Race Track Safety Standards

[bennybigb]

Hello All,

I really enjoy this site, racetracks intrigue me as much as race cars. I noticed on one of the "news" items on this site, that a track being built in Pennsylvania meets SCCA and AMA safety standards. Does anyone know what these standards are, or where to find them? I also would like to know about how much room is needed for racetrack runoff, I know it depends on the corner, but what is needed for a fast corner....100, 300 feet, what about a slow corner, would 50 feet of runoff be adequete?

I look forward to the responses, thankyou.

Ben

[Lee Janotta]

Beaverrun? I was out there during the summer, I don't get it. I don't know if these standards even exist, the pit straight on the north course has the Armco _right_ up to the track on both sides, a spinning car there would block the whole track. No runoff on the exit to the last turn of the north course.... They hadn't even cleared the trees for the south course, so I really can't comment on that.

Eh, it's a cr@ppy track layout anyway. The corners are all way too slow. Seriously, plenty of us could have done better (check out the "My Tracks" thread).

Why they put the track in the middle of a damn forest, then chopped down thousands of trees, when they could have gotten ahold of some more open land, completely escapes me. And they left almost no trees around the track, there's no damn shade anywhere! Compare it to a track like Brands Hatch, also carved out of a forest, and this track pales in comparison.

Good example all around of how _not_ to build a race track.

[Fish_Flake]

I don't think there are any official safety standards. I think some guy from the FIA just inspects the circuit and says something like, "You need more run-off here," "This corner is too fast for the wall to be there," and "You'll need a chicane on that straightaway." Either the track owners are giving that man too much scotch or too little these days, if you know what I mean.

Really, there are only two people that build circuits anymore. One of them is Hermann Tilke, whom we are all familiar with, and the other is some English guy named Alan Wilson who has been constructing a bunch of bush league tracks in the U.S. Apparently, he's married to that Wilson gal who tried to do Formula 1 in the '70s.

Tilke wasn't a circuit guy to begin with; he started out building these big, elegant grandstands with funny roofs. He wants all the F1 fans to sit in his bleachers and watch the race without obstruction, which explains his detest for elevation changes and trees.

Wilson, on the other hand, has been organising races for years, so I wouldn't expect him to pen a lot of the **** he's put his name on. Let's just say that he lacks some creativity in his design. This is the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama...
http://www.wilsonmotorsport.com/Imag...ups/barber.jpg
...And the Mid-America Raceway in Iowa...
http://www.wilsonmotorsport.com/Imag...midamerica.jpg
...The Arizona Motorsports Park...
http://www.wilsonmotorsport.com/Imag...ps/Arizona.jpg
...And the proposed Comp-Speed Motorplex in China...
http://www.wilsonmotorsport.com/Imag.../compspeed.jpg

[Lee Janotta]

Tilke GmbH, of course, is co-owned by one Mr. Bernard Eccelstone. So anyone who says the whole damn system isn't repleat with bribes, kickbacks, and outright extortion, is just plain naive. So much for motor_sport_.

Cripes, the designs from Wilson's firm are about as exciting as watching paint dry. And yes, he designed that rubbish track in Pennsylvania I was ranting about earlier. http://www.wilsonmotorsport.com/Imag...eavercolor.jpg

[DAVID PATERSON]

I believe the FIA does have a definitive set of rules for NEW tracks. Corners over crests, reducing radius corners and off camber corners are all banned for example and they also have a sim program which calculates road speed at each point for a particular vehicle and that speed, combined with the angle of the corner determines how big the gravel traps must be and how far back the walls must be etc.