What is Gurston Down’s Course like?
It’s fast! The course record produced an average speed of just over 85 mph and the fastest recorded speed over the finishes over 160 mph. The course starts downhill, dropping down to Hollow, where the fastest cars around doing around 120+ mph, round a sweeping left-hander of Little Hollow and Hollow Bend, braking very hard into the sharp and steep uphill section of Karousel. Speeds through Karousel are down to 25 mph. After the second right-hand part of Karousel there is a short straight with a bump, Deer Leep where cars and bikes can get a little air, before the hard left-hand corner of Ashes.. After Ashes, it’s uphill again to the finish.
The Track
The Start is crucial to a good time, drivers striving to get just the right amount of wheelspin to get a good “launch”, and then they take the downhill plunge, a unique feature in England, accelerating rapidly up through the gears. A time of 2 secs to the 64 feet mark equates to an acceleration of 1G.
They pass through the first “speed trap” at the bottom of the hill, where the fastest cars reach over 130 mph, and then the deceptively difficult Hollow Bend looms rapidly. With a slight brow on the first apex and a radius alters around the bend, Hollow Bend is a high speed challenge all of its own.
Next comes the critical approach to the Karousel, which requires late braking on the ideal line to be well placed for the second part of Gurston’s slowest section, a very steep, sharp right hander.
This leads immediately to Deer’s Leap, where the most powerful cars can get airborne whilst approaching the braking point for Ashes Bend!
The left-hander at Ashes, a critical corner to a good time at Gurston, is a prime viewing point where you can see the drivers trying to prevent their cars running wide on the corner exit whilst attempting to get a good slingshot for the long drag over Burke’s Rise to the Finish, recently renamed Stones. This is the sting in Gurston’s tail, with a deceptive kink over the last few flat-out yards to keep the drivers alert until the end!