Mallory Park circuit guide
Mallory Park is a motor racing circuit situated in the village of Kirkby Mallory, just off the A47, in central England.
It was originally used for grass-track until 1955. A new, hard-surfaced course was constructed for 1956, with a later extension forming a loop with a hairpin bend making the car circuit length 1.35 miles (2.173 km). Mallory Park is among the shortest permanent race circuits in the UK.
Corner one – Gerard’s Bend
When approaching the first corner at Mallory Park position the car fully to the left side of the track. In doing so you will gain the widest approach angle as possible, generally taken in 4th gear. You generally have two reference points for turning and breaking. When turning into this corner you can use the marshal post on the left as visual reference point. For a braking reference use end of the pit lane barrier on the right hand side. It’s not a hard brake, more of a medium pressure to help guide the car into the corner. Due to the nature of the turn being so long it is important to carry momentum. This will involve an element of balancing the car on the throttle on the point of understeer.
You can look at the line through this corner as having three elements:
First part go in fast and keep close to the inside track edge
Part two, half way through the corner, the car will want to push out more towards the middle of the track as the turn tightens
In the final part of the corner bring the car back in tight apexing by the first access road on the inside. Keep it tight accelerating through to the exit to carry as much speed as possible onto Stebbe’s Straight.
Corner two & three – John Cooper Esses
This sequence of corners is quite satisfying when it all falls into place. It is a very fast approach so you will need to apply medium brake pressure to help get the car turned in, then apply progressive power to full power through the second part of the sequence. Both the braking and turning reference points are on the left-hand side of the track. The braking point is towards the far end of the first access road. The turning point is the start of the second access road. Once turned in, you need to be apexing where the larger red/white curb begins on the inside of the circuit. Continue to keep looking a long way up ahead and use the full width of the track on the exit.
Corner four – Shaw’s Hairpin
This is the tightest and slowest corner on the Mallory Park track. It requires a hard brake as you will be dropping from around 90mph to 25mph in dry conditions. Take this corner in second gear. Braking point is done by feel as it is a little featureless. However, you can use the marshall post on the right-hand side of the circuit when approaching this corner as a breaking reference point.
Aim to apex in the middle of the hairpin, and use the full width of the track on the exit of the corner to improve your exit speed.
Corner five – Devil’s Elbow
Use all the full width of the track exiting the previous hairpin. Then make sure you ease the car over to the right-hand side of the track ready for a flat out slightly downhill left-hand turn. It requires a gentle turn in and good awareness not to run wide on the exit. Always look down the straight and not at the exit point as this will help you to not let the steering angle off too early and run wide.