Kartbahn Bopfingen

Overview

The Breitwangbahn is the outdoor kart track of the Motorsportclub "IPF" Bopfingen e.V. im ADAC. It lies on the Breitwang above Bopfingen and Hohenberg in the Ostalbkreis district of Baden-Württemberg, on the road towards the local airfield. The club runs the circuit itself and opens it to private kart owners, with lower prices for members. There are no rental karts: drivers bring their own machines, must be at least eight years old, and every kart needs rear bumper protection. The track also holds Supermoto training, with karts and motorcycles running in separate groups, and the site includes a traffic training area.

Technical Specifications and Track Features

The current circuit is 1,020 metres long and between 7 and 12 metres wide. Its start and finish straight measures 160 metres, runs past a grandstand and the timing building, and carries a painted starting grid. Its most unusual feature is a banked curve, which the club describes as having a 10 percent overhang on a section with a 2 percent gradient. The rest of the lap is a tight sequence of hairpins and esses lined with tyre walls. The club's lap records include 44.924 seconds by Tobias Binder in the gearbox class, an average of 81.52 km/h.

Facilities and Specialized Areas

The official site plan shows a clubhouse and race office beside the paddock, a car park, a pit lane, a grandstand along the main straight, a timing building and a commentator's position. The clubhouse serves food during the midday break on practice days. A kart service run by RSmotorsport works at the pit lane and supplies parts, which can be ordered in advance. The track rules require karts in the paddock to stand on absorbent mats, allow refuelling only at the fuel point, and keep spectators outside the fenced track area.

History

The club was founded on 12 November 1927 and became known for the Ipf hill climb for motorcycles, first held in 1932. Refounded in 1952 under its present name, it moved to the Breitwang in 1954 and built a motocross course there. A motorsport facility followed in 1972, opened with an automobile slalom in which the future Formula One driver Manfred Winkelhock finished third. The site hosted speedway from 1972, including Bundesliga meetings and a World Championship round in 1981, until speedway ended in 1983. The first Bopfingen kart race, on 17 June 1973, drew a thousand spectators. In 1993 Jos Verstappen won the club's celebrity race, and Adrian Sutil trained and raced at the track in his karting years. The kart track was extended to 860 metres in 1999. A near-complete rebuild, with a designer of Formula One circuits as adviser, began with a groundbreaking in November 2010: the straight was lengthened, the banked section was added, the whole track was resurfaced in two days in March 2011, and about 9,000 tyres were fitted to the barriers. The new track opened officially on 23 September 2011. The club also holds the Großer Preis der Stadt Bopfingen there, a round of the Süddeutscher ADAC Kart Cup, which it ran on 14 June 2026.