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Neasham/Croft 1948 to 1963
This
was a temporary circuit known as Neasham in its early days, which used the landing strips and service roads of the RAF aerodrome.
Neasham Straight was one of the base's three landing strips and nearly stretched its full length, being cut short at Club where a second landing strip intersected. The short straight from Club to Cowton followed this
second landing strip before merging with the service roads which made up the rest of the circuit. Croft Autodrome's Railway Straight was situated at the club end of Neasham Straight.
Croft Autodrome 1964 to 1981
This circuit was purpose built and 1.75 miles long. Set in 160 acres of land, it was
roughly triangular in shape and consisting of two long straights, esses, three tight
corners and an unforgiving railway-sleeper
chicane. As with most British
circuits, races were held in a clockwise direction. Most of the car parking
and spectating was inside the circuit which meant all cars had to enter
and leave through the narrow tunnel under the main straight, situated north
of the chicane. Deep, narrow, steeply inclined at either and with a tendency
to flood, it created a bottleneck which led to a scramble to get out at
the end of the day. The
paddock was down towards the esses and consisted
of no more than a cinder-covered area. Even worse was the
assembly area
for cars about to start racing; this area had so many potholes
it was a wonder single seat cars did not get stuck. Race control was the old RAF control tower left over Bomber Command, and
the
pit lane was directly
below this.
Spectators usually stood on earth embankments that gave a good view of
the racing. In particular, the
chicane embankment was very popular because
most of the circuit could be seen from the top. A
grandstand and viewing
area next to the start line were on the outside of the circuit and could only be accessed
by a
footbridge which was closed during racing. Facilities, were, at best,
primitive, the toilets were open to the elements, and the licensed restaurants
no more than wooden huts.