Sherwood Motorsports Park

[shambles]

Sherwood Motorspeedway

It would be located, in a vast chasm of deserted land, located near Nottingham - hence the name Sherwood Motorspeedway, in deference to the forest in that locality that housed Robin Hood, once upon a time.

The circuit would have a great infrastructure, both pitlanes being Hi-Tech facilities, with plenty of room. There would be V.I.P, Hospitality, HeliPads, Press Towers and Vast grandstands allowing upto a maximum capacity of 250,000.

The Oval

The oval, would be a an average length of 2.8 miles, making it a SuperSpeeway. It could be visted by all types of Oval racers, NASCAR, ASCAR, IRL, Champcar, Indy Lights etc... It would run in a clockwise fashion, with the Grandstand Turn being the first corner. This is a flat right, which leads onto the 8 degree banked turn of The Run which requires a slightly wider entry, but still flat. The backstraight turn is simple, and it leads down the long back straight. The Bank, isn't banked - moreover signals the start of the banking returning, this is flat out, and gradually the banking returns to 8 degrees for The Ridge, before increasing again to 12 degrees for Marathon. Daytona is again a flat right hander, the circuit would be pretty much full throttle! It would be likely to be ran over 150 laps, thats about 420 miles. The supporting walls underneath the backstraight (to hoist it at a height over the road course) would curtail where it says Backstraight on the map, and just past where it says The Bank on the map, this is to provide adequate run-off space through the Sweep on the road course.

The Road Course

The road course then, is also run clockwise, and would be in itself about 3.5 miles. The sector points are;

Sector 1: Completed three quarters of the way up The Climb
Sector 2: Completed at The Link
Sector 3: Completed on the Start/Finish line.

The circuit could host Formula One, A1GP, GP2, F3, GP Masters, WTCC, BTCC, Renault World Series, EuroBOSS,Porsche Supercup, MOTO GP, World Superbikes and British Superbikes. The courses start/finish line would be about a mile south of the back straight of the Oval, and is about 80 foot lower than that.

From the startline would head Southwest towards the first corner, Carousel. This would be a slow to medium speed hairpin, as the cars negotiate it. It is in two parts, the entrance and the exit. You would line up your move into the entrance, looking to get alongside on the right, so you can get better traction through the exit. The corner would flow nicely. The long left hander that comes next, takes the cars uphill by about 20 ft, making the entrance for Force 10 - and uphill approach. Force 10, is a tight corner, which would provide ample opportunity to pass. The long straight that follows Force 10, is called The Climb. It does exactly what it says on the tin, dipping slightly after Force 10 (about 10 ft) before regaining that high to reach a top height of 60 ft (20 ft beneath the backstraight of the oval) before sweeping through The Switch downhill (imagine the gradients of Mosport Park for The Switch) then cars would continue flat out through Tyrell, before heavy braking into EJ10 - this would be a hard left hander, which gives cars a great passing opportunity, the approach is downhill, due to the lowering of height through the Switch (which lowers immediately at the crest) and Tyrell. EJ10 leads onto a short burst, before the double apexed corner of Vodafone. Overtaking could occur through the second part, and is not too similar to the corner at Bahrain that leads onto the backstraight (behind the pits) there. It's then a great run through Mach 5, a really quick right hand sweep, before the balanced throttled Callow. The exit of which heads right, for the tight Seaman (in honour of the pre-war British driver, Dickie) This corner would be another overtaking opportunity. Its then a case of high speed, climbing up towards the Link, before dipping heavily through the Link. Under the backstraight again, the cars start to lose height, a gradual exercise that The Descent takes care of. The Descent itself is not a straight, it is a series of deft turns, kinks and bumps. It finals straightens out - about 100 meters before the penultimate turn, The Point. This is a really tight left hander, which would provide great overtaking possibilites, as well as entriging wheel to wheel racing through the HexaTurn - a mammoth Five apex turn, which would lead smoothly back onto the start finish straight.

The amount of laps this circuit would be run under would vary from series to series, for F1 it would be about 52 laps.

The Combined Course

The combined course would be suitable for FIA GT, Grand AM and other similar series. I have added a separate track map for this course! It could be started on either startline, but I would be inclined to start on the road course. The road course joins the oval at the Esses. This is a quick right left sweep, which would put the cars on the oval, just prior to the Bank. The cars would then follow the oval normally, untill just after the Backstraight turn. After which, the Cannon hairpin comes. This is a difficult, drastically downhill corner. And would be one of the better overtaking places on the track!

I hope you like this, please comment!!

thankyou

PAUL

[mandretti39]

Originally Posted by martin-1

Sherwood Motorspeedway

The Oval

The oval, would be a an average length of 2.8 miles, making it a SuperSpeeway.

<begin rant>
The average length of an oval is NOT 2.8 miles. The longest oval in the US is 2.66 miles, Talladega Motor Speedway. I would say the average length of an oval is less than 2 miles.
<end rant>

The track looks good. Interesting shape to the oval, could be a challenge.

[JohnMiller]

Don't most ovals run anti-clockwise.

[luke]

I America they do. But there are a number of oval tracks in England and I expect over the world that run clockwise. (stock car racing which here is banger racing not NASCAR that is, with minis and stuff)

[shambles]

I made the oval run clockwise, simply to be different. Is there a rule that states all ovals must be anti-clockwise? I wasn't stating the actual length of all ovals are 2.8 miles, I am saying mine is. Just to clear that up for you guys.

PAUL

[JohnMiller]

No rule AFAIK, but you won't get any oval NASCAR-type tin-top races as the driver would be sitting against the wall...

[shambles]

Ok cool

I suppose the oval could be manouvred so as to run anti-clockwise, although I'd wonder how they would implement safety for the combined course.

PAUL

[Alwaysfirst]

Love the oval though I think even as a circuit it would be better anti-clockwise (i.e. not just for practicality). Not too sure on the road course though.

[shambles]

How come dude?

PAUL

[the_royksopp]

Isn't the poll rather irrelevant? Mod?

The track isn't all that bad though! .

[shambles]

Lol cheers dude - as for the poll, I just thought it might be a good record to top this thread, in case anyone looked at it, to gain some general opinion, and make it more interactive. But possibly it is irrelevant, i'll leave it for the mods to declare

PAUL

[Purist]

I'm that strong either way, but I think I like the road course overall. It does have some interesting corners I must say; it probably works best being run clockwise. I DO like that oval though, and with relatively low backing, speeds shouldn't get too insanely high.

Passing on the road course I think will be reasonably possible at Carousel, the Switch, Mach 5 (like the first turn at Suzuka), and the Point. I also think Force 10 and the approach to Callow have potential. Those other turns, Martin, are preceded by runs that are too short, and/or corner combinations that break the needed flow into those tighter corners. For example, EJ10 is preceded by Tyrrel, and the run up to the Link is not very long.

[shambles]

I think that's a fair assessment Purist!

Although regarding EJ10, I envisaged that Tyrrell would be flat out, like the esses sections at Magny Cours - allowing the drivers to carry there speed through to EJ10 - but maybe they would need to lift, because the straight before is to long.. so your probably right lol. I would probably tend to agree with you.

PAUL