicane) I would move the wall a bit further from the track, cause if cars collide under braking or lose control the barrier will probably bounce them back onto the racing line. If you move the wall a bit this is less likely.

It may not be clear from the images but the track is drawn at 13.70m wide with no less than 7.00m of grass on the inside of each corner before hitting a wall.
That should be more than sufficient for most accidents of the type you mention.

[Yannick]

This is how I like a racetrack: fast, simple, with (at least one) interesting corner shapes, with a good flow of corners and running anticlockwise.
So I really like this one. You've done a very good job and included all the elements that you have intended.

But what puzzles me a bit is the position of the chicane right in the middle of the backstraight. As opposed to the rest of the circuit, it does not look natural as a left-right combination. Instead, I think that an optional chicane of left-right-left (think of the old Hockenheim) might have fit better.