Thruxton Race Circuit: Britain's Fastest Track Explained
Thruxton race circuit in Hampshire is the fastest track in the UK. How the airfield lap works, from the Complex to Church, plus its records and wartime history.
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished British Grand Prix & Circuits22 min read
- Lap length
- 2.36 miles
- Location
- Near Andover, Hampshire
- Airfield opened
- 1942
- Present circuit opened
- 1968
In 1993 Damon Hill drove a Williams Formula 1 car round the Thruxton race circuit in 57.6 seconds, an average of about 147 mph. It was a demonstration, not a race, and the time has never counted as an official record. It is still the figure people quote when they explain why the Hampshire airfield circuit is called the fastest track in Britain.
The direct answer is this: Thruxton is a 2.36-mile lap on the perimeter road of a wartime airfield near Andover, run by the British Automobile Racing Club, and comparable cars lap it at higher average speeds than at any other circuit in the United Kingdom. Almost all of the lap is fast. There is one slow complex of corners, a sequence of fast sweeping bends, the flat-out right-hander called Church, and one chicane before the finish line. Nothing else in the country combines so much high-speed running with so few places to slow down.
The rest of this guide goes round the lap section by section, explains what the bumpy airfield surface does to cars and tyres, covers the records and the history from RAF Thruxton to the present, and finishes with why the circuit holds so few meetings a year and where to watch them. More on circuits across England is on our motorsport section.
- 2.36Lap length in miles
- 1942Year RAF Thruxton opened
- 1968Year the present circuit opened
- 147Hill's 1993 average in mph
Lap length is for the circuit in use today. The average speed is from Damon Hill's unofficial 1993 demonstration run, not an official race lap.
Why Thruxton is the fastest circuit in Britain
Speed on a circuit comes from two things: how long a car spends at full throttle, and how fast it carries through the corners when it is not. Thruxton scores high on both.
Most British circuits have several slow corners where cars brake hard and accelerate from low speed. Brands Hatch has Druids and Clearways; Oulton Park has the Shell Oils hairpin, Knickerbrook and Lodge; Silverstone has its slow complexes even after its reprofiling. Each of those corners drags down the average speed of a lap, because a car spends a disproportionate amount of time accelerating out of them.
Thruxton has only one complex where cars slow right down, and one chicane where they brake heavily. Everything else is fast: long sweeping bends taken at high speed, with the car loaded up for seconds at a time. Church, the most famous corner on the lap, is taken flat out by many cars. The rest of the lap is straights and fast bends. That is why the average is so high.
What high average speed means for a driver
Fast circuits are not necessarily easy ones. Thruxton demands commitment through corners where a mistake happens at very high speed, and it punishes cars set up for slower tracks. A car that is twitchy in a fast corner, or has too little downforce, is hard work for the whole lap.
It also changes the racing. On a fast circuit with few braking zones, overtaking depends on slipstreaming, on getting a better exit from the one slow complex, and on braking later into the chicane. Races at Thruxton often end with drivers swapping places on the last lap, because the slipstream down the run to the Club chicane is strong and the passing place is obvious.
The claim to be the fastest in Britain rests on average lap speed, not on top speed. Silverstone and others have longer straights. No other circuit in the country keeps the speed up for so much of the lap.
| Circuit | County | Wartime airfield | Character of the lap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thruxton | Hampshire | RAF Thruxton | Fast bends, one slow complex, one chicane |
| Silverstone | Northamptonshire | RAF Silverstone | Long, wide and reprofiled for Formula 1 |
| Snetterton | Norfolk | RAF Snetterton Heath | Long straights and slow corners |
| Castle Combe | Wiltshire | RAF Castle Combe | Short, fast and flat |
| Croft | North Yorkshire | RAF Croft | A mixed lap with a hairpin |
Where Thruxton is: an airfield off the A303 west of Andover
The circuit sits just off the A303, the main road that runs from the M3 south-west towards Devon and Cornwall, a few miles west of Andover in Hampshire. The village of Thruxton lies alongside. Salisbury is to the south-west and Winchester to the south-east, and Stonehenge is not far along the same road.
The site is open, gently rolling Hampshire farmland. The airfield was built on it in the early 1940s, with runways and a perimeter road laid out in the usual pattern of a wartime RAF station, and the circuit uses the perimeter road.
The runway is still in use
Unlike many former airfield circuits, Thruxton has kept a working runway. Light aircraft fly from the aerodrome on the site, and the circuit and the airfield coexist, as they have since the end of the war. A visitor on a race day may see the runway inside the circuit and aircraft parked nearby.
