Circuits of the past 20 Years Anniversary
On september 19, 2023 it is 20 years ago the Circuits of the past project started with an MSN Group. But the history goes back to 1989 when a guy from the Netherlands, named Herman Liesemeijer, visited the TT Circuit of Assen for the first time.
Those days the track was partly public road with two loops accessible for public. So Herman, who just had his drivers license, wanted to test his driver skills there. Here he got infected with the motorsport virus and soon he participated in racing courses and track days at Zandvoort.
Here he got interested in the old Zandvoort Circuit. And when he visited the abandoned Nivelles Circuit in Belgium in the spring of 1998 he got fascinated by abandoned race tracks.
During his first visit to Nivelles, Herman made some random photos. Back home he regret he didn’t take pictures of a complete lap. So when he visited the 24 Hours of Le Mans later that year, he visited Nivelles again on the way home, for a photo tour around the track. That was actually, Hermans first of many photo tours around an abandoned race circuit.
The fate of Nivelles didn’t let Herman go and so he came to the idea to create a webste dedicated to the lost racing circuits from the past. On september 19, 2003 he give shape to this idea with the start of the MSN Group ‘Circuits of the past’. At the beginning the group was mainly about Nivelles and the old layouts of Zandvoort, Assen and old Spa-Francorchamps. But soon Herman visited more abandoned circuits.
One of the all time hights was his visit in 2008 to the abandoned high banked race track of Sitges-Terramar near Barcelona. Unfortunately Herman had no film camera those days, so we have only pictures from it.
The same year MSN announced to stop with the groups, so Herman had to find a new home for Circuits of the past. It resulted in a real website of which there are two versions now. The version in his native language Dutch - www.circuitsofthepast.nl - and an international version in English www.circuitsofthepast.com.
On May 16, 2010 Herman also founded the Circuits of the past RU-vid Channel. In these first days he made slide shows of his photos. A few years later, in 2014, Herman had a real video camera and started to make real videos. Through the years Herman learned to make better videos and the popularity of his channel was growing. But there was still one element missing…
At the begin of 2019, Simon Smith joined the Circuits of the past RU-vid project, to provide the videos with a voiceover. Besides his contributions to Circuits of the past he also have a RU-vid channel named @HigherPlainGames
In august 2020 a video of a lap at old Spa-Francorchamps became very popular. Actually, the footage was already recorded in the summer of 2015. The video, with all of it’s fun and controverses, went viral and the Circuits of the past channel grew. Today it has over 25K subscribers.
Unfortunately, it has only a lot of viewers when Formula 1 is on a classic circuit like Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort or Monza. The rest of the year it’s a small channel only known by a group of nostalgic set motorsport fans. So if you want to support Herman, go to the Circuits of the past Patreon page. He realy needs your support to continue visiting old tracks and create new content, because the RU-vid ads don’t pay the bills.
So, that was the story about Circuits of the past so far. Let’s hope many many years will follow. Many, many thanks to the fans from the first hour and the people who provided Herman with information about old race tracks. Off course also thanks for those who discovered Circuits of the past later. And very special thanks to the supporters on Patreon. If you also want to become a supporter, visit www.patreon.com/circuitsofthepast. Herman needs your support and really appreciate every contribution!
/ circuitsofthepast
Special thanks to Simon Smith for the voiceover. Visit also his channel: @HigherPlainGames
Also special thanks to Yuri Bruschi for filming his bicycle crash on the Monza banking. Also visit his channel @YuriBruschi
If you want to support Circuits of the past, go to: / circuitsofthepast
For single donations and tips you can go to: paypal.me/circuitsofthepast
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14 сен 2023
