By Robert Emslie
Most sports offer a multitude of contests within one event. For example, in baseball you get both the thrill of each pitch and the anticipation of what happens when the batter connects. In motor racing, there’s the white knuckle balls-out ride down the straights, as well as the driver’s skill in getting through the corners. For spectators it’s like a double feature, and for drivers it’s two skills that need to be mastered.
Having been on a number of tracks, I can tell you that it’s the latter – figuring out the proper line, entry speed and carry-through in the corners – that is the greater skill. That’s the one that will most often mean the difference between a win and just being one of the pack. For spectators, that also means that the corners usually offer the best spectating.
Today, I’d like your opinion on what are the best twisty bits. Whether it’s for the drivers – perhaps the most rewarding to have mastered – or for spectators to watch all the action. What do you think, which are racing’s best corners?
Image: ©2015 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved
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Jeff Glucker
As great as it is for pictures and a hoot to drive, The Corkscrew isn’t much of a take-a-deep-breath-and thread-the-needle way of getting a good laptime and being a hero that lap. Though Alex Zanardi and Valentino Rossi have proven it’s a great place to overtake… Laguna Seca’s turn 6, and the downhill run out of The Corkscrew (9/10) are much more critical ways of judging outright courage/speed.
For true risk/reward corners, at least in North America the best for me would be Road America’s Kink, VIR’s climbing esses, and Road Atlanta’s plummeting final turn 11/12 complex under the bridge and onto the front straight.
Some will say the Eau Rouge, for obvious reasons, but I will steer away from the obvious, and say either Mulsanne at Circuit de la Sarthe, or the turn at the end of the long straight at the Nurburgrung, Seeing drivers calculate when to brake in those circumstances would make for some great viewing, and make or break heroes.
Tertre Rouge at night is my favorite; taillights and exhaust rocketing off into the darkness of Mulsanne Straight.
Raidillon is my choice, but Eau Rouge is amazing, too.
Under the tree at Lime Rock.
Just after “No Name Straight” and into the chicanes for the uphill (ALMS weekends) They’re going around and away from you, coming in full throttle, then hard brake, then throttle up the hill and around the right-hander. So you get RPMs, tires, shifts, throttle, exhaust pops and tires all in the matter of 2 seconds.
Plus you’re in the shade, most likely sitting on your cooler full of spectator fuel.
Not really a fan of sitting, but yeah
Best corners?
http://www.xsorb.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/drag_strip.jpg
One of those downhill corners before the tunnel in Monaco.
http://www.rachf1.com/uploads/5/4/4/2/5442713/8217518_orig.jpg
Bray Hill, TT. Done & I win on Tuesday..
Really? You’d choose that over Ballaugh Bridge?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_yj1pCBHsw
Ohh, that one is super goodly as well. Bray Hill is just super nasty, wide open and pucker margin for error.
As a driver with little experience on “real” tracks, this probably doesn’t carry much weight, but on the rare occasion that Lemony traffic thins out and you can get a real run at them, the esses on the back side of Sonoma Raceway are sublime.
Turn One on Brainerd’s Donnybrook course, the fastest turn in America. Wind it out for .89 miles of main straight then chuck it in WFO. As the locals say, “No matter how much power you have, if you lift in Turn One you’re a pussy.” So intimidating that they had to build a slower course.
http://www.scharch.org/motorsports/trackmaps/BIR_Maps_2010.jpg
They don’t still run the Donnybrooke circuit, do they? When I was there it kinda looked like they were using the long straight as the drag strip and you drove across the race surface between turns 9 and 10 when you enter.
Track users MAY still specify the old track, but no one does. The main straight has always been a drag strip and one of the problems with the old circuit was that drag support vehicles sat on the track and made turn 10 an oily mess for the road guys.
The old Esses at Le Mans was a hoot. I was a spectator in 60 and 61 and it was fun to watch the different drivers negotiate it. Some drivers woud saw wildly at the wheel while Moss, Gendebien, the Rodriguez brothers and other pros would barely move the steering wheel a all — even in the wet.
I’m sure I’ll want to change my answer later, but Turn 2 at Mosport (sorry, Canadian Tire, but that’s what it’ll always be to me) as about as awe-inspiring as they come. You crest a blind brow and the road simultaneously falls away and swings to the left…and keeps doing so for what seems like forever.
Senna’s Esses, Interlagos.
Turn 5 at Road America. You have a long, slightly curved, downhill straight that dips down sharply at the braking point into a tighter than 90 degree bend that shoots back uphill to a blind turn 6. Brake too early or too late and you swing out wide onto the rumble strips (which are rough enough to knock your fillings out) or worse, the sand trap.
But when you get it right you just slingshot through it, your tires let out this delightful little screech, and you have a nice burst of momentum to fling you up the hill.
Skyline at Mount Panorama, Bathurst – a blind right-hand curve at the top of the mountain. Beyond it is a series of corners known as The Dipper and The Esses. The previous corner, McPhillamy, is normally taken flat. This is what drivers see coming out of McPhillamy.
https://www.rfactorcentral.com/drivebathurst/gfx/bathurst_skyline.jpg
I’m a fan of big-time, high-speed commitment corners that I personally would be too chickenshit to take flat. Donnybrooke at Brainerd, Turn 5 at Road America, the bend that starts Indianapolis at Le Mans, The Chase at Mount Panorama, Turn 9 at Adelaide, Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch…I love all those. Get them wrong and you’re in big trouble in a hurry.
I think T17 at Sebring might be favorite just because it’s so incredibly punishing to the car and the driver in it.
Mosport, Turn 2. That is all.