This track is a semi-permanent street circuit in the island state of Cape Verde Islands, in the fictional harbour town of Cape Verdishe. As such, it is the home of the Atlantic Grand Prix. Its length is 4.1 kilometers.
History:
When in the 1980s, the organisers of the OtherWorld(ly) Series chose to make the harbour town of Cape Verdishe their Monaco of sorts, they decided to surround the harbour with a pier-like structure, onto which the permanent part of the racetrack was built offshore. On that large pier, there even are several grandstands and sufficient run-off, like on any other permanent racetrack. The spectators can reach these areas of the track by boat/ ferry, which are organized especially for this purpose on the race weekend.
As the Cape Verde Islands are lesser known to tourists, generally lesser developed for tourism and further away from Europe in the Atlantic ocean than, say, the Canary islands, this Grand Prix has brought large numbers of tourists into the country as spectators, and along with them, large amounts of tourist money, from which the local economy and infrastructure has benefitted greatly since the 1st race here, so that the initial investment for building the pier section of the track has been fully justified.
In fact, for spectators and competitors alike, the flair and atmosphere of this Cape Verdishe venue is unique in the world of motor racing, maybe having only a slightly similar counterpart in the Monaco street race that inspired it, but the town Cape Verdishe is much less posh and more down-home than that one.
During the year, the bridges connecting the island to the pier section are permanently opened, so boats and ships can get from the harbour out to sea and vice versa. They are even being opened for a few early morning and late night hours during the race weekend to allow through local fishing boats. Every year, this Grand Prix is a destination of quite a number of cruise ships, too. Anchoring in the harbour or offshore around the pier section, spectators still can have a decent view from the main deck of these ships, even if they don't have grandstand tickets. Therefore, the cruise organisers pay a standard amount fee to the race promoters, if they want to book an anchoring slot around town on race weekend.
I first drew this track back in 1991, and that's also when the idea of a more out there Monaco with a special feature that's more out there than the tunnel, the pier section, was born. I just wasn't sure about the altitude differences back then.
Here is the track map:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/b9ba47f7.jpg
And here is the lap description:
Running anti-clockwise, a lap of Cape Verdishe begins on the start-finish straight, that leads alongside the whole length of the small harbour basin on the harbour promenade, with the pitlane and temporary pitlane buildings standing behind it in second line. On race day, it is possible to anchor your yacht right across the straight in front of the pits. But local fishing boats are guaranteed their usual anchoring slots wherever they may be on the harbour, so if they shouldn't decide to lease them out to somebody else on race weekend, there should be at least a fraction of the usual harbour smells around, adding only to the flair of this particular Grand Prix. Turn 1 (2nd gear, 3rd gear for some), at the end of the s/f straight, is the 1st part of a right-left combination. In between the two parts of that, the track goes relatively steeply uphill until the exit of Turn 2 (2nd gear). Both these corners have an escape road each, with the one in Turn 1 being the one that offers more space, since braking into Turn 1 is an overtaking opportunity.
Having passed Turn 2, the track goes along a short straight, at the end of which there is the wide, almost 180 degree multiple-radius left-hander Turn 3 (5th gear), that's surrounded by some park environment on the outside, providing some run-off, and at the apex of which the track begins to moderately decrease in altitude back to the level of the harbour promenade. Exiting the harbour quay in the next corner, the relatively tight right-hander Turn 4 (3rd gear), the track goes out offshore onto the pier section. In Turn 3, there is both an escape road, running along the harbour quay road and some run-off that's been built on the pier. After that corner comes a short straight, during which the cars cross the first of the two bridges that connect the pier with the island. Beginning at the exit of Turn 3, it's full speed ahead for the cars, going along that short straight bit and through the wide sweepers that follow, the left Turn 5 (5th gear accelerating), the right Turn 6 (6th gear accelerating), the left Turn 7 (by the time of which you have reached 7th gear) and the right Turn 8 (7th gear on entry, too), at the apex of which there begins the braking zone for the main direction change on the pier, Turn 9 (3rd gear), that goes around almost 180 degrees and has both sufficient runoff and a grandstand behind that, which unfortunately can't be seen on the track map, since its place is just off the right upper corner of the sheet. It's not easy to overtake under braking on the entry of Turn 9, but you can try. The 1st sector times are also taken at the entry of Turn 9.
