Meanwhile at Chimay…
September 1, 2011 by Joe Saward
I have finally managed to download the photos from my phone from Chimay. A great track, although I should have read up about it a bit before the visit as I was not really sure what I was looking at. There were three different layouts. The original long track that went from the pits which were on the Mons road, just to the north of the town. The original track ran down into town (through which the Eau Blanche flows) to the first corner, known as Boucherie (presumably because there was a butcher’s shop there at some point), a curling right-hander that sent the cars off into the country on the Chaussee de Trelon.
This is the first corner in Salles. Get it wrong and you're in a barn!
It was flat all the way to the fast left-hander known as Spikins (a very big corner) and then on into the village of Salles, where the track turned sharp right for a quick spurt of power and then right again.
This is the Chapelle de l'Arbrisseau. Church on the right. Bunker on the left.
The circuit then curled around to the left to the Chapelle de l’Arbrisseau, where it dived between the church and a good solid concrete bunker and then on up to a fast right-hander by the village of Robechies and then a fast but loop to pass Thierissart and across the railway bridge to the junction with the Chaussee de Mons, which was a fast right-hander.
This is in the sweepers through the trees going back to the pits. Wow!
Another fast sweeper...
The sweepers through the trees that lead back to old pit straight were impressive. Late the section going into Chimay itself (to Boucherie) was lopped off and there was a sharp right-hander on to what is now the pit straight, which rejoined the Chausee de Trelon, but later still the a much shorter circuit was built with a right-hander off the new pit straight and a dash up the old railway line to rejoin the old circuit with a right-hander just before the junction with the Chaussee de Mons.
Eau Blanche... as opposed to Eau Rouge at Spa.
The pits at Chimay. These are relatively modern.
Like this:
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The section through the trees reminds me of that section of Hockenheim that ran through the section of the Black Forest. Too bad that wasn’t still around.
Great pix Joe.
Great stuff Joe!
I saw some pics of these laps on your passenger’s website. It looks simply stunning.
Maybe it’s because I’m from ‘Down Under’ but there is something about these majestic old, sprawling race tracks that make me want to pack-up, head over and soak it up. A few beers at The Stag in Adelaide is as close as I can get!
You just don’t get that kind of history or greenery here. Cheers Joe, this kind of content goes fantastically well with your usual in-depth posts.
Maybe that’s what Tilke should do when building a new copycat track: look at this track, at old Spa, at Mount Panorama etc etc.
Then you’ll have a new track, compliant with all current safety specs, but more intriguing then just copying current tracks.
Great piece Joe, enjoyed reading about the Chimay track. Love their beers! What a race weekend that could be, super old-school track and local Belgian beers!
Drove down to Monza last year in our convertible and (daftly) missed the chance to pootle round the old Reims track on the way back when I was staying only a few miles away.
Now I’m probably putting 2 & 2 together and coming up with 6, but ACO and FIA seem to be on very friendly terms of late. Agreeing to unified Le Mans season and now scheduling the GP away from the 24hrs. Do you think they may put in a bid for the French GP? There’s a positive piece about it on the 24hrs site?
Makes sense in a lot of ways in terms of the infrastructure already there. Great stadiums, locals who are onside with motorsport, recognised name and history and good transport links (what with the new tram direct from town to the track) and parking/campsites.
On the minus side it would need to be on the short Bugatti track (used by MotoGP), which would need some work as I think it’s more designed for bikes than cars (but achievable as ACO own the land around it I believe).
And would it diminish from the 24hrs?
Spot on! Nice post!
Joe, you left out the beer…
Joe, the two pictures you have as “sweepers” remind me of the Mulsanne Kink at Le Mans. Years ago, the Group C era in the Eighties, you could buy a beer outside the Ferme de Mulsanne and then go through to the outside of the kink. Magic. Group C cars at way, way over 200 m.p.h.
Wow, that must have been a sight with Maseratis and Alfas blaring through the sweeps in the trees… Bira in a 250F sliding it gracefully around that Boucherie corner must have been quite the spectacle. Definitely on of those “when is somebody going to invent that time machine” moments. Thanks Joe, great to hear about your more esoteric adventures!
Awesome, Joe!
Guys, this is why insurance companies want GPS loggers in your car, if you get my meaning
Thought to grab a terrain style map. I tried to put a pin on that first corner, but it doesn’t look right . .
http://i.imgur.com/EqIZq.jpg
If you have a windows box, i used this to image that: http://www.codres.de/google-map-save Nice clean simple application.
Chapelle de l’Arbrisseau looks like it is on a little crest, just before the bunker / church choice!
I was looking up terrain data companies last year, to look for photographic angles. There’s a lot of free tools, but nothing free at the resolution i wanted, or for scoping out a track in any useful manner. Must dig out those files . . but i remember putting them away recognising such curiosities are why i am too often (personally) broke. Or is it i started in business so i could deduct such things . . too many projects, not enough manpower.
My own intended escapades just reminded me of a dear friend who has known me since i started out, been involved on and off most of the way, who said to me, “Please start a project which does not require the level of planning of D-Day”. This blog entry is just great, reminds me not to live vicariously through research. Top stuff.
Want video next time, Joe . . or is that, something left out under advisement?
thanks, really great one. – john
What a treat on a road less traveled. Thanks.
