Tor Modlin: the track that debuted in a rally before it opened

In the first days of December 2017 the crews of the 55th Rajd Barbórka moved from Warsaw's Bemowo to the outskirts of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, onto a completely new stage named Tor Modlin. The asphalt had been ready since the autumn, but the centre formally did not exist yet: the official opening took place only at the end of April 2018. So began the history of a facility that the Mazovian regional government built for PLN 30 million net right next to the runway of the Warszawa-Modlin airport, with conference rooms in a 19th century ammunition store and with a track that on a Saturday afternoon anyone with a driving licence and PLN 350 in their pocket can drive onto.

Location	ul. gen. Wiktora Thommée 1B, Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki (Modlin), next to the Warszawa-Modlin airport
Type	higher grade driving technique improvement centre with a sport and training track
Sport and training track	1200 m, 22 corners, 8 configurations, longest straight 220 m, start straight 12 m wide
Training track	2400 m, 6 modules, three skid pads, two of them with water curtains
Opening	24 April 2018
Operator	Tor Modlin Sp. z o.o.; sole shareholder: Agencja Rozwoju Mazowsza S.A.
Construction cost	PLN 30 million net
Main events	Puchar Toru Modlin (since 2019), stages of the Rajd Barbórka (since 2017), Tor Modlin Rally Show (2020)
Track days	cars PLN 350, motorcycles PLN 300, motorcycles with an instructor PLN 590
Status	active

A special stage four months before the opening

The organisers of Barbórka 2017 prepared six stages with a total length of 26.5 km; alongside the familiar, though modified, Bemowo, a new stage near Modlin appeared in the programme. The rally crews thus drove onto a facility whose construction had begun barely a year earlier: the contractor took over the building site in October 2016, and by the autumn of 2017 the centre was ready. The project itself had a longer history. The company Warszawski Ośrodek Doskonalenia Techniki Jazdy announced a tender for the concept and the full design documentation of the “Driving Technique Improvement Centre in Modlin” as early as 3 October 2011, and the design work started in 2012; before ground was broken, the assumptions were changed so that both parts of the complex, the training track and the sport and training track, could work independently of each other.

The official opening was scheduled for 24 April 2018. The marshal of the voivodeship Adam Struzik came, and so did the secretary of the voivodeship Waldemar Kuliński, whom the local press lists among the initiators of the undertaking. Struzik said that “Tor Modlin is another element of the road safety policy actively created by the Self-Government of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship”, and recalled that in the first half of 2017 more than 20,000 driving licences were issued in Mazovia, four times as many as in the Lubuskie Voivodeship. Kuliński went further and declared it “the most modern centre of this kind in this part of Europe”; this is the assessment of the host, not the result of a comparison. The ambassador of the facility became Leszek Kuzaj, a four time Polish rally champion, and the president Rafał Zięba summed up the programme in one sentence:

“We want to give our guests the emotions that come with driving, but above all to improve safety on our roads.”

A firing range, the Luftwaffe and an experimental squadron

The land on which the track lies belonged to the military for a hundred years. North of the citadel of the Modlin Fortress stretches a former military airfield, today the Warszawa-Modlin airport. The first traces of the aviation purpose of the area come from 1937, when members of the Air and Anti-Gas Defence League brought earth to the eastern side of the armoured forces firing range in order to level and harden the ground; the investment was not finished before the war. It was only the occupiers who in 1940 entered the name “Lotnisko Modlin” into the documents, designated aircraft parking places and organised a fuel depot; combat units of the Luftwaffe were stationed here.

In January 1945 the airfield was taken by the Soviet 47th Army Corps, in March it was handed over to the Polish Air Force Command, and in February 1946 the 1st “Warszawa” Fighter Aviation Regiment relocated here from Kroczewo. Between 1949 and 1953 two large hangars, a fuel depot, taxiways and a concrete runway were built. Later Modlin was a base for Il-28 bombers, and in secret it received the first MiG-21s in Poland: on 29 September 1961. In the mid-1970s the 45th Experimental Aviation Squadron was formed here; it survived the disbanding of the 38th regiment and operated until the turn of the century; in 2000 the Ministry of National Defence handed the airfield over to the Military Property Agency.

The civilian airport was built from 8 October 2010 and opened on 7 July 2012; the first scheduled aircraft, an Airbus A320 of Wizz Air from Budapest, landed on 15 July at 17:30. The runway is 2500 m long and 45 m wide. The joy lasted five months: on 22 December 2012 the building inspectorate withdrew the permit to use the concrete part of the runway because of cracks, the airlines moved to Okęcie and the aircraft came back to Modlin only in the summer of 2013. At the same time, on the other side of Thommée street, the design work on the driving technique improvement centre was already under way. Today at number 1a there is the free Mazowieckie Road Safety Centre of the Voivodeship Road Traffic Centre with a traffic town for children, opened on 9 May 2019, and at 1B Tor Modlin; both facilities lie, as WORD writes, “vis a vis Lotniska Modlin”.

