For three decades this famous racing track, placed like a giant footprint
in the Surrey countryside, just 20 miles south west of London, was the centre of
British Motor Sport. The two and half mile circuit with its two massive concrete
bankings was the very epitome of speed and captured the imagination of the period.
What happened at Brooklands was news and the drivers that raced there became household
names.
In the summer of 1906 at a dinner party with some influential friends in the motoring
world, Hugh Locke King found that he had volunteered to build, at his own expense
and on his own land, the world's first purpose-built motor-racing track.
Locke King was himself a keen motoring enthusiast and had been to see a big international
motor race on the continent and was very disappointed that there were no British
competitors. He was told that Britain stood no chance in trials and
competitions because there was nowhere in this country that British cars
could be tested or raced.
As soon as the design of the track was entrusted to Colonel H.C.L. Holden of the
Royal Artillery, the original plans began to grow beyond Locke King's wildest expectations.
Far from the idea of a simple road circuit, Locke King was persuaded that, in order
for cars to achieve the highest possible speeds, with the greatest possible safety,
the 2¾ mile circuit would need to be provided with two huge banked sections nearly
30 ft. high. The track would be 100 ft. wide, hard-surfaced and include two long
straights, one running for half a mile beside the London to Southampton Railway,
and an additional 'Finishing Straight' passing the Paddock and enclosures, bringing
the total length of the track to 3¼ miles.
Because Brooklands was the world's first purpose-built motor-racing circuit there
were no previous examples to follow. To begin with, many of the rules and procedures
were based on horse racing in order to try and attract a ready made audience to
this new and somewhat curious sporting venue.
In addition to the unique banked curves, features of the new motor course included
the distinctive green-domed Clubhouse complete with a weighbridge for cars and changing
rooms for competitors.
On the 17th June 1907 after just nine months of work the still unfinished Brooklands
Motor Course was opened - this outstanding feat of engineering having eventually
cost Hugh Locke King a personal fortune of £150,000, a price equal to millions of
pounds today.
The first official race, on 6th July 1907, was heralded by the motoring press as
a 'Motor Ascot'.
SPEED RECORDS
Before the first race was even run, Brooklands was the venue for a dramatic speed
record attempt. A few days after the ceremonial opening of the Motor Course in June
1907, the motor-racing pioneer, Selwyn Francis Edge, used the Track for establishing
a 24 hour record.
With hundreds of roadside lanterns to mark the inner edge of the Track and bright
flares to illuminate the rim Edge drove his green six-cylinder Napier for the whole
24 hours covering 1,581 miles at an average speed of almost 66 miles an hour. Supported
by two other Napiers on the run, Edge established a record which stood for 17 years.
However on the morning of 15th February 1913, in front of a large crowd of press
and public, the small but courageous Brooklands racing driver, Percy Lambert, achieved
103.84 mph.
Tragically, while trying to improve his own record a few months later, after promising
his fiancée that he would attempt no more, he crashed and was killed on the Track.
Many still say his ghost regularly walks at Brooklands in full racing attire.
The First World War (1914-18) brought permanent change to Brooklands in many ways.
Motor Racing was discotinued for the duration of the war but the solid tyres of
military lorries played havoc with the Track, and it was not until 1920 that Locke
King had cleaned up sufficiently to enable the BARC to take over once again.
Brooklands started to liven up in 1921, the same year as the first of the Junior
Car Club's famous 200 mile races. Pre-war driver, Malcolm Campbell, returned to
the scene from Army service as a Captain and the race was a huge success.The winner
was another star driver, Major Henry Segrave.
In August 1926 the RAC organised the first-ever British Grand Prix constructing sand chicanes and a somewhat hazardous bridge across the
Finishing Straight. The same features were utilised for the Junior Car Club 200
mile race later that year. Once again, the race was won by Major Henry Segrave in
a Talbot.
The same year Hugh Locke King died but Ethel, now a Dame of the British Empire in
honour of her work in the Red Cross during the war, continued active management
of the Brooklands Estate. She also regularly attended Race meetings.
The last Land Speed Record achieved at Brooklands was when Kenelm Lee Guinness,
a member of the famous brewing family, drove the 350hp single seater Sunbeam at
a two-way average speed of 135.75mph. This car, powered by a V12 Sunbeam 'Manitou'
aero engine was soon after acquired by Malcolm Campbell and became his first 'Blue
Bird' Land Speed Record Car.
Count Louis Zborowski was one of the great personalities of Brooklands and raced
a series of monstrous cars on the Outer Circuit, including the legendary Chitty
Bang Bangs, in the early 1920s.
Based in their Brooklands workshops, Thomson & Taylor went on to design and
build several Land Speed Record cars including three of Malcolm Campbell's Blue
Birds. It was Campbell that called in Reid Railton to re-design the chassis and
transmission of his 1931 Napier engined Blue Bird. The body shape resulted from
testing in the Vickers aircraft factory's Wind Tunnel at Brooklands supervised by
R.K. Pierson, Vickers' Chief Designer, as he had with Campbell's first scientifically
streamlined Blue Bird in 1928.
