Tor Poznań: from the Ławica runways to a dispute over five decibels

On Tuesday 14 April 2026 Bartosz Bieliński, president of Automobilklub Wielkopolski, received the decision of the Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection and told reporters from "Głos Wielkopolski": "As of today motorsport in Poland ceases to exist". The country's only circuit with FIA homologation was closed because of noise exceeding the limit by about five decibels on two streets in Przeźmierowo. The following evening the same institution suspended the enforcement of its own decision. Such is the 49th season of a venue that in December 1977 was opened on the old runways of Ławica airport as the first permanent racing circuit in Poland.

Location	ul. Wyścigowa 3, Przeźmierowo, on the border of Poznań (Ławica district) and the Tarnowo Podgórne commune
Type	permanent car and motorcycle circuit with a karting track and a rallycross section
Length and configuration	4083 m, 12 m wide, one main configuration since 1977
Corners	14 (5 left, 9 right), 11 straight sections with a total length of 2205 m, longest straight 560 m
Elevation difference	6.7 m (from 83.30 to 90 m above sea level)
Direction of travel	clockwise, pole position on the left
Opening	December 1977 (main circuit), 1980 (karting track)
Track record (cars)	1:24.401, Tomáš Kostka, Mercedes-Benz C-Class DTM, FIA CEZ, 29 May 2011
Track record (motorcycles)	1:29.969, Milan Pawelec, Honda CBR1000RR, Polish Championship race, 30 August 2026
Unofficial record	1:14.7, Marc Gené, Ferrari 248 F1, demonstration, 21 April 2007
Owner and operator	Automobilklub Wielkopolski (the venue handed over to the club by a decision of the mayor of Poznań of 24 August 1982)
Homologation	FIA grade 3, for the first time on 17 March 1997, renewed in 2026 for 2026–2029
Main events	Polish Car and Motorcycle Racing Championships, FIA CEZ, Alpe Adria, FIA European Truck Racing Championship (2023), Porsche Sprint Challenge Central Europe
Status	active; the decision to suspend operation is on hold pending the ruling on the appeal before the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw

The concrete runways of Ławica

Before Poznań had a circuit, there were runways. On 29–30 June 1974 the TKKF Winogrady Motor Club staged on the concrete runways of Ławica airport the third round of the Polish racing championship, the first racing event in the city after the Second World War. The 3400 m course was marked out with more than 600 tyres, 30,000 spectators watched the finals, and the all-classes race was won by the Poznań driver Adam Smorawiński in a Porsche Carrera, starting 3 minutes and 48 seconds behind the first car. A year later, on 20 April 1975, a similar event at the same place drew, according to "Gazeta Poznańska", more than 50,000 spectators, the most persistent of whom stood by the track for twelve hours.

The demand was obvious, what was missing was a venue. On 18 November 1974 Automobilklub Wielkopolski officials, among them Mieczysław Biliński and Roman Szczerkowski, put the idea of using the old Ławica runways for the construction of a circuit to a meeting of the board's presidium. The decisive move was made on 19 February 1975 by Andrzej Bobiński, the club's president and at the same time director of the "Polmo" Agricultural Vehicle Factory, the maker of the Tarpan: he proposed combining the interests of the club and the factory, which from that moment became the main investor. The official justification was a "test track" for the Tarpan. In the reality of the Polish People's Republic political backing was also needed; it was provided by Jerzy Zasada, first secretary of the PZPR Voivodeship Committee in Poznań, and Andrzej Jaroszewicz, a rally driver and the son of prime minister Piotr Jaroszewicz.

In May 1975 the Poznań Road Works Enterprise began the first works, in September a twelve-member Social Committee for the Construction of the Circuit was appointed, and on 1 December 1975 Roman Jankowski, MSc Eng., after consultations with club officials, designed the shape of the layout. From May 1976 volunteer community work went on. Bieliński described in 2026 what the designing looked like: "In those days the gentlemen walked across the field and marked out the corners themselves. They marked them with sticks, bottles, cans or tyres", and some corners were still being moved during construction.

December 1977

At 12.00 the minister of the machine industry Aleksander Kopeć, accompanied by Zasada, opened the circuit, and the report on the completion of construction was delivered by Smorawiński, a multiple Polish champion and the venue's first director. A few minutes later more than 20 cars lined up on the grid for a handicap race. The Fiats 126p went first, then the prototype Fiats of Jaroszewicz and Robert Mucha, and Smorawiński in a Porsche Carrera started 150 seconds after the "maluchy". On the slippery, cold surface the Fiat of Tomasz Ciecierzyński kept ahead of him for six laps; on the final lap Smorawiński passed him, Ciecierzyński punctured a tyre just before the finish and ended up fourth. The winner collected the minister's cup and became the circuit's first record holder with an average of 132.5 km/h per lap. Jan Ciszewski commentated on the event.

