| ERI - ERITREA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ASMARA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Not to be confused with | Asmara (autodromo) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | From 1938 to 1955 (or more) some races were organized in Eritrea. I found only the very few info here following, without any info about the track used. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Asmara - Regione Centrale / Central | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | NOTE: Eritrea was an Italian colony from 1890 to 1941 and from 1936 to 1941 it was included in Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian Eastern Africa, A.O.I.) toghether with Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. With the defeat of Italy in 1941 Great Britain governed Eritrea as a protectorate ruled it as "Occupied Enemy Territory." On December 2th 1950 UN passed a resolution that formally federated Eritrea to Ethiopia. In September 1952, the agreement was put into practice and Ethiopians replaced the British. After a very long war, Eritrea declared its indepence on May 24th 1993. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Latitude - Longitude | + 15°19'56" + 38°55'50" 15.332222 38.930556 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UTM Coordinates | X = 492545.901 - Y = 1695072.954 - Zone 37P | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aerial photo / Map (*) |  OpenStreetMap - Google Maps - Bing Maps - Flash Earth - Wikimapia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Altitude AMSL | 2339 m - 7674 ft | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inauguration | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Closing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Designer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sources and links (Translation) (**) |
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| Asmara | |||||
| Description | Coppa di Natale (Christmas Cup, main race) and Coppa del Governatore (Governor’s Cup) were raced Coppa di Natale 1. Emilio Romano (Alfa Romeo 2.8L) 30 laps (108.810 km - 67.613 mi) Coppa del Governatore 1. Ferdinando Gay (Maserati 1100) 51’26"2, 20 laps (72.540 km - 45.075 mi), 84.891 km/h - 52.750 mph 2. Cristoforo Bigi (Fiat 508) 53’22"4 | ||||
| Years | 1938 | ||||
| Direction | |||||
 Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | YES | ||||
| Car Circuit | |||||
| Motorbike circuit | |||||
| Type | Street course | ||||
| Inauguration | December 25th 1938 | ||||
| Closing | December 25th 1938 | ||||
| Last update of this page | November 1st 2005 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | |||||
| length | 3627 m | 11900 ft | 2.254 mi | (2) | |
| Asmara | |||||
| Description | In 1943 a bunch of British army officers requisitioned six Italian cars and organised a race for them over a street circuit in Asmara. A single-seater Maserati 4C won from the ex-Howe 8C-2300 Alfa Romeo after a 6C-1750 Alfa was forced out following an encounter with a donkey which had strayed onto the track. The other starters were a newer 8C Alfa, a second 1750 and a small sports Maserati, but the drivers’ names remain hidden by the security in force at the time. | ||||
| Years | 1943 | ||||
| Direction | |||||
| Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | YES | ||||
| Car Circuit | YES | ||||
| Motorbike circuit | |||||
| Type | Road course | ||||
| Inauguration | |||||
| Closing | |||||
| Last update of this page | December 18th 2007 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | |||||
| length | 7242 m | 23759 ft | 4.5 mi | (4) | |
| Asmara | |||||
| Description | Ettore Salvatori (Maserati) won Circuito d’Asmara. I have no more info | ||||
| Years | 1948 | ||||
| Direction | |||||
| Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | YES | ||||
| Car Circuit | YES | ||||
| Motorbike circuit | |||||
| Type | |||||
| Inauguration | June 13th 1948 | ||||
| Closing | June 13th 1948 | ||||
| Last update of this page | June 28th 2021 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | |||||
| Asmara | |||||
| Description | In "Autosport" June 20th 1952 Capt. L.Croft, R.E.M.E. provided a brief report, or should that be dispatch, about the 5th Circuit of Asmara. Although there was no circuit diagram included in the report, possibly using an old map of Asmara or a more recent map it’s possible to work out the circuit from his description. The Asmara circuit has a lap length of 2865 m - 1.780 mi, each race consisting of 40 laps (114.600 km - 71.211 mi). The start is half way along the straight of a dual carriageway (Viale Roma). From the start there is about 300 m - 328 yd. before a right hand sweep, then a slight left hand curve before taking a very tight left turn on to the 1 kilometre straight back stretch. At the end of the straight (which includes a fairly steep rise and a long downhill) is a tight left hand curve, followed by a steep climb, right hand bend, right sweep and left sweep back on to the straight up to the start." Asmara is 2195 m - 7200 ft. above sea-level and consequently the cars lost a considerable amount of horsepower. Joe Nix’s website has some photos taken by Bob Wassum and by Dick Lillienthal during a street race in 1952. There are no more info | ||||
| Years | 1952 | ||||
| Direction |  Anticlockwise | ||||
| Proposal |
NO | ||||
| No longer operational | YES | ||||
| Car Circuit | YES | ||||
| Motorbike circuit | |||||
| Type | Street course | ||||
| Inauguration | June 11th 1952 | ||||
| Closing | June 11th 1952 | ||||
| Last update of this page | September 23rd 2010 | ||||
| Info last update | |||||
| Designer | |||||
| Distinctive points | Sematat Avenue - Viale Roma - Strada 300-A - Strada 301-A - Largo Milano - Sematat Avenue - Viale Milano | ||||
| length | 2865 m | 9400 ft | 1.78 mi | (2) | |
| length | 2715 m | 8907 ft | 1.687 mi | Calculated from aerial photo (*) | (10) |
| Straight length (approx) | 1000 m | 3281 ft | 0.621 mi | Longest straight | (2) |
Asmara 1952
Due to technical problems, temporarily it’s no longer possible to see the circuits on Google Maps embedded in the current page.
This feature will be restored as soon as I figure out how to do (any help would be appreciated!)
See this track layout with Google Earth
- milermeter.com
(milermeter.com can be used in your browser, without installing anything; Google Earth is a program that must be installed in your computer)
(Map shown here above can show at the same time all eventual layouts drawn. If you want to see only some of them, please go to Google Maps or Google Earth, by clicking on its own link)
| Updates | |||||||
| Date | Track layout | Years | Description by | Map by | Thanks to | Note | |
| September 23rd 2010 | 1952 | Guido de Carli | Guido de Carli | Update | Map | ||
| January 4th 2008 | 1952 | Lorenzo Tommasi | Lorenzo Tommasi | New | Map | ||
| November 16th 2005 | 1952 | Guido de Carli | New | ||||
| November 12th 2005 | 1952 | Guido de Carli | humphries | Update | |||
| November 1st 2005 | Guido de Carli | New | Description without map | ||||
| March 9th 2005 | Guido de Carli | New | Description without map | ||||
| Not all eventual updates issued in last years are already visible in this list | |||||||
