Belo Horizonte Track Challenge

[Alwaysfirst]

It's been a while since the last Paint-style challenge so here's one.



These are the remains of a track 30 miles outside the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. Due to the loss of the Rio circuit due to development & the increasingly poor state of the facilities at Interlagos the Brazilians are looking for a new FIA Grade 1 circuit for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The original track was shut in the late 50's after a fatal accident when a driver ran wide in the final corner & smashed into the pitlane, not, at the time, protected by a wall. 2 drivers & 18 people in the pit lane lost their lives & many more were injured. The track & facilities are now completly derilict except for one remaining grandstand (purple) which is also in a poor state of repair & due for demolition. It is up to YOU to create a new track based on the remaining sections.

Guidelines
The track must incorporate all of the remaining sections of the old track (in brown). The track must include a stadium section, whilst keeping the general speed of the track high. The pitlane must be at least doubled in length & moved to the inside of the track. Dark green = forest: Local authorities want deforestation to be kept to a minimum, but the corner in the forest must be kept. Blue = a lake: Due to the change in elevation (the top edge gently slopes into the water whilst the bottom edge has a cliff on the waters edge) you may not go over the water. The track may be clockwise or anticlockwise.

Enjoy!!!

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The layout of the old sections still tend to flow together so I'll offer up something nice and simple.

It's Anti-clockwise

[Lustigson]

Nice challenge. I must find myself some time to do it. It's been a while, though. :-)

[Iceman13]

What is the scale of the thing? I´ll do it when I have time.

[Alwaysfirst]

Scale is up to you. I suppose along the guidelines of between 3.7 & 7km...

[chemhead1]

Well, it took me all of this afternoon but here we go. I admit I may have gotten a little sloppy near the end, but I still like how it came out. And the sections we were given really flow well, IMO.

Shamshiel International Circuit At Belo Horizonte

(Click Picture for Larger View)

And if you're wondering, yes, that IS a football pitch inside the last turn.

In the first thumbnail, the old sections are shown in yellow. Everthing else is obviously the multiple layouts.

I named it Shamshiel because the GP circuit (Thumbnail 2) resembles the angel Shamshiel from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I semi-cheated here because while I did use all the old turns, the GP circuit would be the shorter one outlined in Thumbnail 2. The Endurance circuit would be Thumbnail 3. And finally, the Vintage circuit is Thumbnail 4.

One noticable thing is that this does have TWO ovals, albeit the larger tri-oval would be high speed tester, even if the turns are not very banked, it would still be too long IMO to have safe competition, especially if local series wanted to use the oval, which is why the second one is there as well. This, I would estimate to be 1.5 miles, give or take, and flat, probably around the same banking as Homestead 2002 or Loudon, New Hampshire. The oval would be wide enough to promote multi-groove racing.

Now, you're probably thinking WHY I added a football stadium in this. Well, in the middle of making this, I was working on the final section, a "stadium" section as was the criteria. The form of the track came before the field idea, actually. And as I was building the stadium around that, the field just naturally felt like it fit!

Added to this was the fact that when Rio had their major renovations, it included sporting facilities but it definitely upset the track layout and essentially got rid of their oval as well. I wanted to make this a complete sport complex. Motorsport, outdoor, indoor, etc. I was actually thinking about placing an arena somewhere inside the oval, but I considered how the view across the the oval for the fans would be obstructed. Now looking back, one could be added outside the oval opposite of the Stadium or inside the northern turn of the long oval.

Rubbish at scale and whatnot, so yeah. What do y'all think?

[Lustigson]

Pretty darn cool. :-)

[ScotsBrutesFan]

A spectatular effort.

Very innovative with the dual Oval layout, and football stadium section LOL

Makes mine look rather under-done

[Iceman13]

WOW, that´s awesome, chemhead!

[Mr Pink]

Will be hard to top that one chemhead! My favourite part is the stadium, simply awsome!

I´ll try and do one too, although with the bar at that level it has to be good..

EDIT: Oh! Can´t we get a real finish to this challenge? Maybe with a poll to decide the best design? Seems as most challenges get a couple of contributions and then is forgotten..

[duke_toaster]

Can I refurbish the old stand or build an exact replica in its place?

EDIT - and for scaling, how long is the in tact piece of the old course?