The fortress too left its mark on the track: the conference centre of the facility was arranged in a 19th century ammunition store. In 2018 the spectators of Barbórka parked in the airport car parks P-3 and P-7, from where free buses took them to the track.

Thirty million and one company

Behind the investment stands a company set up on the initiative of the Board of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship; its sole shareholder is Agencja Rozwoju Mazowsza, and the PLN 30 million net for the construction came from its own funds. The company was registered on 22 January 2010; it has capital of PLN 4,220,000 divided into 200 shares, all in the hands of the Agency, and its management board consists of the president Rafał Zięba and the vice-president Wojciech Jagodziński. For years it traded as Warszawski Ośrodek Doskonalenia Techniki Jazdy, today it appears in the register as Tor Modlin Sp. z o.o. Its main line of business according to the National Court Register is, which sounds surprising for a race track, the rental and management of real estate; in 2024 the company reported PLN 12.0 million of sales revenue and PLN 32.9 million of assets.

The Mazovian voivode entered the facility in the register as a higher grade driving technique improvement centre, which means the right to run training for all driving licence categories, including for instructors, examiners and drivers of emergency vehicles. The regional government makes use of its own investment: in 2020 it financed, for about PLN 600,000, training for more than 400 drivers aged 18–24 and 55+, six hours each, with the participation of the Mazowieckie Centre for Social Policy and the voivodeship road traffic centres, and in 2022 75 residents of the Siedlce subregion were trained here under the Participatory Budget of Mazovia. In a conversation with the brd24.pl portal Zięba explained what people need a track for: a good driver is, in his view, the one “who is aware that he is not alone on the road”, and track training is meant to lower the feeling of self-confidence and to show real dangers.

Twenty-two corners in 1200 metres

According to the operator the sport and training track is 1200 m long, with 22 technical corners, three independent sections and eight configuration variants; the longest straight measures 220 m, and the start straight is 12 m wide. Combined with the modules of the training track it produces a loop of more than 3 km, and the lighting allows driving in the evening and at night.

The training track is 2400 m of asphalt divided into six modules. The small skid pad is 9 by 75 m with two rows of three water curtains, the large one 20 by 100 m with two rows of four curtains 2–2.5 m high and a kick plate that destabilises the line of travel; the circular pad with a radius of 27 m forms a ring 170 m long, described by the centre as an “infinitely long corner”. Added to that is an incline with a gradient of 10 percent with a dry and a wet section, a motorcycle area 37 by 130 m with painted slaloms and an off-road track with a loose surface, steep descents, a balance beam and a small bridge. The main building has on the ground floor a hall of about 180 m² with an entrance for one or two cars, on the first floor a covered grandstand for 150 people with a view of the track and a big screen, and on the second floor a room of 160 m² with glazed walls. The Ścigacz.pl portal describes the complex as “surrounded by forest”.

One thing sets Modlin apart from many tracks in Europe: noise. Asked about noise limits, the operator answers briefly in its FAQ: “No, there are no restrictions in this respect at our centre”.

A cup for drivers without a licence

Since 2019 the centre has organised its own competition, the Puchar Toru Modlin. The first season was planned as nine rounds, from March to 14 December, and the conditions of entry were minimal: a driving licence, a car with a valid registration document and a homologated helmet, without a competition licence. The cars were divided into capacity classes from 1150 cm³ upwards, with separate classifications for Subaru Imprezas and Mitsubishi Lancer Evos, cars from before 1990, competitors with a licence as guests, and women. Close to 90 participants took the start in the prologue, and the route of the first round, 4.2 km covered five times, was identical with the stage of the December Barbórka, which was meant to let amateurs compare their times with the run of Kajetan Kajetanowicz in a Ford Fiesta WRC.

The formula has survived. In the 2026 season the cup is co-organised by Tor Modlin Sp. z o.o. and Moto-Auto-Klub under the banner of Polski Związek Motorowy; the framework regulations of 1 February 2026 provide for four rounds (15 March, 17 May, 6 September and 18 October), six Open classes according to capacity and drive, and the PRO classifications for licence holders, N Stock Car for standard cars, RWD and Women. Every hundredth of a second is scored as 0.01 penalty points, a false start and a knocked over post cost 5 points, a wrecked chicane 10, and warming tyres outside the designated zone carries exclusion. In the same year the rounds of the cup became qualifying events of the nationwide Toyota GR Cup, in which the drivers of GR Yarises and Supras fight for places in the final at Autodrom Słomczyn; the class list of the Modlin round includes Toyota GR Open Cup and Toyota GR Stock Car.

In parallel the track has become a permanent point of the Rajd Barbórka. In 2018 the crews covered a double loop 5 km long twice, 15 minutes apart, so that a spectator from one place would see every crew twice. A year later the stage was extended to 6.23 km, and Kajetanowicz brought to it a Fiesta WRC with a 1.6 l engine of 380 hp. “I am extremely pleased, the very thought of driving a WRC class car gives me goosebumps”, he said before the start, and then he won both morning runs of Tor Modlin with an advantage of nearly 40 s, took his seventh consecutive victory in Barbórka and broke the record of Tomasz Kuchar.