In 1933 Thomson & Taylor made more major changes to accommodate a supercharged
Rolls Royce 'R' type 36½ litre V12 engine giving 2,500 brake horse power.
Campbell's ultimate Land Speed Record car was the 1935 Blue Bird using the same
engine but a new chassis designed and built by Thomson & Taylor at Brooklands.
The body was built in the Paddock shed once used by Malcolm Campbell as his showroom.
In this car Campbell took his eighth and final Land Speed Record on the 3rd September,
1935 on Bonneville Salt Flats and achieved his longed for target, averaging 301.13mph.
By the end of the 1930s Brooklands was dominating the Land Speed Record in every
way with the exception of actually being the venue itself.
Another Land Speed Record Car simply called 'The Railton' was a technological masterpiece
designed by Reid Railton and built at Thomson & Taylor's Brooklands workshops.
It was commissioned and driven by the Brooklands ace, John Rhodes Cobb, who took
the Land Speed Record in it in 1938, 1939 and again in 1947 when he became the first
man to exceed 400 mph on land.
The Outer Circuit Record was the most prestigious. In 1930, The Daily Herald put
up a trophy for the fastest driver round the track. Up to 1935, this trophy was
won by just 4 drivers, Kaye Don, the first winner, battled with Tim Birkin to achieve
137.58mph in his Sunbeam 'Tiger'. In 1932, Tim Birkin took the record to 137.96mph
in his famous red blower Bentley.
It was, however, John Cobb who finally took the record to 143.44 mph in his Napier
Railton. Regarded as the ultimate Brooklands Racing Car, it was designed and built
by Thomson & Taylor in their premises in the Brooklands Aero Village. It is
seen here outside their workshops being test driven for the first time in 1933.
Powered by a 24 litre Napier Lion engine, the car's Outer Circuit record remained
unbeaten when racing and record breaking finished at Brooklands in 1939.
MOTORCYCLE RACING
BMCRC
Motorcycle racing started at Brooklands in 1908 and the British Motorcycle Racing
Club - known as 'Bemsee' from its initials - was founded in 1909. Sidecar outfits
joined the solo machines for racing and record breaking from 1912.
The attendance at Brooklands motorcycle events was always quite small, being mostly
knowledgeable enthusiasts, and lacking the 'Society' element of the car racing crowd.
However, an established pattern of race meetings emerged and as speeds rose and
the reliability of machines improved races were held over greater distances.
Two motorcycle events were held on the Track during the First World War , both organised
by the British Motor Cycle Racing Club for men serving in the Armed Forces. One
of these, was the so-called 'All Khaki' Meeting held on 7th August 1915.
Following the end of the War in 1918, Brooklands was to witness the golden age of
motorcycling when the British racing motorcycle was the best and fastest in the
world.
The MCC organised trials and competitions, not just for motorcycles but for sidecars
and cycle cars too at their regular meetings.
In 1933 'The Motorcycle' magazine instituted a Clubman's Day Meeting which proved
an enormous success. Brooklands was the home of so many motorcycle riders. Workshops
sprung up around the paddock with names of men and machines painted on the doors.
Eric Fernihough, who took the Motorcycle Landspeed Record at Gyon in Hungary in
1937, had a garage by the perimeter of the track on the Byfleet Road.
Many epic motorcycle record breaking attempts took place at Brooklands during the
thirties. Eric Fernihough raised the Brooklands lap record to 123.58mph in 1935
with his Brough Superior, topped in 1939 by Noel Pope at 124.51mph.
THE BRDC
Another Club that staged ambitious races at Brooklands was the elite British Racing
Drivers Club or BRDC which was founded in 1927. Their first event was the 500 Mile
Race of 1929 which was destined to become the fastest long distance race in the
world. The other coveted BRDC trophy was the British Empire Trophy. Races of this
calibre presented a challenge to great names such as John Cobb, Sammy Davies, 'Tim'
Birkin and the Dunfee Brothers.
From 1930 races on a smaller section of the track known as the 'Mountain Circuit'
were introduced by the new Clerk of the Course, Mr A Percy Bradley. This fast and
furious 1¼ mile lap, providing a cross between road and track racing, was a tough
course for the drivers and a stern test of acceleration, braking, and road-holding
for the cars.
The Junior Car Club continued to hold races at Brooklands, and organise club days
for trials and driving tests but was most famous for its big international race
meetings. The Double Twelve Hour Race, came about because night time noise restrictions
meant 24 hour racing was not permitted at Brooklands. The event was divided into
two daylight sessions with the cars being locked up overnight. The 200 Mile Race
continued to be run until 1928. The International Trophy was held every year from
1933 until 1939, for the first time large and small cars started together and raced
for 250 miles - the faster the car the more severe the course as it negotiated its
100 circuits. This race attracted great names like Captain Malcolm Campbell, Kaye
Don, Earl Howe and Elsie Wisdom.
