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San José

Current Circuit | 2005 | Proposal 1 | Proposal 2 | Proposal 3

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Circuit info:

Address:: San José Grand Prix
333 W. Santa Clara St.
Suite 1
San Jose
CA 95113
USA
PH:: (1) 408-277-9470
Circuit length:: 1.600 miles/2.574 km
Circuit type:: Temporary street course

Circuit history:

San José's street circuit is located close to the McEnery Covention Center and hosted its first race - a round of the Champcar World Series - in 2005. Short and narrow, the first layout left a lot to be desired - even before the first laps were turned it was realised that the concrete barriers would have to be pushed back, so narrow was the course in places. The pit lane was also separated from the paddock by the track and spectator sightlines from grandstands were poor in places (indeed, the main grandstand suites had a row of trees obscuring views of the pits).

The major weakness of the design lay, however, at the two points where it crossed tramway tracks. So uneven was the surface that the cars would take off with all four wheels in the air in a spine-jarring manoeuvre. After the first practice session the chicanes were modified to try and change the speed at which the cars crossed the tracks, but the problem still remained.

These hiccups were perhaps an inevitable consequence of the hastiness of the layout's conception; original plans for a course around the HP Pavillion were abandoned after several modifications due to too-high construction costs.

The current course configuration addresses many of the original problems. The pit lane and start/finish straight have been switched, so that the paddock is now on the same side of the track as the pits. The run-off at the hairpin has been increased, allowing for a much longer front straight - hopefully leading to better overtaking opportunities. Work has also been done to widen the course at key points.