BISHOPSCOURT, Northern Ireland  1962-1968  3 miles 4.828Km

Track by P.Bennett - (Tobodestroyer)
Started September 2024 - Released July 2025

Thank you the GPL community for keeping me sane and for keeping GPL alive. Special thanks to everyone at UKGPL and GPLR.NET for their patience, expertise and eagle-eyes.

Pete

https://www.racingcircuits.info/europe/united-kingdom/bishopscourt.html

The original airfield from which the circuit developed was commissioned by the RAF in 1941 and was finally operational two years later. Envisaged as a base for bomber aircraft, it boasted a main runway of 2,000 yards and two subsidiaries of 1,4000 yards each. On its opening in April 1943 it was allocated to RAF Flying Training Command and hosted a range of units including Nos. 664 and 671 Gliding Schools and 819 Naval Air Squadron. It was also home to No. 7 Air Observers School and No. 12 Air Gunners School and post-war was an Air Navigation School.

While the RAF still maintained its presence throughout the following decades, most notably as a radar facility, motor racing also arrived in the 1960s, when the Ulster Automobile Club held its first event at Bishopscourt. It used a three-mile course which took in half of the main runway and then ran around the perimeter roads for the remainder of the lap. The UAC had plenty of experience in staging events - it famously ran held the RAC Tourist Trophy race at Dundrod in the 1950s before deciding the course was too dangerous for cars, with the TT switching to England and the UAC electing to run races at temporary courses at RAF Long Kesh and then Cluntoe airfield.

Bishopscourt made for an ideal new home from 1962, however, and the honour of the first race win fell to racing car constructor John Crosslé, who took victory in the September event for 1172cc side-valve Ford Specials. Malcolm Templeton took the Champion Trophy for Formula Junior cars in his Lotus, beating John Pollock's Gemini. Pollock recorded the fastest lap with a 91.37mph average.

The UAC revived the Ulster Trophy race in 1963, raising Bishopscourt's profile considerably. In the 1966 race, Tommy Reid broke the 100mph barrier when he set a course average of 100.75mph in a 4.7-litre Crosslé-Shelby Ford Cobra.

My version for GPL does not claim to be 100% accurate, but rather a rough approximation of how the track may have looked in the 1967. The layout is 99% accurate as I've taken it from sattelite mapping and other online resources. In real-life, I believe that the profile of the land is even flatter. I've created a few cambers and slopes to create atmosphere and improve online racing by creating a different challenge at every part of the track. The runways at Bishopscourt are 50m wide, so I've replicated this in my GPL version. I've also made them using concrete rather than asphalt and added some extra bumpiness to better replicate driving along an old WWII runway. This makes them less grippy as well. I've purposely omitted any brake-marker boards and I've created a rather patchy racing groove in attempt to add to the challenge of driving an otherwise flat, airfield circuit.

Thank you for downloading and supporting my track-building hobby.

Pete. July 2025