Croft Motor Racing Circuit

 closed / former military, car racing track

Croft Circuit - set in the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside. This superb 2.1 mile circuit has been developed for over 50 years into a top-flight racing venue which hosts prestigious Motorsport events such as British Touring Cars (BTCC) as well as the most competitive club level racing.

The super-fast sweeping curves of the Jim Clark Esses and Barcroft are a genuine white-knuckle, seat of the pants challenge, taken at 115mph and 130mph respectively in a current Formula Ford car. These sections combined with long straights followed by slow corners make for a scintillating track for both testing and racing.

www.croftcircuit.co.uk/

History as Former RAF Croft

Six miles south of Darlington, to the west of the LNER main line, a suitable area of meadowland was requisitioned in late 1940 as a satellite landing ground for the No. 4 Group bomber station at Middleton St George. The remote location was in an area known as the Walmires with the nearest sizeable village Dalton on the A167 road. The official name for the proposed airfield was Croft, possibly because an airfield at another Dalton was already under consideration. Built during 1941 with hard runways, perimeter track and aircraft standings, the airfield was available for occupation in October 1941.

The final runway lengths were to 2,000 yards for the 09-27 and 1,400 yards for the secondaries aligned 03-21 and 15-33. Hardstandings were 36 pans of which three were lost during runway extensions and replaced by three, loop type. Hangars were the usual two Type T2 and a single Bl. Dispersed accommodation provided for a maximum 2,460 males and 323 females.

During October 1941, No. 78 Squadron was removed from Middleton St George to Croft, its Whitleys flying their first sorties from the station on October 22/23. The squadron converted to Halifaxes in March April 1942 and returned to Middleton St George in June. The station was then upgraded to Class A standard with extensions to the runways which had deteriorated.

Croft was one of the northern airfields to be used by an all-Canadian group. Before its official formation, No. 419 Squadron with Wellingtons was moved in from Topcliffe only to be posted to Middleton St George a month later. Before it departed it provided personnel for a nucleus of a new squadron No. 427. Its first operational sorties came on the night of December 14 when it took off to mine enemy waters. This was under No. 4 Group, the squadron transferring to No. 6 Group on New Year's Day. Wellingtons were flown until May 1943 when the squadron converted to Halifaxes and in the same month was moved to Leeming.

For undisclosed reasons, Croft was now to become a base for a Halifax conversion unit serving No. 6 Group, No. 1664 Heavy Conversion Unit being formed at the station in May 1943 until it was transferred to Dishforth in December. Croft again became an operational station with Nos.431 and 434 Squadrons arriving from Tholthorpe the same month. Both operated with Halifaxes until the closing months of 1944, No. 431 converting to Lancasters in October and No. 434 in December.

After VE-Day the Croft Lancasters were employed in ferrying released POWs back to the UK and in June both squadrons went to Canada taking their Lancaster Xs with them. A total of 138 Bomber Command aircraft despatched from Croft failed to return or crashed in the UK. Ten were Whitleys, 20 Wellingtons, 87 Halifaxes and 21 Lancasters.

In the immediate post-war period Croft (renamed Neasham) continued to serve as the Middleton St George satellite and was available for `circuits and bumps' by No. 13 OTU's Mosquitos. When the OTU left the parent station the airfield closed to flying and, after a period under a holding party, was finally abandoned by the RAF. It remained in a fairly intact state for some years followed by the inevitable agricultural and commercial intrusions.

Between 1995 and 1997 an international class motor race track was built on the site of the airfield at a reputed cost of some two million pounds, following earlier use of the runways for this sport.