Andalucía Circuit: Rabat's track near Tabernas and its new owners

On 12 October 2025 the first race of a round of the Andalusian car racing championship at Andalucía Circuit began with the Porsche Cayman of Olivier Muytjens in the lead; the Belgian had been running the track for a year. The venue in the Tabernas desert, in the province of Almería, is only ten years old, yet it has already changed owners and clientele. It was built with the involvement of motorcycle world champion Tito Rabat, it has hosted tests of the new generation of Formula E and an amateur 24-hour race, and on ordinary days drivers lap it in their own cars.

Location	Tabernas (province of Almería, Andalusia), N-340a road, km 483; right next to Circuito de Almería, with a shared paddock
Type	permanent road circuit: team and manufacturer testing, track days, regional races
Length	5020 m (since 2018), shorter variants of 4000 m and 2200 m; just over 4 km in 2016–2017
Width	12 m
Corners	17: nine right-handers and eight left-handers
Longest straight	over 1 km
Opened	2016
Design	with the involvement of Tito Rabat
Owner and operator	HYTracks (Brice Pineau, Olivier Muytjens), since 2024; previously the García family (Spain Circuits group)
Pit garages	32
Major events	rounds of the Andalusian car racing championship, endurance races, tests by motorcycle teams and Formula E
Status	active

The García family's second track

Andalucía Circuit grew up beside an older neighbour. Circuito de Almería was built on his own farmland by José Antonio García, known in motorsport circles as “Nono”, a former rally driver; construction began in 1998, and in 2000 the track welcomed its first customers. His son David, European champion in the 250 cc motorcycle class, took over the management of the company in 2008. Tito Rabat made the Tabernas track his training base; according to RacingCircuits.info he rode there almost every day, while Todocircuito wrote that he spent half the year training there. When David García was planning a second track, to the west of the main circuit, it was Rabat, the 2014 Moto2 world champion, whose opinion he sought.

In December 2015 the Todocircuito website announced that Circuito de Andalucía would open in January. The track was to be 4300 metres long, with 15 corners and a width of 10 metres; it would share the paddock and car park with its neighbour, but have its own pit garages, control tower and medical centre. “Tito did the design and followed very closely how it was being built,” Samuel Castillo of Circuito de Almería told the website. Both tracks were to operate at the same time, each with its own marshals and medical team, and most of the new venue's dates were reserved for private team training. SoyMotero added that Rabat had worked on the design with the British company Focused Events, which was to have its Spanish centre of operations here. The opening was planned as a four-day course run by Neil Hodgson, on 23–26 January 2016.

In a Focused Events video from October 2015, when the track was still under construction, Rabat explained what he had been looking for:

“It's a very nice track, because it has very fast corners, slow ones, wide places, other narrow ones, it has everything, chicanes, heavy braking... I wanted a track that has a bit of everything for training.”

He also compared it to Phillip Island: there you see the sea on the horizon, here the mountains. The operator still singles out one part of the track today. It is a chicane taken down the slope, which it calls “our famous chicane”.

Motorcycles first, then cars

The first customers came on two wheels. In February 2016 the organiser Bike Promotion invited riders for 5 and 6 March to tandas, that is, riding in groups by level, with timing and free instructors for beginners; a day cost from 89 euros. A year later “La Voz de Almería” described tests by two leading Kawasaki teams from the Spanish motorcycle championship, for which Michelin sent a six-person crew of engineers and mechanics.

The track made its racing debut on 18 September 2016. The Andalusian motorsport federation (Federación Andaluza de Automovilismo, FAA) announced that the new venue would “debut” with a round of the regional circuit racing championship; its delegate Ángel Romero had inspected the facilities beforehand. After the event the federation wrote of a successful debut. In the Gran Turismo class both races were won by Sergio Reyes in a Seat León; among the touring cars the first race was won by Luis García in an Alfa Romeo and the second by debutant Cristian Davies in a Seat Ibiza.

In spring 2017 the operator's website gave a length of 4110 metres, 17 corners and a width of 10 to 12 metres. It also listed 16 pit garages, 12 double rooms less than 100 metres from them and a restaurant for more than 300 people.

A kilometre of straight and nine kilometres of Iberia

In 2018 the track was given a new shape. According to RacingCircuits.info the rebuild gave it a straight 1055 metres long, the longest in Spain, and allowed it to be joined to the neighbouring track. When the Andalusian championship came in May 2018, the FAA was already writing of a “renovated” venue. On the operator's 2019 website the loop measured 5020 metres and had nine right-hand and eight left-hand corners and changes in elevation, and its straight was advertised as the longest of any Spanish track.

Joining the two tracks produced a variant about 9 kilometres long, named Iberia Circuit. RacingCircuits.info describes it like this: a start on the main start-finish straight, a left turn at the fourth corner, an almost complete lap of the modified Andalucía and a return to the old track at the end of the kilometre-long straight. The Spain Circuits group advertises Iberia as the largest track in Europe with full safety equipment. In 2021 “La Voz de Almería” described the García family's group as two permanent tracks plus a third created by joining them.