The circuit's address is Thruxton, Andover, and its postcode is SP11 8PW.
Getting there
Being next to the A303 makes Thruxton one of the easier British circuits to reach by car. The roads into the circuit are short, and the approach from the main road is direct. That does not mean there are no queues on big race days; the A303 itself is often slow in summer, and a British Touring Car weekend brings a large crowd. Andover has a railway station a few miles away, but most spectators drive.
The geography explains the circuit's character. It is in the middle of open farmland, there is plenty of space around it, and the land is mostly flat with gentle slopes. That is why the lap is fast and why the views from the spectator banks are long. It also explains the noise restrictions that shape the calendar, covered later in this guide.
Allard and the Complex: Campbell, Cobb and Segrave
The lap starts on the straight in front of the pits and turns into Allard, a fast bend that sweeps the cars away from the start. It is named after Sydney Allard, the British car maker and competitor. A good exit from Allard matters because what follows is the slowest part of the lap.
The Complex
The Complex is a sequence of three corners named after land speed record holders: Campbell, Cobb and Segrave. Malcolm Campbell, John Cobb and Henry Segrave all set world land speed records, and between them they represent the era of British dominance of that pursuit before the Second World War.
The Complex is the only part of Thruxton where cars slow right down. Drivers brake hard for Campbell, turn through the tight corners, and accelerate out through Segrave. It is the one place on the lap where a driver with a good technical line can make up ground on a rival with more power, and the one place where a car's low-speed handling matters as much as its top speed.
The naming tells something about the circuit's owners. The British Automobile Racing Club began life at Brooklands, where Campbell, Cobb and Segrave all raced, and it carried that history to Thruxton. Several corner names on the lap recall the club's past.
Why the Complex matters
The Complex sets up the rest of the lap. A car that exits Segrave quickly carries its speed through the long sweeping bends that follow. A car that exits slowly loses time all the way to Church. On a circuit with so few slow corners, the Complex is worth more than its share of the lap.
It is also where races start to sort themselves out. On the opening lap the field funnels into Campbell, and a driver who gets through the Complex in good position has a strong chance of holding it through the fast bends that follow, where passing is difficult.
- AllardA fast bend sweeps the field away from the start.
- The ComplexCampbell, Cobb and Segrave, the only slow corners on the lap.
- Noble, Goodwood and VillageFast bends carry the lap out across the far side of the airfield.
- ChurchA flat-out right-hander approached at full speed.
- Brooklands and Woodham HillFast running and the climb towards the final braking zone.
- Club chicaneThe one heavy braking point and the usual place for a last-lap pass.
The named corners and sections of the circuit in order from the start line. Speeds are not given because they vary widely with the car or motorcycle.
Noble, Goodwood and Village: the lap opens out
After the Complex the lap changes completely. The cars accelerate hard out of Segrave and into a sequence of fast bends that carry them round the far side of the airfield.
Noble comes first. Goodwood follows, a long fast bend named after the Sussex circuit where the British Automobile Racing Club organised racing until 1966. Village is the next bend, leading on to the long run to Church.
High-speed bends
These are corners where the driver keeps the throttle down, or nearly so, and lets the car run through long loaded curves. They test the car's aerodynamics and suspension, and they test the driver's confidence. There is little room for error, because a car that slides at this speed goes a long way before it stops.
Goodwood is the longest of them. The car is loaded up for several seconds, the tyres are working hard, and any instability in the car's handling is exposed. Drivers talk about setting the car up for Goodwood and Church above everything else, because time lost there is lost at very high speed.
The far side of the airfield
The section takes the lap round the far side of the airfield, with the runway on the inside. Spectators can watch from banks along this part of the lap, but the views are long and the cars are at some distance. It is a good place to see how stable a car is in a fast corner and how much the driver has to correct it.
The judgement here is simple. The fast bends at Thruxton are as close as any British circuit comes to the old high-speed road circuits of Europe, without the trees, walls and houses that made those circuits so dangerous. They are what gives Thruxton its character, and they are why drivers who race there either love it or find it unnerving. Very few are indifferent.
Church: the flat-out right-hander drivers talk about first
Ask a driver or a rider about Thruxton and the first corner they name is Church. It is a fast right-hander at the end of the long run from Village, approached at or near top speed, and many cars take it without lifting.
