Circuit Zolder pre-1963

[Rhys Gardiner]

So I found out that Circuit Zolder existed before its official opening in 1963 in the form of the "Omloop van Terlaemen". It first held races in 1961. John Hugenholtz extended the track into its current shape from this initial short layout.

Thing is, I've tried searching around a bit, and I can't determine what part of the track constituted the original Omloop van Terlaemen. Can anyone help with this? I have this weird obsession with how track layouts have changed over the years and I think I'll lose more sleep if I can't find out more about this...

 

[Xosé Estrada]

Me too!

I love race tracks history... I checked this site often but it seems its abandoned now:

http://www.etracksonline.co.uk

About Zolder, maybe that paths that go into the forest now surrounded by the track are the old layout?

 

[GAIAjohan]

The old one was 2.6km.

According to this article:
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DST08102002_108

The first real race was in 1958 in the centre of Zolder, that was deemed too dangerous, so they moved to a domain of some rich guy named Antoine Palmers de Terlaemen.
He accepted to make a race circuit in his domain if had his name in it. (Omloop van Terlaemen), and the first race was held in 1960.

Then in 1961 it was decided to improve the circuit to 4.2km and it was designed by Hugenholtz..

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Thanks Johan... we have a length and a location... but which part of the track is the Hugenholtz extension...?