Tor Wschodzący Białystok: the track the residents chose themselves

On one weekend in July 2017, about ten cars were burning rubber on freshly laid asphalt next to the Krywlany airfield. The track had no barriers or fence yet, formally it was a building site, and one of the cars almost ended up in a ditch. That was the unofficial debut of a facility that the people of Białystok chose for themselves, casting 3,712 votes for it in the participatory budget. Four months later the city opened it with fanfare, and over the following years Tor Wschodzący Białystok managed to become both a cheap place for a track day and a troublesome neighbour of the Dojlidy housing estate.

Location	Białystok, Krywlany, ul. Konstantego Ciołkowskiego, next to the Krywlany airfield
Type	training and practice track for cars, motorcycles and karts, drift as well
Length and configuration	asphalt loop of about 930 m, 10–12 m wide, with connecting roads, a roundabout 12 m in diameter and an optional hill section; in another configuration about 1 km
Direction of travel	in both directions
Number of corners	9
Opening	17 November 2017
Construction cost	2,755,317.58 zł from the 2015 participatory budget
Unofficial lap record (motorcycles, Time Attack)	37.379 s, Daniel Blin, June 2023; earlier 38.432 s, Kamil Krzemień, 26 June 2021
Owner and operator	City of Białystok; managed by Białostocki Ośrodek Sportu i Rekreacji (BOSiR)
Main events	Time Attack, rounds of the Białystok Car Championship and the Automobilklub Podlaski Barbórka, Grand Prix Retro Kart
Attendance	6,116 participants in sessions and events in 2024
Status	active, the 2026 season started on 1 April

A meadow between the runway and Dojlidy

Krywlany lies south of the centre of Białystok, by ul. Ciołkowskiego and the seat of the Białystok Aero Club. It is the site of an airfield which in September 1970 entered the register of civil aerodromes as an exclusive-use facility managed by the Aero Club. In the second decade of the 21st century the city decided to turn the grass landing field into an airport with a paved runway measuring 1350 by 30 metres; construction was completed in 2018. That decision was directly connected with the track. Deputy mayor Adam Poliński explained on the day of the opening that the airfield space, occupied on Sundays by the car market and during the week used "in such an informal way" for driving practice, would disappear together with the construction of the runway. The amateurs who had until then practised on the airfield apron were to get a place of their own.

The plot for the track lay next to the grass airfield, away from buildings: an unused meadow with young self-seeded trees. The design assumed that there would be no felling of trees and that the track would follow the existing lie of the land. The area covered by the study amounted to over 142 thousand square metres, and because the facility exceeded 20 thousand square metres, it required an environmental impact assessment. Already in December 2016 the city office also announced a noise emission simulation, because the residents of Dojlidy had raised concerns. This thread will return.

A councillor's idea and a community's dream

"Tor Wschodzący Białystok is my idea, mine and my husband's", councillor Katarzyna Todorczuk told the Bia24 portal; before submitting the project to the participatory budget she organised an open meeting to check the level of interest. Łukasz Marczukiewicz, president of the OffRoad Białystok motorcycle club, put it more broadly: "It was an idea, a dream of the whole Białystok motorsport community". According to his account, people from that community put "our experience, our skills, our time" into the project, drawing a professional track layout. Originally it was to be a gravel motocross track; as PAP reported, because of difficulties with the location and conflicts with the greenery a different shape was agreed with the applicants. In the vote of the people of Białystok the project came fourth with more than three and a half thousand votes; the municipal register of completed projects gives exactly 3,712.

The development concept of 13 April 2016, prepared by the Białystok firm DF-Studio Projektowe, still shows both worlds: an asphalt car track 930 metres long with 600 metres of supplementary sections and a gravel motocross track 1500 metres long, each on about 14,600–14,700 square metres of surface, with earth grandstands, a crash barrier, a hill and a concrete strip for the starting gate. Only the asphalt was built. The contractor was the company Gardenia Sport; in August 2016 the city spoke of a track about 1330 metres long and a deadline in the middle of December of the same year. In December the length shrank in the announcements to "about 1 km", and the deadline moved to the end of June 2017 because of the environmental procedure.

