Bedford Autodrome

Bedford Autodrome at a glance

Location

Thurleigh, Bedford, Bedfordshire

Type

road course

Length

6.12 km (3.8 mi)

Direction

anti-clockwise

Surface

asphalt

Opened

1999

Owner

MotorSport Vision (MSV)

Address

Thurleigh Airfield Business Park

Phone

+44 344 225 4422

Website

bedfordautodrome.co.uk

Track map and layout

Bedford Autodrome is not one circuit but a kit of interlocking layouts laid over a former airfield, built deliberately without the Armco barriers of a conventional race track so cars have grass and run-off to slide onto instead of a wall to hit. The longest, the GT Circuit, runs to 3.8 miles (6.12 km) and is used mainly for private testing; the West, South, North and East circuits are shorter loops of between 0.75 and 1.85 miles built for PalmerSport's fleet of single-seaters, sports-prototypes, rally cars and Caterhams, while the SEN and South West configurations combine sections for road-car testing and public track days. The whole site runs anti-clockwise, an unusual choice for a British circuit, and its flat, wide-open layout with almost no fixed barriers is what makes it possible to run inexperienced drivers at speed without the safety case a race circuit would need.

Configurations

Events and race weekends

Bedford Autodrome was designed from the outset never to hold wheel-to-wheel racing: the lack of Armco barriers and dedicated spectator viewing areas means it is not licensed for races, and there is a strict no-spectator policy on site. Instead the venue runs corporate PalmerSport driving days on most weekdays from March to December, plus car and bike track days open to the public through MSV Trackdays. It also serves as the development base for the GB4 junior single-seater championship's cars, though GB4's actual races are held at other circuits such as Snetterton and Donington Park, not at Bedford itself.

Getting there and parking

The circuit sits on the former Thurleigh airfield a few miles north-east of Bedford town centre, just off the A6/A428 corridor and about 50 miles north of London. London Luton Airport is the nearest airport with regular commercial flights, roughly 25 miles and 35-45 minutes' drive south; the site also has its own private airstrip, Bedford Aerodrome, for visitors arriving by light aircraft. Bedford railway station has direct trains from London St Pancras (around 40 minutes) and is a short taxi ride from the circuit.

• London Luton Airport (LTN) · about 40 min drive

Parking

Free on-site parking is provided for PalmerSport guests and track-day participants; spectators are not admitted to the circuit at all under the venue's no-spectator policy.

Under-16s are not permitted on site because there is no public viewing area for them, so this is not a venue for a family day of watching motorsport.

Hotels and camping near Bedford Autodrome

Because Bedford Autodrome has no spectator events, there is no race-weekend accommodation crunch to plan around; visitors attending a PalmerSport day or track day typically stay in Bedford itself, a compact county town with a good spread of chain and independent hotels around the town centre and River Great Ouse, roughly a 10-15 minute drive from the circuit. There is no on-site or trackside camping.

Where to look

Bedford town centre, close to the railway station and river, has the widest choice of hotels; the villages around Thurleigh and the A6 corridor towards Kempston and Clapham offer quieter, closer-to-the-gate alternatives for those with a car.

Track days, driving experiences and lap records

Bedford Autodrome's whole business is built around driving rather than watching: PalmerSport runs full-day, half-day and evening corporate driving experiences across its fleet of single-seaters, rally cars, off-roaders and sports-prototypes on most weekdays from March to December, and MSV Trackdays separately opens the GT and SEN layouts for public car and bike track days through the season. There is no ride-along or spectator option; every visitor either drives or does not attend.

Who runs days here

• PalmerSportcar
• MSV Trackdaysboth

Typical cost: MSV car track days from around £119 on standard weekdays up to about £229 on premium dates; PalmerSport does not publish fixed prices and quotes corporate day rates on enquiry

Spectator guide

There is no spectator access of any kind at Bedford Autodrome. The circuits were built without the safety barriers a race track needs, so the venue cannot legally hold races or admit onlookers, and it enforces this with a strict no-spectator, no under-16s policy at every gate. Anyone visiting either takes part in a driving day themselves or does not come at all.

History of Bedford Autodrome

From bomber base to research airfield

The land beneath Bedford Autodrome was laid out from 1940 as RAF Thurleigh, a Bomber Command airfield in the Bedfordshire countryside. In June 1942 it became the first airfield in England handed over in full to the United States Army Air Forces, and from September that year the 306th Bombardment Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses from its runways, staying until December 1945 for the longest single-base tenure of any USAAF bomb group in Britain; the 306th flew 342 missions and lost 171 aircraft in the process. After the war the site was rebuilt from 1946 as the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford, a major British aviation research station whose runway was extended for the ill-fated Bristol Brabazon airliner and which went on to test aircraft carrier catapult and arrestor systems for decades.

Palmer's rebuild

Aviation research wound down through the 1990s, and former Formula One driver Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision group acquired part of the airfield to build a driving facility unlike any other in Britain. Rather than a single race circuit, MSV spent around five years laying a network of interlocking asphalt loops across the northern part of the site, engineered with vast grass run-off and almost no Armco so that inexperienced drivers could be let loose at speed with minimal risk. The rebuilt circuits opened in 1999 as the base for PalmerSport, Palmer's corporate driving-experience business, and the layouts were subsequently extended and remodelled several times through the 2000s, most substantially to the North Circuit in 2008.

Present day

Bedford Autodrome today runs as one of Britain's busiest non-racing motorsport venues: PalmerSport hosts tens of thousands of corporate guests a year across its fleet of single-seaters and off-roaders, while MSV Trackdays brings public car and bike track days to the GT and SEN layouts. A restored runway reopened in 2010 as the private Bedford Aerodrome, and the site's wartime heritage is preserved on-site by the volunteer-run 306th Bombardment Group Museum. The strict no-spectator, no-racing rule that has defined the venue since 1999 remains unchanged.

Frequently asked questions

Other tracks nearby

• Rockingham Motor Speedway · 34 km · historic circuit (dormant)
• Silverstone Circuit · 41 km · road course
• Mallory Park · 71 km · road course
• Battersea Park Street Circuit · 87 km · historic circuit (defunct)
• ExCeL London Circuit · 88 km · street circuit
• Donington Park · 90 km · road course