Another episode with two separate tracks in the same location, hosting the same series. It definitely had some unique quirks these tracks. Plus, it's good to have another look at the 80/90's IMSA GTP cars.
Still not as bad as the ill fated IndyCar race at NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015. Track was below sea level (so little to no drainage), and it was a miserable rainy day that flooded parts of the track and turned any grassy areas into absolute swamps. Mosquitos everywhere and not many fans in sight. One of my fellow flag marshals was at the event and said he went through 5 pairs of boots in 3 days. At least 2 pairs of boots were left at the circuit since they were beyond saving, trying to wash them was futile because the mud just stuck.
I also agree that a street circuit would be way better for New Orleans than NOLA. Not to mention the financial hole it left. I believe Michael Andretti lost a lot of money there.
I think the Ribeirao Preto Street Circuit in Brazil would be a great track for this series, it lasted from 2010-2015 and it changed it's layout 3 times in that period of time
Thanks for bringing this track to my attention, lol. I just watched the 1991 race and it was even nuttier than you described it. There was a moment where they kept the same camera for nearly 2 minutes because 8 cars spun out on the same turn in succession. AND THEN A MASSIVE STORM CAME AND BLEW A MEDICAL TENT ONTO THE TRACK.
Have you heard about the Moosehead GP held on the streets of Halifax Canada, before moving to the local air force base Held indycar rounds and IMSA And for some inexplicably reason was headlined in 1993 and 1994 by the British Formula 2 series. Which in 1994 had to cancel 3 rounds due lack of entries. They couldnt get enough people to race in the UK but somehow a trip to Canada was a good idea
Should note, that's the American Indycar Series, not the Indycar series, which was open to older Indycar chassis powered by stock block V8's or turbocharged V6's.
Alejandro Agag probably watched old IMSA races in preparation for the launch of Formula E, saw the pitlane in New Orleans and said "Do it!" in his best Imperator Palpatine impression.
It is really great addition that you add the circuit map. If you want to be fancy, use a vector map so that the map is not blurred when zoomed. On other note Monaco 1972 had very bad put exit, requiring traffic lights? if i remember correctly.
Most under-rated racing history channel on RU-vid, BY FAR. Keep it up TyDye, I love your videos man. I would love to see a Belle Isle Detroit Street GP video as well! I went to that track every year before they moved it to downtown Detroit this year (first time since the 80's).
On behalf of the pit lane: even if the exit is not as ridiculous as here, the pitlane at the Hong Kong formula e track Was so short, that a drive-through penalty was such a small time-loss that a driver (i think it was bird) won the race, eventhough he had a drive-through
Don't apologize for the surplus of American street circuits. There's plenty to discuss. Also these IMSA exclusive street circuits are definitely worth studying about
@@tydyeracinggaming4742 unlikely it happens with the current GTP cars outside of Long Beach. Other than that I don't see a scenario where they go to a street track by themselves and not alongside the IndyCar series.
Here are all the examples of failed street circuits I was able to find on the internet (that you have not covered yet): Baltimore (ALMS), Valencia (Formula 1), Zurich (Formula E), Paris (Formula E), Moscow (Formula E), Goteborg (STCC), Durban (A1 GP), Cagliari (Formula 3), Porto (WTCC), Birmingham (BTCC), Bilbao (Formula 3.5), Bern (Formula E), Berlin (Formula E), Baku (Original Circuit), Huston (INDYCAR), Las Vegas (CART), Monterrey (Champ Car), Halifax (ALMS/ INDYCAR), Jingkai (A1 GP), Kuala Lumpur (SUPERCARS), Sanya (Formula E), Shanghai (DTM), Lippo Village (A1 GP), Hong Kong (Formula E), Beijing (Formula E), Puerto Madero (Formula E), Sao Paulo (INDYCAR), Las Vegas (Original Formula Circuit), Santiago (Formula E), Salvador (SCB), Ribeirao (SCB), Buenos Aires (TC 2000), Piriapolis (Formula 3), Zhuhai (BPR GT), AVUS (DTM/ Formula 3), and Edmonton Airport (INDYCAR).
