Circuit Park Zandvoort

Circuit Park Zandvoort is a motorsport race track located in Burgemeester van Alphenstraat 108, 2041 KP in the dunes north of the town of Zandvoort, in the Netherlands, near the North Sea coast line.

History


There were plans for races at Zandvoort before World War II: the first street race was held on June 3, 1939. However, a permanent race track was not constructed until after the war, using communications roads built by the occupying German army. However, contrary to popular belief, John Hugenholtz cannot be credited with the design of the Zandvoort track, although he was involved as the Nederlandse Automobiel Ren Club chairman (the Dutch Auto Racing Club) before becoming the first track director in 1949. Instead, it was 1927 Le Mans winner, S. C. H. "Sammy" Davis who was brought in as a track design advisor in July 1946 although the layout was partly dictated by the existing roads.

The circuit was inaugurated on August 7, 1948. Next year, in 1949 the circuit hosted the Zandvoort Grand Prix. The following year, the race was called the Dutch Grand Prix, and it was included in the Formula One World Championship in. It remained on the F1 calendar for 30 out of the next 34 years. In, the Dutch Grand Prix was held for the last time. The company that commercially ran the circuit (CENAV) went out of business, marking the end of Circuit Zandvoort. The track, owned by the municipality of Zandvoort, was not used for some time and part of the grounds and approximately half of the track was sold in 1987 to Vendorado, a Bungalow park developer at that time. A plan to save the remaining track was made by a group of people and companies. Circuit Park Zandvoort was born, and the track was remodeled to an interim Club Circuit of 2.6 kilometers (1.6 mi) in the summer of 1989.

In 1995, CPZ got the "A Status" of the Dutch government and began building an international Grand Prix Circuit. This project was finished in 2001 when, after the track was redesigned to a 4.3 kilometers (2.7 mi) long circuit and a new pits building was realized (by HPG, the development company of John Hugenholtz jr, son of the former director), a new grandstand was situated along the long straight. One of the major events that is held at the circuit, along with DTM and A1GP, is the RTL Masters of Formula 3, where Formula Three cars of several national racing series compete with each other (originally called Marlboro Masters, before tobacco advertising ban). A noise restriction order was responsible for this event moving to the Belgian Circuit Zolder for 2007 and 2008. However, the race will return to its historical home in 2009.

Circuit Park Zandvoort played host to the first race in the 2006/07 season of A1 Grand Prix from 29 September-1 October, 2006. On 21 August 2008, the official A1GP site reported that the 2008/09 season's first race has moved from the Mugello Circuit, Italy to Zandvoort on the 4-5 October 2008 due to the delay in the building the new chassis for the new race cars. The Dutch round moved to TT Circuit Assen in 2010. A1GP bankrupted before its fifth season and the Dutch round was replaced with Superleague Formula

The circuit
The circuit gained popularity because of its fast, sweeping corners such as Scheivlak as well as the "Tarzanbocht" (Tarzan corner) hairpin at the end of the start/finish straight. Tarzanbocht is the most famous corner in the circuit. Since there is a camber in the corner, it provides excellent overtaking opportunities. It is possible to pass around the outside as well as the easier inside lane. This corner is reportedly named after a local character who had earned the nickname of Tarzan and only wanted to give up his vegetable garden in the dunes if the track's designers named a nearby corner after him. On the other hand, many different stories about Tarzan Corner are known.

The circuit design has been modified and altered several times over time:
 * 1948-1973: length 4.193 kilometers (2.605 mi)
 * 1973-1980: length 4.226 kilometers (2.626 mi)
 * 1980-1989: length 4.252 kilometers (2.642 mi)
 * 1989-1998: length 2.526 kilometers (1.57 mi)
 * 1999-present: length 4.300 kilometers (2.672 mi)

The corners are named as follows (the numbers correspond to the image above, starting at the start/finish line):
 * Tarzan corner (1)
 * Gerlach corner (2)
 * Hugenholtz corner (3)
 * Hunzerug (4)
 * Rob Slotemaker corner (5)
 * Scheivlak (6)
 * Masters corner (formerly Marlboro corner) (7)
 * Renault corner (8)
 * Vodafone (9)
 * Audi S corner (10 + 11)
 * Kumho corner (12)
 * Arie Luyendyk (13)

The elevation difference is 15 meters (49 ft).



Fatal accidents
In the history of the circuit, several fatal accidents have occurred.

Use in simulations / games
In 1998, the older "classic" Zandvoort circuit layout from 1967 was modeled in detail and can be driven in the Grand Prix Legends racing simulation for X86-based PCs. This was later converted to NASCAR 4, NASCAR 2002, 2003 and other simulations using a converter from website 'The Pits'. The current layout is used in the SimBin games RACE 07 - Official WTCC Game, TOCA Race Driver 3, Race Pro and the online simulation iRacing where it is laser scanned for 100% accuracy. The layout from 1973 to 1980 can be driven in the ISI game Rfactor: it is included in the "Grand Prix 1979" mod.

Running competition
Since 2008, the course has been used as the venue for the Runner's World Zandvoort Circuit Run, a 5-kilometre road running competition. The 2010 edition of the race attracted Lornah Kiplagat, a multiple world champion, who won the ladies 5 km race.