Its 80 years since racing came to a close at Brooklands in 1939, but which event can lay claim to being the last ever? Allan Winn has the answer.
against a backdrop of ever-increasing international tension. However, to a casual spectator turning up on a wet morning to pay a discounted admission of half-a- crown (two shillings and sixpence in old money or 12½p in today’s), it might have seemed business as usual. Only in hindsight would it be confirmed that this was the last ever meeting of its kind and that cars and motorcycles would never again race on the vast banked oval of the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit. The race card for the August meeting foretold no fewer than 12 races, unusually making use of all three of the Outer, Mountain and Campbell Circuits in one day, plus a ‘special circuit’ using the Finishing Straight alone. There was also a demonstration by Major A T ‘Goldie”’ Gardner in MG’s 200mph record-breaking EX135 and an attempt on the Outer Circuit lap record by Chris Staniland in the Multi Union II. Four of those races used the Campbell Circuit, one of them starting on the main Finishing Straight, three the Mountain Circuit and three the Outer Circuit. A further two were for ‘Old Crocks’ on the special Finishing Straight circuit.
T Racing starts
Racing for the day opened with four races on the Campbell Circuit and the first three were five-lap handicaps. The first was won by WE Wilkinson in the ex-Dobbs 2-litre Riley ahead of APR Rolt driving St John Horsfall’s ERA R5B ‘Remus’, which is now owned by Charles McCabe. Bandleader Billy Cotton in his ERA R1B, which is now run by Michael Gans, was third. The second of these handicaps was won by Percy Maclure in a supercharged 1.5-litre Riley from Eric Winterbottom’s 1,100cc Alta and George Harvey-Noble in G B C Sumner’s 1100cc MG. In this race, Rob Walker drove the big Delahaye, which his son Robbie has now loaned to the Museum, and it was again facing Hugh Hunter’s 8C 2900 Alfa Romeo it had beaten in the famous ‘fastest road car race’ at the Whitsun meeting earlier in 1939, but on this occasion neither was placed. The third five-lap handicap was won by Bob Gerard in a 1.5-litre Riley, from JC Stocks in an 1100cc MG and EM Thomas, who was sharing his black Frazer Nash-BMW 328 with his wife at this meeting.
The fourth race, for the Campbell
Trophy, also used the Campbell Circuit but the start was on the ‘Old’ Finishing
SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2019 | BROOKLANDS BULLETIN 17
he Brooklands Automobile Racing Club’s (BARC) meeting on Monday 7 August, 1939 might have been organised
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