1930s
The popularity of Brooklands grew throughout the 1930s. In 1930 the Clubhouse was
extended to accommodate the social appeal of race meetings and the BARC adopted
the slogan 'The Right Crowd and No Crowding'. Brooklands which was still the preserve
of the wealthy amateur became a fashionable venue on the sporting calendar along
with Henley, Wimbledon and Ascot. Members of the Racing Club were often members
of the Brooklands Flying Club as well and the airfield was a lively part of the
Track.
The Paddock was a busy place as popular heroes mingled with those spectators who
could afford a paddock transfer pass into the' inner sanctuary'.
Until 1933, Brooklands was unchallenged as the only motor racing circuit in mainland
Britain, but in that year the track at Donington Park in Derbyshire was opened for
car racing. Further competition came in 1937 with the opening of a road-racing circuit
at the Crystal Palace, in South East London.
Facing up to this the BARC decided to construct a new road circuit at Brooklands,
providing the maximum road racing track possible, without intruding on the Outer
and Mountain Circuits, the aerodrome or the famous sewage farm!
The new circuit, designed by, and named after, Sir Malcolm Campbell zig-zagged its
way across the centre of the motorcourse cleverly incorporating the old banked track.
Opened in 1937 it proved popular with the increasing number of drivers who wanted
to experience the thrills of this sport.
Records for the Mountain and Campbell Circuits were also highly prized and both
were eventually held by Raymond Mays, famous for his involvement in the development
of the English Racing Automobile, or ERA.
The ERA chassis was designed by Reid Railton and made by Thomson & Taylor at
Brooklands.
Cycle races were held more frequently during the 1930s. In 1933 a 100 kilometre
Championship Trial Road Race was held there, promoted by the Charlotteville Cycling
Club. The event was used to select a team for the World Championships at Montlhéry.
The track continued as a regular venue for cycle races throughout the 1930s. In
1939 alone 19 races were held between April and August.
THE MOTOR INDUSTRY
When Hugh Locke King had Brooklands built it was not just with racing in mind. He
intended it as a testing ground for the British motor industry. Much development
work was done on engine components by manufacturers.
Motoring journalists would bring the latest car models to the track for test drives
and car manufacturers such as Lagonda and Ford held special public days to promote
and demonstrate the available range of private and commercial vehicles.
A Ford Gymkhana held in June 1939 was the biggest event Brooklands ever saw. Crowds
of 30,000 were attracted to a spectacular day of demonstrations and entertainment.
But the uncertainty of war loomed ever closer, and the BARC held its last ever meeting
at Brooklands on 7th August 1939.
The Aerodrome was requisitioned by the Government and was devoted to the production
of Vickers and Hawker aircraft including the Hurricane fighter plane and the Wellington
Bomber.
When peace returned everyone lived in high hopes of the racing track's eventual
recovery but the changes turned out to be too severe. Hangars had been erected on
the Track and camouflage was used heavily in the form of tree planting and canvas
houses to obscure the undesirable target shape around the Vickers factory. The government
could not see their way to releasing Brooklands until 1949 and consequently the
shareholders of Brooklands [Weybridge] Ltd voted in favour of selling the Track
to Vickers Ltd and Brooklands motor racing became no more than memories.
Today, following the formation of the Brooklands Museum Trust in 1987 to preserve
and interpret 30 acres of the most historic part of the old race track; much has
already been achieved in the replacement and reconstruction of many historic buildings
and features. You can once again enjoy views of the great banked track spanned by
the Members' Bridge or visit the original Clubhouse now returned to the period atmosphere
of its heyday. Here the Clerk of the Course's Office of the 1920s has been refurbished
and the unique Ladies' Reading Room pays tribute to the fearless women who once
raced at Brooklands. The 1907 Weighbridge and the Clerk of the Scales' Office have
been reinstated and show how horse racing traditions were adopted by the early motor
racing drivers.
The original Motoring Village which includes the Malcolm Campbell Sheds, the Shell
and BP Petrol Pagodas, the ERA Shed housing the 'Fastest on Earth' Exhibition, the
Cycle Exhibition and The Jackson Shed featuring The Grand Prix Exhibition has been
restored to house the Museum's growing collection of historic racing cars, motorcycles
and cycles.
At the foot of Test Hill stand replicas of A.V. Roe's Shed and Roe biplane just
a few yards from where the originals stood in 1907.
A hangar built on the Finishing Straight in 1940 houses the Wellington bomber 'R'
for 'Robert' rescued from Loch Ness in 1985 and painstakingly restored at Brooklands.
Nearby are other aircraft from a collection of Vickers and Hawker types which include
a Harrier jump jet.
On regular events days throughout the year the Track once again comes to life as
vintage cars and motorcycles tackle the 1-in-4 gradient of the 1909 Test Hill and
enjoy the thrill of a drive on a section of the famous outer circuit. Aviation events
including flypasts and light aircraft fly-ins are once again regular attractions
too.
As more buildings and features are restored and brought back to life so the spirit
of Brooklands and the traditions of a very special place will live on.