[jab]

OK, I've done 2. I was most of the way through the first when I realised I wasn't supposed to cross water or go through too much of the forest. So I finished it and then modified it to keep in the rules



Attempt 1 features both a bridge and a tunnel under the lake. I've done a stadium section which has been done so that the cars enter it twice in a lap. The track is fast but has slower sections to keep high speeds down, including one in the forest. Also I've done a few fast sweeping esses. Quite a long track, with the option for a few short circuits (cutting on the long straight, or 1 of the 2 purpose built shortcuts - also a pit lane for this on the site of the old grandstand, and the long straight can be used as a drag strip). You can choose the direction - works both ways, I think



Attempt 2 cuts out the bridge and tunnel, and has a shortened forest section. The cars still go through the stadium twice but the track has altered, with the track going at a right angle to how it went before

Not as good as chemhead's, though

[Yannick]

This is the first time I've tried to draw a track with Paint, since I normally use paper and a pencil and just photoshop around a bit, so please excuse my graphics. Thanks.

I've chosen a scale somewhat smaller than chemhead1 and jab have, so my design is eligible as a track for F1. Not much thought went into the design itself, though, because I was struggling with my computer's mouse. It's clearly not a mouse trained for racing

Anyhow, the circuit should be somewhere between 5 to 6 kilometers in length, and it runs clockwise. The stadium section that was required by the contest is located around Turn 1. The sharp right-hander at the entrance to the ancient forest section is meant to slow cars down in the remainder of the forest section, to save runoff space and trees. After that, there are the Esses, which are somewhat inspired by the Hermanos Rodriguez Mexico City track. A parabolica-shaped corner then leads towards the edge of the lake. Then, the large Lake corner follows, a long-winded left-hander that goes through several apexes and gradually winds itself up onto the cliff on the southern edge of the lake, going through several elevation changes and different cambers. The penultimate corner is a faster sweeper than the final corner, actually, so the original character of that corner as one in which you need to break, is not lost.

And here's the graphics:

[duke_toaster]

Not sure on scale.

Unlike many tracks with them, the stadium section is at the start.

Turn one is a right hander - second or third gear. BTW, the stands are in a broken U shape ... maybe a possible to put temporary seating on the motorsport asphalt and use it for athletics and/or football.

Then comes Parabolica - turn two. As the name suggests, it's slow on the entry but it's a matter of seeing who has the balls to drop the hammer first on the exit.

Then comes T3 and T4 - Senna Chicane. A right followed by a tight left.

After this, the circuit changes totally - it becomes full of fast corners and few straights. There will be debate on if something is a real turn or not in places ...

T5 - Fittipaldi - openish right hander that feeds out on to a slightly curved straight.

After this is T6 - Piquet. A Silverstone-esque flat out/lift 'n down right hander.

T7-9 is the real main corner of the track - a not-sure-how-many-apex right hander a la turn 8 but irregular, incorporating part of the old track in to the circuit.

T10 is a long kink (like a 130R lite) leading up to ...

T11 and T12 - a open left/right where it's not that clear where one finishes and the other starts.

T13 is a tightening (but still rather open) right hander. I guess it could be used as part of an oval. This also marks the start of the Lake Section.

T14, T14 and T16 are three slow (compared to the rest of the track) and irregular corners that skirt around the lake, creating opportunities for some battling for position.

T17 is the final corner, like T5 but more open.

[Matt]

Circuito Internacional De Belo Horizonte
Tarmac Runoff Is For Pussies.

Here's my fantasy course, not as good as the others, but, oh well.

Runs clockwise, no idea on length, my scale sucks, haha.

T1 - Silly fast right hander, nicknamed "Balls Out," by many a driver.

T2 - Sweeping, flat-out left hander.

T3 - "The Kink." 'Nuff said.

T4 - Taken flat, balls to the wall right hander, looooooooooooong, separates the men from the boys.

T5 - The Hairpin. Moderately slow 2nd gear left. Good overtaking opportunity.

T6/T7 - The esses, reminiscent of Suzuka, are very sweeping, and fast.

T8 - A set up for T9, can be used to start some lurid overtaking maneuvers.

T9 - Right hander, almost 180 degrees in rotation, a favourite place for drivers to either pass, or get off good, since the second longest straight follows it.

T10 - A 3rd gear left hander, following one of the longest straights on the circuit. A favourite passing zone for most drivers, and it takes balls of steel to pull off well.

T11 - A quick little left-right flick, onto the straight leading to the Stadium section.

T12/13/14/15 - The Stadium section, mandatory in building for the track, so, it was mainly an afterthought. However, it managed to be a great area for overtaking, and according to the drivers, flows very nicely.

T16 - A super quick right hander, taken flat for most cars. Chicane in the inside of the corner, for motorcycle racing.

T17 - The Final Corner, leading onto the long, long front straight.

Comments are wanted!

Thanks,
Matt.