Flumpy Vale Raceway

[jab]

Here's another of my tracks with a story like Raven Park

Flumpy Vale Raceway was opened in the 1950's during the influx of British racing circuits in the post-war period. It was designed around the (fictional) Flumpy Vale area, half in a large field and the other half in an oak woods near the hamlet of Flumpy. The eastern section was in the field and flat-ish, albeit with numerous bumps and undulations like the rest of the track. The first corner, Hamlet, was the closest to Flumpy, and was a fast right hander. After this were the sweeping S-Bends, followed by the hairpin Pond, which was surprisingly next to...a pond

After this was the flat out sweep of Long Log, followed by the long straight, and the daunting Forest Kink (think Bridge at Silverstone but with a long straight before), which was just inside the woods. Then it was another shorter straight uphill before the Steel sweep (because you had to have nerves of steel to get through there at as high a speed as possible). Then it was another fast corner, Flumpy Wood, before the long right at Stump, the fast lefts of Oak Vale. Then it was up a steep gradient to Peak, before the downhill sweeps of the Fast Esses. This then led out of the woods to the final corner, the banked Finale

It was a devastatingly fast track, and with the rising speeds of cars through the 1950's and 60's it got exceedingly dangerous, with only grass bankings and a few armco barriers as protection. At Pond there was minimal run-off as the pond itself was only a short distance away and there was a potential for serious accidents if throttles were to stick open or brakes were to fail

In 1967 rising star Billy Simpson was killed in a horrific accident when his suspension failed at high speed on the long straight after Long Log and he went through the poorly prepared armco barrier. The public was outraged by the incident and the circuit owners were forced to sell the track to try and salvage their reputation. The track lay dormant for a number of years before being bought by a group of enthusiasts. They revamped the track to make it much safer, and that meant layout changes. 2 chicanes and an extension were added, whilst other corners were modified to slow the cars down. It was also resurfaced eliminating the bumps, and a new short circuit was added to allow more club racing to take place

Today this short circuit is ideal for saloon car racing, although the circuit's bid for a BTCC race was rejected due to lack of facilities. There are plans to expand, with the pit lane possibly moving. Very few series use the long loop so the owners are keen to attract more championships to use it

Here's the original layout


Here's the current layout


I actually designed this backwards. I designed the short circuit first, added an extension, and then did the original "classic-style" layout by modifying that. So originally the chicanes were part of the design - thought I'd add the Total Chicane to make it more interesting and technical, whilst Billy's was in there because originally I had the short circuit to be like a full length track. Now the scale's changed it doesn't look so fantastic IMO. But never mind - it's needed on the current one because otherwise it would just be insanely fast and too long at full throttle

IMPORTANT: This isn't meant to be an F1 track

I'll stick up an overlay soon

[Mr Pink]

I like it! But how long would it be?

[jab]

Not sure, I'm not good on distances. To give you an idea the S/F straight would be just about long enough to have a reasonably sized pits complex, but not a big one. Like Oulton Park's perhaps?

I suppose the Total Chicane would be about the same size as the Ireland chicane at Silverstone on the International circuit

Does that help? Would be quite a long circuit. Maybe out to Spa length, though I'm not sure...

Overlay

[Rockmunky]

Well, as far as i know, the pit straight at Oulton from the exit of lodge and including deer leep is around 600m according to Google Maps. But that was me taking a rough measurement.

So yours would be quite long.

Nice track too, nice to see some good fast corners again.

[ensign14]

Pre-race entertainment from Grandpa Flump and his flumpet. Other attractions are planned, but Pootle is keeping them under his/her hat.