The difficulty is in the approach and the commitment. A car arrives at Church faster than at any other corner on the circuit. The driver has to turn in at that speed, trust the car to grip, and hold the line through the corner without lifting. A lift, or a moment of hesitation, costs speed all the way down the next straight. A slide at Church happens at a speed where the outcome is unpredictable.
On two wheels
For motorcycle riders Church is just as significant. A superbike at Thruxton arrives at Church at very high speed and has to be leaned over and held there, with the rider trusting the front tyre. The bumps on the airfield surface, discussed below, make that harder. Riders in British Superbikes talk about Thruxton as one of the most physically and mentally demanding circuits on their calendar, and Church is the reason. Our British Superbikes guide explains the series and its calendar.
Flat or not flat
Whether a car is flat through Church depends on what it is. A front-wheel-drive touring car on a cool morning may be; the same car on worn tyres late in a race may need a lift, and the driver who has to lift while the car behind does not will be passed before the Club chicane. Single-seaters with downforce take the corner differently from saloons that rely on mechanical grip, and their drivers talk about it in terms of how much steering they can hold rather than whether they lift at all.
That variation is part of why the corner is discussed so much. It is a test that changes with the car, the tyres, the temperature and the wind across the airfield, and drivers rarely give the same answer twice about how they took it.
The wind matters more than outsiders expect. Thruxton is open ground with nothing to break a breeze, and a headwind on the approach to Church changes the entry speed and the balance of the car through the corner. A tailwind does the reverse. Drivers who have raced there for years plan for it; newcomers find out.
Watching from Church
Church is one of the best spectating points on the circuit. The bank gives a view of cars approaching at top speed, turning in, and holding the corner. It is the place to see the difference between a driver who is fully committed and one who is not, because the difference shows in the line and the speed through the corner. On race days it fills with spectators who want to see the fastest corner in Britain taken flat out.
Brooklands, Woodham Hill and the Club chicane: the last-lap move
After Church the lap runs through Brooklands, named after the Surrey track where the club's forerunner, the Junior Car Club, organised racing before the Second World War. Our history of Brooklands explains the original banked circuit. At Thruxton, Brooklands is the bend that takes the cars into the final section of the lap.
Woodham Hill
The track then climbs up Woodham Hill, a gentle rise that leads towards the Club chicane. The climb costs a little speed and the slipstream builds up behind the leading car. In 2025 the circuit opened a new spectator area on the bank at Woodham Hill, overlooking the approach to the chicane.
The Club chicane
The Club chicane is the one heavy braking zone on the lap. Cars arrive at high speed, brake hard, and flick through the chicane before accelerating on to the start-finish straight. It is the usual place for a last-lap overtake: a driver who has stayed in the slipstream up Woodham Hill pulls out and brakes later into the chicane.
The chicane is also where most of the contact happens. When two cars arrive side by side, one has to give way, and on the last lap of a close race neither wants to. Touring car races at Thruxton frequently produce contact at the chicane, and the outcome of a race is often decided there.
| Corner or section | What kind of corner | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Allard | Fast bend | Sets up the approach to the Complex |
| The Complex | Three slow corners | The only place on the lap where cars slow right down |
| Goodwood | Long fast bend | Loads the car and tyres for several seconds |
| Church | Flat-out right-hander | The fastest corner on the lap |
| Club chicane | Heavy braking into a tight chicane | The usual place for a last-lap pass |
What the airfield surface does to cars and tyres
Thruxton's surface is an airfield perimeter road resurfaced for racing, and it is bumpy. The bumps are not large, but at the speeds the circuit allows they unsettle cars and motorcycles in ways that slower tracks do not.
The bumps
An airfield perimeter road was built to carry aircraft and service vehicles, not racing cars. The ground beneath it settles unevenly over time. The circuit has been resurfaced, but the underlying character remains. A car taking a fast corner on a bumpy surface loses grip each time a wheel lifts, and the driver has to cope with that while holding a fast line.
Long loaded corners
The second factor is the length of the corners. Goodwood and Church in particular load the tyres for seconds at a time, at high speed. That puts a great deal of heat and stress into the tyres, especially on the outside of the car. On a hot day the effect is worse.
Tyre failures
Touring cars have a history of tyre failures at Thruxton. The combination of high speed, long loaded corners and bumps puts the tyres under heavy stress, and in some years cars have suffered punctures or failures at high speed. Teams pay particular attention to tyre pressures and camber settings at Thruxton for that reason. Our guide to the BTCC rules explains the wider format of the series.
