Club Track on Terrain w/ Flyover

[clarkma5]

So I'm in the initial stages of designing yet another track. This track location is a real-world location on open land near Gilroy, CA. I've started with a sketch on a piece of paper and developed it into a (rather rough) photoshop drawing as a start. I'm looking for feedback!

The track is located in an open valley. It is a versatile club track layout, meaning it can run as a full track or as two separate loops. There is a flyover bridge in the middle of the course. On the map, the black route is the full course, the gray line is the primary pit lane, and the red lines are the bits and pieces that make the loops work separately (the eastern loop uses the flyover in its short form, the western loop skirts around the flyover and has its own pit lane). This track borrows from my local club track Buttonwillow once again (two separate but combinable loops), as well as elements of Suzuka (the esses and the crossover), Monza (a parabolica rip-off), and some of my favorite local street corners (in particular the eastern loop's flyover return, which is an attempt to recreate a local highway offramp in race track form). Other than that, I tried to involve the local terrain in a fun way.

I'm pretty happy with my pit ins and pit outs conceptually, but finetuning is always good. I think I need to open up the paddock area more because the pit lanes are too close to each other (currently about 200 feet between the two pit lanes).

I'm not sure of the distance but eyeballing it I'm guessing the full track is about 3 miles or a little more, the west loop is about 2 miles, and the east loop is about a mile and a half long.

[clarkma5]

I created a second version I'm happier with.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Can you confirm the track direction of each loop?

I'm guessing that the T1 of each is at the Southern end (as drawn) of their pit straights.

If so I have issue with two aspects of the Shorter (Eastern) circuit.
Firstly the pit exit would be onto the racing line as the racing line would be on the outside of the circuit at that point.
Secondly the extremely tight 270 degree down hill corner that creates the Short loop. Not only is it very tight, but from a fast approach coming out from the parabolica there is also very little area available for run off due to the position of the Western Loop "link section"
Using your scale markers, that 270 degree corner and any run off would have to fit within 100m ...infact less as the Western link section would need some of that space too.

[Quintin03]

Great job Clarkma. I may have the solution to SBF's issues with the main short course: either create a chicane/slow section before the Parabolica or design a different and easier short course. I'd prefer the first one ofcourse.
Secondly I also have an idea for the pitlane exit: make it slightly longer and exit at the outside of turn 1.

Anyway great job Clarkma. A track to rival Suzuka.

Somewhat off topic: Sebastian Vettel said Suzuka looked like it was built by God himself. When is he saying Shanghai looks like it was built by the devil. Sorry Herman Tilke, I know it's not your fault that you can't design anything good when Bernie is looking.

[clarkma5]

SBF: I was attempting to create a track that would work in both directions on all available configurations, but I think if I had to pick my preferred direction it would be as such:

Full Loop: The direction of travel that has the cars going south on both pit straights.
East Loop: Come out of the overpass loop and onto the parabolica (clockwise)
West Loop: Anti-clockwise

For the main pit (east loop's pits)'s exit at the south end of the track, I think potentially extending that pit lane to the outside of T1 and having it dump out near the apex of T1 (or just before) so it's off the racing line. In any case, there are white lines available at pit exits and entrances to help out, and the track width can also be variable. I figured slotting people into the track at a slower corner would be safer.

The overpass loop is tight, but then again the corner itself is intended to be a slower corner (2nd or maybe a slower 3rd gear corner). I think creating more runoff space for it is a matter of just squishing the eastern loop against its hillside a little bit more to free up more area, which doesn't really change the layout of the track much. Like I said, this is a rough drawing. Thanks for your sharp eye in any case!

Quintin03: A chicane could be fit in there, and it may be smart for the short course, but I like the large speeds possible off the parabolica on the full course, where you've got the straight for the West pits coming into that hairpin. I think a future revision of this course will see there be a kink down that straight just south of the overpass.

And you saw exactly what I saw for the pit lane exit fix that I explained to SBF Well, that's encouraging! And thanks kindly for the favorable Suzuka comparison, I was definitely going for that flavor, particularly on the western loop. I think the terrain at this site really makes it very very exciting.

[werner]

I've made an edit, that solves the issue of the pitexits. Unfortunately, your of-ramp is no more.

[clarkma5]

I like a lot of the re-profiled corners on the west loop, it's really clean. I wanted to extend the east loop a bit too, but I'm not sure I like that boot-tip at the bottom of the track (I see what you mean about the pit exit fix, though). And your pit on the west loop doesn't make sense because that's the west loop's pit lane, and it exits to the east loop's side of things (that's an easy fix). Overall, though it's a really great fix...I lost the off-ramp with your design, but your new crossover design is very clean...though I think the off-ramp could get added back in quite easily in the same way as before, by completing the east loop's lap under the flyover. Well done.

[dyewat808]

ooooooooooh - I like the ramp-on bit. Thats a nifty original idea. I've always wanted to see a race track with something like that!