There are some race tracks in this world that have been lost to memory, and it’s only with modern technology that we’re able to revive what they might have looked like. That’s exactly what’s happening with Circuit Bremgarten on Assetto Corsa.
Circuit Bremgarten was a 4.524-mile track in Bern, Switzerland that was designed for motorcycle racing in 1931 but began hosting automobile races just three years after. The track itself was gorgeous, albeit one of the more dangerous ones in Europe. There was no actual straight on the track; instead, it was composed of a lot of twists and bends through the Bremgarten forest north of Bern. Very few of those bends were low-speed corners. Visibility on the tree-lined track was often poor, and the variable light filtering through the trees often made for changeable track conditions, especially when a race started wet and began to dry.
Bremgarten hosted Grand Prix racing from 1933 to 1954, with the lap record being secured by Auto Union’s Bernd Rosemeyer in 1936. The track claimed the lives of several racers, many of them motorcycle riders, before Switzerland entirely banned motorsport after the 1955 Le Mans tragedy killed upwards of 80 spectators.
GPLaps on YouTube recently posted a great video of a lap of Bremgarten on Assetto Corsa, a racing simulation video game that can be modified to include a wider variety of custom race tracks. In this case, someone created a Bremgarten track and ran a lap that you can watch here:
As GPLaps point out, the biggest challenge of this track is the changing terrain, with new and old asphalt swapping places several times and even the inclusion of a cobblestone path heading to the starting straight.
After Switzerland banned motorsport, Circuit Bremgarten fell into ruin. It was never used again, with parts of it transformed into modern roadways and other parts given over to nature. You can actually watch one YouTuber traverse the old track in honor of Rosemeyer:
There are several periods where he dips into the forest and has to battle through the trees to stay on the track.
It’s great to see the clip in Assetto Corsa in all of its natural glory, with rough asphalt and narrow, winding tracks. Enjoy the clip and this little piece of motorsport history.
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