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Brooklands
Location	Surrey, England
Opened	1907
Closed	1939
Surface	Concrete
Turns	3
Banking	30°

For places called Brooklands in New Zealand, see Brooklands, New Zealand.

There is also a type of windscreen known as "Brooklands" or "Brookland screen".

Brooklands was a 2.75 miles (4.43 km) motor racing circuit and airfield built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue.^[1] The circuit hosted its last race in 1939, and was also one of Britain's first airfields. Nowadays it plays host to Brooklands Museum, a major aviation and motoring museum, as well as various vintage car rallies.

[edit] History

The circuit was the brainchild of Hugh Locke-King, and was opened on 17 June 1907 as the first custom-built banked motor race circuit in the world. Indianapolis was opened a year later.

Requirements of speed and spectator visibility led to the track being built as a 100 ft (30 m) wide, 2.75 miles (4.43 km) long, banked oval. The banking was nearly 30 feet (9 m) high in places. In addition to the oval, a bisecting "finishing straight" was built, increasing the track length to 3.25 miles (5.23 km), of which 1.25 miles (2.01 km) was banked. It could host up to 287,000 spectators in its heyday. ^[2]

Owing to the complications of laying tarmacadam on banking, and the expense of laying asphalt, the track was built in uncoated concrete. This led in later years to a somewhat bumpy ride, as the surface suffered differential settlement over time.

Along the centre of the track ran a dotted black line, known as the Fifty Foot Line. By driving over the line, a driver could theoretically take the banked corners without having to use the steering wheel.

Eleven days after the circuit opened, it played host to the world's first 24 hour motor event, with Selwyn Edge leading three specially converted Napier cars around the circuit. Over three hundred red railway lamps were used to light the track during the night. Flares were used to mark the upper boundary of the track. Edge drove his car for the full duration, with the drivers of the other two cars taking the more familiar shift approach. One of S. F. Edge's leading drivers, Miss Dorothy Levitt, was refused entry despite having been the 'first woman to compete in a motor race' in 1903, and holding the 'Ladies World Land Speed Record'. Women were not allowed to compete for several years.

Count Zborowski with Chitty Bang Bang 1 at Brooklands

The world record for the first person to cover a hundred miles in an hour was set by Percy E. Lambert at Brooklands, on 15 February 1913 when driving his 4.5 litre sidevalve Talbot. He actually covered 103 miles and 1470 yards (167.340 km) in sixty minutes. A contemporary film of his exploits on that day can be viewed at the Brooklands Museum.

Grand Prix motor racing was established at Brooklands in 1926 by Henry Segrave, after his victories in the 1923 French Grand Prix and the San Sebastián Grand Prix the following year raised interest in the sport in Britain. This first British Grand Prix was won by Louis Wagner and Robert Sénéchal, sharing the drive in a Delage 155B.

During the late 1930s Brooklands also hosted massed start cycle racing events organised by the National Cyclists' Union (as the sport's governing body, the NCU banned such events from public roads). In 1939, it was used as a location for the Will Hay film, Ask a Policeman.^[3]

When World War II broke out in 1939, racing was stopped because of fuel rationing and the site was turned over to war-time production of aircraft. Much of the track was destroyed during this time to house industrial facilities, and racing never returned to Brooklands.

[edit] Brooklands Airfield

Brooklands also became one of Britain's first airfields. In 1908 it witnessed the first flight trials of a full-size English aircraft by an English pilot, Alliott Verdon-Roe. In the summer of 1910, Hilda Hewlett and Gustave Blondeau opened Britain's first flying school at Brooklands. Hewlett and Blondeau also started their aircraft manufacturing company, Hewlett & Blondeau Limited, on site before moving to larger premises at Leagrave, Bedfordshire. In February 1912, Thomas Sopwith opened his Sopwith School of Flying and, in June 1912, Sopwith, with several others, set up the Sopwith Aviation Company here, although their main premises were at Kingston upon Thames. Blériot, Martinsyde, and Vickers later produced military aeroplanes at Brooklands which became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918. Many flying schools operated here before 1914 and the aerodrome was a major flying training centre between the wars.

In World War II, the site was again used for military aircraft production, in particular the Vickers Wellington, Vickers Warwick and Hawker Hurricane and was extensively camouflaged. Trees were also planted into the concrete of the circuit to help screen the Hawker and Vickers aircraft factories there. Despite these efforts, the Vickers factory was badly bombed by the Luftwaffe on 4 September 1940 with at least 87 aircraft workers killed and more than 400 injured. From 1944-72 Vickers (and later BAC) also used nearby Wisley aerodrome which offered a longer runway and less built-up surroundings.

After the war, the circuit was in poor condition and was sold to Vickers-Armstrongs in 1946 for continued use as an aircraft factory. New aircraft types including the Viking, Vickers Valetta, Varsity, Viscount, Vanguard and VC10 were next manufactured and delivered from there.

