Sorry to dig up an old thread but this seems interesting to me. In my auto-racing sport of autocross (lower speed highly technical impromptu course driving.) I used to design some of the courses for my club (see an example of one I co-designed for my club
here). I know more about racing cars than drones but here are some thoughts that I have for course design that I am guessing would apply to professional facilities or ad-hoc course design.
Key things that I think would be important for race courses based on knowing technical racing course design moderately well and being very new to the idea of drone racing:
100% focus on safety: any race course should always be designed to minimize damage of un-damageable things... top priority being any racing staff/workers, audience members and racers followed by property and fragile things (think windows, electronics, lighting, etc).
- Sub set of this: I would say any event where the racers are responsible for their equipment and repairs it would be good form to make the highest crash-likely areas to be the least drone-destroying. Essentially if your course is impossible to get through and everyone is completely unable to race before they can master it thats not a good idea. Of course this depends deeply at the intended skill level of the racers.
After that... it's all about accessibility while providing both very technical elements that you have to really find the best line for those who win by being consistent and technical (This is where the phrase slow-is-fast comes from) as well as straightaways and high-speed elements so that those with raw power can catch up to those who play it smart.
Third if it was actually a professional location... anything that could help with the unique radio and video challenges of FPV better would be great!