The press compared the new venue to the American Road America at Elkhart Lake and announced covered grandstands for 50,000 spectators. The grandstands were never built, and the frame of the structure was dismantled. Another souvenir of building in conditions of scarcity did survive: the viaduct at the entrance to the venue, which according to Bieliński came from the construction of a road near Zielona Góra and was "pulled in" thanks to Bobiński's connections. The first records on the 4083 m circuit ranged between 1:50 and 1:52, Smorawiński got down to 1:47, and in 1978 Ryszard Kopczyk in a Porsche did 1:44.7. The circuit belonged at first to "Polmo", then to the Poznań Sports and Recreation Centre, and on 24 August 1982 the mayor of Poznań Andrzej Wituski handed it over by decision no. 24/82 to Automobilklub Wielkopolski.

Wolf at Ławica

Half a year after the opening, on 10–11 June 1978, the 1st International Trade Fair Race was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the Poznań International Fair. More than 20,000 spectators watched races of Fiats 126p and Polonezes; tickets cost 40 zł, and among the coupons handed in at the entrance vouchers for three "maluchy" and a Polonez were drawn. The Polonez race, for which the drivers were drawn by lot, was won by Krzysztof Różewski of Automobilklub Wielkopolski ahead of the Italian Fulvio Bacchelli.

The second edition, on 16–17 June 1979, drew more than 25,000 fans and a Formula 1 car. A Wolf WR5 with a Ford Cosworth DFV engine of 2989 cm³ and 480 hp at 11,300 rpm was brought to Poznań. On Sunday 17 June Jaroszewicz took the wheel, drove ten demonstration laps, on one of them set 1:36.9, which was a new track record, and reached 250 km/h on the straight. Years later Jaroszewicz recalled: "in the corners the skin under my balaclava slid to the right and to the left".

The interest of the head of Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone, was no accident. According to accounts quoted by Jakub Rogiński, based on a book-length conversation with Jaroszewicz, an FIA delegation found that apart from two corners the circuit met the safety standards, but that it lacked pits, a tower and timing equipment; the plans for a Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain were buried by the deteriorating economy, a dispute within the Polish Motor Association, which favoured Warsaw, and Piotr Jaroszewicz's departure from the post of prime minister in 1980. The club chronicle puts it more briefly: "Mainly because of the lack of consent of the authorities of the Polish People's Republic, a contest of the fastest cars in our country never took place". Ecclestone found his circuit behind the Iron Curtain elsewhere: the Hungaroring opened in 1986.

Baba Jaga and Uśmiech Szatana

The layout is 4083 m long and 12 m wide, with 14 corners (five left, nine right) and 11 straights totalling 2205 m; the longest, the start straight, measures 560 m, the shortest 60 m. The difference in levels is only 6.7 m, and it is driven clockwise. The corners have their own names: Baba Jaga, the first long right-hand curve after the start, then Uśmiech Szatana, further on Kukurydza, Duża Patelnia and Mała Patelnia. Among motorcyclists there are also the "niepojęty zakręt", the "sławiański" and the section under the bridge, and the Pod Dębami corner appears in accounts of accidents. The RacingCircuits.info service describes the layout as fairly fast, with good run-off areas, resembling the Czech Brno only with smaller elevation differences.

Inside the loop, in 1980, a karting track 1480 m long was put into use, built on the initiative of Mieczysław Mertz and running partly on the asphalt of the car circuit, which means that the two cannot operate at the same time. Its baptism came on 18–19 October 1980 with the final of the Polish karting championship in the popular category with 63 competitors, won by Piotr Robiński of Poznań, a pupil at a motor engineering technical school. Today the club gives a length of 1509 m and 21 corners, and describes the record of Rostislav Horak from 1992 as set on the "old configuration". In 2021 a temporary rallycross layout was marked out in the karting section and on a fragment of the main circuit; according to the RallyandRace.pl portal it was the first permanent rallycross course in Poland in more than 20 years, although the competitors complained about the soft gravel and the stones.