The summer of 2017 passed in disputes about the rules. The motorsport steward Marcin Malinowski wanted drifters to run on special tyres, because on worn ones "not only will they leave a mess behind them, the track will also wear out quickly". The drifter Kamila Pałka replied that such tyres cost up to 800 zloty apiece and wear out quickly, and that it is better to drift on a track than on the street. A few days later weekend "wild racers" left marks on the asphalt; the entrance was blocked with rubble, the contractor promised to close off the area, and the opening was planned for the end of September. In the end it took place on 17 November 2017. The inauguration was led by the rally drivers of Rally Team STAG, and driving in a controlled slide was demonstrated by the competitors of Energo Drift Team: Orest Michalczuk, at the time runner-up in the Polish Drifting Championship in the Challenge class, and Bartosz Stolarski. From the next day the track was open to everyone.

Tor Wschodzący Białystok was created thanks to the Participatory Budget and the involvement of the residents of our city. Many people were waiting for this undertaking to be carried out. I hope that this place will be gladly visited and will give motoring fans a lot of excitement and fun.

That is what mayor Tadeusz Truskolaski said. According to the municipal list of projects, construction cost 2,755,317.58 zł.

A roundabout, a hill and nine hundred and thirty metres

The basic loop is about 930 metres long and 10–12 metres wide. Between its main sections run connecting roadways which make it possible to lay out different routes, and to that are added a roundabout 12 metres in diameter and an optional section with a hill. The hill is about 2.5 metres high. In one of the configurations the layout measures about a kilometre and has nine corners. Andrzej "Simpson" Drzymulski of "Świat Motocykli" described the facility this way in his rating of Polish tracks:

At Tor Wschodzący Białystok we ride either clockwise or the other way round. The track layout contains long curves that allow the motorcycle to be leaned deeply, fast and slow chicanes, strong braking points and slow hairpins.

In the motorcycle configuration speeds reach about 140 km/h. Adrian Pasek, quoted in the same magazine, considered that "riding this track is harder work than a big facility". Organisers of car track days also use an extended, open layout: the announcements speak of about 1.4–1.5 km.

One hundred and eighteen thousand of subsidy

Two weeks after the opening Bia24 did the arithmetic of the facility. Annual maintenance costs were estimated at 348 thousand zloty net (120 thousand of taxes and land fees, 50 thousand of current expenses, about 180 thousand of wages), and income from fees at 230 thousand, which gave about 118 thousand of subsidy a year from the city coffers. The track was operated by three people employed at about 12.65 zł an hour. The mayor's spokeswoman Urszula Mirończuk explained that thanks to the fees the facility is paid for solely by its users. Marczukiewicz, in turn, complained that the motorsport community had not been invited to the opening and that nobody had answered questions about co-managing it; applicants from the participatory budget cannot themselves manage a municipal facility, so it went under the wing of BOSiR.

The first year showed that there are people willing. By October 2018 nearly 1200 car drivers had used the track, and in the motorcycle season from 13 April to 18 October, 1320 motorcyclists; more than 40 events and training sessions were held. BOSiR celebrated the first birthday, on 17 November 2018, with rides for one zloty, and voluntary payments went towards the treatment of a sick girl.

The infrastructure did not keep up. In April 2018 BOSiR announced a tender for the lease of 118 square metres for a storage and office container at 6.40 zł per metre a month. In November of that year the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection issued an environmental decision for the construction of technical facilities and an increase in the number of vehicles on the track; councillor Todorczuk had earlier pointed out that cars requiring service have nowhere to stand, and that the facility has no changing rooms, toilets or places to sit. The city had commissioned the concept of the road layout with car parks from the KOMI studio as early as February 2017 for 35,670 zł, in December 2017 the procedure for building an access road started, but there was no car park in the 2018 budget. An online list of support for the construction of a concrete area next to the track was signed by 797 people. In 2020 Drzymulski gave the facility 3.8 points out of 5: he praised the new, even asphalt and the low prices, and criticised the amenities. Participants had electricity, portable toilets and a large tent at their disposal; "there are no shops or restaurants at the track. Food can be ordered for delivery, drinks have to be stocked up in advance". In 2024, according to the BOSiR summary, 6,116 people took part in sessions and events at the track; the centre calls it the youngest of its facilities.

