Arctic Circle Raceway

(UPDATED: January 23, 2012)

Many Gran Turismo 4 racers were saddened of 24 hours of daylight for Le Mans and the Nürburgring Nordschleife. What if I told you that there is a race track that can host a 24-hour race in full daylight (during the middle of the Summer)? Welcome to Arctic Circle Raceway 19 miles (23 km) north of Mo i Rana, Norway; and 19 miles (30 km) south of the Arctic Circle. It opened in 1995 and is 2.33 miles (3.753 kilometers) in length. It is a counterclockwise/anti-clockwise course with 11 turns. This course mostly suits motorcycle road racing, but also hosts a round of the Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) as well as some car club races.

This blog entry concerns Arctic Circle Raceway. I don't have factual proof, but this may be the world's northernmost motor racing track.

--- Arctic Circle Raceway ---

Here is how this track is laid out:


^ from: racefoto.se - This is an aerial view Norway's largest race track.

In an attempt to blog more often about specific race tracks, I'll try just to expose race tracks without needing to come up with a one-lap description for each. They help, but I do these one-lap descriptions to make each track believable. I may come up with a one-lap description in the future.

This track has some very scenic views of mountains and mountain faces. The scenery is quite beautiful around here.

One Lap Description.

Turn 1 is a sharp left-handed corner. Turn 2 is a very long right-hand corner that dips downward a bit. A progressive dip down follows heading into Turn 3. The left-handed Turn 3 is fairly sharp, and overshooting this corner introduces your machine to the gravel trap and its "BFF," the tire wall. The next section is a moderate-speed hairpin going left. Up next is a slight progression downhill heading into the right-handed Turn 5. Turn 5 is smooth and blends into a long left at Turn 6. Then after a blast exiting Turn 6, you meet a right-left chicane at Turn 7 that has a sharp entry and a smooth exit. After that, it's full throttle heading into the sharp, left-handed, 180° Turn 8. It's sharp, but not slow. Turn 9 is a sharp right-hand kink. Turn 10 is a long and sharp right. As you exit Turn 10, the road progresses downhill until you meet the track's slowest corner, which is also the final corner of this course. Turn 11 is a very slow and sharp left-hander that leads onto the front stretch. Once you cross the line, prepare to do another 2.33 miles of racing on what may be the world's northernmost motor racing facility. Beautiful track with some smooth corners.


Now, here's a video lap. The lap starts at the 0:36 mark:

^ One lap of Arctic Circle Raceway in a 1969 Ford Mustang

Lap Records.

Its motorcycle lap record is 1:30.993 in 2002 by Oddgeir Havnen in 2002. Reportedly, an unofficial lap record of 1:28.928 by another rider (named Kai Børre Andersen) in 2007. The 1969 Ford Mustang in the above video completed this lap in approximately 2:08.





You can learn more about this track by visiting Arctic Circle Raceway's website (Norwegian only). Most of the information I've used was thanks in due part to Wikipedia. Thank you for reading!

Become a Fan (or Like) my Facebook Fan Page and subscribe this blog (and my others) via FeedBurner (or any other aggregator in the sidebar)! Visit (or subscribe):
• Subscribe to John's Blog Space!
• Subscribe to John's Shop Space! (http://jbmshopspace.blogspot.com)
• Subscribe to John's Gran Turismo Space! (http://johnsgtspace.blogspot.com)