[1] It was located on the northern edges of the town and its 7.242 km (4.500 mi) lap passed under a railway line viaduct, crossed the South Esk River via the wooden Kings Bridge, turned hard right at the doorstep of the Longford Hotel, passed over the railway line using a level crossing and traversed the South Esk again via another wooden structure, the Long Bridge.

Its first race meeting was held in 1953, the Australian Grand Prix was staged there in 1959 and 1965 and the track hosted a round of the Tasman Series each year from 1964 to 1968.

Its use as a motor racing venue was curtailed due to financial issues, following the running of the 1968 Tasman Series meeting.

Australian open wheel and touring car stars Bib Stillwell, Lex Davison, Leo Geoghegan, Frank Matich, Frank Gardner, Spencer Martin, Kevin Bartlett, John Harvey, Ian Geoghegan, Norm Beechey, Bob Jane and Allan Moffat also raced at the circuit.

The new outright lap record of 2:12.6 set by New Zealand’s Chris Amon in a Ferrari P4 sports car at the final meeting was, with an average lap speed of 196.7 km/h (122.2 mph), the fastest lap record for any Australian motor racing circuit and would remain so until the opening of the new Calder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne in 1987, though unlike Longford which is a road circuit, the Thunderdome is a 1.801 km (1.119 mi) high-banked (24° in the turns) quad-oval speedway.