second and third. The third Handicap was won by Billy Cotton in his ERA, with Percy Maclure second in his Riley. This was originally a works single-seater that was modified by Maclure to a two-seater with independent front suspension and what was effectively an ERA engine. R Cutler came third in a 1500cc Frazer Nash. The last three races of the day were held on the full Outer Circuit. Again, all were handicaps for cars in either racing or touring trim, each of three laps, or about nine miles, and several of the drivers entered two of them. The two factory Le Mans V12 Lagondas driven by Lord Selsdon and Charles Brackenbury were entered in races 10 and 11, as were Chris Staniland in the Multi-Union, though he failed to start in race 10. Others entering two races were George Harvey-Noble in the Bentley-Jackson, Ian Connell in the 4-litre Darracq, Hugh Hunter in his Alfa Romeo 2900, FE Elgood in a 4.5-litre Bentley, Sumner in an MG and P Courtney in an Amilcar.
Race 10 was a Lagonda triumph, with Brackenbury winning and Lord Selsdon second, and GL Baker third in his old Graham-Paige despite carrying a passenger. Race 11 was won by Maclure in his Riley, with RL (Jack) Duller in the ex-Whitney Straight Duesenberg that is now owned by the Museum and St John Horsfall third in ERA R5B. The ERAs were considered to be too light for the bumpy Outer Circuit and this was probably the only time that one was raced successfully on it. It was in this race that the Multi-Union suffered a stretched valve and went onto seven cylinders. Despite this malady, it lapped at 142.30mph, but was clearly not going break the Napier-Railton’s 143.44mph of four years previously, and so its attempt on the Outer Circuit record scheduled for the end of the meeting had to be abandoned.
The last race
And so to the 12th and last race. There were 15 entries, six of which had raced in one or other of the previous two races, and it ended up being one of the closest-fought races ever at Brooklands. Baker, now driving without a passenger in his Graham- Paige, won by just 0.2sec from B Burton’s Talbot 105. They had started together and their fastest laps were at 105.97mph for Baker and Burton at 104.19mph, compared with the overall fastest lap of the race of 109.94mph recorded by CGH Dunham in his 2.5-litre Alvis special.
The last race was over and, even though few might have suspected it on the day, the career of Brooklands as a racetrack was finished: except it wasn’t. True, the remaining scheduled BARC, JCC and BMCRC meetings would never take place, but Brooklands racing wasn’t quite done. A week later, on 13 August, the Brixton Cycling Club ran a 100km race, which E Jones of the Fountain Club won in 2hrs 47min 21 sec and he also took the fastest lap.
That was quite a small event, but yet another week later a much bigger 100km
race was organised by the Alif Road Cycling Club in which Jones came 3rd out of 95 riders, and which his clubmate A Bevan won in 2hrs 48min. And the cyclists still weren’t finished. On 27 August, 75 riders took to the track for the Clarencourt CC’s 100km points race. Perhaps exhausted by their efforts of the previous two weeks, neither Bevan nor Jones finished this race and the first over the line was H Bloomfield of the Sydenham Club in the fast time of 2hrs 32min 59sec, which is an average of 39.22kph, or 24.375mph. Alas for him, Bloomfield didn’t have enough points, so the winner of what really was the very last race on the Brooklands circuit was declared to be JT Manning of the Charlottville Club. That’s a name which deserves to be remembered alongside Baker’s, as should that of Forrest Lycett, who set the last official record on the track two days later when he raised the Class B under 8000cc record for one mile from a standing start to 92.9mph. He did this in his lightened and lowered 8-Litre Bentley, which he then drove back to London, finally calling down the curtain on Brooklands 32 years after it opened.
20 BROOKLANDS BULLETIN | SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2019
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