When the pandemic cancelled Barbórka 2020, Leszek Kuzaj organised the Tor Modlin Rally Show instead, held on 12 December 2020 without an audience, with a broadcast on Motowizja. On the snow covered track 46 crews covered the loop nine times in various configurations, 37.10 km in total, with a night Kryterium Toru Modlin for the best 35. It was won by Jari Huttunen and Mikko Lukka, freshly crowned WRC3 world champions and Polish champions, in a Hyundai i20 R5 repainted gold; before the start the Finn announced that after the WRC season the tight corners, hairpins and chicanes would be a challenge of a completely different format for him. A year later the show got a version for amateurs: in November 2021 the 70 entries filled up in three days, Saturday was reserved for licence holders, Sunday for drivers without one, and the overall classification was won by Tomasz Jurkun in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. Barbórka 2025 returned to the 6 kilometre stage, which the organiser describes as a “fast and extremely technical test” with a jump and a sequence of fast curves.

A track day for 350 zlotys

Track days in Modlin require neither a licence nor an entry through a club. A voucher for a car track day for one driver costs PLN 350, for two drivers in one car PLN 450, a motorcycle one PLN 300, and a motorcycle one with an instructor PLN 590. The sessions last three to three and a half hours: in the calendar for September 2026 the car ones are entered for Saturday 5 and 26 September from 13:30 to 17:00, the motorcycle ones for Sunday 13 September from 11:00 to 14:00, and the motorcycle rides with an instructor for Tuesdays and Thursdays from 17:00 to 20:00. The operator calls them “free practice” for amateurs and competitors, with the possibility of buying instructor time by the hour. In 2021 a three hour session from 18:00 cost PLN 250.

The rules are written down in the FAQ of the centre. A helmet is recommended, and obligatory in cars with a roll cage or an open roof; a motorcyclist must have a helmet, boots, protectors, gloves and motorcycle clothing; the car has to be in working order, fuelled, with good tyres and pads; you can drive your own car or one rented from the fleet of the centre. Because this is a closed area, the vehicles do not have to carry registration plates, and ordinary third-party liability insurance applies on the track. On site there is a station for changing and balancing tyres and a workshop for minor repairs, but there is no inspection pit.

Anyone who has no sports car of their own can get into the fleet of the centre: a Porsche 911 4S of 450 hp, an Audi R8 V10 Performance of 570 hp, a BMW M2 Competition or a Renault Mégane R.S. of 300 hp, for PLN 290–1390 for two to five laps. In September 2024 Alpine launched here, with the partners Castrol and Delphi, the Alpine Driving Experience Center with a fleet of five A110S cars and three programmes: Intro, Expert and Sport&Safety with driving on the skid pads and through the kick plate. Training in your own car costs from PLN 1900, in a car of the centre on an exclusive basis up to PLN 5400; the season lasts until November and comes back in March after the winter break. Motorcyclists have been trained since 2022 on Kawasaki Ninja 650 machines, on which the instructors work, and in June 2026 the Polskie Stowarzyszenie Nowej Mobilności brought close to 80 electric cars to the track for test drives for fleet managers.

On Saturday 5 September 2026 the calendar of the centre provides for the Bezpieczny Kierowca training from 9:00, dream drives with an instructor from 10:00, for which there are no free places left, and from 13:30 to 17:00 a track day for PLN 350. The next day, on Sunday 6 September, the same corners will be taken by the crews of the third round of the Puchar Toru Modlin, scored to the hundredth of a second.

Timeline

• 1937: the Air and Anti-Gas Defence League begins levelling the ground of the armoured forces firing range for an airfield.
• 1940: the Germans build Lotnisko Modlin for the Luftwaffe.
• 1946: the 1st “Warszawa” Fighter Aviation Regiment relocates to Modlin.
• 1949–1953: the hangars and the concrete runway are built.
• mid-1970s: the 45th Experimental Aviation Squadron is formed, operating until the turn of the century.
• 2000: the Ministry of National Defence hands the airfield over to the Military Property Agency.
• 22 January 2010: registration of the company, the later operator of the track.
• 3 October 2011: tender for the concept and the design documentation of the centre in Modlin.
• 7 July 2012: opening of the Warszawa-Modlin airport; on 22 December the runway is closed.
• October 2016: the contractor takes over the building site of the track.
• December 2017: debut of the Tor Modlin stage in the 55th Rajd Barbórka.
• 24 April 2018: official opening of Tor Modlin.
• March 2019: start of the first season of the Puchar Toru Modlin.
• 7 December 2019: Kajetanowicz in a Ford Fiesta WRC wins both runs of Tor Modlin in Barbórka.
• 12 December 2020: the Tor Modlin Rally Show replaces the cancelled Barbórka.
• September 2024: opening of the Alpine Driving Experience Center.
• 2026: the rounds of the Puchar Toru Modlin become qualifying events of the Toyota GR Cup.