Antwerp Kattendijk

werner · 25 Jun 2009, 09:53 (Ref:2490327)

Hi guys,

Here is my latest track. I am surprised I've never thought of this before, but better late than never.

The area
Kattendijk is a streetcircuit, located in a neighbourhood in the north of Antwerp. It circles an old harbour, that used to be surrounded by heavy industrie. At the northern of the circuit that industrie is still active, but the southern part of the track is now redeveloped into a modern urban residential area. At the south-western shore of the water inside the circuit, Antwerps highest residential towers are being built, and just 200 meters south of the track a new building for the largest modern art museum of Antwerp is under construction.

The 2 northern entrances are well reachable by car. There is a lot of parkingspace available at the parkinglots of the several factorys in the area.
If you want to come by public transport, several tramlines close to the 2 southern entrances bring you trough the city or to the trainstation.
An interesting way to come to the track is by boat. If you own a yacht, there is plenty of parkingspace as you can see.

That brings us to the places where you can stay. If you don't have the luxury of a boat to stay on, you can offcourse find more than enough hotels in Antwerp. But if you want to, you can also stay at a small camping (brightgreen).

The track
The anticlockwise track starts with a fast lefthand bend. You have to be carefull for vehicles exiting the pitlane. Luckily you can see them early, and the track is pretty wide. A short straight leads you to a slow esse, first right, then left. The exit leads you to a 800m 'straight', which is full of little kinks, the last double one being the hardest. Immediately after you have to brake very hard for the slowest corner on the track, a hairpin. It is one of the main overtaking spots at the track. A large grandstand makes sure a lot of people can see the action.
You exit the hairpin, going full thotlle through 7, crossing the London-bridge (yes, it really has that name) to brake for the very straightforward wide 90 degree lefthander at the customs office.
From there it full thotlle on the straight to the chicane. Brake hard, hard over the kerbstones an full throttle again at the now much narrower track.
Halfway the longest straight of the track (600m), just passed the mexicobridge the track widens again, and the driver has to prepare for the technically most interesting section of the track. Corners 10-13 all flow into eachother. 10 is a fast lefthander, where you have to brake in the corner for the much slower round righthander number 11, which itself ends in the hard 90 degree lefthander 12. Accelerating out of it you immediately have to negotiate corner number 13. When you are taking that corner, going round the beautifull firestation the track narrows again for the Siberiabridge. After that, just one easy lefthander brings you at the finisch.

bio · 25 Jun 2009, 12:00 (Ref:2490385)

This one looks just great!

Maybe a tad bit shy in corners, but the ones it features are a really good combination.

One minor issue: the pit-lane entry is really on the wrong side - but with street courses you don't really have too much of a choice, do you? I remember the almost-perfect venue I found for a street circuit in Frisco but had to abandon it for I couldn't find a good way for pit exit. So, it's something in which you really had no choice and I think you chose the best possible solution.

I like this one, thumbs up.

bio

Luke Kinsella · 25 Jun 2009, 19:03 (Ref:2490614)

I really like it, should provide close racing

Chiefy · 26 Jun 2009, 08:05 (Ref:2490899)

Agreed.

werner · 29 Jul 2009, 12:48 (Ref:2510742)

Hello guys,

I changed my Kattendijk circuit a bit. The track is now a bit less dangerous, and there is a new place where some grandstand offer a view on a nice combination of corners. To give an even better impression I added some birdview-aerial pictures.

The part I changed is the part from the first slow esse to the hairpin. This kinky fast piece of track had a few problems. Firstly it is a bit narrow. Secondly, wenn taken at full speed, the bridge over the lock will act as a ramp. Flying cars are apreciated in rally's, but racecars won't be able to cope with smashing on the tarmac every lap. Not to mention the problems with the aearodynamics of winged singleseaters and sportscars.

In my current version the crest is in the brakingzone for the new corner. The cars will stay with their tyres on the tarmac, but I guess the crest will still be significant enough to make the car feel light and unstable on the turn-in. This will make the corner quite a challenge.

werner · 29 Jul 2009, 12:49 (Ref:2510745)

And the last pictures

shambles · 29 Jul 2009, 15:16 (Ref:2510833)

Great circuit.

bio · 29 Jul 2009, 21:42 (Ref:2511220)

Yeah, it still is, definitely.

bio

LuiggiSpeed · 30 Jul 2009, 02:14 (Ref:2511353)

I have safety concerns at a couple of spots, I know street circuits are for cars,sans Macau, and the Isle of Man, but there are certain corners there that are pointing to walls or grandstands at high speed braking areas, sooner or later, somebody is going to overshoot and get impaled in a grandstand and there will be an awful lot of meat to clean up.

werner · 30 Jul 2009, 09:50 (Ref:2511509)

Huh, wich ones? Mind you, the track is anticlockwise. The other brakingzones have runoffareas of at least 30 meters. That is not a lot in converntional terms, but for a street-circuit it is quite royale imo.

I wouldn't race it with a bike though, that's for sure. (Although here in Belgium there are some very dangerous bikeraces on streetcircuits! See for instance this video)

LuiggiSpeed · 31 Jul 2009, 02:08 (Ref:2512099)

Quote:

Originally Posted by werner

Huh, wich ones? Mind you, the track is anticlockwise. The other brakingzones have runoffareas of at least 30 meters. That is not a lot in converntional terms, but for a street-circuit it is quite royale imo.

I wouldn't race it with a bike though, that's for sure. (Although here in Belgium there are some very dangerous bikeraces on streetcircuits! See for instance this video)

My mistake!

I got it backwards!

Luiggi

On another note, those folks are having a blast aren't they?

It doesn't look that bad,I woould do that on a snap!

Quintin03 · 31 Jul 2009, 07:31 (Ref:2512186)

Werner, do you know anything about a Belgian law that makes it impossible to race on the road? I heard that's why they are building a new permanent circuit at Mettet.

bio · 31 Jul 2009, 08:48 (Ref:2512230)

Aren't some parts of the Spa cirquit still used as public roads?

bio

werner · 31 Jul 2009, 09:35 (Ref:2512270)

AFAIK there is no law that forbids racing on public roads. Belgium has a large rallyscene that depends on it, and as I showed there are a few motorcycleraces on public roads.

Spa is totally permanent nowadays. It used to be partially public road until maybe 10 years ago. (Stavelot-La Source-Les Combes) I can still remember the first time I arrived at Spa. I was maybe 12 years old. We were going on holiday to Germany in my parents car. I noted a sign along the road that said we where heading for the circuit. 'Interesting', I thought. And another one, and another one... And suddenly we were at the junction that La Source used to be. My father (who is a very calm man, and is totally not into racing whatsoever) drove at Spa, through Eau Rouge and on the straight to Kemmel! It was quite special to just drive on the piece of tarmac that is the holy grail of motorsports, and that I only knew from the tv.

About the video: Did you not see the lamp-posts at the exit of that fast lefthand-corner? Brrr...

Quintin03 · 31 Jul 2009, 09:54 (Ref:2512284)

Ok. I think it's just something the FMB has done to make Belgian motorcycle racing safer, races with classic motorcycles are still held at Chimay. It could also be a law that is there only for motorcycle racing.