The judgement here is that Thruxton's tyre problems are not a sign of a bad circuit. They are a consequence of what makes the circuit special: a lap where cars are on the limit for long periods at very high speed. A slower, safer circuit would not produce the same failures, and would not produce the same racing.
Engineering for Thruxton
Teams set cars up differently for Thruxton. Softer suspension helps with the bumps but costs responsiveness. Lower camber reduces tyre stress but costs grip. Every setting is a compromise between speed and the risk of a failure, and teams that get it right often do well there.
Lap records and Damon Hill's 1993 demonstration
The official lap records at Thruxton are set in races, under timing and in conditions recognised by the governing body. They are listed by category: there is a record for touring cars, one for each class of single-seater, one for superbikes, and so on. The outright official race lap record, as listed in 2026, belongs to a Formula 3000 car: 1 minute 1.96 seconds, set by Earl Goddard in 2000, the year the circuit was resurfaced.
The demonstration run
In 1993 Damon Hill drove a Williams Formula 1 car at Thruxton in a demonstration run, and his best lap was 57.6 seconds, an average of about 147 mph. It was not set in a race, it was not under the conditions required for an official record, and it does not appear in the official list. It is quoted alongside the official figure because it shows what the circuit allows a modern Formula 1 car to do.
Hill's run came during the season in which he was racing for Williams in the world championship, and it is one of the reasons his name is linked to the circuit. Our guide to Damon Hill's Formula 1 career covers the season in full.
Why records move
Records at Thruxton change as car generations change. A new generation of touring car, a new specification of superbike, a new single-seater formula: each can set new records in its category. The records here are as published at the time of writing, and they will move.
What the records show
The gap between the official race record and Hill's demonstration is about four seconds. That gives some idea of how much faster a Formula 1 car of the early 1990s was than the fastest cars that race at Thruxton. A modern Formula 1 car would be faster again. Formula 1 does not race there, and the circuit's run-off was not built for those speeds.
| Year | Event | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 1942 | RAF Thruxton opens | A wartime airfield in Hampshire |
| 1950 | Motorcycle racing begins | On the runways and perimeter road |
| 1968 | Present circuit opens | Laid out by the British Automobile Racing Club |
| 1982 | Formula 2 lap record set | By Johnny Cecotto, the former motorcycle world champion |
| 1993 | Damon Hill's demonstration run | 57.6 seconds, unofficial |
| 2000 | Official outright race lap record | Set by a Formula 3000 car |
RAF Thruxton: airborne forces, American fighters and civil flying
The airfield opened as RAF Thruxton in 1942. It served the new airborne forces that Britain was developing: paratroops flew from it in 1942, and gliders flew from it on D-Day.
Operation Biting
In February 1942 paratroops who took part in Operation Biting, the raid on the German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast, flew from Thruxton. The raid captured parts of a German radar set and brought them back to Britain for analysis. It was one of the first major British airborne operations of the war.
American fighters
From March 1944 Thruxton was home to the 366th Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces, flying P-47 Thunderbolts. The group moved to a landing ground in France in June 1944, after the invasion.
After the war
The RAF left in 1946, and the following year a flying school leased the field and returned it to civil flying. The runway was kept, and light aircraft have flown from Thruxton ever since. The perimeter road, built for wartime aircraft movements, was suitable for racing, and motorcycle clubs were quick to use it.
The airfield's history is visible in the layout. The circuit follows the line of the wartime perimeter road, and the runway is still there inside it. Visitors who know what to look for can see the outline of the old station in the shape of the circuit.
The wider pattern is a familiar one in British motor racing. Many circuits began as wartime airfields, which offered wide tarmac roads and open space when the country had few purpose-built tracks. Thruxton is one of the best examples, and one of the few where flying and racing still share the site.
Motorcycles in 1950, then cars, and the BARC circuit of 1968
Motorcycle racing began at Thruxton in 1950, using the runways and the perimeter road, and car meetings followed in the early 1950s. These early meetings used a different layout from the present circuit, including sections of runway, and they continued through the 1950s and into the 1960s.
The early racing at Thruxton stopped after 1965. The circuit as it is today was created by the British Automobile Racing Club, which opened it in 1968.
The BARC's move from Goodwood
The British Automobile Racing Club had organised racing at Goodwood, in Sussex, since 1948. Goodwood stopped holding race meetings after 1966, and the club needed a new home. Thruxton offered a site with a perimeter road, open space and a location within reach of the club's members in the south of England. The club laid out the new circuit on the perimeter road and opened it in 1968. Our guide to the Goodwood motor circuit explains why racing there stopped and how it came back.
