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10 of Our Favorite Race Tracks
Few things get us as excited as racing, no matter which side of pit wall we’re on. Whether it features vintage or modern machinery, amateur or professional drivers, pavement or dirt, the best competition is a theater for fascinating storylines: Triumph, disappointment, and everything in between. The winter’s generally a quiet time for racing, which only means we reminisce more.
For this week’s staff list, we polled each other for our favorite race tracks—the best places to drive or to spectate. The choices skip around the globe, including FIA Grade 1 circuits familiar from the F1 calendar to others that only exist in the virtual realm. Give them a read, and when you’re done, let us know your favorite race tracks in the comments. No on-track time needed …
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Brands Hatch
I watched Nigel Mansell win the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch (Kent, England), and it’s such a great circuit to spectate as it sits within a natural bowl and you can see nearly the whole of the smaller Indy circuit from almost everywhere. As a driver, it has one of the most challenging corners in the U.K. — Paddock Hill Bend. It’s a fast, downhill, off-camber right-hander and it’s very very easy to get wrong. If you’re lucky, you’ll just spin off to the inside; if you’re not, the gravel trap on the outside is brutal. Racing my little EnduroKA, I’ve watched many a car end up rolling multiple times at Paddock. That’s why it’s so satisfying to get right—especially if you’ve managed to be late on the brakes and pull off an overtake. — Nik Berg
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Goodwood Circuit
To drive: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, particularly because of the drama of Eau Rouge. I’ve driven at more than a dozen tracks, but never Spa, which means I’ve only ever experienced Eau Rouge in the virtual world of Gran Turismo. Still, it is so fascinating and impressive to me—the sheer scale and steepness of it and the commitment that you need to really nail it. I’ve watched a lot of cockpit footage of pro drivers going through that corner, and it seems more than a bit terrifying. But also thrilling.
To watch: Goodwood Circuit, in Chichester, England. You do not see Trans Am cars duking it out at Rolex Reunion the way everything from prewar ERAs to Alfas, Lotuses, fast Fords, Lolas, and Porsches do at Goodwood. There is nothing held back, and witnessing a Ferrari go careening into a wall is not unrealistic. When you’re there, you can see just how tight and narrow that chicane is. Watching Ford Galaxies come down from speed and try to thread the needle never fails to delight me. And it’s just great racing to watch something like a little Mini make up ground with its pace and agility. — Eric Weiner
Road Atlanta, Daytona International Speedway
To drive: Road Atlanta, in Braselton, Georgia. As someone who’d previously only raced flat-ish road courses (Mid-Ohio’s slight undulations aside) the elevation changes at RA opened my eyes real wide the first time I drove it. And the flow going up Turn 1, down through the esses, and back up again is so challenging but so rewarding when you get it right.
To watch: Daytona International Speedway, in Florida, for the Rolex 24. It’s hard to comprehend just how big Daytona is till you emerge from the Turn 4 tunnel into the infield. The cars. The access you get to the IMSA paddock. The lights and scenes of the infield at night. This 24-hour race is all sensory overload, and I relish the chance to go there every year. — Eddy Eckart
Lime Rock Park, Riverside International Speedway
To drive: Lime Rock, in Salisbury, Connecticut. It’s a tight little track with some interesting elevation changes and a fun downhill leading onto the front straight. I spun a Neon coming down that hill, and stood on the brakes as I went backwards. Ended up about six inches from the wall, but unscathed. It was my fault.
To watch: Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas. It’s a dirt oval, with a track made out of Mississippi River gumbo mud that dried hard as a rock. There used to be a barbeque stand located just under the grandstand, and few race fans could go an entire event without being drawn downstairs to get a barbeque sandwich. It had a lot to do with my love of motorsports. — Steven Cole Smith
Deep Forest Raceway (GT6)
Truth be told, I haven’t had the chance to drive that many tracks in real life. However, I’ve spent countless hours hammering around fictional tracks on Gran Turismo 6 on my old Playstation 3. I got a wheel and pedals back in college and really fell in love with sim racing as the next best thing to actually going wheel to wheel.
In GT6, there’s a track called Deep Forest Raceway that’s a combination of a bunch of tight, flowing turns in the middle section and a few long, high-speed corners towards the end and the beginning. I’ve logged hundreds of laps there, and if you put me back in a Subaru BRZ GT300 on that track tomorrow, the muscle memory would kick in almost immediately. I adored that GT300 spec because it wasn’t a crazy amount of power, and the car felt razor-sharp. I could hurl it over blind corners knowing exactly which rock to line up through the windshield, what sort of speed I could carry, when to balance the nose with a little bit of brake, and when to keep it pinned through a corner and trust that it would run out just as far as I needed it to.
That’s tonight’s plans sorted out, then. — Nate Petroelje
Eagles Canyon Raceway
Eagles Canyon Raceway in Decatur, Texas, might be my favorite place to race, but perhaps I need to do more motorsport events outside of the Lone Star State. ECR’s Turn 5, like most of the track, has a big elevation change, and I remember it being a ton of fun to manage/prevent a slide on this turn. Then again, that whole track is a ton of fun—but getting the line right out of 5 and blasting out of it is a total hoot. — Sajeev Mehta
Eldora Speedway
Outside of fictional Gran Turismo tracks, I still have a bunch of real-life favorites. Top of the list is probably Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
In the early 1940s, dance band leader Earl Baltes purchased a condemned ballroom from a retired bootlegger. The story goes that he found a sign in the building with the name Eldora painted across it and renamed his dance hall the Eldora Ballroom. A few years later, after an inspiring visit to neighboring New Bremen Speedway, Baltes decided to build his own oval in the gravel pit between the ballroom and the Wabash River. An excellent promoter, he held the inaugural race in 1954, and Eldora Speedway became a summer staple for dirt track ringers.
Year after year, Eldora features some of the highest speeds, car counts, and purses in grassroots racing. It only takes one visit, and perhaps one order of hot cheese balls from the concessions, to see why it is regarded as one of the best racing facilities the dirt scene has to offer. — Cameron Neveu
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Mid Ohio is one of the greatest.
Might add Mid Ohio access is second to none. We get in the garage area. Often in the garages and trans porters at times. Teams are very relaxed. Some raced we can get in the pits.
The paddock area you never know who would be there. The Ohio State Marching band, Jack Hanna. James Garner, Cristopher Cross, Tony George, Paul and Joanna Newman, Tom Cruze. Etc.
Then the teams and drivers.
At the Trans Am races got to hang out with Aldo Andretti and his son. Got to hang with several teams. Got yo help with one team. Also left one time with a Jaguar clam hood that was damaged for hanging in the garage.
The Chili Bowl in Tulsa OK. Nothing like it anywhere.