History of Lydden Hill
- therookiereporters
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
Lydden Hill is known for its unique layout and for being the shortest road racing circuit in the UK.
In 1947, the first race took place at ‘Lydden Speedway’ which at the time was a grass track with the race being hosted on the 10th August. A year later Jack Surtees raced Vincent Sidecars as an accomplished grass track competitor and his son John Surtees had entered his first grass track race when he was only 15.
Lydden Race Track which then became Lydden Hill was founded in 1955 by Bill Chesson with the help of the Astra Motor Club. Starting in 1957, both stock-car and grass-track racing started getting promoted. In 1962, Chesson wanted to further expand the circuit and had laid a tarmac track in order to promote motor racing along with motorcycle road racing.
The original plan was for Lydden Hill to be a 1-mile circuit but at the time this idea had to be put on hold when the tarmac ran out at the point of the circuit that's known as the Devil’s Elbow, and in 1965, tarmac asphalt was laid for hosting car racing up to Formula Three and the circuit was ¾ of a mile long.
In 1967, television producer Robert Reed as well as race organiser Bud Smith thought about starting up Rallycross at Lydden in co-operation with Chesson. The inaugural Rallycross race at Lydden Hill took place on 4th February 1967 and was won by Vic Elford in a Porsche 911. Additionally in 1967, the track was lengthened to 1 mile. Furthermore, Lydden Hill has seen multiple rounds of European Rallycross Championships (ERA) since 1973, the first 23 were organised by the Thames Estuary Automobile Club (TEAC) and to this day, Lydden Hill still holds British Rallycross Championship races. The circuit is considered the so-called “Home of Rallycross”.
In 1986, Lydden Hill was bought from Bill Chesson by Rallycross driver Tom Bissett for over a million pounds and in 1991 both Mr and Mrs Bissett became partners sharing ownership of the circuit with McLaren. However, not long after they became joint owners, McLaren bought both the Bissett’s shares and became the sole owners of the circuit. In 1993, McLaren had leased the track to the British Motorcycle Racing Club (BMRC) which ran events at Lydden for approximately 14 years. 10 years later in 2003, McLaren applied to have the circuit as a private testing venue for themselves, this however was turned down by the circuit. Following this, in 2008, Pat Doran obtained the lease of the circuit from McLaren and is now the current owner of the circuit.
During May 2014, Lydden Hill played host to the inaugural season of the newly formed FIA World Rallycross Championship. Lydden also had the American Nitro Rallycross race at their circuit to begin the 2022-2023 season, making it the first track to host Nitro Rallycross outside of North America.
Lydden Hill has also hosted track specific events such as Lord of Lydden.
Article written by Ria Wiktor ©️Ria Wiktor 2026
