The Fastlane Motorsports Forum

Bottom post of the previous page:

Very unusual layout for a racing circuit.

This proposal was already on the RCDB, still original plans are always good to have.

What surprised me was where the track was positioned in it. Quick overlay, assuming orientation is right on the RCDB, S/F would have been on the downhill from the turn in of T2 to the about where that section flattens out. And the run into Moss is more of a esses section than a diving left.

Michkov wrote: ↑4 years ago Oran Park 1962-2010

Not being picky or pedantic but I think you will find that is what is known as the (Oran Park) South circuit.
The more recognised Grand Prix Circuit was an extension of the South Circuit utilising a figure of 8 section and I think introduced in 1974 when the Australian GP was held there for the first time (held there again in 1977).
I also think the original South Circuit had an extension of some 300 metres a year or so after opening and well prior to the GP circuit being introduced. That is when it went from being the initially oil sealed dirt track to a fully sealed one,(late 1964/early 1964) extending from 1.6 klms to just over 1.9 klms.
The Grand Prix section of the track added in '74 was also designed to be used as a circuit in its own right and was known as the North circuit.
There was also a very slightly altered version of the GP circuit used for and known as the Motorcycle GP track. (This had a very slight curve added into the figure 8 section.)

The SOuth Circuit was also in later years floodlit, and used for Australian NASCAR / AUSCAR night races.


Edit. I just clicked on the image above and it actually opens an image of the Grand Prix Circuit so maybe I have jumped the gun with this post.
Certainly even the South Circuit above was NOT unchanged from 1962-2010 as stated above.

No worries about being pedantic, I'm happy someone knowledgeable looks over the work for some errors. That said I think I got everything cover you mentioned.

We start in 62 with the above image which gets the extension past the dogleg in 64. That could be 63 or 64 as you mentioned, but I think the work was done primarily after the 63 season. I dont take oil sealed vs tarmaced into consideration. After the extension I call the circuit the GP circuit until the 74 extension that added the crossover when it becomes the South Circuit.
1979 adds the tangle of tarmac strips in the North loop for the kart track.
1985 takes out a left hander prior to the bridge, which is still used for the bikes
1999 adds more Kart track variants and 2001 adds the new pitlane.

Plus the MX track which is sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8ySsB_NVE&t=169s and the dirt track which only shows up in the satellite images.

There is a build but unused dragstrip I havn't drawn and I've also found a mention of a planned extension from 86 but it's only a single line nothing substantial.

The 1962-2010 refers to the whole circuit not just the 1962-63 original layout. If you havn't found the buttons that switch between the different years scroll down, they should be just below the picture and in the row below you have the various layouts for that particular evolution.

In other news, I've updated COTA and Ecce Homo

Added Readville Speedway south of Boston. One of those ex horse tracks that became a racetrack. It also operated as a boardtrack for a short while which requires another colour of track. Question is does the colour read as wood? I'm not quite sure it does. Click the picture to get to the DB and compare against dirt.

I think it works.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/137363969953355/

Thanks, looks like I need to update Riverside.

Mallala, 1961, "longer configuration"



Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190760908334658/

Beijing's Goldenport Park



@PTRACER did something change server wise? I had trouble connecting the usual way, my old FTP client mentioned something about non TLS connectiong being refused. Also I could have sworn I uploaded the Ecce Homo files, but that could have just been my brain playing tricks on me.

Donington Park updated



The old RCDB had a 2003 proposal for which I cant find any other source. I kept it in for now but I really would like to know where it came from.

Michkov wrote: ↑4 years ago Added Readville Speedway south of Boston. One of those ex horse tracks that became a racetrack. It also operated as a boardtrack for a short while which requires another colour of track. Question is does the colour read as wood? I'm not quite sure it does. Click the picture to get to the DB and compare against dirt.

Where did you get the idea that Readville was a board track?

Michael Ferner wrote: ↑4 years ago

Michkov wrote: ↑4 years ago Added Readville Speedway south of Boston. One of those ex horse tracks that became a racetrack. It also operated as a boardtrack for a short while which requires another colour of track. Question is does the colour read as wood? I'm not quite sure it does. Click the picture to get to the DB and compare against dirt.

Where did you get the idea that Readville was a board track?

Mainly inferred from this picture. The horizon seems to match the GoogleStreet view of the area. But I agree there is little mention of the track running as a boardtrack. Most sources mention only mention that the track recieved an upgrade in the 30s including banked turns and harder surface better suited to cars.
Yet if the picture linked shows the track it appears that it was a board track at least for a couple of years. Given how popular yet shortlived the boardtrack craze was the short period it was one could have slipped through the cracks.
I'll amend the page if new evidence either way turns up. I still dont know what years it would have been a board track nor the exact banking angle.

https://www.facebook.com/17988986470930 ... =3&theater

Well, I don't really see where it says that the FB picture is from Readville, but rest assured it isn't. It is, in fact, from the Baltimore-Washington Speedway at Laurel, MD. If you click on to the next picture, you get one from the concrete Narragansett Park in Rhode Island, and again it doesn't say anything in the caption or any other text that I can see. Some FB clown trying to sell every picture he can find as one of his home track?

This should be the proper Facebook post. Stupid facebook, you expect that the link to the picture would revert to the post you came from and not just show the picture without context. Say nothing about their abysmal search feature, try and find something you saw 5 minutes ago and you spend to next half our finding nothing even close to it /rant.

Anyway, I'll fix the Readville entry. Easy to do with the ovals. So to be clear we got the horse track first and later on the car only track with hard surface and banked corners. You dont happened to know when they rebuild the track for cars only do you?