[Purist]

From the SuperBike stuff this year, the run-offs, garages, and pit lane at Donington look fine. I would expect that it's an FIA Grade 2, and it has to be an FIM Grade B since WSBK is running there this year.

No, Brands looks no narrower than Road America, Road Atlanta, Mosport Park, or Watkins Glen other than the front straight. (You wouldn't dare try more than three wide at Road America, especially on the approach to Turn 5 or from the Carousel to the Kink and on through Kettle Bottoms.) If there is a difference, it's the difference between 9 meters and 30 feet, which is less than 6 inches. So no, the Esses at Road Atlanta aren't any wider. Now, there are places at VIR that have seen a bit of widening in the last handful of years.

If you want to see narrow, go watch the 1999 ALMS broadcast from Mosport, which was before the widening and full resurfacing. Back then, Mosport was as narrow as 26 feet in places, and generally was about 28 feet wide.

Aside from Druids, there really are no slow corners at Brands Hatch, unlike Laguna Seca, and as such, a number of the straights are preceded by quicker corners than at Laguna, so the straights work as though they are longer. And, in fact, they necessarily must be longer on the whole at Brands. When you get down to it, Brands Hatch GP is 2.623 miles with, effectively, 9 corners. Laguna Seca is 2.238 miles with 11 corners. Do the division, it's more than 450 feet per segment in favor of Brands Hatch.

Looking at GTP/Group C records, Brands Hatch GP was about as fast on average speed as Road Atlanta or Spa-Francorchamps in the late '80s, and while Graham Hill Bend was more open then, they had the Dingle Dell Chicane and a tighter Stirling's.

Since they added the new section to Laguna Seca for 1988, it hasn't been in the same league, average speed wise. GTP record on the 2.214-mile layout was 111.8 mph. LMP2 record on the 2.238-mile layout is 114.9 mph. So, it's a little ways off the 128-mph bracket set at Brands in 1989.