FE leaving Hongkong was more due to the territory's volatile political situation throughout 2019-2020, that coupled with the extremely harsh COVID measures meant that FE and any other international events was spooked away. Things have calmed down a bit now so maybe a return could be on the cards soon
The exit of the original pitlane at Long Beach (up on Ocean Avenue) had a chicane made of oil drums, which I guess doesn't seem quite as weird when you realize there was a similar arrangement at the entrance.
And it's such a shame that America has so many brilliant circuit racing series, yet none of them get any mainstream exposure simply because they aren't NASCAR.
Had a few ideas while watching through this series. 1. Birmingham Superprix circuit - yes I'm biased cos I'm from Birmingham! 2. Vila do Conde, Portugal - I don't know much about this one other than it staged touring cars in the 90s. 3. Alcaniz, Spain - a fantastic looking circuit that ran for many years with some very big names in Spanish motorsport racing there. Motorland Aragon was built as its replacement, and when working there last year I visited Alcaniz and walked a lap of the old street circuit.
Hadn't heard of or been requested (to my knowledge) the last two tracks, will certainly check them out. Birmingham will certainly feature in this series.
Just ran across your channel... and sub... but can't wait until you get to Las Vegas. Either the Casaer's Palace track or the Downtown, think used once in either Cart or Indy, tracks.
Love these videos and was an insta-subscribe for me! I'm a big fan of street circuits and even the failed ones hold a deep place in my heart. I'd love to see your take on the Edmonton City Airport circuit that hosted indycar for about 8 years. I think the event was a failure due to attendance and promotion. I volunteered at the 2010 event and I was shocked how there was ZERO promotion for the race in the city! You wouldn't even know a race was taking place.
Glad you're enjoying the videos, plus the subscription is very much appreciated. I don't think that track will feature in this series, but would perhaps feature in an airport tracks series if I decided to do one.
I'm all for the challenge: maintaining the venue for the first race in June. Perhaps with a 1 mile larger layout. And a decent pit lane. But I don't know if IMSA is more interested in this type of track. And I don't see Indycar running there. Perhaps FE could be a good suggestion for racing on these streets. Great video. excellent series !!
I am of your opinion. I also think IMSA could do with a bit more of these city routes. Even if it's difficult to implement. This year the Michelin Pilot Challenge is supposed to run a race in Detroit. Not on Belle Isle anymore.
Bilbao Urban Circuit would be a good one, a one-and-done World Series By Renault event which was tight, strange, had a pitlane with two 90º right-handers and opened with two 135º left-handers and crossed two bridges. That was mad. Also the São Paulo Indycar circuit that had the pitlane in the middle of the lap and completely off the side of the circuit, and the extremely boring Circuito Callejero de Buenos Aires from Super TC2000 in the early 2010s.
Columbus Street circuit has a pit lane sketchy as anything although you have dropped some hints that Columbus will be covered in the future :) Of street circuits still in use, Toronto by far has the worst pitlane. Extremely narrow and twisty. and it basically halved the track width from the pre 2016 layout. I still don't know why the Dijon Prenois pit entry hasn't been changed since the track opened in 1972. a hard 90 after a fast corner and long straight. IT'S A DEATH TRAP!
Columbus also had different start and finish lines, and may have had a separate restart or lap timing line on another straight, all well away from the pits. Toronto basically switched the pit lane with the track, losing very little width actually. Dijon Prenois has actually had the pit entry pushed way further back, with s long approach lane to slow down and though the right of the chicane remains tight the left after has been softened.
@@Quintinohthree I agree that Dijon has had some upgrades but the Toronto pit lane used to be on the front straight with a wide pit entry driver's right. I have a friend who was on Lungaard's car last year and he said at least one person from every team got hit at some point during the weekend. There is also the problem that the pits are across the track from the paddock meaning any car that retired with a mechanical was just left in its box making it even more of an obstacle course.
The yanks had so many street circuits because they have so few road courses. Yanks are willing to go hundreds of kilometres to get to oval tracks, so distance isn't the problem. 1:40 - As F1 drivers said about Phoenix, "point and squirt".
