After many attempts by Tom Kinnaird and several local motor club enthusiasts in the late 70’s, the circuit had many false starts. In 1983 Derek Butcher, an enthusiastic motorcycle racer, purchased South Lethans Farm and all its assets from Tom Kinnaird and Knockhill Racing Circuit was born again.

The Scottish racing scene was strong with racing for cars also running at Ingliston and for bike East Fortune and Beveridge Park. Local racing heroes included Ian Forrest and John Fyda in their Hilman Imps, Stuart Lawson in Formula Ford and Doug Niven, cousin of Jim Clark, in his infamous VW Beetle with a 5litre V8 engine. In the bike scene the young guns starting their careers were Donnie McLeod, Niall Mackenzie, Gary & Steve Hislop, Jim Moodie, John Crawford, Brian Morrison and Roger Bennett. Many of those names would go on to ride in some of the most competitive events in the World.

In the car racing scene David Leslie jnr & snr ran a successful racing team based at the circuit. They can be credited for the early careers of Allan McNish & David Coulthard. The young drivers spent many long days pounding round Knockhill learning their transition from karts to cars.

In 1988 the first visit of British F3 arrived with the Cellnet Scottish Superprix . After securing pole position, unfortunately Damon Hill’s race only lasted 200 metres when he tangled with Martin Donnelly and they both landed in the Duffus Dip gravel trap.

The Supercup event in the early 90’s would see titanic battles between John Reynolds, Terry Rymer, Robert Dunlop, Rob McElnea and Brian Morrison. The championship regulations moved to the Superbike standard used worldwide and the British Superbike championship as we know it now was formed in 1993. Iconic riders and race teams would provide endless action and legendary battles - memorable teams and riders include: Mackenzie in the Cadbury Boost team alongside Hislop and Jamie Whitham, INS GSE Ducati Team with Troy Bayliss, Duckhams Norton with Jim Moodie and Ian Simpson and the Fast Orange Yamaha team headed up by Ron McElnea.

Fans favourite John Cleland won his 2nd championship in 1995 in the final year of the Vauxhall Cavalier.

The British Superbike championship stepped up a gear and had a truly international feel about it. With international stars flocking to the championship to ride some of the best bikes in the world included: Troy Bayliss, Yukio Kagayama, Jonathan Rea, Gregorio Lavilla, John Hopkins, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Atsushi Wantanabe.

In 2000 the Supertouring Era of Touring Cars was drawing to a close, still with an array of superstar drivers including ex F1 and Sportscar stars: Tom Kristensen, Peter Kox, Rickard Rydell, Yvan Muller and Alain Menu to name just a few but in 2001 BTC Touring regs took hold and most manufacturers took a back seat while only a handful stayed to battle the more Team built cars, however the future for BTCC was set by the introduction of NGTC era which we still see racing today with the return of higher profile drivers and notable teams running them.