Track modeling by B. Dibble
Track History:
Oakes Field was used for the Bahamas Speed Weeks event on Nassau, Bahamas event between 1957 and 1966. The first year the event was held at Oakes Field the track was 5.0 miles long and was run in a counter clockwise direction, for 1958 the layout was shortened to 4.5 miles long and reversed and run in a clockwise direction.
When Nassau’s famous Speed Week switched to a new course laid out on the runways and service roads of the former Oakes Field airport in 1957, the momentum of the previous three years was carried forward and accelerated even further.
Renamed Oakes Course, a track was laid out measuring 5.0 miles with the cars travelling in an anticlockwise direction. The Island Legislature donated a generous £50,000, which was spent on a pit complex (in reality just covered bays with no other amenities but, at the very least, offering respite from the sun), a press box and a large scoreboard, as well as a footbridge across the track. A GT race was added to the list of races, and for the second year running Stirling Moss won the Nassau Trophy in a borrowed car, this time, the Ferrari 290MM owned by Jan de Vroom.
The new course, despite being quite bumpy in places, was relatively well-received, though there were a number of close shaves near the pits as it was too close to the racing line. To combat this, the race direction of the track was changed to clockwise in 1958. The circuit was also shortened to 4.5 miles by cutting out the original Blackbeard’s Bend and Ecky’s Twist, while a new left-right-left corner combination was built to connect the Sassoon Straight and Bethell’s Pass, cutting out the tight hairpin which has previously taken the cars off the runway.
Virtual Track Infos :
Nassau Speed Weeks is an original track created in Bob’s Track Builder, recreating the famous Oakes Field course of the 1950’s and 60’s.
change-log :
Version 1.2 (2010/11/7) :
– Texture Fix
Version 1.1 (2010/11/1) :
– AIW Fix
Testing :
Steve (Toonces) Smith, Kurt (von Kliest) Dibble, Greg (Greg7) Davis, Umma Gumma, et alia.
We wish to thank Brendon Pywell for his wonderful Bob’s Track Builder, without which we could not even dream of building tracks, and the following individuals for publishing BTB Xpacks containing textures and objects used in constructing this track: EnnisFargis, Jay_P-666, WierdBeard, Chub Pearson, and Big Carva.
Installation:
unzip to the “\GameData\Locations” subdirectory