This safe but bland circuit was the complete antithesis of Spa-Francorchamps that it briefly replaced as host of the Belgian Grand Prix during the early 1970s. A group of local businessmen in the French-speaking Walloon region commissioned Roger Caignie – with input from John Hugenholtz of Zandvoort fame – to design the Complex Européen de Nivelles-Baulers between to the south of Brussels. Open in 1971, it twice held the Belgian GP when the magnificent, but dangerous Spa-Francorchamps fell from favour. It was originally conceived as a 3.5-mile permanent facility, but the project was compromised, and layout curtailed, when some of the land required proved too expensive. Emerson Fittipaldi won both GPs held here as part of his championship-winning campaigns in 1972 and 1974. But the teams hated the featureless new track with its long runoff areas, and the championship did not return. Both races had lost money and Nivelles, which had been scheduled to hold the 1976 race, went bankrupt and was sold in October 1977. It closed soon afterwards and is now an industrial estate.