Accelerating out of Turn 9, cars pass a wide kink to the right, Turn 10, out onto the Atlantic straight, which is the longest straight of the circuit. It is along this straight of the track, where cruise ships have general admission tickets. At the end of the Atlantic straight, there is the speed trap right in front of a tight left-right combination S-curve, made up of Turn 11 (2nd gear) and Turn 12 (2nd gear too). The main overtaking point of the track is out here on the pier at the end of the Atlantic straight, so the S-curve is surrounded by grandstands. For safety reasons, there are divers all around the pier and the harbour, but they haven't been needed so far, and hopefully never will be.
Coming out of the S-curve, cars accelerate along a wide-left hand bow, Turn 13 (5th gear, 6th gear for some). Here, the pier steeply begins to rise in altitude, making Turn 13 basically a long-winded uphill left turn. They also cross the 2nd bridge here, which is a lot higher above ocean surface than the 1st bridge, because the track climbs here to reenter the island atop a cliff.
Having entered the cliff, the track passes the old Portuguese castle on its left side, just before the right-hander Turn 14 (5th gear, 4th gear for some) comes along. Turn 14 has an escape road leading straight on, but SAFER barriers are placed on its outside on the track, leading up all the way to the left-hander Turn 15 (5th gear, 4th gear for some, too), at the exit of which there starts the braking zone for the hairpin. This is the place where the difference of the permanent pier section part of the track and the tight street circuit part shows most significantly, since such fast corners with so little run-off are rare these days even on most street circuits. Going through Turn 14 and 15, the track still rises moderately, until it reaches its high point at the exit of Turn 15, and it is here as well, where there 2nd sector times are taken. Going slightly downhill into the left-hand hairpin Turn 16 (1st gear), you are obviously in the old part of town. Turn 16 feels more like a serpentine from a hill climb than a usual hairpin on a permanent race track. There is some limited runoff in Turn 16, SAFER barriers on the outside and a tiny little escape road that leads steeply downhill. Having turned around the 180 degrees of Turn 16, you find yourself inside a canyon of barriers that goes moderately downhill. In fact you're already some ten meters below the highpoint of the track on the exit of the subsequent right hander Turn 17, which is the entrance to section of right-handers, that has been nicknamed 'the ear'. Accelerating through Turn 17 (3rd gear on its exit), drivers get as high as 4th gear, and some even 5th gear through 'the ear' that's Turn 18, before they abruptly turn right into Turn 19 (2nd gear) at the 'earlobe'. Turning left into the 2nd hairpin, Turn 20 (1st gear), that's even tighter than the 1st hairpin some 10 meters above, the moderate altitude decrease ends, and the track goes on flat for a while after Turn 20, as cars accelerate along a short straight piece of track that's kinked to the left in Turn 21 (4th gear). Turn 21 has an escape road and SAFER barriers on the outside. This is the part of town in which team members, race officials, wealthy spectators et al. prefer to get fed and entertained in the local restaurants and dance clubs during their time off on race weekend.
After Turn 21, there are two further kinks, one to the left, Turn 22 (4th gear) and one to the right Turn 23 (4th gear too), that goes slightly uphill even. These are lined closely by another canyon of barriers. Just after that, on the entry to the left-hander Turn 24 (3rd gear), the track begins to decrease rather steeply down to the altitude of the harbour, which is reached on the entry of the final corner, Turn 25 (3rd gear). Both Turn 24 and 25 have escape roads, but where Turn 24 merely has SAFER barriers on the outside, behind which there is the run-up, or in this case, run-down to the pitlane, Turn 25 has a small amount of runoff space, too, on its exit. It's important to get through cleanly here, because up next, there is the s/f straight again, on which you cross the line for the 3rd sector time, and have successfully finished a lap of the Cape Verdishe street circuit.