Road racing at Bridgehampton has roots stretching to 1915, when the first informal races were run on public roads around the hamlet. Those early events used an approximately 3.000 km rectangle on Montauk Highway and adjacent lanes. Racing returned in 1949 on a revised 4.000 km clockwise circuit through Bridgehampton and Sagaponack, and the events joined the SCCA National Sports Car Championship when that series was created in 1951. The public-road races ended in 1953 after a driver was killed in practice and three spectators were injured during the race — part of a broader crisis that also followed a spectator death at Watkins Glen in 1952, prompting the State of New York to ban racing on public roads.
Local enthusiasts formed the Bridgehampton Road Races Corporation in 1953 to finance a permanent facility. The corporation purchased a 550-acre parcel called Noyack Hills in 1956 and constructed a 2.850 mi (4.587 km), 13-turn road course. Though construction was not fully complete, the first races were held in 1957, headlined by an SCCA National Championship event.
The circuit attracted significant international attention in the early 1960s. The headline event shifted to the United States Road Racing Championship in 1965, where it also revived the Vanderbilt Cup — a race originally held on Long Island from 1904 to 1910. The most prestigious chapter came in 1962, when the Bridgehampton Grand Prix became part of the World Sportscar Championship, marking the circuit's highest-profile sanction. The WSC returned for several years before Can-Am took over from 1966 to 1969, bringing the dominant sports cars of North American racing to the Long Island track.
NASCAR Grand National events also featured at Bridgehampton, held in 1958 and again in 1963, 1964, and 1966 — an unusual scheduling choice that placed stock cars on a tight road circuit more accustomed to sports car machinery. The Trans-Am Series ran there from 1968 to 1970. Can-Am was scheduled to return in 1970 but was relocated to the newly opened Road Atlanta after heavy storms damaged the track. A 1971 IMSA GT Championship race proved to be the last major event staged at the circuit.
Among the series that appeared at Bridgehampton over its history:
World Sportscar Championship (1962-1965)
Can-Am, Bridgehampton Grand Prix (1966-1969)
NASCAR Grand National Series (1958, 1963-1964, 1966)
United States Road Racing Championship with the revived Vanderbilt Cup (1965-1968)
SCCA National Sports Car Championship (1952-1953, 1957-1964)
Trans-Am Series (1968-1970)
Formula Atlantic (1979-1980)
IMSA GT Championship (1971)
Bridgehampton's infrastructure was always modest — a small media and scoring building, a small grandstand — and the Bridgehampton Road Races Corporation lacked the resources to upgrade the facility to world-class standards. The surrounding land had appreciated sharply in value over the decades, making the economics of maintaining a racing venue increasingly difficult. Noise complaints from local residents began mounting in the mid-1970s, and in 1983 the town passed an ordinance limiting noise levels, effectively ending any realistic chance of major international racing returning.
Plans to convert the property to a golf course were announced in 1994. Racing continued until 1997, with a racing school and club events lingering through 1998. The circuit closed permanently in 1999. A portion of the original course, including the Chevron Bridge, has been preserved within the grounds of the golf course that replaced it.
Bridgehampton was renowned among competitors for its demanding character. Situated in the Hamptons of eastern Long Island, it stood apart from most American permanent circuits of its era and gave the northeastern racing scene a venue capable of hosting genuine international sports car competition. Its place in American motorsport history is cemented by hosting the WSC, Can-Am, and the revival of the historic Vanderbilt Cup, even if its window of major-league relevance ultimately proved brief.