Upcoming meetings
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Circuit
Kirkistown Circuit occupies part of the former RAF Kirkistown airfield on the Ards Peninsula, between the villages of Kirkistown and Portavogie in County Down, Northern Ireland. The Five Hundred Motor Racing Club of Ireland (500 MRCI) took a lease on the derelict wartime airfield in 1953, staged its first race meeting there on 13 June that year, and bought the site outright in the 1970s; the club describes it as the only club-owned and operated circuit in the British Isles. The current configuration, used since 1987, is a 2.433-kilometre (1.512-mile), nine-turn, clockwise circuit laid out along the airfield's former runway and perimeter roads. Named features include the fast Debtor's Dip, the Colonial complex, Fisherman's Bend, a chicane added ahead of the final corner in the late 1970s, and the tight Maguire's Hairpin before the finish line. It is Northern Ireland's only permanent circuit holding a national motorsport licence. What began with straw-bale marking and a double-decker bus used for race control has grown into a modern venue with a clubhouse, pit and paddock buildings, a scrutineering bay, marshals' facilities and, since 2020, a concrete pit wall in place of the original barrier. Today the circuit's calendar covers car and motorcycle racing, sprints, karting, rallying and rallycross, supermoto, and track days for cars and motorbikes.
Operated by: 500 Motor Racing Club of Ireland (500 MRCI)
The main 1.52-mile airfield circuit. Smooth, flat and fast, with good spectator viewing from the raised banking. Popular for car and motorcycle racing.
Notable Corners
Kirkistown Circuit guide
History
Kirkistown traces back to RAF Kirkistown, a wartime airfield. In 1953 the Five Hundred Motor Racing Club of Ireland leased the derelict site and laid out a circuit using the airfield's runway and perimeter roads, holding its first race meeting on 13 June 1953. The club bought the freehold outright in the 1970s, making Kirkistown — by its own description — the only circuit in the British Isles both owned and run by its racing club. The layout grew from a shorter original course to the nine-turn, 2.433 km configuration used since 1987, with a chicane added ahead of Maguire's Hairpin in the late 1970s to slow the approach.
The circuit
The current circuit runs clockwise over 2.433 km (1.512 miles) in nine turns, following much of the airfield's old runway into a long main straight. From the start/finish line, cars take the fast Debtor's Dip before the Colonial complex, a tightening right-hander that needs heavy braking, then Fisherman's Bend, a long right-hander with a late turn-in. A chicane ahead of Maguire's Hairpin — a tight hairpin back onto the pit straight — was added in the late 1970s.
Sources: Kirkistown official site (kirkistown.com); Wikipedia