Abandoned tracks

[Mike E]

Thanks, John! That Rouen course looks super fast!

[JohnD]

Rouen was so fast that they had to construct the Six Freres chicane, after Jo Schlesser died in a Honda that was so dangerous that John Surtees would not drive it. Full of fuel and made largely of magnesium it was un-extinguishable.
See: http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/safety.html but only if you have a strong stomach. Schlesser's death is the second on the list. The writer of this page has done Motorsport a service by collecting rarely seen pics of many fatal accidents but the page should have an X-certificate.

And if you are feeling that way, note my Gueux video that shows, at 8:18, the cross that is the memorial to Luigi Musso, in the same Grand Prix that was Fangio's last race.

John

[Mike E]

Those fiery crashes are truly horrific. We are all fortunate, not least the drivers, that safety has improved so much in that area.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Thanks, John! That Rouen course looks super fast!

I know people will laugh at me and chunder will take the mickey if and when he finds this post, but virtual racers can get something of an idea of what driving these sensational tracks was like by driving them in Grand Prix Legends. I've actually spent a bit of time driving the old Spa recently. Just great fun. Nothing like reality of course, but it does bring home how much more difficult (and dangerous) it was then....

[Tim the Grey]

If there IS anything left of the Rouen circuit, I drove past it. Easy to find on the way to Le Mans...
The downhill hairpin is an eye opener.
Headig into Holland this year from LM, we stopped briefly at Rheims. Wow, is all I can say.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandfis...7635077017524/

I have some shots from the OLD Spa yet to be shared on Flickr. Watch my space, as they say... That bit referred to above, with DC and Lewis going round. At one point they were looking for Masta. They should have been in the layby the other side of the road. You can't MISS it from there...

[Aysedasi]

Lovely shots Tim

So have they painted up the old scoreboard now?

[Tim the Grey]

Not having been before, I don't know... I must blow 25 Euro, and join The Friends...

[Aysedasi]

This is how I've been used to seeing it:-

http://www.circuitsofthepast.nl/gall...s-Gueux_23.jpg

[Aysedasi]

Good video of a modern-day drive around the old Spa circuit here.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQo8GVruJ14

[Aysedasi]

This page saddens me. How could the locals allow this to happen?

http://8w.forix.com/rouen-99-00.html

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

This page saddens me. How could the locals allow this to happen?

http://8w.forix.com/rouen-99-00.html

Very sad.

[JohnD]

Fom personal experience - see my video - the cobbles are still there, under the tarmac!

Yes, it is sad that Les Essarts has lost all its superstructure, and indeed a quarter of the circuit. But as they say about radio - the pictures in your head are better! Thanks for those pics of the demolition. Clearly the pits were the same 'opera boxes' as Gueux.
And thanks to Tim the Grey for some most atmospheric night shots of Gueux. He showed the "Respect des pilotes. Respect du site." signs. I fear that in the UK such a place would be a sea of crisp packets and pop bottles, if not more unpleasant rubbish. In France its clean and neat, even though, AFAIK, there is no warden there all the time. Les Amis are a mighty group!

John

[Tim the Grey]

I ran out of light to get some of the shots I'd planned. There's a couple of framed photos on one wall, for instance, of a World Motorcycle speed record set at Rheims, not so long ago...
As said, the Neds would have that away in jig time, over here.

It struck me that it's saving grace is that it's away from anywhere, really...

Anyway, Glad you like 'em! Thanks for the kind words. I just tried to get the FEEL of the place.

[Aysedasi]

Very successfully indeed. It just makes me want to pay a visit myself even more.....

[fieldodreams79]

There is something eerie, haunting and sad, yet utterly fascinating about abandoned circuits. I've been meaning to read this thread for some time now. Great stuff! I have only read accounts of the he Reims circuit until this thread; looked simple and fast. Only time across the pond for me, I hung around the Gypsy Hill area, and surely would have passed by the old Crystal Palace park and circuit several times, unbeknownst to me. I did, however, know about Brands and found myself hanging out there for a Saturday of historics


Here's one that I never had the chance to get to (wasn't around at the time) and it appears it was just far too ahead of its time. It had a 1/2 asphalt shorttrack, drag strip, cart track and a daunting, high banked 3 mile road course, plus a planned, but unfinished 2 mile speedway!
Augusta International Raceway

In this case, a local nonprofit has come together to try and preserve what is left:
http://www.augustainternationalraceway.org/

Track Map / Arial Photo
Article on track history w/ photos
Video of modern day look at the circuit

Driving a King Cobra, Dave McDonald beat Jim Hall and Bob Holbert in a USSRC race merely weeks before he lost his life at Indy. This is was the only "big" sportscar race held at the circuit:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/phot...964-03-01.html

Great article with photos and clippings from that USSRC race:
http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery...raaugusta1.htm

Fireball Roberts won his last NASCAR race there on the 3 mile road course. Richard Petty, Joe Weatherly, David Pearson, Bobby Issac and Dick Hutcherson are among winners on the 1/2 mile oval. In 1964 Wendell Scott finished 18th at Augusta the week before he won his only race at Jacksonville Speedway.

[Peat]

I have just had a google map session on the place.

What a shame, looked like a mighty circuit.

[fieldodreams79]

I just took a look at AIR for the first time on Google maps and even though the life of the track was too short, it would have been only a matter of time until the Augusta sprawl made it that far south.

[JohnD]

Has anyone visited Autodrome De Linas-Montlhery?

Built in 1924 (!) it's south west of Paris and consists of a steeply banked oval with the later addition of a 'road' course, and appears completely intact. The road course is strange in that part of it is a dual carriage way! Easily visible on Google Earth at 48.62 North 2.24 East, it is still used for track days. For a video, see: http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...46%26bih%3D794

John

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by JohnD

Has anyone visited Autodrome De Linas-Montlhery?

John

Ken Block did.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TshFWSsrn8

[JohnD]

Hmmmmmmmm!

That trick driving gets me the same way as Dr.Johnson, on an usual sight in the 18th Century.
"Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

But at least that driver did take the highline around one of the banked turns so respect for that.

John

[Aysedasi]

I love that! Mad.

[Alan Raine]

I would have loved to have raced around this place....

Meadowdale in Illinois, USA - complete with a Monza style banking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadowd...tional_Raceway



http://www.mirpa.org/

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs...a-300dd0bb0f66

[JohnD]

What an extraordinary story (in Wiki)
" One [housing] developer, who was erecting a housing subdivision along the river, decided to install a road race track across the highway from the subdivision as an attraction."

Every circuit in the UK has to battle local residents, when the circuits have been in place many years while the residents whohaven't object to being able to hear engines at weekends.
What's the 'noise climate' like in the US, where of course there is a LOT more space to put noisy sports into?
JOhn

[Aysedasi]

Surely every housing development ought to have it's own racetrack? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me....... You get the clear impression though that Meadowdale was pretty well doomed from the start - a fatality in it's 3rd race.......

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Alan Raine

I would have loved to have raced around this place....

Meadowdale in Illinois, USA - complete with a Monza style banking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadowd...tional_Raceway



http://www.mirpa.org/

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs...a-300dd0bb0f66

Wow, what an extraordinary track and what an extraordinary time to be alive. It's truly a shame I was born in the 90s... by that point, even Riverside was gone.