Chimay

[werner]

This is the circuit of Chimay, southern Belgium. It used to be used for national Belgian races, but nowadays it is a bit worn out, and only used for some historic racing and motorcycleracing.
Bacially it is a large rectangle. It is very straightforward at the southern and western part, but at the northern and eastern part of the track, there are some high-speed kinks. It is a shame that that side of the track is lined with houses and trees, making it very dangerous. Just youtube a bit for motorcycleraces at Chimay, and you'll see what I mean.
To make the track less dangerous, they have thrown in some chicanes. Mind you, it is now less dangerous, but nowhere near safe.

To make the track safer I designed a new northeastern part. I tried to get as much of the original character in the new part. That is very high speed kinks. The track largely goes through fields. I kept everything far away for a large part of the new track, so there is no need for fencing, graveltraps etc. Only at the very north, where the new track starts, i've created some spectatorfacilities, and in the very south, near the (enlarged) paddock.

An extra bonus is that the main road to the nearest city, withs used to be the eastern part of the track, is now free to use during events.

This might be a cost-effective way to create a more usable super-highspeed racingcircuit.

[LuiggiSpeed]

That's pretty interesting, if money was no object, there's plenty of space to create there, a mayor circuit can be put in.

[werner]

I guess the money won't be there, or it would have to come from far, far away. This place is in the middle of nowhere. That probably explains all the available space :-)

[dyewat808]

Love it! Only thing I might do myself is add a couple of medium to high speed corners along the straight, if possible, to slightly reduce speeds coming into Grauls, like so:

[Yannick]

This update to Chimay is a "true werner" by which I mean it's got class!

I enjoy very much that you have left intact the long straight leading from Frere to Grauls. The infield also takes its shape from the original circuit. Very classy indeed. I think it's great that you have left the character of the original track intact (no trendy stadiums, etc.) and found a simple solution for doing that.

I know coming up with a "simple" track is always hard and you are a master at coming up with simple tracks.

I would only like to suggest we discuss one small change: The local roads look like Grauls corner has got a tighter radius than in your diagram. Such a tighter radius could help with overtaking, but also prevent it. Dijon Prenois works perfectly well with the flowing nature it's got, so how about this version of Chimay? Which gear do you recommend touring cars and GP2 to be in when running through Grauls?

[werner]

In my proposal I indeed opened up Grauls quite a bit. The current track does not have a long 90+degree corner, so I permitted myself a break from keeping the old track intact as much as possible, to add it.
Mind you, although the current Grauls is a plain 90degree righthander, where overtaking should be possible, just before you reach it, there is a kink in the track, just severe enough to prevent overtaking, or cause very high speed crashes.

Anyway, given that the track mostly will be used by motorcycles and national car-racing, cornerspeeds in Grauls even with the higher radius I proposed will be so low that heavy braking will still be required. The 1,7km straight will take care of that. I think it's layout, with the fast approach and the decreasing radius offers a great technical challenge.

[alfaracer156]

I raced a Corvette there about 2003/4 I think. Great track,pity it isnt used enough. Mike

[marcel82]

the RACB basically killed this track a few years ago
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...?f=42&t=278483

[werner]

Well, whether or not the act of not giving a licence was a just one, the result is that either something has to be done to the track (and perhaps the organisation etc.) or car racing will indeed be a thing of the past at this place.

[Teretonga]

Running on public roads is indeed becoming a thing of the past but a combined road/racetrack facility with part public road/part permanent might just work.
Runoff is always an issue so long straights with little runoff is as good as dead if the authorities have any say, as are fast corners with no runoff or 'brake failure' areas.

I have thrown a variation of your Chimay in, partly because I took a view of being as economical with the farmland as possible and creating the least interruption to farming activity.
The chicane at the end of the long straight is modelled on the one at the end of Conrod straight at Bathurst.