Amateurs used this configuration too. In May 2022 the organiser 103 Octanos was selling a day at Andalucía Circuit and, in the evening from 18:00 to 21:00, three hours on Iberia for 199 euros.

Bicycles, world champions and 24 hours

The long track drew more than just cars. For 2019, 103 Octanos announced two 24-hour races here, in May and in October. Cyclists were announced for 4 May that year: the 12-hour Trackman Cycling was part of the Spanish ultracycling cup, and four days earlier the organiser spoke of 300 riders and 150 teams, including from Norway, Germany, Italy and France.

In winter the track kept serving professional motorcycle riders. In February 2021 Àlex Rins of the Suzuki Ecstar team and newly crowned Moto3 world champion Albert Arenas came here, having fled the rain in Portimão. Arenas already knew Tabernas but, as “La Voz de Almería” wrote, he had previously ridden only on the neighbouring track.

HYRacing classics and new hosts

At the end of summer 2024 the track changed owners. Frenchman Brice Pineau and Belgian Olivier Muytjens had met four years earlier, and in September 2021 they presented the HYRacing team at Spa-Francorchamps. It races historic and modern cars, and also runs track days with classic car hire and coaches, among them Marc Duez. Those days were held at Andalucía Circuit. The duo bought it through the company HYTracks, and Muytjens became the venue's director. “We have indeed acquired this exceptional 53-hectare site, which includes a car and motorcycle circuit,” they told the Belgian website SpeedActionTV. “La Voz de Almería” also described the takeover of the complex by HYTracks, and the legal note on the track's website now names Muytjens.

Next door, the García family continues to run Circuito de Almería. At the end of 2025 its Spain Circuits group announced the construction of two more tracks there, Almería Circuit II and III.

The new director races on his own track. In the October 2025 round of the Andalusian championship Muytjens soon gave up the lead and finished third in the first race; in the second, in which he led again, he crossed the line second and received a five-second penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag. The first race was won by Juan Miguel Larios in a Porsche 911 Cup; the federation announced his lap of 2:02.993 as a new track record.

After the change of ownership, well-known names appeared at the track. According to “La Voz de Almería”, Andalucía Circuit hosted the second round of collective tests of the Gen4, the new Formula E car: over three days five cars from Porsche, Nissan, Jaguar, Stellantis and Lola ran here, with Nico Müller and Pascal Wehrlein in the Porsche and Zane Maloney and Lucas di Grassi in the Lola. In spring 2026 Thierry Neuville, the 2024 world rally champion, came with Lifelive Motorsport, a project devoted to historic racing cars; according to SpeedActionTV he drove a BMW Z4 GT3 here that had formerly belonged to the Marc VDS team.

On 10–12 April 2026 the company Amazing Drives organised the 24H Resistencia Andalucia Circuit race here for amateur teams. It was won by Eric van de Poele, a former Formula 1 driver and five-time winner of the 24-hour race at Spa, in a Porsche 944 run by Steven Berndtson's team. The HYRacing Porsche 964 with Pineau, Muytjens, Duez and Michael Leoni finished sixth, with gearbox problems.

SpeedActionTV pointed out at the time that the track had no homologation for national and international races, and that regional events were held on it. A closure and works intended to give it FIA homologation were announced for June and July 2026. Whether it was obtained could not be established.

A track day in the desert

Only people with a reservation are admitted to the site, and the whole track can be hired on request all year round. A driver with their own car can go out on track here at track days run by various organisers. For 11 October and 13 December 2026, 103 Octanos was selling tandas at 230 euros for seven hours, 170 euros for four hours up to the lunch break and 140 euros for three hours after it. Up to 30 cars run on track at the same time, every participant gives the mandatory signature and attends the track director's briefing, and helmets are compulsory for driver and passenger; driver insurance and timing are included in the price.

“La Voz de Almería” also mentioned Friday afternoon tandas for amateurs with instructors. HYRacing offers the hire of a historic racing car with a coach, or driving your own race car; the day begins at 9:00 with a meeting with the coach, and the pit lane opens at 9:30. Overnight accommodation is available on site in chalets with twin rooms, overlooking the paddock or the mountains.

In the operator's calendar for October 2026, six days belong to motorcyclists with No Limits and four to cars: 10 and 11 October to 103 Octanos, 12 October to Andalucia Track, 23 October to HY Racing. A track that began as a training ground for a motorcycle world champion now divides its month between two wheels and four.

Timeline

• 1998–2000: construction and opening of the neighbouring Circuito de Almería.
• 2015: announcement of a new track co-designed by Tito Rabat.
• 2016: planned opening with a Focused Events course (January) and Bike Promotion tandas (March); on 18 September the first car race.
• 2018: rebuild, the 5020 m loop and the link with Almería into the Iberia Circuit variant.
• 2019: announcements of the 103 Octanos 24-hour races and the Trackman Cycling event.
• 2024: the track is bought by HYTracks, the company of Brice Pineau and Olivier Muytjens.
• 2025: Juan Miguel Larios sets a new track record in the Andalusian championship.
• 2026: the 24H Resistencia race and the announcement of homologation works.