Just as there are some fantastic place names in the UK – Chipping Sodbury is a personal favourite – British circuits have some have some excellently named sections of track. These are five of the best – and the great stories behind a couple of them.
- Knickerbrook – Oulton Park
Ha ha, knickers! But the childishness is not misplaced: apparently the corner does take its name from an event involving both knickers and a brook – which we know thanks to a recording by demolition expert, stunt rider and raconteur Blaster Bates.
When the circuit was being constructed, he and a colleague had the task of removing tree stumps with explosives close to what is now Knickerbrook, and this disturbed a couple ‘getting amorous’ nearby. Either the knickers, or the woman tangled up in her knickers – depending on which account you read – ended up in the brook.
You couldn’t make it up. Unless it is made up. In which case it’s still brilliant.
- The Mountain – Cadwell Park
It’s steep, sure, but you could argue that it’s a touch dramatic as names go. It did cause that crash for Leon Camier though, so maybe it’s justified.
- Bomb Hole – Snetterton
Now that is a bit dramatic. Apparently the name has nothing to do with an explosion though, despite the circuit being on a former RAF airfield. According to the internet, it’s a polite version of the name given to it by riders who came off there in the 1970s: ‘Bum Hole’.
- Dingle Dell – Brands Hatch
It sounds like something out of CBeebies does Lord of the Rings. But ‘dingle’ and ‘dell’ have broadly the same meaning: small wooded valley. So given its location around the back of the circuit amongst the trees, it’s not hard to imagine how it got its name.
- Sunny In & Sunny Out – Croft
Are there happier corner names in the UK? I don’t think so, and that’s why I like them: for their sheer, unbridled positivity. It was simply Sunny Corner before the track was redesigned in the mid-1990s, when it became two corners, but I’ve not managed to find anything to explain the name. Maybe it’s just a sunny corner.
Incidentally, there’s only one corner even in contention for the title of worst British corner name: the Real Radio Hairpin at Knockhill. Sponsored corner names are uninspiring at the best of times, but this is pretty much unique in its unwieldiness. It’s awkward to say, it sounds awful, and it means nothing.
