Krbtrk

[Yannick]

The circuit of Krbtrk is going to host the Croatian Grand Prix of the OtherWorld(ly) Series on from next year. Located near Split in the south of Croatia, it is aiming at a date in the summer months for this event, to attract people who want to combine their holiday on the shores of the Adria with spectating a little racing action. Designed to be a highspeed circuit, the track is known for cars drifting over the kerbs of the fast sweepers and kinks in slipstreaming battles (which inspired the concept and name of the track itself). Its length is 6.1 kilometers, and it runs anticlockwise.


large version: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...k_clean_25.jpg



Lap description:
Thundering past the pits and the main grandstands on the flat front straight, drivers keep their pedal to the carbon fibre on the 1 kilometer long run towards the first corner. Turn 1, a bowish kink with a medium wide radius that opens up on exit, is to be taken without lifting in 7th gear. Right behind the corner, the straight continues, but the track goes slighty uphill, thereby hiding the next corner. At about half the length of the 2nd straight, there is a mild crest, whereupon the track dips down moderately until the apex of Turn 2 is reached. Turn 2 is the right-hand part of an Esse consisting of two bows, and is therefore also to be taken full in 7th gear. After its apex, the track altitude changes smoothly to moderately uphill, and it's steepest at about the point where the runoff area for Turn 3 begins on its right-hand side. The left-hand bow Turn 3, technically the 2nd part of the Esse, has a radius that's a bit larger even than that of Turn 2, and goes uphill all the way in the previously described fashion. It's therefore a blind corner at full speed in 7th gear, and the only the brave don't lift there. It's important to get a clean line through here, because what I've called Turn 3 is in fact only the first apex of one really large multi-apex bow. At the point where Turn 3 has faded out to almost straight, there is another mild crest, whereupon the track begins to mildly decrease in altitude. But at the tightest apex of the multi-apex bow, also known as Turn 4 (on the upper left side of the diagram), the track dips down further, so you can't see the exit of the corner. But the bow then widens on exit, so if you've made it through Turn 3 at full throttle, chances are high that you also make it through Turns 4 and 5 in a likewise fashion in 7th gear. Turn 5 is just the cambered bow behind Turn 4, during which the track altitude fades out from moderately downhill to flat again. There are some nice rockface structures on the inside of Turn 5 from where spectators can overlook the whole area beginning from the crest between Turns 3 and 4, which is the highest point of the circuit, down to the exit of Turn 6. The straight leading towards Turn 6 is bowed slightly to the right, just before the corner, which is a carbon copy of Silverstone's Copse Corner, but turning left instead of right. Therefore, it's taken in 5th gear, and drivers must break for it. It's possible to try your overtaking move here if you've closed the gap on your opponent by slipstreaming ever closer to him or her through the highspeed section that was the first half of the lap. Cleanly exiting Copse impersonator Turn 6 is important, as at the end of the next highspeed section, there lies maybe the only proper overtaking opportunity of the track. But first, it's accelerating up to 7th gear again, towards the first of two kinks in the long back straight. After this left-hand kink, the track dips down mildly to reach its point of lowest altitude just before where the 2nd sector times are being taken. On from there, the track goes slightly uphill again until just about the point where the runoff area for the parabolica begins. But we're not there just yet. Drivers need to clip the kerb of the right-hand kink next, which is a bit reminiscent of the kink in the backstraight of the Istambul Otodrom. And then, there follows the longer rest of the backstraight. In case that you, the readers, have lost count of your gearshift, it's in 7th gear at the moment, of course. Cars reach their top speed on this circuit at the end of the straight, hence the location of the speed trap. The track then crests mildly on entering the parabolica, turning to flatness and the altitude of the s/f-straight. So this is a blind corner, too. As the radius of the parabolica tightens under braking, the corner's camber increases. Breaking stability is therefore the most important thing in your setup, if you want to overtake on this track, because most likely, you will have to do it here. The apex of the parabolica, or Turn 7, if you like to call it that, is then taken in 4th gear. After the apex, cars immediately drift towards the outside, as the camber abruptly ends here and the track is now flat. Accelerating through the rest of the parabolica, which bows to the left, drivers ready themselves for the short braking zone of the slowest corner on the track, the final right-hand kink Turn 8, also to be taken in 4th gear. And then it's on to another lap of kerb clipping highspeed action around Krbtrk.

Track history:
Originally built during the days of the iron curtain in the 70s, this track hosted many touring car races with cars from the Eastern makes of Lada, Wartburg, Trabant, Skoda, etc. Its kerbs weren't as flat as they are today, so the track was known for being somewhat dangerous, because of the many rollovers that occurred here over the years. The civil war that broke out in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s effectively put an end to all racing action on this track. Track safety at this point in time would have been comparable to classic tracks of the late 1960s, so it took another few years after the war had ended, until an investor was found to fund major reconstruction efforts at Krbtrk.
The planning stage was finished in 1997, works began a year later, and the track reopened with a motor bike event in 1999. Changes include a complete resurfacing of the whole circuit, construction of new grandstands and a new pitlane building, and enlarging runoff areas everywhere but in the last corner, where there was no space for it, because of the location of the paddock right behind it. However, only one corner's shape was changed: Much like Copse Corner of Silverstone used to be a 90 degree corner, Turn 6 of Krbtrk used to be, too, and it was moved towards the inside to gain more runoff space.
With the track now in shape as Croatia's #1 motor racing facility, sports cars and touring car series from the neighboring Italy and Austria began to visit regularly in the new millenium. But the event that most attracts local visitors to this circuit is an annual 1000 km motorcycle race. The OtherWorld(ly) Series is happy to welcome this highspeed track on its calendar for the 1st time next season, having already invited Mario Andretti to wave the checquered flag on race day.

The real story is of course that I drew the track at some time in the last 2 weeks and that its shape is based on yet another puddle of water.

[Lustigson]

Originally Posted by Yannick

Originally built during the days of the iron curtain in the 70s

Strictly speaking, Yugoslavia wasn't part of the Eastern Bloc.

But a very nice track, though. Classic.