Anderstorp Raceway

Anderstorp Raceway, previously known as Scandinavian Raceway, is a 2.505 miles (4.03 km) motorsport race track in Anderstorp (Gislaved Municipality), Sweden and the sole Nordic host of a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, when the Swedish Grand Prix was held for six years between 1973 and 1978.

Anderstorp Raceway
Track map
LocationAnderstorp, Sweden
Coordinates57°15′51″N 13°36′5″E
FIA Grade2
Opened1968
Major eventsSwedish Grand Prix, Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix, SMP F4 Championship, DTM
Length4.025 km (2.501 mi)
Race lap record1:21.525 (Marijn van Kalmthout, Benetton B197-Judd V10, 2009, EuroBOSS Super Prix)

Track history

The track was built on marshlands in 1968 and became an extremely popular venue in the 1970s, just as Swede Ronnie Peterson was at the height of his career. It has a long straight (called Flight Straight, which was also used as a 980 metres (3,220 ft) aircraft runway (ICAO: ESMP)), as well as several banked corners, making car setup an engineering compromise. Unusually, the pit lane is located halfway round the lap.

The raceway hosted six Formula One Swedish Grand Prix events in the 1970s. When Peterson and Gunnar Nilsson died during the 1978 Formula One season, public support for the event dried up and the Swedish Grand Prix came to an end. The circuit is also noteworthy because it was the site of the first and only win of two unconventional F1 cars: the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 car in 1976 and the infamous Brabham 'fan car' in 1978.

Anderstorp also hosted the Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix in 1971–1977 and 1981–1990, the European Touring Car Championship in 1985–1987, the Superbike World Championship in 1991 and 1993, and the FIA GT Championship in 2002 and 2003. The circuit has been a popular car club venue since the 1990s.

The FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) returned to Anderstorp in 2007, replacing the Istanbul Park in Turkey on the WTCC calendar. For the 2008 season however, it was replaced by the Imola circuit.

International motorsport will return to Anderstorp in 2020 with a round of the DTM.[1]

Layout modifications

The circuit has been modified at least twice in its history. It had been modified before the final Formula One Grand Prix run on the circuit (1978 Swedish Grand Prix), with the modifications to the penultimate Norra corner,[N 1] which resulted in the length increase from 4.018 km[2] to 4.031 km,[3] and it remained in that configuration until at least 1986.[4] And then it was later modified again and slightly shortened to its present-day length of 4.025 km.[5]

Track variations:

  • 4.018 km – 1968? – 1977
  • 4.031 km – 1978 – ?? (1986 or later)
  • 4.025 km – ?? (1986 or later) – present

Lap records
Class Time Driver Car Event
EuroBOSS 1:21.525 Marijn van Kalmthout Benetton B197-Judd V10 2009 EuroBOSS Super Prix
Formula One1:24.836 Niki LaudaBrabham BT46B Alfa Romeo1978 Swedish Grand Prix[6]
GT11:30.334 Jean-Marc GounonFerrari F40 LM1996 BPR Global GT Series[7]
GT1:31.424 Walter LechnerSaleen S7-R2003 FIA GT Championship[8]
Formula Renault 2.01:31.679 Daniel RoosTatuus FR2000 Renault2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Sweden[9]
GT31:32.902 Fredrik LestrupBMW Z4 GT32012 Swedish GT round Anderstorp[10]
STCC1:34.274 Johan KristofferssonSeat Leon STCC2016 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship[11]
WTCC1:42.492 Félix PorteiroBMW 320 Si E902007 World Touring Car Championship Round Anderstorp[5]
Group A1:44.564 Tom WalkinshawRover Vitesse1986 FIA Touring Car Championship[4]

Notes

^[N 1] Contrary to common depiction of the 1978 modification as having a chicane introduced to the Norra corner, there was no chicane ever used: the corner was made slower by decreasing its radius and making it a sharper bend instead of a sweeping curve it was before.[12][13][14][15]

References
  1. "Sweden joins expanded 2020 DTM schedule". Motorsport.com. 19 September 2019.
  2. "The Swedish Grand Prix". Motorsport: 735–737. July 1973. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  3. "The Swedish Grand Prix". Motorsport: 935–936. July 1978. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  4. 1986 Anderstorp 500
  5. "WTCC Heat 2 Race". Archived from the original on 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  6. "1978 GP round Anderstorp".
  7. "1996 BPR Global GT Series Round Anderstorp".
  8. "2003 FIA GT Championship Round Anderstorp".
  9. "2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Round Anderstorp".
  10. "2012 Swedish GT Round Anderstorp Race". Archived from the original on 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  11. "2016 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship Round Anderstorp" (PDF).
  12. Video on YouTube – on-board camera view
  13. Video on YouTube – 1978 Grand Prix highlights
  14. Video on YouTube – full coverage of the 1978 Grand Prix
  15. Ventura, Xavier (1978-06-15). "G.P. Suecia: ¿Andretti o Peterson?". El Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). p. 21. Retrieved 2017-06-04. El difícil circuito de Anderstorp conoce este año una serie de cambios que pueden hacerlo más seguro pero también más difícil. La tradicional curva de la recta de salida ha sido modificada para convertirla en un ángulo recto de 90°... que puede tener importancia decisiva para la resolución de la carrera. Así mismo, nuevas barreras han mejorado las condiciones de seguridad del G.P. de Suecia de tal manera que ha recibido ya este circuito su homologación hasta 1981 por parte de la Federación Internacional.


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