Thursday, April 22, 2010

Design Your Own Race Course III: A Course in Every State and US Territory

That's right, we're going to try and design a road course in Every state.

Located just three miles west of Fort McClellan. A nearly 3.5 mile, 20-turn monster.

Designed along the runways of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. 4.4+ miles, roughly 18 turns. I don't know if we'll see a track this long again.

The airport of American Samoa is actually built on man-made peninsulas going out into the ocean. This is perfect for a race course. The 3.74 mile course looks very simple, but its 11 turns can be deceptively tricky. A good course for overtaking.

I'll confess, it's harder than you think to find a place to design a track in Arizona. We found a spot for this 18-turn, 1.5 mile course to the southeast of Tuscon.

So there's this field about 30 miles south of Pine Bluff. Good place for a 1.97 mile, 16 turn road course.

The Pacific Coast along northern California was begging for a road course. We deliver. This 3.02 mile, 16-turn course has a Shangai-esque straight that measures nearly three-quarters of a mile.

The first "Figure 8" track we've designed. This 2.25 miles, 18 turn track uses an existing bridge. It's located just outside Colorado Springs.

Connecticut is another of those states in which it is difficult to design a track.

This track is designed just outside the small town of Farmington. It comes in at 2.54 miles and 19 turns, with one incredibly sharp hair pin.

The Nation's Capital course is a 2.8 mile, 16-turn street circuit blazing through the National Mall and around the Washington Monument.

The 2.1 mile, 20+ turn track outside Tallahassee seems a good place. Sure Florida has Homestead, Sebring, and the Streets of St. Pete.

There's a field outside Maysville, GA that holds a rather Bahrainesque track. This tracks comes in at 20-turns and 2.01 miles.

The small island nation of Guam gets a race course right by the sea. This 17-turn, 2.95 mile course slopes down to the ocean. Very picturesque.

A road circuit in Hawaii seems easy, right? Not really. This 1.75 mile track seems better suited for MotoGP than for something like F1 or the BTCC.

This 20-turn, 1.5 mile track was designed around Boise State's famous blue turf football field.

When I saw the town in Illinois named Oblong, I knew it would be a great place for a track. This 2.53 mile, 16-turn track is reminiscent of the Formula 1 course at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

You would think that any track designed in the state of Indiana would have to be near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but this track is just outside Gary, Indiana. It's one of the longer tracks in our design archive, coming in at 2.95 miles and roughly 24 turns.

Located about three miles west of Pleasantville, Iowa is this 2.2 mile, 13-turn track with almost no elevation change.

Near Junction City, Kansas is a course shaped like a #3, which is, appropriately, not 3 miles long, but only 2.89 miles. This course has 13 turns.

The Kentucky course is one of the longest we've designed. It's 3.9 miles and 15 turns with one of the longest, sweepingest curves we've got to offer.

Call us crazy for all these tracks on college campuses, but here's another. This time on the campus of the University of New Orleans. This track is 3.33 miles and 17 turns.

Near the Presidential retreat of Kennebunkport is this track. It's almost exactly 2 miles in length with 13 turns and a Sepang-style straight-hairpin-straight combo.

Just for fun!

If anyone would appreciate fast cars on a tricky course, it would have to be the kids at MIT, right? The Boston road course runs on the MIT campus and measures 3.597 miles with 10 or 11 turns, depending on how you count the hairpin.

A race course on the UP? You bet. This course is 2.58 miles and 18 turns.

A street course in Minneapolis seemed fitting. This time it's 2.18 miles and a rockin' 23 turns.

The Mississippi road course is located just outside Memphis. It checks in at 2.13 miles, 23 turns, and is one of my personal favorites.

The 2.43 mile, 17 turn St. Louis Street course goes by the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium.

Montana is so big that it's hard to find a good place near enough to a population center for a track. This circuit checks in at 3.35 miles and 15 turns.

The Nebraska circuit comes in at 3.5 miles and a mere 8 turns.

This course is located just outside Reno, Nevada. It weighs in at 3.27 miles and 10 turns, and is actually farther west than Los Angeles.

Just north of the White Mountains State Park is this "shark" shaped road that makes a perfect "Nordeschleife" style track. This is 3.5 miles and 17 turns of rambling through the forest.

This circuit is inspired by the Catalunya circuit in Spain. It measures 3.69 miles and has 14 turns. The prominent feature of this track is a straight the measures nearly one mile.

The NM Road Course at Roswell checks in at 3.49 miles and 14 turns.

I really wanted to do the New York circuit on Manhattan Island, but it truly was not feasible. This island, though, works very well, as it would nicely house this 21-turn, 3.27 miles street circuit.

The 3.3 miles, 15 turn North Carolina road course sits near Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Just outside Fargo is the North Dakota road course. Its 3.3 miles and a total of 13 turns.

Located on a tiny string of island in the western Pacific Ocean, the best we could do is a 2.05 mile, 20-turn oceanside track that treks through a small bit of forest/jungle.

The Ohio Circuit is outside Mt. Gilead, around Straits Lake. It's only 1.82 miles but its 18 turns are tricky.

The Streets of Oklahoma City come to life on this course, measuring 2.09 miles and 22 turns.

At 3.37 miles and 12 turns, the Oregon Course treks through Milwaukie, just northeast of Lake Oswego.

The 3.46 miles, 14 turn Pennsylvania road course is located about ten miles northeast of Fredricksburg.

Puerto Rico checks in with a 3.9 mile street circuit.

The tiny state of Rhode Island gets a course. The 2.12 mile 14-turn track is located just outside Providence, but then again, in Rhode Island, what isn't?

The South Carolina circuit houses 16 turns over 2.7 miles on a small island in Charleston.

The South Dakota speedway is located about ten miles east of Mount Rushmore. It comes in at 1.98 miles and 13 turns.

At 11 turns over 3.52 miles, the Tennessee Circuit rests in the woods north of Chattanooga.

The Texas Circuit combines the best of road courses with the best of NASCAR. It measures a whopping 4.36 miles with 12 turns.

16 turns in only 1.875 miles seems a tight fit, but the Utah course should be fun.

The 2.83 mile, 14 turn Vermont Circuit has to be one of my personal favorites.

Located about five miles southwest of Smithfield is the Virginia road course. It runs about 2.7 miles and 19 turns.

This course is very similar to Monaco. At 18 turns and 3.15 miles, the Virgin Islands course runs through the forest, through town, along the ocean, and up a hill.

Located very close to the Pacific Coast is this circuit in the beautiful state of Washington. This track checks in at 2.27 miles and 17 turns with a decent amount of elevation change.

Another road course on a college campus, this time West Virginia University, and once again going by the football stadium. This tracks weighs in at 1.75 miles and 17 turns.

Green Bay was the only logical place for this track. It's rather long, roughly 2.9 miles and less than 10 turns.

The simplest track we've designed is the Wyoming Road Course. It is nearly an oval, with only 12 turns, none measuring more than 90-degrees. Overall length on this track is 2.48 miles.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Okay. I finally had a chance to read this post.

Dear Lord!

Seriously, if your day job fails you, become a road course designer and replace Herman Tilke!