UK circuits – overviews

1. Anglesey
The ‘Phillip Island’ of Wales. Right on the coastline the circuit is smooth and quick in sections. Very little camber to deal with, it has a good selection of corners. Two basic layouts, International and Coastal, with International being the longest. A tight downhill twisty corkscrew section, on the Coastal, and a long loop with hairpin section on the International.
Watch out for the wind as the open layout and location can make life interesting when it gets a bit breezy.

2. Aintree
Simple to learn, only 4 corners but one long, fast straight.

3. Brands Hatch
Indy part slow and slippy GP circuit section fast and grippy.
The Indy is a tight track, that is difficult to pass on; all about getting on the gas as early as possible. Lots of gradient changes to deal with, very important last corner on to the start and finish straight.
The GP circuit is fast and demanding. 

4. Cadwell Park
Great to ride but caution required in places; lots of gradients with a good mix of corners. Mountain section very spectacular.

5. Castle Combe
Quite fast, but very bumpy, with too many chicanes.

6. Croft
Similar to Castle Combe. Both flat and quite fast, but here there are some very slow sections, and a tight hairpin thrown in! 

7. Donington Park
A track of two halves – the GP circuit a wonderful flowing circuit except for the Melbourne loop, which is a bit of a stop start affair. The National goes through the chicane in the opposite direction.

8. Knockhill
Hard to get right. A few blind corners over rises, and camber changes to catch you out. It’s more difficult than it looks, but that’s part of the challenge.

9. Lydden
The Mallory of the South! Simple, but not very rewarding to ride, and very slippy to boot.

10. Mallory Park
Simple enough to learn, first turn, Gerrards very fast, the rest of the circuit is mainly, braking in to tight hairpins, limited overtaking opportunities require caution when passing.

11. North West 200
Very very fast, I’ve never gone as fast, not even at Daytona off the banking. Not difficult to learn, being basically a triangle – a few chicanes installed to make safer a couple of sections, a great track to experience the ‘pure roads’.

12. Oulton Park
A real riders track, lots of ups and downs and a good mix of corners.
Placed 3rd in my favourite UK circuits

13. Pembrey
Flat and smooth, a great track to go testing at. Good to set machines up on, due to it having most types of corner to play with. My number 2 UK circuit.

14. Rockingham
No longer in use as an active motorsport venue – the circuit used the infield section of a tri oval NASCAR track. Relatively flat, bumpy in places and quite slippery when wet. The main straight used part of the banking section, so you had the experience of riding close to the wall, as per Daytona.

15. Scarborough
Not for the faint hearted! Nice to walk round, but on anything faster than a push bike, in my personal opinion, very dodgy.
Hairpins and jumps add to the ‘fun’.

16. Silverstone
A fast and mostly flowing circuit, very long and some sections appear similar but are in fact very different, wide and open, some say it’s bland, but I think it’s a great circuit to be fair.

17. Snetterton
Flat and open most of the corners have good visibility on approach a great blend of corners and two fast straights; currently very slippy when cold and wet.

18. Three Sisters
Great track to learn the basic techniques of racing at slow speeds, very twisty.

19. Thruxton
Number 1 of my UK circuits, super fast with no proper straights, the bike is always healed right over, pushing the front wheel into corners, only big balls need apply.