According to Autosport and other news sites, Rockingham has been sold.

https://www.autosport.com/nati ... ture-uncertain-after-sale

Part of the news is "changes in business operations" and that all the fixtures for 2018 will go ahead, although nothing about beyond that.

The BTCC Touring Cars have dropped the circuit for next year.

Wonder what, if anything, this does to LFS's use of Rockingham as layout?

Just out of curiosity, how much money is worth that kind of track?

Quote from neonmateo :

Just out of curiosity, how much money is worth that kind of track?

Don't quote me, because I can't find the source right now, but I read that it was up for £14m. It doesn't sound like enough for a facility of Rockingham's quality.

Quote from sinanju :

Wonder what, if anything, this does to LFS's use of Rockingham as layout?

iRacing still uses Oran Park even though it was demolished (and sells it for $15), i don't think anything would happen.

I have literally just bought S3 because I wanted to learn a real track with the possibility of doing a track day there, then 1 day later they announce it is bloody closing. To say I'm a bit pissed off is an understatement. I am however glad that my money is going into developing LFS. Hopefully LFS will introduce more real tracks because it is still the best racing 'sim' I've tried!

@vane: It's been sold, it's not closing. The circuit will still be operational. TOCA, the organisation that owns the BTCC were not comfortable putting Rockingham on the 2019 calendar because of the uncertainty of what the circuit's situation would be next year.

The optimist in me agrees with you on that, but the cynic in me knows that what would be much more profitable is a load of lease hold houses built on all that land!

I am still rather confused, however, as to why there is no mention of any of this on the rockingham website news page, but is on their facebook page. They have said it has been sold but there is lot's of third party related speculation flying around.

Sadly, I was wrong: https://www.touringcartimes.com/2018/08/17/racing-end-rockingham-following-circuit-sale/

That really sucks.

Why buy a racing circuit if you don't want to use it as a racing circuit?

Must have been a bargain for the ground area then.

Because if there is one thing rich people like to do is get richer!

Update

https://www.autosport.com/nati ... -at-rockingham-after-2018

So probably VW bought it - they already are renting currently unused parking lots of the unfinished (and nationwide famous) Berlin airport to store their cars currently unable to pass exhaust gass tests. At some point the airport will be finished (even if some are joking the opposite),so they have to move their VolksJunk somewhere else.

...more like a buddy of the CEO bought it and will lease it out at twice the going rate

From the Autosport article -

"The new owners are yet to confirm what the future of the venue will be, but .. the group is looking to turn the venue into an automotive facility.

.. it is likely to become a storage facility for defleet cars, a testing venue and hold auctions"

so what was it before if it wasnt an automotive facility?! haha

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

cheap appartment blocks with minimum sale for 1 million pounds pr flat ?

IIRC it was built on brownfield land - they'd have to pay a fortune to get that up to code to build homes on.

I wonder if whole area of Rockingham is laser scanned, in case an update is planned but no can do with data from physical area ( unless it is whole complete area stored )

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

well isnt it just LFS´s luck we now got a outdated co2 polluting car we didnt get and now we got a lazerscanned "real" track which is going to be a fairytale too. maybe its time to get tracks that wont go down for years

From simracing point of view, I don't really mind if a track is not anymore used. Rockingham is nice track. I cannot say the same of some other more popular modern european tracks. I either wish fantasy track, or historic tracks from 70's or older.

Is a car park: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-56104281

ouch...

disgusting

At least we cannot imitate that real life status in lfs
So we are safe it remains as is for lfs racing activities

who'd have thought trying to bring Indycar to Corby would've ended in failure?

Jokes aside, sad to see

well. thats what you get with steering wheels on the wrong side. Difficult to sell to economies which are less hurt by the newest crisis.

seen these kind of images twelve years ago also but I think it's a bit more permanent this time.

These are second hand vehicles, most ex-rental and ex-lease cars. They aren't new cars that haven't sold.