In 1951, a section of the race track's Byfleet Banking was removed to allow Vickers Valiant V-bombers to be flown out to Wisley.

The Vickers factory became part of the new British Aircraft Corporation in 1960 and went on to design and build the BAC TSR.2, One-Eleven and Concorde. The factory contracted in size in the mid-1970s, became part of the newly-formed British Aerospace in 1977 and finally closed in 1988-89 although BAE Systems still retain a logistics centre there today.

In 1987 the site also become home to the Brooklands Museum, which is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the site's significant motoring and aviation heritage.

[edit] Present day

The circuit banking as it is today.

Following several years of work by The Brooklands Society, which is entirely independent of the Brooklands Museum, the remaining sections of the track became the subject of preservation orders in 2002, rendering illegal any subsequent destruction of or damage to the circuit or its environs, whether intentional or unintentional. From 1990 to 2003 regular fly-ins, rallies attended by light aircraft, were arranged on summer weekends using the Northern half of the original runway. The central area of Brooklands including the hard runway and remaining racetrack was sold to DaimlerChrysler UK Retail in early 2004. A Mercedes-Benz museum and performance-demonstration centre is now completed in front of what is known as the Members' section of the remaining banking. Contrary to public perception and thanks entirely to the efforts of The Brooklands Society, two thirds of the original track still remains intact. Mercedes-Benz has pledged to contribute towards the replacement of the Hennebique Bridge, the part of the banking that spans the River Wey.Mercedes-Benz World opened to the public on 29 October 2006 and incorporates a test track. The facilities also include a conference centre and a Mercedes-Benz showroom. Other companies which reside on the small retail park include a Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, Currys-PC World and Argos.

Brooklands Museum houses many decommissioned historic aircraft including the Vickers Wellington bomber recovered from Loch Ness in 1985, a British Airways Concorde, G-BBDG, the first UK production Concorde built and more recently the "G-CONC" gate guardian from Heathrow. There are also many other aircraft there including a Vickers Vanguard, Viscount, VC10 and many military aircraft. The majority of the aircraft exhibits were built at Brooklands or have other close associations with the site. The VC10 in particular was built and first flew at Brooklands Airfield and after airline service with British United and later British Caledonian Airways, became the official VIP transport for the Sultan of Oman until retired in July 1987 and donated to the Museum by the Sultan of Oman's Royal Flight.

Brooklands made a notable TV appearance when it featured in the 1990 'The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim' episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, when Hercule Poirot investigates a crime committed involving a racing driver. The banking of Brooklands was also used as a 'road location' in an episode of The Bill where the CID foiled an armed robbery and resulted in a 'shoot out'. American car enthusiast Barry Meguiar (President and CEO of Meguiar's) has featured the Brooklands on his Speed Channel show Car Crazy.

Although the circuit is no longer driveable, it can still be simulated in the Spirit of Speed: 1937 game for the PC, in which it was re-created in detail. Several other video games also feature Brooklands.

Several thousand photographs of Brooklands in its heyday are available through the Brooklands photo archive [1].

In 2009, BBC Top Gear presenter James May announced plans to recreate the full length Brooklands using Scalextric track and cars.^[4] This was undertaken with a team of 350 volunteers building the track from an uncounted number of pieces of Scalextric track, navigating ponds and roads, closely following the route of the old Brooklands track. This event broke the Guinness World Record for the longest ever Scalextric track in the world, intended to measure the original 2.75 miles of the original Brooklands circuit but in actuality recording 2.95 miles in length (due to the need to navigate modern features that block the original course). The episode was shown on BBC2 on 17th November 2009 as part of "James May's Toy Stories".

[edit] Brooklands Centenary

Brooklands motor course celebrated its centenary on 16/17 June 2007. Throughout 2007, numerous special events were organised by Brooklands Museum in order to celebrate its 100th birthday. Events included use of the Byfleet banking for the first time in nearly 70 years, a Formula One car demonstration by Mclaren-Mercedes, driven by Gary Paffett in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz World and a 24-hour slot car race to commemorate S.F. Edge's achievement of driving for 24 hours averaging over 100 mph.^[5]

[edit] People associated with Brooklands

Brooklands

[edit] Gallery

Brooklands Museum
Hawker Hunter	Vickers Vanguard	Vickers Viscount
Concorde Reg. G-BBDG	Model Concorde originally from Heathrow	Vickers Wellington IA Serial Number N2980
The Aston Martin Razor Blade at Brooklands	Riley car at Brooklands	A car at Brooklands
A car at Brooklands	A car at Brooklands	The engine of a Morgan three-wheeler at Brooklands
The Napier Railton at Brooklands	A Bentley at Brooklands	A Bluebird car at Brooklands
A Bicycle at Brooklands	A Napier Lion W12 engine at Brooklands	A Routemaster owned by the museum for advertising.