Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar

Oval course Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar

The Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar is a historic motorsport racing circuit in Catalonia . It is located in the municipality of Sant Pere de Ribes in the province of Barcelona .

history

Autodromo Nacional SA share from March 1923

Aerial view

The original official name when the building permit was submitted in 1922 was Autódromo Nacional Sitges de Ribes . It was only given the name Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar later, as the route is on the northern edge of the districts of Sitges and Terramar. However, the two places belong to the municipality of Sant Pere de Ribes.

On January 20, 1922, the construction of the first permanent racetrack in Spain was announced by the Spanish millionaire and racing driver Federico "Frick" Armangué . Armagué explained that the oval course was designed for speeds that can easily reach 200 km / h. It took around 300 days to build and the budget was four million Spanish peseta .

The oval course with a length of around 2000 meters and two curves that are between 60 and 90% elevated was completed in 1923. The facility was built by Autodromo Nacional SA as a concrete oval for car and motorcycle racing. The architects were Jaume Mestres (Rennoval) and Josep Maria Martino (grandstand and other facilities). At the time of construction there were only three such racing ovals in Europe: in Brooklands , in Monza and the Opel racetrack in Rüsselsheim, and one in the United States , the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis .

Miller racing car by Louis Zborowski. Designer Harry Miller

The route was awarded the II Gran Premio d'España on October 28, 1923 by King Alfonso XIII. inaugurated. The French racing driver Albert Divo won in a 2-liter Grand Prix racing car from Sunbeam ahead of the English Count Louis Zborowski in a Miller with an average speed of 96.91 mph (156 km / h ). However, Zborowski set the absolute lap record with 45.8 seconds, which corresponds to a speed of 157.2 km / h. The organizer was the Real Automòbil Club de Catalunya . In 1923 and 1924 the most successful motorcycle racer on this oval was the Italian Isacco Mariani , who won the Gran Premio Internacional de Motocicletas del Real Moto Club de Cataluña twice in a row on Garelli .

In 1925 the Czech investor and racing driver Edgar Morawitz took over the racing oval and through his participation races for the Campionat espanyol de motociclisme were held until 1932. Morawitz (* 1892 in Prague; † September 2, 1945 in Austria) gave up on the project because of reprisals by dictator Francisco Franco and left Spain. The route went to a sister-in-law of the mother of the later owner Salvador Mora. After that, the racing oval was forgotten during the war years and was no longer used for racing events. Thanks to the concrete construction, the railway - especially the steep curves - is still well preserved today.

today

State 2014

Audi R8 LMS

At the beginning of 2009 cleaning and repair work was carried out. The current owner intends a reactivation project for classic car races and a museum is also to be built. Since 2010, vehicle presentations and test drives have been carried out on the route, as well as advertising photos of sports cars.

Louis Zborowski's record from 1923 was only broken on May 10, 2012 by Spanish racing drivers Carlos Sainz and Miguel Molina during test drives for a commercial with an Audi R8 LMS on the oval course. They achieved a time of 42.6 seconds or 170 km / h. In January 2013, test drives took place with the Aspid SS , a vehicle from the sports car project by Altran and Quimera with an engine that is powered by a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen as an energy source.