The Tracks of Aloysius

[Aloysius]

Hey, I'm pretty new here, but this forum looks absolutely wonderful, so I thought I might stick my self out on a limb and post A couple of designs.

A little background on my interest in racing and tracks:
I first got into racing in 2001, and my interest has only grown since then. I watch everything from F1 to local racing on tiny dirt ovals. I've been drawing tracks for all this time. Generally I like tracks with lots of elavation change(probably comes from living in the flattest place on earth) and challenging corners. I guess my favourite tracks would be Spa, Bathurst, Road America, Laguna Seca, that kind of thing. Generally I'm not a big Tilke fan, though I do quite like Shanghai. As for my tack drawings, I caution that I have no artistic skill whatsoever, but I have even less computer prowess, so my tracks are hand drawn but probably not as neat as they could be.

With that said, here I go. Lets hope the image upload works.



This first track is called Clear Point. It's medium length, maybe 2 1/2 miles. It's basically on the side of a hill, so there is plenty of elevation change. The front stretch is flat, but after turn one the track begins to rise. It faltens out through 2, but the uphill climb continues through the hairpin at six. After this the road falls off, most steeply in seven and eight. By the time you reach nine, the road is level again.

Looks like the left edge got cut off just a smidge, the straightaway isn't supposed to narrow, but I think you get the idea. Oh, also, the track is not intended for F1, more likely a touring car series or Formula 3. Maybe even IRL.

[Yannick]

Welcome to the board, Aloysius.
The elevation changes of your track are quite nice. I especially like the steep downhill Esses of Turn 7 and 8. But Turn 5 might lack some runoff space.
By merely looking at the corner shapes, I would have guessed Clear Point was maybe an airport circuit or a street circuit instead of a road circuit.
Therefore, I'd like to suggest adding to your repertoire some multiple radius corners that fade in or out onto straights.
Thanks for posting.

[Aloysius]

Thanks for the feedback! I guess the corner are rather airport-esque, but I sort of intended the circuit to be a fairly simple one. Although I think 2 and 3 could use a bit of livening up. Thank you!

[LuiggiSpeed]

That's pretty cool to my eyes

[TilkeWannabe]

Hi Aloysius. I think the track is great with the added elevation changes and it does look like a street track or an airfield track, but who cares? Good first effort.

[Aloysius]

Well, Here my second post. This one is called Ocean City, and it's about 3.25 miles.



This track is much flatter than Clear Point, though the run from 4 to 6 is down hill, and conversely 7 and 8 are slightly uphill. I think the pit lane might be a bit short, depending on the size of the field, so if anyone has any idea on this I'd love suggestions.

[Yannick]

I like this one much better than your first effort. It has some very nice corner shapes, especially at the end of the lap. The Turn 1-2-3 chicane is very modern. Tilke uses these types of chicanes, too, and they do have the desired effect to promote overtaking. So I think this is a good choice. Your infield loop looks somewhat unusual to me, but that's a good thing, too, for variety's sake.
And the final section coming from Turn 13 along the straight through the curves from Turn 14 to the start-finish straight is wonderfully old-style.
I'd only like to suggest one change: please push the section from Turn 10 to Turn 13 further to the left (that is a bit down the following straight) to prolong the straight between Turns 9 and 10. That way, Turn 10 would be another guaranteed overtaking spot.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Don't all snigger at once but .....


























I'd change the direction with a tweak to 15,16and 17 and maybe 5,6and 7

[TilkeWannabe]

I like it the way it is. It's very nice. I'm not sniggering at SBF either, if he wants to do an edit of almost every track, that's his choice. I am quite confident that's what SBF means....right?

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The snigger comment was in reference to having had fun made of continually changing the original direction of other members posts by way offereing an edit.

I may not produce an edited version, but just looking at the original image I try to visualse the circuit. If I feel that it doesn't quite work, then I look for simple changes that I feel would make it work. and the simplest change for line drawings in particular is the direction.

That goes for all the circuits posted not just this one.

In this case I feel the change of direction would result in fewer "physical" tweaks to the design than the original.
What Yannick suggests about the top pair of chicanes has merit and I'm sure would work, but I try to stay within the "footprint" of the original design.

[Aloysius]

Thank for all the comments. I especially like Yannick's suggestion about turn 10, that would really create another overtaking place. As soon as I have time I'll try to put up an edited version.

[Tathrim]

Fair comment, SBF. we're all having a joke. I wasn't trying to do damage or anything (unless it involves taking a bomb to a Tilkedrome, like Bahrain.)

Seriously though, I agree with you, as I would change it to get 13 as an overtake opportunity. It's staring at me in the face, because it's so obvious.
Then ditch the top chicane, and the current turn 16, creating 2 more possible opportunities.

[TilkeWannabe]

Oh, I get it now.

[Aloysius]

Well, here the small edit of Ocean City, using Yannick's suggestions. I think It really does improve the circuit, both by adding a overtaking opportunity and creating a better flow in the 10-13 complex.

[TilkeWannabe]

Great stuff there Aloysius

[Yannick]

Aloysius, I'm glad you liked the idea. Expect my (fully fictional) OtherWorld(ly) Series to come around for pre-season testing anytime soon a/k/a once they have found a new title sponsor ;-)

[Aloysius]

Alright, I finally found a little bit of time to sort out my scanner problems and put up my next circuit. Here is Totleigh Towers. Turn 1 is slightly uphill, as is the section from 5 to 8. 11 is downhill,as are 15, 16 and the straight following them. The length is 3.2 miles.

[TilkeWannabe]

Great stuff there Aloysius BUT I would tighten turn 1 a bit, make turn 10 go out a bit further and longer but it would rejoin before turn 11 and make turns 15 and 16 into esses.