East Fortune sits twenty miles east of Edinburgh, on the coastal plain between Haddington and the sea. It is flat, fast and almost entirely exposed to the wind.
It is also one of only two circuits left in Scotland where a motorcycle can be raced on tarmac. The other is Knockhill. Every round of the Scottish Championship is run at one or the other, and that has consequences: if East Fortune closed, half the season would go with it.
The circuit is 1.56 miles of runway and perimeter road, over thirty feet wide, run clockwise. It rewards commitment: there is very little that slows a bike down other than the rider.
What Scotland lost
Circuit racing in Scotland was never abundant, and most of what existed has gone.
A Berwickshire airfield circuit that ran through the 1950s. Its last season was 1964, overtaken by the opening of Ingliston.
Opened beside the Royal Highland Showground in 1965 and closed in 1994. It has since seen occasional sprints and two revival events, but circuit racing there ended.
A Victorian park in Kirkcaldy that hosted motorcycle road racing from 1948. For a time it was the only such race in Scotland.
Knockhill, opened in 1974 and now Scotland’s national motorsport centre, and East Fortune. Two circuits, for a whole country.
How it got here
The Royal Naval Air Service builds an airfield at East Fortune to defend the Firth of Forth. Airships are flown from the site on North Sea patrols.
The airship R34 lifts off from East Fortune on 2 July and reaches Long Island 108 hours and 12 minutes later. It was the first crossing of the Atlantic from east to west by air. On board: eight officers, twenty-two men, a stowaway, two carrier pigeons and a kitten.
Melville Motor Club begins, not as a race organiser but as a group of friends who rode motorcycles. The badge has carried the date ever since.
The airfield returns to service in the Second World War as a night-fighter and training station, and the runways are laid out much as they are today.
The club starts clearing the disused airfield to make a circuit of it. This is members doing the work themselves, on runways and perimeter roads that had been left to go back to nature.
The first race is held at East Fortune. Everything since has followed from that year.
The perimeter roads and runways form a 1.56-mile circuit. The club runs the Scottish Championship here alongside club classes, sidecars and junior racing, sharing the site with the National Museum of Flight.
What races here
Superbikes
The fastest solos on the entry.
Formula Supersport
600cc machines, plus a CUP class capped at 120bhp.
Pre-Injection 600
Carburettor-era 600s, and one of the biggest grids of the year.
Classic Superbikes
Older machinery raced hard, with its own CUP class.
Sound of Thunder
Big twins.
Lightweights
Small-capacity solos, with a CUP class limited to 80bhp.
CB500s
One model, one specification, and the closest racing of the weekend.
Junior Twins
Restricted 300s from twelve years old, unrestricted from thirteen.
Junior Post Classics
Junior riders on older machines.
Sidecars
Club F1 and F2, plus visiting pre-injection championship rounds.
Classes vary between meetings. The entry list for each one is published in the programme and on the results pages.
The circuit, and the club
- Lap length
- 1.56 miles
- Track width
- Over 30 ft
- Direction
- Clockwise
- From Edinburgh
- 20 miles ENE
- Timing
- MyLaps transponder
- Club founded
- 1933
- First race here
- 1971
- Governing body
- SACU
- Meetings a year
- Five
- Registered
- SC063986
- Shares the site with
- Museum of Flight
Coming to watch
Spectators are welcome at every meeting. Tickets, gate times, directions and parking are on the spectators page, and everything you need to know about watching safely is on the safety page. If you want to race, start with the calendar.