Nine hundred metres to ul. Dworska

In the summer of 2020 the residents of Izabelin, Olmonty and Dojlidy Górne collected more than 300 signatures under a demand for noise barriers. "It is worst at weekends, when after a whole week of hard work one wants to rest on the veranda. The noise is unbearable", one of them told "Kurier Poranny". Deputy mayor Przemysław Tuchliński replied with the measurements of the Provincial Inspectorate for Environmental Protection of 15 September and 20 October 2018, which showed no exceedances of the limits: "And that is why we have no grounds to allocate money for the construction of barriers". Marcin Dziedzic of WIOŚ explained that the meters stood in Izabelin on ul. Dworska, "in a straight line that is 900 metres" from the track. BOSiR deputy director Rafał Gosk assured: "We make sure that even during drifting, which is the loudest kind of running, the noise does not exceed a level of 98 decibels", and drivers with damaged silencers are sent away. The track works every day from 8.00 to 20.30. Councillor Katarzyna Ancipiuk of PiS, who herself lives near the junction of Mickiewicza and Zwierzyniecka, took the side of the residents.

When the petitions and the interpellations of councillor Wojciech Koronkiewicz brought no result, the residents used the same tool by which the track had been created. To the 2023 Participatory Budget they submitted project M18, "Construction of noise barriers by the «Wschodzący Białystok» track", for one million zloty. "This project will make it possible to solve a long-standing problem which the residents of the surrounding estates struggle with, because the noise is sometimes really unbearable", said the initiator Urszula Sienkiewicz from Dojlidy. She also complained that the sound of the engines can be heard in Dojlidy, Dojlidy Górne and around ul. Mickiewicza, and that the most disturbing thing is the squeal of tyres during drifting. In the vote the project received 1,425 valid votes and came ninth among 34 city-wide projects, but it did not find itself among the 20 tasks selected for implementation. To this day the track has no barriers. What remains are two numbers: 3,712 votes for the facility and 1,425 against its noise, cast into the same ballot box.

Thirty-seven seconds

The motorcycle Time Attack, a nationwide game of beating one's own lap records organised by "Świat Motocykli", came to Krywlany for the first time on 14 June 2019 and gathered about 80 competitors divided into groups according to skill; the beginners were led by instructor Leszek Rzońca. The editorial team summed the trip up with the sentence: "we have a feeling that we will be frequent guests there!". They were right. On 26 June 2021 Kamil Krzemień rode a lap in 38.432 seconds, and that on a Yamaha YZ 450F motorcycle belonging to Drzymulski; the editors stress that the record is unofficial. Two years later, in June 2023, Daniel Blin, at the time competing in the Italian championship, came down to 37.379 seconds.

Rounds of the Białystok Car Championship are held here by Automobilklub Podlaski. On 12 December 2020 the 35th Barbórka Car Event closed the season on ice: the night sleet froze by morning, rear-wheel-drive cars spun pirouettes, two of the 46 crews did not reach the finish of the "Monte-Krywlany" stage, nobody was hurt, and the general classification was won by Michał Miezian and Kamil Gryc in a BMW 318Ti. In February 2021, 56 crews of the Winter Grand Prix of Białystok raced on the snow-covered track, and in June 2023 the third round of the SMB started with 47 cars. The 2024 season was closed by the 33rd Independence Rally on 11 November and the 39th Barbórka on 30 November.

The most unusual event took place on 28 August 2021. The Retro Kart Białystok section, operating within Automobilklub Podlaski, organised the 1st Grand Prix Retro Kart on the fiftieth anniversary of the first karting race in Białystok, held in 1971. On a wet track 52 karts from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s raced, several hundred spectators came, and the constructor Piotr Stelmasiak started alongside his former protégés. The organisers handed over a restored KP-6 kart to the museum of the Polish People's Republic in Sępólno Krajeńskie and presented an album about the half-century of karting in Białystok. The third edition, in August 2023, was already a round of the Retro Kart Polish Cup. To that are added commercial gatherings of supercars: on 20 September 2020 the company Devil-Cars brought 15 cars to the track, from a Ferrari 458 Italia to an Ariel Atom.

