TT Circuit Assen Current Race rails (2006 – Today)

TT Circuit Assen Current Race rails (2006 – Today)

In this Circuits of the past video we show you both versions of the current layouts of TT Circuit Assen (Netherlands), home of the Dutch Grand Prix for the MotoGP.

The current TT Circuit Assen originated from a semi-street circuit that opened in 1955. This semi-street circuit was in turn created from a full street circuit which was in utilization from 1926 upward to 1954.

In contrast to todays rails the old street circuit was only used for the annual Dutch TT motorcycle races.

at that place was already a Dutch TT in 1925 on a traject not far from Assen. However, because the first traject needed some improvements and politicicians didn’t want to invest in it, the Dutch TT moved to Assen in 1926.

In the 1950’s the municipal of Assen wanted a reconstruction of the rails. But the street circuit ran also through the township of Beilen and the mayor of Beilen didn’t want to cooperate. At least that’s what they told in Assen. In Beilen they told that Assen wanted all the profits of the Dutch TT for themself.

In a record time of only 4 months they built a new 7.7 km or 4.78 Miles long semi street circuit. The people of Assen nicknamed it “The Miracle of Assen”, patch angry people in Beilen predicted that it would be soon all over for the Dutch TT with this “Mickey Mouse rails”.

Through the years the layout of the rails changed and the “Mickey Mouse rails” became shorter. To bring the relatively long circuit to a more common length of 4.5 kilometer or 2.8 Miles, they abandoned the Northern Loop. For the vacated site they had ambitious plans such as an exhibition hall, a hotel, Netherlands Casino and cinema. However, only the expo hall has been realized so far.

If you want to see what’s left of the old Northern Loop I reccomend the videos of the previous versions of TT Circuit Assen.

1955 – 1983 layout: https://youtu.be/zwN7LYWFOF8
1984 – 2005 layout: https://youtu.be/voNYmaIYcPo

For this occasion we had permission to film some laps here on a day when the rails was being serviced. So this was filmed completely legal. But that has been different in the past…

When the TT Circuit of Assen was a semi-permanent circuit it was open for public most days of the yr. Not only the part which was the main road, but also the Northern and Southern loops. Actually, both permanent loops lead nowhere, except to the farmers land on the inside of the rails.

Some noughty boys liked to play racing driver on these permanent loops. One of them was Herman Liesemeijer – the founder of the Circuits of the past website and YouTube channel – who came here for the first time in 1989.

But after some grave accidents happened the city council of Assen decided to close the circuit for traffic in 1992. Since so TT Circuit Assen is a full permanent race rails.

Until the 1990’s car racing was taboo at Assen. However, when Assen became a permanent rails in 1992 the circuit could be used every day of the yr and so it also became more commercial. As a result, car races have also been held since the 1990s.

If you want to know more about the history of TT Crcuit Assen, please read the article on the website:

https://www.circuitsofthepast.com/tt-circuit-assen/ (English)
https://www.circuitsofthepast.nl/tt-circuit-assen/ (Nederlands)

Special thanks to Simon Smith for the voiceover. see also his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/HigherPlainGames

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