Property tax records revealed a multitude of small lots with hundreds of owners. Title searches reaching back over many generations revealed missing deeds and heirs and inaccurate property descriptions. Undaunted, the local enthusiasts began the arduous process of acquiring this rolling terrain, ideal for a race track "second to none in the world" according to the inaugural race program.

President B.J. Corrigan's gas station on Montauk Highway and Austie Clark's auto museum became stockbroker's offices. Local businessmen and strollers were offered shares at $5 a clip from a sidewalk card table in front of the Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen, which remains a popular gathering place to this day. In the end, the BRRC was able to amass almost 600 acres of the forested ridge a few miles north of Bridgehampton at a mere $60 an acre. Two Grumman engineers, Al Piloff and Jake Bohn of Garden City, were commissioned to begin engineering drawings for the new circuit, but Ercole Colasante, an immigrant racer from Italy , fine tuned the design with his bulldozer.

It was amazing, given the rush to build the track and the novelty of the idea that Bridgehampton turned out to be the jewel it was. The initial clearing of the woods caused a buzz of excitement from Southampton to Montauk when the radical topography of the circuit was revealed for the first time. These were small towns at the time so everyone came to participate in the excitement. As the track reached final grading, farmers and summer people alike imagined the excitement of a pack of race cars thundering past in a blur of color.

The race circuit reflected the best features of three of Europe 's finest race courses: Zandvoort, slicing through the sand dunes of Holland , Spa-Francorchamps, tunneling through the Ardennes forest in Belgium , and the roller-coaster excitement of England 's Brands Hatch. The site layout featured a jaw-dropping 180-degree view of Long Island 's North Fork , Shelter Island , Sag Harbor and the sailboats on Peconic Bay . The circuit had four vertical elevation changes totaling 130 feet and eight distinct corners, including a banked hairpin curve around a hillock at the lowest point of the course. A flat-out straightaway nearly 3/4 of a mile long suddenly disappears into a hair-raising decreasing radius downhill curve, known as Millstone Turn. More than one international star has called this steep decline, which is blind and taken flat out in most race cars, the most difficult turn in racing. Sam Posey, for one, said that sailing off the abyss in a sports racer was like “flying into an air pocket” in a plane.

By 1957, the cast of characters at BRRC had changed somewhat. Mark Richard was replaced as Secretary by Henry Tredwell Jr. and Dr. William Graf became the Treasurer when Paul Widener took on the role of construction supervisor. Albert Humblet had resigned and was replaced by attorney Edwin Krom, illustrator Robert Powell and Briggs Cunningham's team manager, Alfred Momo. They joined the original directors Austin Clark, Earle Grainger, Robert Grier, Robert Hallock and Charles Moran, Jr.