Circuit Zolder, Racing Circuit

Circuit Zolder, also known as Circuit Terlamen, is an undulating 4.010 km motorsport track set in a wooded area on the edge of Heusden-Zolder in the Limburg region of Belgium, near the canal. Local racing dated back to the 1950s around the town square before the Zolder motor club sought a safer, permanent home, opening the Omloop van Terlaemen in 1961 on land owned by Antoine Palmers de Terlaemen, after whom the circuit was named. Designed by John Hugenholtz and built to its grand prix form in 1963, Zolder became the home of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting it on ten occasions through the 1970s and into the 1980s, alternating early on with Nivelles-Baulers. The circuit is best remembered as the place where Ferrari star Gilles Villeneuve was killed in a qualifying accident at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, after his car collided with the slower March of Jochen Mass; the circuit itself was not at fault. After Villeneuve's death the race moved to Spa, returned once more to Zolder in 1984 where Michele Alboreto won for Ferrari, and then settled permanently at Spa from 1985. Over the years the layout was repeatedly modified, with a chicane added on the Sacrament hill, the tightening of the Jacky Ickx chicane, and a 1990s realignment after the Terlamenbocht that trimmed the lap to 4.184 km. A 2006 safety reprofiling produced the current 4.010 km, ten-turn configuration. Today Zolder hosts the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, the NASCAR Euro Series and the long-running 24 Hours of Zolder, and has staged DTM, GT World Challenge Europe and the Masters of Formula 3.

Operated by: Circuit Zolder NV