ROCKINGHAM CLOSES

WHERE: ROCKINGHAM WHEN: DECEMBER 31 After 17 years which included the first and only Indycar races to be held in the UK, as well as British Touring Car Championship and British GT action, Rockingham Motorsport Speedway closes to motorsport at the end of the year. Rumours about its closure had plagued the circuit almost as soon as it opened in 2001, but those whispers began to gather pace when the 2019 BTCC calendar was announced in June. For the first time since 2006 the Northamptonshire venue wouldn’t host a meeting for the UK’S premier racing series.

Then two months later, Rockingham boss Peter Hardman confirmed that motorsport events would completely cease at the end of the 2018 season and the venue would become a storage facility for fleet cars, a testing venue and hold auctions.

A farewell meeting was planned for November, but the event was cut from two days to just one and the promise of seeing American single-seaters and NASCARS never materialised. Perhaps fittingly, Hardman won the final ever race at the venue and on December 1/2 Paul King won the final motorsport event at the venue: the Rockingham Stages Rally.