The club's headquarters
The British Automobile Racing Club has its headquarters at Thruxton and runs the circuit. It organises its own race meetings and hosts championships run by other organisers. It is one of the oldest motor racing clubs in Britain, with a history that stretches back to Brooklands before the First World War.
The corner names on the lap reflect the club's history: Brooklands and Goodwood after its earlier homes, and the Complex after the land speed record holders who raced at Brooklands. Few circuits carry their owner's history so clearly in their corner names.
- 1942RAF Thruxton opens as a base for airborne forces.
- 1944An American fighter group flies from the airfield before D-Day.
- 1950Motorcycle racing begins on the runways and perimeter road, and runs until 1965.
- 1968The British Automobile Racing Club opens the present circuit.
The main stages in Thruxton's history, from wartime station to the circuit run by the British Automobile Racing Club.
The Easter Formula 2 meetings and Jochen Rindt
Formula 2 was the category below Formula 1, and in the late 1960s and 1970s it was the main proving ground for drivers who wanted to reach Grand Prix racing. Formula 1 drivers also raced in it, which meant that young drivers could test themselves against the established stars.
Thruxton held a Formula 2 race at Easter from 1968, the circuit's first season, and the meeting became one of the most important on the European Formula 2 calendar. It ran into the 1980s.
Rindt's run
Jochen Rindt, the Austrian driver who became world champion in 1970, won the Thruxton Formula 2 race three years in a row, in 1968, 1969 and 1970. He was one of the outstanding Formula 2 drivers of his era, and Thruxton suited his style: fast, committed and precise in the high-speed corners. Rindt was killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in September 1970 and was awarded the world championship posthumously.
Future champions
Other drivers who later reached Formula 1, and in some cases won the world championship, raced in the Thruxton Formula 2 races on the way up. The races gave British spectators a chance to see them early in their careers.
The timing helped. An Easter date put the race near the start of the European season, when teams were bringing out new cars and drivers wanted an early result. A spring weekend in Hampshire could be cold and wet, and plenty of Easter meetings were, but the fixture fitted neatly between the end of winter testing and the first continental rounds. Established Formula 1 drivers, graded under the rules of the time, could enter individual races but were not eligible for European championship points, which left the title to the younger drivers. Thruxton therefore often had both on the same grid.
The Formula 2 lap record at Thruxton was set in 1982 by Johnny Cecotto, the Venezuelan who had been a motorcycle world champion before switching to cars. Formula 2 ended as a European championship in 1984, and Thruxton's Easter races ended with it.
The judgement on those meetings is that they made Thruxton's reputation. A circuit that had opened only in 1968 became, within a few years, one of the best-known venues in European junior single-seater racing, and the speed of the lap was a large part of why.
Few race days, the meetings it hosts, and where to watch
Thruxton holds fewer race meetings than almost any other major British circuit. The reason is planning. The circuit is limited to twelve days of motorsport a year, of which three are for motorcycle racing. The limit is set by planning conditions intended to control noise for people living nearby.
The meetings it hosts
The British Touring Car Championship round is traditionally the biggest meeting on the Thruxton calendar, and British Superbikes uses some of the motorcycle days. The British Automobile Racing Club runs national and club meetings on the remaining dates. Each of those days is precious, which is why the calendar is fixed long in advance.
Track days and testing use the circuit on other days, within noise limits. Our beginners' guide to track days explains how they work at a circuit like this.
Where to watch
The best spectating points are at the Complex, at Church and at the Club chicane. The Complex shows cars braking and turning through the slow corners. Church shows cars at top speed through the fastest corner. The chicane is where the last-lap overtakes happen. The Woodham Hill bank, opened in 2025, gives a view of the approach to the chicane.
Banks around the circuit give long views across the airfield. Because the land is open and fairly flat, a spectator at one point can often see cars on other parts of the lap. That is one of the advantages of an airfield circuit, and Thruxton makes the most of it.
Practical points
The circuit's facilities include grandstands at some points, catering and toilets. Admission prices, grandstand charges and parking arrangements are set by the circuit for each event and are not given here. Spectators should bring something warm: an airfield in Hampshire in spring is exposed, and the wind across the runway is sharp. The England sport hub gathers our guides to the rest of the sporting year.