A few old photos of old tracks.

I was looking for pics of circuits that had steep banking, but the first one was as flat as they come.

Daytona Beach.

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Hockenheim had one banked corner once upon a time but I couldn't find any photos of it.

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The most famous one is Monza. It was built in 1922 and apart from 1988, a Formula 1 race has been held there every year since its inception. For the first 50 years the track incorporated the southern half of the high speed oval, but with 52 drivers and 35 spectators killed there over the years, the banked corner at this end of the track is now lying abandoned.

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Parts of the old track can still be used by spectators.

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The corner today.

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Google Earth.

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The Avus race track just outside of Berlin was two 8 kilometer long straights with the steepest banked corner of them all at the northern end. It was 43 degrees which doesn't sound like a lot, but you would have a lot of trouble standing on it. It was dubbed "The wall of death" as it didn't have Armco around the top to stop cars flying off.

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Not the most technical track ever built.

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In 1926, the first German Grand Prix was held there in which one mechanic (riding in the car) and three track marshalls were killed. The fastest lap of the race had an average speed of 161 kilometers per hour. In 1928 it was used as a test track for rocket cars in which Fritz von Opel reached 238 kph. It was only 8 years previous that an aircraft had managed to make that speed. With another 14 years development up their sleeves, I would have thought the Germans would have made more use of rockets earlier in WW2.

Although domestic races continued through to the early 1990s, there were no Grand Prix held at the track after 1938 when Bernd Rosemeyer was killed while attempting to break the land speed record. The straights were eventually made part of the new Autobahn system.

1955.

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1959

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Around 1910, there were a few banked wooden motorcycle tracks built in America. This one was in St Louis.

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The engineers in charge of building the tracks quickly realized that the steeper the corners, the faster the riders could go. Of course the problem was that if a bike got a puncture from splinters and lost control it would slide up and out of the bank into the grandstands that were built all the way around it. In 1912, Eddy Hasha's bike did just that and killed himself, another racer, 4 spectators, and injured ten more. But the spectators still came in droves. It was a very exciting way to spend your weekend. 80,000 turned up at Chicago for the board racing, when only 60,000 were at the Indianapolis 500 3 weeks earlier. And with high spectator numbers came high prize money. $25,000 was a small fortune in those days, which was enough for competitors to risk all for a win.

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It still took awhile for common sense to prevail though, with 1/4 mile tracks being built with 60 degree banking at each end producing sub 10 second laps.

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By 1919, the governing body for motorcycle racing had banned all championship events on tracks not made entirely of dirt.  Which left the tracks empty, so a few die hards in cars gave it a go for a few years but that didn't last long.

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Edited by Shiney005, 22 July 2018 - 01:33 PM.

Edited by rodomo, 22 July 2018 - 09:05 PM.

I had forgotten about FIAT's roof top track. And I certainly had no idea that it was still there today. Cheers Rob.

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Wow havnt seen one of those in a very long time
we were mates with Barry Blake he used to race Toranas and quite good to

Edited by Indy Orange, 23 July 2018 - 12:33 AM.

Great old pics, thanks guys

Wow havnt seen one of those in a very long time
we were mates with Barry Blake he used to race Toranas and quite good to

I bought my VH SS from his brother.

Derrick Rodgers at Narrogin.

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And if anybody wondered where the Gown - Hindaugh hatch ended up........... Kellerberrin.

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And Darkan Speedway. It hasn't had cars on it for a lot of years, but a Moto X track has been built there now so at least the site is still used. The Charger was being driven by a mate of mine. I would have to have some old photos of Collie here somewhere. We still go there a couple of times a season. I think it is the last track where you can park your car at the catch fence and have it half buried by sprintcars.

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