Old Race Tracks

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 11:30 am

Originally posted by Grant Ellwood
Oran Park?

Originally posted by bry3500
Catalina Park?

To clarify a little, there are two straights on this circuit which are each longer than the total length of the two circuits mentioned.

Look at the trees for clues...

khyndart in CA · Post by **khyndart in CA** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:55 pm

Great question Ray,
Vehicles driving on Right side of road, palm trees and a 100 + year old tree growing where the track went near water !
I am looking forward to the answer.

Ken H

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:18 pm

Oldfart wrote:Add in all the Grass track venues and it's huge!
Waharoa, Raglan,..

Oldfart, Yes I forgot those, - there was Kerpehi Domain too, one of the first race meetings I drove myself to in February 1967 and saw Jim Boyd in the Lycoming .. plus some V8 Coupes from the Pukekohe Car Club and elsewhere in the Waikato / Auckland regions.

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:21 pm

Ray Bell wrote:To clarify a little, there are two straights on this circuit which are each longer than the total length of the two circuits mentioned.

Look at the trees for clues...

" longer " so perhaps Longford in Tasmania - where the circuit ran right past the Local Tavern .As a Track now Long Gone, but the Pub still there !!

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 1:15 am

No, not Longford...

Catalina was 1m 512yards IIRC, Oran Park's longest version was about 1.6 miles, so I'm talking about two straights on a circuit each of over three miles. Longford was 4.5 miles, but that included three long straights with the longest about a mile, though it did have a good long windup with a very shallow corner onto it.

Neither of the circuits are in Australia. As I said about the first one, there's clues in the trees.

Milan Fistonic · Post by **Milan Fistonic** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 1:50 am

Ray Bell wrote:No, not Longford...

Catalina was 1m 512yards IIRC, Oran Park's longest version was about 1.6 miles, so I'm talking about two straights on a circuit each of over three miles. Longford was 4.5 miles, but that included three long straights with the longest about a mile, though it did have a good long windup with a very shallow corner onto it.

Neither of the circuits are in Australia. As I said about the first one, there's clues in the trees.

Is it Watkins Glen? The circuit used in 1948 was 6.6 miles.

khyndart in CA · Post by **khyndart in CA** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 2:16 am

I thought it might be the original Singapore track at Old Upper Thomson Road but all my guessing does not include the driving on the right side in modern day driving.

Come on Ray, how long are you going to test / taunt us ?

Ken

John McKechnie · Post by **John McKechnie** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:33 am

graeme lawrence - V6 Ferrari and some Aussies raced on a narrow road race track similar trees next to it in Kuala Lumpa-Selangor Grand Prix and Malaya /Singapore in 1969 /1970.
Frank Matich hit a tree in his McLaren M10A 1970 ...is one of those trees the one?

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:42 am

No, no, no!

All these circuits you have mentioned have no long straights like this. I am talking about straights FOUR MILES long. Each.

Please, gentlemen, look at the trees.

John McKechnie · Post by **John McKechnie** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 9:18 am

AVUS-
At the time of opening, AVUS was 19 1⁄2 km (12 miles) long – each straight being approximately half that length, and joined at each end by flat, large-radius curves, driven counter-clockwise...WIKKIPEDIA

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 10:50 am

Not Avus...

And Avus had nothing of the bends I have shown anyway. In fact, the closest anyone's been was the first person to have a guess! And I don't mean which circuit he guessed, either.

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 12:01 pm

I do hope that overnight someone will get this worked out...

Then I can throw this one at you:

Though it is true that there is already another one on the board.

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:26 pm

Re " All these circuits you have mentioned have no long straights like this. I am talking about straights FOUR MILES long. Each.

Please, gentlemen, look at the trees. "

As Spike Milligan once said " I talk to the trees, thats why they put me away "

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:20 pm

There is something unique about the appearance of many of the trees around this circuit...

It shows up in this painting:

Does that help?

khyndart in CA · Post by **khyndart in CA** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:38 pm

Wild guess but the Vanderbilt Cup races held from 1908 to 1911 ran on a course in Savannah, Georgia. USA.
It had long straights up to 5 miles long and ran past trees "bearded with Spanish Moss. "
So it can be seen that this has not been a race track for a long time and the cars drive on the right side etc..

(Am I getting close Ray ?)
p.s. It was the Grant Ellwood tip that helped me, thanks.
Ken H

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 9:09 pm

You got it, Ken!

I was delighted to drive around it and photograph it in 2014, what an eye-opener it was!

And thank you for telling me that is 'Spanish Moss'... I always wondered what it was from the first time I saw drawings of it in Peter Helck's book, The Great Auto Races.

I actually felt sure that others would have identified it from that alone.

Okay, chaps, let's press on with the second one... the pics (which I mistakenly thought I'd already posted, sorry):

Please note, these are not the circuit from which I posted the photo in post No. 151.

Grant Ellwood · Post by **Grant Ellwood** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 10:56 pm

Ray Bell wrote:You got it, Ken!

I was delighted to drive around it and photograph it in 2014, what an eye-opener it was!

And thank you for telling me that is 'Spanish Moss'... I always wondered what it was from the first time I saw drawings of it in Peter Helck's book, The Great Auto Races.

I actually felt sure that others would have identified it from that alone.

Okay, chaps, let's press on with the second one... the pics (which I mistakenly thought I'd already posted, sorry):

Please note, these are not the circuit from which I posted the photo in post No. 151.

Benalla?

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 4:40 am

Benalla was a triangle of roads on an area which later became a country airstrip...

From memory it was less than two miles around.

Once again a clue... the cars are driving on the RH side of the road.

Ray Bell · Post by **Ray Bell** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 5:04 am

But you've got me thinking, Grant...

How did you know about Benalla? It's a long, long way from VA.

Grant Ellwood · Post by **Grant Ellwood** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:02 am

I'm a Kiwi Ray, been living up here for just 20 years although before that I visited US often (and Australia). I'm moving to coastal North Carolina soon, should have been late last year but hurricane Florence damaged our house there. Benalla is one of those names that stuck in my memory from regularly reading one of your fine racing magazines back in the '60s, Sports Car -? I recall an article that described the testing crash that wrecked a Lotus 19, I think a journalist was driving? You can tell by the question marks that my memory isn't that great! Thanks for posting those track quizzes, very interesting and frustrating at the same time...
I first thought it might be Reims but wasn't sure about which side of the road they drive on in Belgium...

The Roaring Season

Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

I talk to the trees .............Four Miles of them each way ....

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks

Re: Old Race Tracks