The circuit received its first FIA grade 3 homologation on 17 March 1997, and in June 2026, after a visit by Xavier Schene, chairman of the FIA homologation commission, it was extended for 2026–2029. The records fell in steps. In June 1987 the German Friedhelm Wogmann in a superkart with a 250 cc Rotax did 1:41.16; on 1 July 2006 the Austrian Peter Milavec in a Formula 3000 Lola T92/50 set 1:25.553; in July 2008, during an FIA CEZ round with 178 cars, Tomáš Enge and Stefan Mücke in DTM Mercedes cars went below 1:26 in Superpole and in the three-hour race; the official record has belonged since 29 May 2011 to Tomáš Kostka in a Mercedes C-Class DTM: 1:24.401. Among motorcyclists Paweł Szkopek rode 1:33.254 in 2008, Christoffer Bergman 1:32.127 in 2022, the sixteen-year-old Milan Pawelec 1:31.226 on a BMW M 1000 RR in August 2023, and on 30 August 2026 the same Pawelec on a Honda CBR1000RR won a race with a time of 1:29.969.

From the Cinquecento to trucks

In July 1994 nearly 500 cars turned up at the circuit: the second round of the Cinquecento Cup, in which Fiat Auto Poland sold the competitors 115 sealed cars at a 40 percent discount, was held together with the Polish, German and Czech racing championships. Three years later Poznań became the cradle of two new series: on 31 May 1997 the inauguration of the motorcycle PZMot "Polonia Cup" with almost a hundred entries was watched by hundreds of fans in wind and rain, and on 10 May 1997 28 yellow Renault Megane Coupés started a cup whose first season was won by Zbigniew Szwagierczak of Poznań.

An international character was given to the circuit by the FIA Central European Zone Championship (in 2008 more than 200 competitors in 178 cars, an "undisputed attendance record") and by the motorcycle Alpe Adria UEM, held in Poland for the first time right here on 17–20 September 2009 with riders from more than ten countries; the series returned in May 2017 with the inaugural edition of the FIM Stocksport 300 European Cup. On 30–31 May 2015 the circuit hosted rounds of the Drift Masters Grand Prix, in 2021 and 2022 TCR Eastern Europe, and on 23–25 June 2023, on the hundredth anniversary of Automobilklub Wielkopolski, the first Polish round in the history of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, with the six-time champion Jochen Hahn and the four-time champion Norbert Kiss on the entry list; Kiss won two races. In the summer of 2026, together with the Polish Car Racing Championship, the third round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Central Europe arrived, in which the Czech Matyas Faiereisl won all three races.

The circuit has also been a stadium for other disciplines. On 18 August 1981 a cycling criterium was held here with 81 seniors and 79 juniors, the national team's last test before the amateur world championships; it was won by the not quite twenty-year-old Lech Piasecki, and Jan Jankiewicz and Czesław Lang stressed that the circuit is "completely collision-free". The coaches said: "This is a magnificent venue! Fast, technically difficult and, most importantly, very safe". Thirty years later, in May 2011, Romuald Szaj revived the Poznań "cycling Thursdays" at the circuit, a tradition going back to 1968; in 2017 the Cycling Thursdays were held 25 times a season and attracted about 150 riders each, riding at an average of nearly 48 km/h. And for decades a car market operated around the circuit on Thursdays and Sundays, according to Bieliński a "power" in the 1980s and 1990s, which thousands of sellers and buyers came to, the club's main source of funding.

Stewart, Schumacher, Kubica

On 1 May 1993 Jackie Stewart, three times world champion, came from the airport straight to the circuit as a guest of Ford of Poland and of the club. To the reporters he showed a "finesse test": a rubber bowl with a ball was stuck to the bonnet of a Ford Mondeo, and the task was to drive two figures of eight between cones as fast as possible without the ball falling out. Stewart did it in 22 seconds, and then drove Poznań policemen around in a Mondeo Cosworth at a speed close to 200 km/h. On 21 April 2007 Michael Schumacher appeared at the invitation of Shell, which was celebrating 60 years of cooperation with Ferrari. He did not get into the race car, he drove the guests around in a road-going F430, and on the circuit the Ferrari tester Marc Gené was at work, reaching close to 300 km/h in a 248 F1 and setting 1:14.7, the unofficial record of the venue.

The largest crowd came on 17 July 2010 for the N-Gine Renault F1 Team Show. Robert Kubica drove ten laps in a Renault R30, reaching almost 300 km/h on the start straight, in more than 30 degrees in the shade. The police estimated the attendance at about 140,000 people. Right after the show 678 Renaults formed a column and broke the Guinness record for the longest parade of cars of one make, 113 cars better than the Belgian one from 2004. "I am impressed that so many people came here to see me in the race car", said Kubica.

