Abandoned Racetracks

[Leonidae@MFT]

What if I told you Nurburgring was originally much longer? https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...chleife-sudschleife-and-betonschleife.298401/

How about Monza's oval?

What if I told you that Spa Francorchamps used to be a lot longer as well?

 

[Blitz24]

The site of OMS looks like this today.

Look at the top left corner of the picture. Looks like one of the traces of the corners of the track still exists.

 

[Ayame91]

Westwood
More info here
http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/features/stories/canadaspioneer.html

 

[Grand Prix]

http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/features/stories/canadaspioneer.html
Westwood

Very interesting. I had no idea such a track existed around here.

 

[Ayame91]

Very interesting. I had no idea such a track existed around here.

Housing and the golf club are built over it now for the most part but remnants of turn 3 still around.

Asseto Corsa has a nice version of it.

Also found this vid from the year before it closed

 

[ilTricolore]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVUS#Race_track surprised nobody's mentioned the AVUS, a track used in Germany for various Formula 1 and touring car events over the years. It was essentially two long stretches of autobahn linked at either end with banked hairpins. The autobahn is still operational today, but the banking now looks like this:

Compared to this:

EDIT: Just found this website dedicated to the very topic of this thread. http://www.circuitsofthepast.nl/en-US/

 

[GTPorsche]

I didn't know the banking was still there.

Especially since this was how it looked a decade ago....

 

[LancerEvo7]

I think the banking's been gone since the 60s.

 

[GTPorsche]

I think the banking's been gone since the 60s.

1967, yes.

 

[ScottPuss20]

Great thread!

 

[ilTricolore]

It might have been that only one turn was banked... My history on that track isn't great.

 

[GTPorsche]

Nordkurve, which was the banked curve, was the final corner on the track.

 

[ilTricolore]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up

 

[TenEightyOne]

surprised nobody's mentioned the AVUS

Back in the early 00s I downloaded Grand Prix Legends and finally got it running on my then-shed-of-a-laptop. Somehow I acquired Avus and got it to run... I've been insanely in love with the track since then

 

[GTPorsche]

https://www.google.com/maps/place/T...2!3m1!1s0x89bac06abd34ab37:0xe0a5bf8afa6ae525

The former site of Princess Anne Speedway. You can still see where part of the track was, as one of the turns is still visible due to being a paved road.

 

[jake2013guy]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Valencia street circuit.

 

[Brutaka]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Valencia street circuit.

It's not really that special of an abandoned circuit though, we are looking for ones that are being reclaimed by nature or worse; shopping malls

 

[jake2013guy]

It's not really that special of an abandoned circuit though, we are looking for ones that are being reclaimed by nature or worse; shopping malls

Fair enough. It was abandoned so I put it out there.

 

[Adamgp]

Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero:

 

[TenEightyOne]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Valencia street circuit.

You're the first... but you didn't say much about it so it was a kind of non-post

@Adamgp, what's the story behind the Cicero track? From memory that wasn't built so long ago*?

*Which could actually be a long time, hard to say any more...

 

[GTPorsche]

You're the first... but you didn't say much about it so it was a kind of non-post

@Adamgp, what's the story behind the Cicero track? From memory that wasn't built so long ago*?

*Which could actually be a long time, hard to say any more...

Chicagoland Speedway being opened in 2001 killed it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Motor_Speedway

Edit: It's now a Wal-Mart, and the horse track remains.

 

[Adamgp]

I went to a few CART races there back in '99-'00.

The track itself wasn't bad, but parking was terrible. Also wasn't the best neighborhood. Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet fixed that.

 

[QuattroDelta]

Westwood
More info here
http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/features/stories/canadaspioneer.html

That seems a kind of a weird (new) Spa.

 

[Gedi69]

It's a shame to see all these great tracks abandoned

 

[PsuPepperoni]

A couple miles from my house, there's a dragstrip that was open from 1967 to 2011, closed because some people built a neighborhood next to it and then complained about the noise until the city forced the track owners to sell it.

On an unrelated note, street racing is booming around here!

 

[Johnny1996]

A couple miles from my house, there's a dragstrip that was open from 1967 to 2011, closed because some people built a neighborhood next to it and then complained about the noise until the city forced the track owners to sell it.

Okay I'm sorry, but surely they weren't that stupid that they thought it wouldn't be noisy on race days/nights.

 

[Nish]

You underestimate people.

 

[bscar27]

A couple miles from my house, there's a dragstrip that was open from 1967 to 2011, closed because some people built a neighborhood next to it and then complained about the noise until the city forced the track owners to sell it.

On an unrelated note, street racing is booming around here!

Wow, that's a shame, the dragstrip I race at down in Ringgold, GA had the same complaints from neighborhoods not even half a mile down the road, luckily the track had been there so long that it was eligible for the "grandfathered in" rule and now we just have a curfew to abide by, the track is still running strong too!

 

[TenEightyOne]

Okay I'm sorry, but surely they weren't that stupid that they thought it wouldn't be noisy on race days/nights.

You underestimate people.

One word; Brands Hatch. Neutered by noise complaints from people who bought houses next to a racetrack.

 

[GTPorsche]

There was suppose to be a racetrack built just outside of the town I live in, but the people that lived near the proposed site complained that it would lower their property values so the track was never built, and they never found a site to put it on anywhere else.

So, Dragons Ridge was stillborn.

Edit: Not sure why the image won't show, so I'll just leave the link instead.
http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/VA/images/dragonsridge.jpg