History of Curborough Sprint Course

The sprint course at Curborough was formerly a small part of RAF Lichfield.
Construction of the airfield began in 1939 and on completion Number 51 Maintenance Unit took up residence on 1st August 1940.
The largest inhabitants of RAF Lichfield were 27 Operational Training Unit whose task was to train aircrew on Wellington Bombers. After the war effort, 51 MU continued to modify, as well as store and break up aircraft, until the airfield’s closure on 15th April 1958.
The Air Ministry eventually sold the entire site for the sum of £240,000 on 1st May 1962.

Before Curborough was used for sprinting, it was a venue that S&DCC used for driving tests, and from 1960 onwards also incorporated a sprint. When a local farmer purchased the site from the Air Ministry S&DCC secured a lease and now had plans to develop the site into one of the finest sprint courses in the country.

The inaugural sprint meeting took place on 16th June 1963. It was of a closed status (only open to members of S&DCC) and attracted an entry of 37 competitors, 2 non-starting on the day. The course differed slightly from that of today with the finish line some 15 yards further on. Ian McLaughlin driving a Cooper Jap in 38.7 secs recorded fastest time of day. The sprint meeting that followed on 22nd September 1963 was of a restricted status (being open to members of S&DCC and other invited clubs) and therefore attracted a much larger entry of 75, 9 non-starting.

The course had now been shortened to the present day 900 yards, moving the finish line back to enable the faster cars more braking area. Yet again FTD went to Ian McLaughlin, this time driving a Cooper X of 1098cc in a time of 37.7 secs.

Using the top loop twice in a single run did create an extension to the course, a distance of 1557 yards, the idea being raised at a meeting of the Curborough Sprint Course Committee on 8th June 1976 and subsequently implemented.

In latter years the venue has improved steadily. Significant modifications took place in 1992 to include a spectator viewing bank, marshals receiving proper posts equipped with protection from stray cars and the elements and an area set aside for the parking of incident vehicles. The track also received upgrades with the corners losing their cone markings, to be replaced with proper rumble strips. In 1996 a donation was received from the National Lottery Sports Council Fund to further improve the venue and was the first motor sport project in the country to receive such funding.

2014 saw the introduction of the Figure-of-8 course which has proved very popular with competitors.

Whilst the venue’s looks remain largely unchanged, its modern day uses are very diverse from 60 years ago. Curborough is used for a great many car magazine photo shoots and makes several appearances in television motoring programmes. But it is also well used for pedal car racing and other human powered vehicles along with cycling. Curborough has been awarded the accolade of being a cycling centre of excellence and also features in the Guinness Book of Records when the pedal car racers set a new 1000 mile record in 2002.

Recent improvements have been the facility of “Off Grid” electricity, new Classroom and Control Tower, new toilets and changing rooms, and a new café area “The Sprinters Rest”.

Continued development has kept Curborough at the centre of sprinting in the UK and home of grassroots motorsport.