The shadow: two July Tuesdays

Speed Day is a series of motorcycle training sessions for amateurs run by the Great Day Association, in which the participants ride in groups matched by lap time. Twice it ended with the death of a participant. On Tuesday 12 July 2016, after 20.00, in one of the last sessions, two motorcycles touched in a corner, both went onto the gravel and hit the barrier; a 35-year-old motorcyclist from Czarnków died on the spot after 45 minutes of resuscitation. Automobilklub Wielkopolski cancelled the sessions planned for 18–19 July. On Tuesday 18 July 2023 at around 16.00 a 51-year-old Ducati rider ran into the rear wheel of the BMW in front of him, lost control of the machine and hit the energy-absorbing barriers; he died on the spot. The organiser explained that the participants of group C were riding at hundred-metre intervals, and spoke of a "technical error by the motorcyclist". In January 2024 the District Prosecutor's Office in Poznań discontinued the investigation, finding, as the spokesman Łukasz Wawrzyniak reported, that nobody had contributed to the victim's death; the mother of the dead man pointed out that her son suffered from ankylosing spondylitis.

Five decibels

When the circuit was being built, there was an airport, a military training ground and fields around it. The first complaints about noise appeared in 2001, measurements in 2003 showed exceedances, and in 2005 the mayor of Poznań Ryszard Grobelny set a permissible noise level for the venue: 50 dB by day and 40 dB at night. According to "Rzeczpospolita", the club defended itself by saying that the noise was caused by external users of the circuit, but the Supreme Administrative Court in judgment II OSK 508/12 recognised Automobilklub as the entity operating an installation causing noise emission.

From 2012 the complaints went to the Voivodeship Inspectorate for Environmental Protection. The first decision suspending operation was issued in 2021; the club appealed and was given time for remedial measures until 31 July 2023. It built noise barriers, introduced compulsory silencers and loudness limits, but the exceedance on Magazynowa and Krańcowa streets in Przeźmierowo stayed at about 5 dB. On 31 October 2023 the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Inspector suspended the operation of the installation, and on 31 March 2026 the Chief Inspector upheld that decision. The chief inspector Hanna Kończal pointed out that the managers of the venue had had time since 2021 to quieten the circuit, and stressed that in this case the inspectorate issues a decision "that is not discretionary, but a decision that is a direct implementation of a legal obligation for these two bodies". Bieliński replied: "Not even public roads are able to meet a requirement of 50 decibels". The scale of the problem is shown by two figures side by side: Speed Day allows motorcycles with a loudness of up to 98 dB measured at the vehicle, while exceedances of the 50 dB limit were found on the streets of Przeźmierowo.

After the closure on 14 April, the events cancelled included the first round of the Polish rallycross and autocross championship planned for 24–26 April, and the club's losses were estimated at 30,000 zł a day. Within twenty-four hours more than 10,000 people signed a petition in defence of the circuit. On the evening of 15 April GIOŚ, at the club's request, suspended the enforcement of the decision until the case is settled by the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw; the minister of sport Jakub Rutnicki announced that "the circuit in Poznań will remain open", and on 19 April the venue inaugurated its season. The residents grouped in the Association of Friends of Przeźmierowo and Baranowo replied in May: "It was not the residents who closed the circuit", the decisions are the result of years of proceedings, and the land around was already being parcelled out for housing in the 1960s and 1970s. The deputy climate minister Anita Sowińska pointed out in turn that the key is the acoustic classification of the land, which is treated as residential development although it is in fact residential and service; the snag is that the protected plots lie in the Tarnowo Podgórne commune and only its council can change the local plan.

A legislative dispute is going on in parallel. In the autumn of 2025 the Sejm exempted sports pitches, courts and skateparks from the noise limits, but rejected the Senate's amendment adding circuits with a PZM licence by 399 votes to 22. After the closure of the circuit, members of parliament from the PSL tabled a bill covering motorsport circuits; on 14 May 2026 the Sejm's sport committee adopted it unanimously, and on 16 July the deputy minister Piotr Borys said at its sitting: "I cannot imagine Tor Poznań being closed". In August the Ministry of Climate and Environment asked for the bill to be withdrawn as too broad and proposed that the operating conditions of each circuit be set individually by the regional directors for environmental protection. The club's appeal is awaiting examination at the Voivodeship Administrative Court, and the city hall says that the procedure for changing the limits may take until the end of 2026.

