It’s a cliché about racing circuits and how they are perceived on television – there’s more elevation at Circuit X than you can see on TV. I’ve said this many times myself after visiting racing circuits for the first time. Often, even if you know a section of track goes up or goes down, seeing it in person is surprising.

But Brno, now that I see it for myself, may take the cake in this department. I think the only section of track that’s flat is the front straight and Turn 1. Immediately after T1, from T2 the elevation rises to its highest point and then starts to descend from T3. The descent doesn’t stop until the far end of the track, between T10 and T11.

I expected the stadium section to be more or less level, but it is downhill all the way. And by the time the riders are at the point shown here, between T7 and T8, they have descended a lot. But they aren’t done yet.

The track continues to descend in varying degrees of steepness and eventually the riders reach T10, the large u-turn that begins the journey back up the hill to the start/finish. But before they can start the climb, they drop down even further on the way to T11.

Cal Crutchlow (the rider in the foreground, white leathers) has almost reached the lowest point on the circuit as he leaves T10. About halfway to T11 the circuit finally bottoms out and the climb begins up through the two pairs of left-right combos. The turns in these pairs of corners are too far apart to be considered chicanes, as you can see here.

Once at its lowest point, the track starts the long, steep climb back up to the start/finish. This is the same section of track seen from above, looking back. When I made the previous photo I was standing somewhere between the yellow van on the right and the TV tower (both in the distance). Riding a 50cc scooter up the winding service road was no adventure in speed. In the shot above Laverty is just starting the final climb, a section of track known as Horsepower Hill because it’s so steep.

Here Lorenzo is climbing the hill, which looks pretty steep in this photo, but when you’re walking up this hill it’s a workout. But once at the top, the course is level again as the lap concludes. I walked this section once and then rode that 50cc scooter up the next day. Had the throttle pinned but larger scooters passed me, albeit with effort. I felt like I was Aleix Espargaro on a Suzuki. Ha ha!

That’s enough words for now. Below, some more scenes from around the circuit.

Bradley Smith

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