Autobahn Country Club

(UPDATED: February 8, 2012)

An exciting and punishing road course was unveiled a few years ago. Autobahn Country Club is located in Joliet, Illinois, USA. Many people know Joliet as the home of the Chicagoland Speedway. Road racing fans, however, now know this as the home of a very technical and mostly flat road course. This track's length would make it very much a Formula 1-friendly course as its full course is over 3.56 miles (5.73 km) in length. Here is a chance to learn more about this course.

--- Autobahn Country Club ---

What I may start doing in my Race Tracks blog entries is show a track map followed by a few images of the track in action. This will help give a better idea of each course. I may also edit my current Race Tracks blog entries to add more changes. Here is a track map of this course:


^ from: faasst.com - Autobahn Country Club is a fabulous racing facility within distance of Chicago.

I guess I really fell in love with this course when I got to see lots of Fall/Autumn foliage on the trees. The full course features some 23 corners. The Start/Finish line to the full course is the Start/Finish line of the North Circuit. Now my description based on a YouTube video I've seen.

Lap Description.

The first corner is pretty sharp heading to the left. A small left-hand kink in the road comprises Turn 2 and leads to an equally sharp Turn 3, as you transition from the North Course to the South Course. Turns 4 and 5 comprise an increasing radius section of two right-hand corners. The radius out of Turn 4 widens as you go into Turn 5. The first left turn of the course is a very sharp one at Turn 6. It seems like you can treat it like a high-speed kink rather than somewhere you have to brake really hard at. Up next is a moderately long straight leading into a smooth, sweeping, left-hand Turn 7. A sharper left-hander makes up Turn 8. Turn 9 is more like a double-apex section as a brief kink leads into a sharper corner for Turn 9. I may be inclined to refer to the two corners as "9a" and "9b." A kink to the right follows heading into Turn 10 followed by a rather sharp Turn 8 right-hander. Turn 11 is the southernmost corner on the full course. A left-handed, sharp, hooking Turn 12 leads into a sharp left at Turn 13. A long straightaway follows leading into the sharp right-hander at Turn 14. Turn 15 comes in like an obtuse-angled corner. It is a sharp left-hand kink. Stretch your legs a little more as you go transition from the South Circuit to the North Circuit. Turn 16 is a smooth right-hander, and Turn 17 is a little harder left-hand turn. An easy-going Turn 18 leads to Turn 19, which is anything BUT easy-going. The Turn 19 is almost exactly like the Turn 9 complex, only that the Turn 19 area is slightly shorter. Turn 20 is somewhat sharp, going left. Turn 21 is a very sharp right-hand corner. Turn 22 is a sharp left-hand kink that expands outwards down to a long straight. That straight leads to the Start/Finish line, ready for you to race all 3.56 miles of the full course over again.

Video Lap.

Here is a video lap of this course. Watch the driver's helmet to get a feel for how punishing this course is:






This is a relatively new track, but I think if Autobahn Country Club wanted to expand into an international racing facility, plenty of Chicago-area folk (including lots of other Americans) will be proud to call this as an elite racing facility. It is a very tough course. I think this track has a fantastic future in hopefully hosting more kinds of racing. Maybe we'll see series like AMA Road Racing, the American Le Mans Series, Grand-Am, and more in this track's future. It has a bright future ahead. If someone can comment, I want to know what the last Chicago-area road course was because when I visited the , it was told that the Autobahn Country Club is the first Chicago-area road course in almost forty years. So what was the previous course?

Learn more about this track by visiting the Autobahn Country Club official website. Anyhow, thanks for reading!

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