A track day in Przeźmierowo

Amateurs have driven here since the first autumn. On three consecutive Sundays from 12 November 1978 the club ran training drives, for which about 70 cars entered each time, mainly Fiats 126p and 125p, and "Gazeta Zachodnia" noted that ladies raced as well. Today the role of those Sundays is played by Tor Poznań Track Day: a series run jointly with Automobilklub Wielkopolski, declaring 18 years of experience, 24 instructors and more than 200 events, and being at the same time the PZM Poznań District Championship in amateur circuit racing. Taking part in your own car costs from 249 zł, and the 2026 calendar still has rounds on 6 September, 10 October and a night round on 25 October. A car may not exceed 93 dB in a static measurement or 96 dB in a dynamic one, a helmet is compulsory for the driver and the passenger, and admission for spectators is free.

Motorcyclists have Speed Day: a limit of 98 dB (for machines up to 600 cm³ measured at 7000 rpm, above 1000 cm³ at 5500 rpm), four groups according to lap time (from group A for those riding under 1:45 to group D for beginners), six sessions of 18–20 minutes and a medical centre with a six-person crew. The club itself organises Thursday car training sessions before the WSMP rounds (in 2026 on 14 May, 11 June, 9 July and 17 September) and four Polish championship weekends. Anyone who prefers a bicycle has the Cycling Thursdays.

All this happens at a venue whose further fate depends on a court, a law and a local plan. On the last day of August 2026, during the fourth round of the Polish motorcycle championship, Milan Pawelec drove a lap of Tor Poznań in 1:29.969, the fastest in the venue's history. Before him, on the same loop, Smorawiński drove in 1977 at an average of 132.5 km/h, and Jaroszewicz in the Wolf in 1979 did 1:36.9. In a year the circuit will be fifty years old.

Timeline

• 1974: 29–30 June, the first post-war races in Poznań on the runways of Ławica airport, 30,000 spectators; 18 November, the initiative to build a circuit at Automobilklub Wielkopolski
• 1975: 19 February, FSR "Polmo" becomes the main investor; May, the start of the works; 1 December, Roman Jankowski's design of the shape of the circuit
• 1977: December, the opening of the circuit with a length of 4083 m, the first race won by Adam Smorawiński
• 1978: 10–11 June, the 1st International Trade Fair Race, more than 20,000 spectators; November, the first training drives for amateurs
• 1979: 17 June, Andrzej Jaroszewicz in a Wolf WR5 sets a record of 1:36.9
• 1980: the karting track (1480 m) is opened, 18–19 October the first Polish karting championship
• 1981: 18 August, a cycling criterium of the national team, won by Lech Piasecki
• 1982: 24 August, the circuit is handed over to Automobilklub Wielkopolski by a decision of the mayor of Poznań
• 1987: 27 June, the first superkart races, track record 1:41.16
• 1993: 1 May, the visit of Jackie Stewart
• 1994: 9–10 July, the Cinquecento Cup with the Polish, German and Czech championships, nearly 500 cars
• 1997: 17 March, the first FIA grade 3 homologation; 31 May, the inauguration of the motorcycle Polonia Cup
• 2005: the mayor of Poznań sets a permissible noise level of 50 dB by day and 40 dB at night
• 2006: 1 July, Peter Milavec's record of 1:25.553
• 2007: 21 April, Michael Schumacher and Marc Gené (1:14.7) at the Shell V-Power Day
• 2009: 17–20 September, the first Alpe Adria UEM round in Poland
• 2010: 17 July, Robert Kubica in a Renault R30 before about 140,000 spectators, the Guinness record of 678 Renaults
• 2011: 29 May, Tomáš Kostka sets the official track record of 1:24.401
• 2013: the Supreme Administrative Court recognises Automobilklub as the entity responsible for noise emission (II OSK 508/12)
• 2016: 12 July, the death of a 35-year-old motorcyclist during Speed Day
• 2021: the first WIOŚ decision suspending operation, deferred to 31 July 2023; a temporary rallycross layout
• 2023: 23–25 June, the first FIA European Truck Racing Championship round in Poland; 18 July, the death of a 51-year-old motorcyclist during Speed Day; 31 October, WIOŚ suspends the operation of the installation
• 2026: 31 March, GIOŚ upholds the decision; 14 April, the closure of the circuit; 15 April, the suspension of the enforcement of the decision; June, FIA homologation for 2026–2029; 30 August, the motorcycle record of 1:29.969 by Milan Pawelec