MartynB,
i did spec a while ago the ACO might try for something in F1. Can’t remember in which blog entry i blurted that idea out. Oh, i recall now, it was in context of whether anyone but the FIA could run F1, breakaways and all that . . so i know why i sounded very silly. But ACO arranging a race? Might be doable. F1 looks like it will have to accommodate more hybrid cars, Le Mans is already well into that (and arguably, different tech, always has been) so i wonder what more they will find in common. – j
If you like this story you all should buy the encyclopaedia titled The World Atlas of Motor Racing, a terrific book that Joe wrote about twenty years ago, a description of 200 circuits.
Hey Joe, what about a new version?
Nice stuff Joe – the sort of thing you do so well and so differently from many of the other F1 bloggers. I’m still waiting for your next Ferrari type road trip like last year’s (or was it the year before?)
Having watched the bravery (and mutual respect) of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso through Eau Rouge side-by-side last weekend this just reminds you that how brave the ‘old generations’ were – you probably saw ‘the killer years’ on BBC four recently which had had quite a few shots of the old Spa and Nurburgring.
Any plan to write a book (with plans and current photos ) of the old European circuits? It would be great to visit a few and drive them (I drove round some of the Le Mans circuit in a camper van last year! Rumble strips were fun)
Cloggie- theres no point, anyone can find the circuits using Google earth
Brilliant piece and pictures Joe. Something about old race circuits sends a shiver up my spine (I used to get the same feeling walking along disused railway lines).
Having visited and driven round Rouen Les Essarts just two weekends ago, I can see similarities with Chimay – I’m just glad I’m old enough to remember when these places were used. Proper bends (and if they have negative camber – so be it!), proper hills, the sound of all those engines echoing through the trees… *sigh*
I like Michael C’s idea about a book – again just like the multitude of railway books, there would be a pretty captive readership I’m sure. And think of the fun you’d have doing the research.
Go on, you know you want to…
Fantastic stuff – picture no. 4 in particular sends shivers down my spine…
@ heathtoi
I can’t see what’s wrong with holding a book, or for that matter, a newspaper in my hands but that’s a personal choice. Even Bill Gates can’t read of a screen for more than 20 minutes. Anyway, I recommend visiting http://www.circuitsofthepast.nl/English.html. Have fun.
Hi Joe
Interested to see your comments about Chimay, this evoked some memories.
A friend of mine with a classic Jaguar has competed a number of times in the Chimay Historycar races on the ‘new’ track. This event was a great weekend of fun in the principality with a very relaxed atmosphere and a great spread of people and cars.
Just as in F1 there are politics at all levels of motorsport and sadly the event doesn’t take place now due to a dispute between the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium and Chimay Circuit as they saw Chimay threatening their historic events held at Spa, Zandvoort and Zolder!
Part of the weekend would include the Grande Parade de Grand Prix des Frontieres which was a parade of the old historic circuit. This sees a big parade of racing cars and sports cars taking to the old circuit followed by fireworks and party in the paddock. I was asked to take the weekend’s sponsor from Ruinart Champagne on a lap or two which was great fun.
We befriended the Prince de Chimay, Prince Philippe and his wife who are very charming people (and distant relatives of the Grimaldi’s of Monaco) and who kindly showed us around the Chateau and presented the prizes on the Sunday at the conclusion of the race weekend.
Chimay represented a great challenge to drive due to its high speed and severe camber changes with the Chimay circuit installing some chicanes at previously very high speed entries to corners to slow cars down. With oil on the circuit and the trees overhanging certain parts it was very slippy in places but nonetheless a terrific circuit with some good overtaking opportunities and high average speed. As people have commented above they don’t produce circuits like this anymore which is a great shame.
best wishes
Jason
Yes, there should be more princes handing out prizes.
I know Chimay circuit very well as in the late seventies and early eighties I was there as for their annual motorcycle race. This was a very big deal with all the top GP riders and teams. Riders like Barry Sheene etc. The crowds were enormous. The back straight is I think 2.2kms long and as such incredibly fast. In 1981 I was asked by the organisers, led by Mr Georges Annuzet, to be the UK rider representative to organise and negotiate start money with all the Brit riders, except Sheene, who did his own deal. I was standing in the pits for the main feature race whena rider came off at the top of the pit lane. His bike careened down the pit lane, clipping Barry Sheene’s dad, Franco, before sliding on down the pit lane at over 80mph. It hit a photographer standing ten feet from me and took his leg clean off! I remember getting sprayed by fuel and oil and the screams of this poor guy. The bike continued down and hit the timekeepers’ caravan demolishing it in the process. Happy days… Great circuit and wonderful beer, Chimay Trappist monks brewed it and it was dark and served in wide low round glasses, balloon shaped like Cognac glasses.
Hope Herman sees this, great work Joe.
very nice post, Joe. the sweepers really “são de arrepiar” (shiverings?).
there emerson Fittipaldi did one of his first races when in europe for the first time in a distant 1969 -european Formula Ford , not sure but I think he won the race (I’m on the other side of the Atlantic so I cant check in my books at home – I mean São Paulo).
Joe,
handing out prizes,
I own the copyright to the book
– j