It hosted professional and club races, as well as testing, track days, driver training, exhibitions and conferences.

It claimed to be Europe's fastest racing circuit,[4] and was the first banked oval constructed in Britain since the closure of Brooklands in 1939.

[9][8] After almost ten years of planning and 23 months of construction work, Rockingham opened for business on Monday 15 January 2001.

[9] After the sale of the venue, Rockingham held a "super send-off" to mark its final day as a racing circuit on 24 November 2018.

After the 11 September terrorist attacks and subsequent closing of airspaces, but with most equipment and personnel already being in continental Europe, the first ever German 500 was held under difficult circumstances.

Victory was snatched on the exit of Turn Four of the last lap by Gil de Ferran driving the Marlboro Team Penske Honda–powered Reynard 01I at a race average speed of 153.41 mph (246.89 km/h) from Kenny Bräck at the wheel of the Team Rahal Lola-Ford Cosworth B1/00, and the Newman-Haas Racing Lola-Toyota B1/00 driven by Cristiano da Matta.

The race ran over the full distance of 500 km, Scotland's Dario Franchitti took the chequered flag in his Team KOOL Green Lola-Honda, beating Cristiano da Matta by just 0.986 of a second .

The circuit combined long straights, sweeping high-speed bends (including the infamous Turn 1 and Gracelands) with a lower speed, highly technical infield layout.

Originally known as ASCAR, the series changed name to "Days of Thunder", and then to SCSA (Stock Car Speed Association), before re-branding to the MAC Tools V8 Trophy for its final season in 2007.

All cars were UK variants of the American "ASA National-Tour" Howe Racing chassis, running with either Ford, Chevrolet or Pontiac bodies.

The Learning Grid Rockingham Festival in the first week of July promotes science and engineering to school pupils.

The venue had a sizeable showground area which has hosted the following shows: The Telegraph and Fiat held a track day at Rockingham in 2012 and published a number of articles featuring the circuit.

Car Dealer magazine reviewed the BMW M5 at Rockingham and compared it with a Mercedes E63 AMG, a Lexus ISF, a Porsche Panamera and an Infiniti M35h [citation needed].