Turn by turn guide to the Blue Circle Raceway track

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Contents

Track Map

Image:bluecircuit.jpg

Turn 1

Down the main straight you cross under a bridge. At this point you are getting into the braking area. Just after the bridge there is a severe bump on the outside line on the circuit that you have to factor into you braking area. (In fact the whole track is very bumpy). Turn right into T1 which is a fast corner that offers various lines. In traffic use the inside line to slingshot you past your opponents before the next corner. In T1 ensure you accelerate early because this corner leads into the braking area of –

Turn 2

Because the car may be still be unsettled from the heavy braking it requires some finesse to turn it and keep the car balanced. Be cautious of going in too fast – the outside line has little grip. On the exit immediately move over to your right to align the car for entrance of –

Turn 3

This is a medium and on the exit an off camber corner. Some guys, because of the camber, do not use the full width of the road on exit but elect to run a middle line. Make sure you drive over the painted marks on the road at the clipping point. This gives you effectively 3 more feet of road to use – especially critical if you elect not to run the wide line on exit. Watch out for a lot of quick oversteer on exit if you go wide on the off-camber. A short straight section follows that lead to –

Turn 4

Most guys find that this corner is either too fast for a lower gear or too slow for a higher gear. My suggestion is to run with a higher gear en ensure a lot of entry speed whilst trying to keep a constant radius curve. The outside line on this corner is very slippery. The apex of the corner is marked with painted cement paving that gives you a nice target when looking for the apex. The same painted cement paving can be found on exit. Use it to stop the car from sliding off the track. Now follows a steep downhill section where your car picks up speed quickly. At the end of the straight there are no clearly visible braking markers except for some small paint marks on the tar. Use these as markers. You are now at –

Turn 5

A slow, quite heavily banked, bumpy right hand corner. It is easy to underestimate the grip provided by the banking. Go hard into the corner, accelerate early and watch out the off camber on exit. From the apex the road starts to rise quite steeply. I have seen some drivers elect to run a wide line on the banking and to miss the conventional apex of the corner completely. You decide what you want to do. Remember the banking offers a lot of grip – Use it.

After exiting the corner you do not have to have any special skills as a race driver. Just floor it and keep the car on the black until the end of the main straight. You can then, once again, become a racer.


Johan Vermeulen