Track days without a driving licence

An ordinary week at Krywlany has a fixed rhythm, which BOSiR announces every spring. In 2022 cars usually ran on Tuesdays (50 zł an hour in sets of about ten minutes, the third session for drift), karts on Wednesdays (30 zł), motorcycles on Thursdays and Fridays (40 zł an hour, 75 zł for two), in groups of at most five machines for sessions of about 13 minutes, with a compulsory briefing half an hour before the start. Separate sessions were provided for candidates for drivers riding with a supervisor in their own car. The track is not a public road, so no driving licence is needed to drive on it. The 2026 season started on 1 April with three-hour kart sessions, motorcycles returned in the middle of April, and the price list looks like this: own car 50 zł an hour (25 zł additional driver), motorcycle 50 zł an hour or 80 zł for two, drift 100 zł an hour, own kart 40 zł an hour. Bookings are taken by the miejskoaktywni.pl/tor service, the telephone 699 677 115 or the staff on site.

Private schools have grown up around the municipal facility. Rzońca runs RZ4 Racing Academy; in 2020 a full-day motorcycle course with the hire of a machine cost about 200 zł. In 2023 AG Racing Academy advertised car track days twice a month, with telemetry, in one's own car or in a hired racing Mini Cooper S; today it charges 250 zł for four hours with one's own car and 950 zł an hour in the Mini with an instructor. The MG Sports Motorsport track days with the Tor Białystok Cup cost 300–350 zł for a whole day on the extended layout, and in March 2025 even Automobilklub Suwałki moved its track day here, because a bigger track allowed new routes to be laid out.

The name of the facility has outlived its original. "Wschodzący Białystok" is the brand of the city, worked out from 2008 and adopted in 2009, with a logo in the form of a yellow and red half-sun. On 28 September 2020 the city council, by 14 votes to 3 with 11 abstentions, removed the word "wschodzący" from the promotional symbol; the director of the culture department Edyta Mozyrska justified it by saying that the promotional effect had been achieved. The track did not change its name. On 31 March 2026 BOSiR announced another season: karts from 1 April, motorcycles in the middle of April, bookings over the internet or at the gate.

Timeline

• 1970: the Krywlany airfield enters the register of civil aerodromes.
• 2014: the people of Białystok vote in the 2015 Participatory Budget; the track comes fourth with 3,712 votes.
• 13 April 2016: DF-Studio Projektowe development concept with a 930 m asphalt track and a 1500 m gravel one.
• August 2016: Gardenia Sport becomes the contractor; the planned deadline is the middle of December 2016.
• December 2016: the deadline moved to the middle of 2017 because of the environmental procedure.
• July 2017: "wild racers" damage the asphalt on the unopened track.
• 17 November 2017: ceremonial opening with Rally Team STAG and Energo Drift Team.
• 30 November 2017: Bia24 estimates the annual subsidy of the city at about 118 thousand zloty.
• 13 April 2018: the start of the first motorcycle season.
• September and October 2018: WIOŚ noise measurements in Izabelin without exceedances of the limits.
• 6 November 2018: RDOŚ environmental decision for the technical facilities.
• 14 June 2019: the first Time Attack at Krywlany.
• July 2020: more than 300 residents' signatures under a demand for noise barriers.
• 12 December 2020: the 35th Barbórka on an icy track.
• 26 June 2021: Kamil Krzemień, 38.432 s.
• 28 August 2021: the 1st Grand Prix Retro Kart on the 50th anniversary of the first karting race in Białystok.
• October 2022: the noise barrier project gets 1,425 votes and does not enter implementation.
• June 2023: Daniel Blin, 37.379 s.
• 2024: 6,116 participants in sessions and events.
• 1 April 2026: the beginning of the 2026 season.