Construction began late in 1999 on the site originally known as the Deene Iron Ore Quarry, leading to the venue's original name of Deene Raceway. The speedway was conceived with ambitions to bring American oval racing — specifically NASCAR Stock Cars and CART Indycars — to Britain for the first time. The vast infield was simultaneously developed into a combination of road circuits, most of them Rovals using portions of the oval itself, suitable for both national and international competition.
After almost ten years of planning and twenty-three months of construction, Rockingham opened for business on 15 January 2001. It was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 26 May 2001. Together with the 6,280-seat Rockingham Building — a steel-framed, glass-fronted grandstand containing suites, offices, bars, and kitchens — and four additional grandstands, total seating capacity reached 52,000.
The 1.479-mile (2.380 km) American-style banked oval was 60 feet wide with a maximum bank angle of seven degrees and four distinct corners. It was unique in the United Kingdom and one of only two comparable speedways in Europe, the other being Lausitzring. The unofficial outright lap record for the oval was set at 24.719 seconds by Tony Kanaan in a Lola B01/00 Champ Car on 22 September 2001, equating to an average speed of 215.397 mph (346.648 km/h).
In early September 2001, the CART FedEx Championship Series came to Rockingham for the Rockingham 500 — the first oval race held in Britain in decades. The event arrived under a shadow of grief following the 11 September terrorist attacks; many teams stripped sponsor logos as a mark of respect and the race distance was shortened to 300 km. Gil de Ferran, driving the Marlboro Team Penske Honda-powered Reynard 01I, snatched victory on the exit of Turn Four on the final lap at a race average of 153.41 mph. Patrick Carpentier set the fastest lap at 25.551 seconds (210.59 mph), becoming the first Canadian ever to hold the outright lap record at an English circuit.
The US series returned in September 2002 for a full 500 km distance, with Dario Franchitti winning for Team KOOL Green in a Lola-Honda by just 0.986 seconds. That was the last time Champ Cars raced at Rockingham.
The International Super Sportscar Circuit (ISSC), measuring 1.940 miles (3.122 km), was the venue's primary road course and hosted the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and most other car race events. It combined long straights and sweeping high-speed bends — including the notorious Turn 1 and Gracelands — with a lower-speed technical infield sector. BTCC lap times averaged around 1 minute 24 seconds; British Formula 3 cars lapped in approximately 1 minute 12 seconds.
Rockingham offered thirteen circuit configurations in total, catering to touring cars, motorcycles, and rally cars. The facility operated 356 days per year and the majority of its events were non-competitive: manufacturer product launches, dealer training, track days, corporate experience days, and exhibitions.
From 2001 through 2007, Rockingham organised and funded an American-style stock car oval series on the infield oval. Known originally as ASCAR, the series cycled through names — Days of Thunder, SCSA (Stock Car Speed Association), and finally MAC Tools V8 Trophy — before folding after a 2007 season with low grids. All cars were UK variants of the American ASA National-Tour Howe Racing chassis running Ford, Chevrolet, or Pontiac bodies.
On 12 December 2004, the first Rockingham Stages rally was held at the venue, jointly promoted by Middlesex County Automobile Club and Thame Motorsport Club. The two-day event grew into one of the most popular events on the British stage rally calendar and ran as a round of the MSN Circuit Rally Championship for several seasons. The 2018 Rockingham Stages was the last competitive motorsport event held at the speedway.
Rockingham entered administration in 2017 and held a "super send-off" on 24 November 2018 to mark its final day as a racing circuit. The site was initially sold to Rockingham Automotive Limited for vehicle storage and logistics. In mid-2021, Constellation Automotive — which owns brands including Cinch and We Buy Any Car — purchased the facility for £80 million and subsequently used it for promotional content.
Rockingham's significance lay in its ambition: it was the first circuit to bring CART oval racing to British soil and the only permanent banked oval in the United Kingdom. Its short operational life as a motorsport venue, barely eighteen years, reflected both the logistical challenges of its relatively remote Northamptonshire location and the difficulty of sustaining both oval and road-course programmes in a market that had little tradition of oval racing.