Opatija Circuit
Preluk (Italian: Abbazia di or even Circuito del Circuito Quarnaro ) is a former motor racing track on the Kvarner Bay in the same seaside town east of Opatija in Croatia.
The route took a scenic, situated on the Croatian Adriatic route as a road course. Because it consisted of closed-off public roads, it was considered very dangerous due to lack of fall zones.
Route
The track had a length of six kilometers and consisted exclusively of public roads. She had seven right and seven left-handers and has traveled in a clockwise direction. The start and finish were in a sports complex in Preluk at sea level, then it went along the Adriatic Sea in the northwest towards Opatija. After a 180 -degree turn just before the town you drove inland from the coast to the southeast until shortly before Rijeka. In this passage the runway at times rose to a height of 85 meters. After another bend it went over the coast road back to the finish line.
History
The route was first traveled in 1939, at that time still belonged to Italy and Opatija Abbazia said. The racetrack was home after the Second World War, various motorsport series. So a motorcycle race was on 1 September 1946 by AMZ Hrvatske first held, which was advertised internationally in 1950 and 1969-1977 counted as first Grand Prix of the Adriatic and later as the Grand Prix of Yugoslavia to the motorcycle world championship.
Furthermore, even sports car races (1950-1959), race to the Formula Junior (1961, 1961 and 1963 ) and Formula 3 race ( 1964-1968 ) were held in Opatija.
In 1973, the motorcycle Grand Prix was boycotted by several major accidents in the previous World Championship races and because of notoriously dangerous stretch of the works teams of Yamaha, Harley- Davidson and MV Agusta. After 1974, the British Billie Nelson had died in an accident, died in the motorcycle Grand Prix 1977 Ulrich Graf from Switzerland and the Italian Giovanni Zigiotto. In addition, there were a total of 19 wounded on that race weekend. These events led to the end of the racing activities on the track of Opatija.
In order to secure the championship status of the GP of Yugoslavia from the following season, was built as late as 1977 in the immediate vicinity of Rijeka, the permanent race track in Automotodrome Grobnik on the motorcycle Grand Prix was held until the outbreak of war in Yugoslavia in 1990.