Race tracks are primarily designed for
road racing competition through speed, featuring defined start-finish lines or posts, and sometimes even a series of defined timing points that divide the track into time sectors. A racetrack for cars (i.e. a car track) is a closed circuit, instead of a
street circuit utilizing temporarily closed public
roads. Race tracks can host individual or team sports. Racetracks can feature
rolling starts, or fixed starts, with associated equipment (starting blocks, cages, wheel traps etc.) They invariably feature a
pit lane, and usually timing equipment.
Track layout Some car tracks are of an
oval shape, and can be banked, which allows almost universal spectator views or high speed racing (cycling, stock cars). A famous one is
Nardò where high-speed manufacturer testing often takes place, and the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Some oval tracks are variations on an oval shape, for practical reasons or to introduce varying difficulties such as
Talladega (a tri-oval). Most race tracks have meandering circuits with many curves,
chicanes and changes in height, to allow for a challenge in skill to the competitors, notably
motocross and
touring car racing – these tend to predominate throughout most of the world, but especially in Europe. in Italy, it is long and is perfectly round – the image was taken from the
ISS at an angle making it appear elliptical.
Road circuits Flatter meandering motorsport courses are sometimes called 'road circuits', originating in the fact that the earliest road racing circuits were simply closed-off public roads. Some car racetracks are specifically configured in a long straight, namely
drag racing. True road circuits are still in use, e.g. the
Australian GP has been run in
Adelaide and continues to be in
Melbourne on regular city streets. The most famous of these are the
Monaco GP, and the
Circuit de la Sarthe circuit in
Le Mans, France. These are not permanent facilities built for racing (although parts of the Circuit de la Sarthe are purpose-built, and closed to the public).
Converted airfields After
World War II, many wartime airfields, particularly in Great Britain where
numerous airfields where used by RAF and
USAAF for bombing runs in continental Europe, were left without further use. The
Berlin Air Lift and later Cold War purposes required personnel with experience in quickly repairing and maintaining modern aircraft made of
aluminium or even
titanium. This coincided with a post-war boom in motorsport, and many airfields were converted to race tracks, where the circuit layout usually combined parts of the runways and the surrounding perimeter taxiways. The famous British track at
Silverstone is a former
Class A airfield, as are
Castle Combe and
Goodwood. The long runways were perfect for drag strips, one was converted into the permanent
Santa Pod Raceway quartermile. This type of track also appears on the popular motoring show
Top Gear, which is filmed at
Dunsfold Aerodrome. The
1964 Austrian Grand Prix was held at
Zeltweg Air Base, then a permanent circuit was built nearby, currently named
Red Bull Ring. Not exactly a converted airfield racetrack, but closely related to the history of aviation, is the famous 24h race track of Le Mans. The
Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans paddock is located between the
Le Mans Airfield and the
Hunaudières racecourse which in 1908 was the site of
Wright brothers flight demonstrations. ==See also==