Castle Combe Racing School
Castle Combe
Castle Combe is a small village in Wiltshire, England, with a population of about 350. It is renowned for its attractiveness and tranquillity, and for fine buildings including the medieval church. The fourteenth century Market Cross, erected when the privilege to hold a weekly market in Castle Combe was granted, is situated where the three principal streets converge. Some small stone steps near the Cross were for horseriders to mount and dismount. The village has twice played host to the Combe Sunday event, a music extravaganza which attracted 4000 visitors to the village in 2006.
The 4-star Manor House Hotel in the village was built in the fourteenth century. It has 48 rooms and 365 acres (1.5 km²) of gardens.
Castle Combe is the home of a motor racing venue, Castle Combe Circuit, located on the disused RAF Castle Combe airfield. It was also used as a location for the film musical Doctor Dolittle. Raymond Austin, Director/writer, filmed The Avengers and The Saint in and around the village in the late 1960s. Austin also set the action of his book, "Find Me A Spy, Catch me a Traitor" in the village and at the Manor. Most recently, for Stardust.
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goal.
A race may be run continuously from start to finish or may be made of several segments called heats, stages or legs. A heat is usually run over the same course at different times. A stage is a shorter section of a much longer course or a time trial.
Early records of races are evident on pottery from ancient Greece, which depicted running men vying for first place. A chariot race is described in Homer's Iliad.
Castle Combe Circuit
The Castle Combe airfield opened in May 1941. The land which the airfield occupied belonged to the Castle Combe estate, which was owned by the Gorst family. The RAF Castle Combe airfield functioned for seven years before being decommissioned in 1948.
Castle Combe Circuit opened in 1950, and the first meeting was staged on July 8 by the Bristol Motorcycle & Light Car Club. Over the next few years, the circuit attracted star names such as Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, Roy Salvadori and John Surtees.
Castle Combe has staged many different motorsport disciplines over the years. In 1997, Nigel Greensall established a new lap record. His Tyrrell 022 lapped the circuit at 130.93 mph (210.71 km/h). However, this was the last year that the circuit would remain unaltered. A tragic accident involving the death of a spectator forced the owners into installing two new chicanes in order to slow the cars down. The new layout was slightly longer at 1.85 miles (2.98 km), and was completed over the winter of 1998-1999.