Anderstorp Raceway

Anderstorp Raceway, previously known as Scandinavian Raceway, is a 2.501 mi (4.025 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 (1973-1978)
Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix (1971-1977, 1981-1990)
FIA GT Championship (2002-2003)
SMP F4 Championship
FIM Endurance World Championship
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.

In 1993 circuit alongside FIM organized 24-hour motorcycle race. Just one week ahead of the race, "an appeal was lodged against the permit for the competition", due to noise concerns. Although the race got permition to start with just one day left to start the event, "media had trumpeted that the competition was canceled. At the ferry berths in Skåne, passport staff turned visitors from Denmark and the continent". During the race itself heavy storm began falling over the site of the circuit and although racing continued, no audience showed up, and the circuit after the event declared bankruptcy.[1]

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 was due to return to Anderstorp in 2020 with a round of the DTM.[2] Then, it was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

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[3] to 4.031 km,[4] and it remained in that configuration until at least 1986.[5] And then it was later modified again and slightly shortened to its present-day length of 4.025 km.[6]

Track variations:

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

Lap records

The official race lap records at the Anderstorp Raceway are listed as:

Class Time Driver Car Event
EuroBOSS1:21.525 Marijn van KalmthoutBenetton B197-Judd V102009 EuroBOSS Super Prix
Formula One1:24.836 Niki LaudaBrabham BT46B-Alfa Romeo1978 Swedish Grand Prix
LMP1:24.920 Emmanuel CollardFerrari 333 SP1998 Anderstorp International Sports Racing Series round[7]
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup1:26.489 José María LópezTatuus FRV62003 Anderstorp Formula Renault V6 Eurocup round[8]
GT1 (1994-1996)1:30.344 Jean-Marc GounonFerrari F40 LM1996 BPR 4 Hours of Anderstorp[9]
500cc1:31.107 Wayne RaineyYamaha YZR5001990 Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix
GT1 (2000-2009)1:31.424 Walter LechnerSaleen S7-R2003 FIA GT Anderstorp 500km[10]
Formula Renault 2.01:31.679 Daniel RoosTatuus FR20002009 Formula Renault 2.0 Sweden[11]
GT31:32.902 Fredrik LestrupBMW Z4 GT32012 Swedish GT round Anderstorp[12]
World SBK1:33.480 Carl FogartyDucati 888SBK1993 Anderstorp World SBK round[13]
N-GT1:34.081 Andrea BertoliniFerrari 360 Modena GT2003 FIA GT Anderstorp 500km[10]
STCC1:34.274 Johan KristofferssonSeat Leon STCC2016 Anderstorp STCC round[14]
250cc1:34.833 John KocinskiYamaha YZR2501990 Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix
125cc1:41.909 Stefan PreinHonda RS125R1990 Swedish motorcycle Grand Prix
WTCC1:42.432 Alessandro ZanardiBMW 320si2007 FIA WTCC Race of Sweden[6]
Group A1:44.564 Tom WalkinshawRover Vitesse1986 ETCC Anderstorp round[5]

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.[15][16][17][18]

References
  1. "1991-95 SRWanderstorp". www.srwanderstorp.se. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  2. "Sweden joins expanded 2020 DTM schedule". Motorsport.com. 19 September 2019.
  3. "The Swedish Grand Prix". Motorsport: 735–737. July 1973. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  4. "The Swedish Grand Prix". Motorsport: 935–936. July 1978. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  5. 1986 Anderstorp 500
  6. "WTCC Heat 2 Race". Archived from the original on 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  7. "1998 International Sports Racing Series Round Anderstorp".
  8. "2003 Anderstorp Formula Renault V6 - Round 11".
  9. "1996 BPR Global GT Series Round Anderstorp".
  10. "2003 FIA GT Championship Round Anderstorp".
  11. "2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Round Anderstorp".
  12. "2012 Swedish GT Round Anderstorp Race". Archived from the original on 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  13. "1993 Superbike World Championship Anderstorp".
  14. "2016 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship Round Anderstorp" (PDF).
  15. Video on YouTube – on-board camera view
  16. Video on YouTube – 1978 Grand Prix highlights
  17. Video on YouTube – full coverage of the 1978 Grand Prix
  18. 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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