A nice series of videos. Street tracks are a fascinating subject for sure, and there are some very good and bad examples too. You could look into DTM, which has the Norisring, which is pretty decent, but also had some terrible ones. Wunstdorf and Diepholz were very fast tracks on airfields. Singen was a rather awful example with a narrow track with 90 degree corners.
If for whatever reasons Indycar decided to come back to New Orleans, I think they should do a track more wider and longer than the last track and also that it’s goes thru the Superdome with few corners inside the stadium like they did inside the Excel Arena of London UK for the Formula E’s London E-Prix, I think it should be awesome to see a track like that tbh.
No fault on the emphasis on American circuits. Reality is, this is a giant country, with many big cities and metropolitan areas to chuck street circuits in, and grassy open fields to chuck normal circuits in. If we cared about road racing and other forms of motorsport as much as we did NASCAR, we'd have probably as many tracks as a chunk of Europe. Also, off road racing in Alaska? I can see Sweden equivalent rally stages, or a cold version of the Baja 1000...
To be fair with the comment of back tracking to the US in terms of street courses, that’s mainly cause of the massive rise in street courses in the late 70s and throughout the 80s and 90s. Granted there r a wide number of road courses in US, I’m fairly sure it’s more due to A. Racing in America is mostly consistent of short dirt and asphalt ovals and didn’t really have much in terms of road courses or at least not to the level of the ones you’d see around the would or mainly in Europe. B. Number of race tracks shut down, oval and road course alike, due number of reasons but growing residential areas growing being the big one. And C. Tryin to take the races to the people who were migrating to the big cities for new and big opportunities, plus the massive amount of easy to see sponsorship signing around track helps feed Corporate America and big corporations can have a big field day seeing their name around. I could just be sayin stuff that’s pulled from me arse, but I feel like it’s somewhat right.
@tydyeracinggaming4742 i live one block away of the track, and was pretty much the same of Batersea Park: some neighbors made a group against the race arguing about the temporary closure of the public park, the difficulties for the neighbors and the possibly of "irreparable damage to the park", they use Batersea like an evidence of their point. For the media pressure the mayor of Santiago demanded shorten the time of disassemble of the track, which cause and accident that damage a esculpture outside of the bellas artes museum. Despite that any damage was insured, and the sculpture was restored in a better way that before, that was the final nail in the coffin for that circuit. It was a shame, because the track had a lot of character and was one of the favorites for drivers like Felix Rosenqvist and Andree Lotterer. Fortunately the race was still in the championship for a couple of years in a new venue more appropriate for hosting people and show-friendly, but with less character. The 2019 Chilean protests, covid-19 and finally a new female mayor of Santiago, communist and openly against the race, ended with the race (and any mayor private "capitalist" event held in that place.
The Buffalo New York street race was so narrow part of the course was single file with no passing. Most so-called races any more are about marketing big events -- like the circus is coming to town -- not wheel to wheel racing. Many circuits around the world have thru the years used different start & finish lines. Nothing new or odd. Martinsville is actually the best NASCAR circuit there is. It's not about speed. You EARN every inch on the track the hard way.
i don't really know any pitlane exits worse than this, but i do know of one that is equally horrendous in that it also puts you right onto the exit of a sharp corner: the pitlane at KIC (korea international circuit)
This year's Cuenca Grand Prix in Ecuador (odd name for a touring car race) had to be called off because the safety measures would've made race organizers from the 50s blush. Video's in Spanish, but the images speak for themselves. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8bI3SRTXYFg.html
I don't know if anyone has already suggested this track, but Parque Fundidora in Monterrey Mexico, which hosted Indycar between 2001 and 2006, is a good suggestion too.
could you do a video on the Göteborg City Race track. it's always a struggle for me to drive it in the sim and i can't imgaine for how it was for the drivers during STCC races
Just found this channe and I gotta say keep up the great work mate. If you need a suggestion, you could look into the absolute dumpster fire that were Formula Es races in Switzerland in 2018 and 2019 in Zürich and Bern, with the second one being especially bad and there are still legal battles over it going on
@@DankBoyy00 given that there's been several entries in this series that's actually capable of producing good racing I don't think that's high on the list of criterias
