Road Atlanta Track Map Poster

Road Atlanta was carved out of red Georgia clay, and the hills it was carved from are still the whole story. Its 4.088 km (2.54 miles) and twelve turns run clockwise through northeast Georgia like a roller coaster: up blind crests, under a bridge and down into a final corner that dives toward the finish line.

In 1969 the land near Braselton was a farmer’s field. Its founders had the curious idea of building a world-class road course in the heart of stock-car country, and when a major race lost its own circuit to flood damage in 1970, they excavated, graded and paved this one in a six-month rush. The first race, that September, drew a huge crowd and was won, against the odds, by a car with far less power than its rivals.

Until 1997 the back straight ended in the Dip, a hollow taken at nearly 320 km/h (200 mph) that bottomed out the suspension of the fastest cars. A chicane replaced it, the 10a and 10b on the poster. What survives, little changed since 1970, is the finale: blind under the bridge at Turn 11, then the plunge of Turn 12 onto the front straight, a descent so steep that when cyclists race here, the circuit runs in reverse and they climb it instead.

On the poster, the hills flatten into a clean line: all twelve turns numbered, the Esses and the Back Straight lettered in, and a pit lane on each side of the front straight. Rosso, the burgundy edition, brings back the red clay underneath. On paper, at last, the roller coaster holds still.