The Aintree Festival of Motorsport 2004 Historic British GP circuit restored to life
Over last weekend Aintree reverberated to the sound of racing cars for the first time in 22 years, the occasion was the inaugural Aintree Motorsports Festival. This was the brainchild of Mike Ashcroft of the Aintree Circuit Club and Gary Millar of CCUK Promotions. Sometime ago they decided that the old grand prix cicuit should lay idle no longer, and after receiving permission, organised the whole event in just five months.
Mike and Gary realised that on their doorstep they had a 1950’s grand prix circuit that was 98 per cent original and unchanged since it last staged a championship F1 race in 1964. Although in poor condition the track, that played host to such famous drivers as Fangio, Clark, Hill and Brabham, was waiting to be re-used. There can only be a handful of such original circuits left in the world, so what better place to hold a historic festival?
Due to problems of time, finance and modern safety requirements, although the whole three mile grand prix track was used it was for high-speed demonstration laps only. Over 140 historic cars and 48 motorcycles had been amassed to entertain the crowd over the three days of the event. The entries included C- and D-Type Jaguars, F1 Coopers, Maseratis, ACs and a whole host of 1950s and 60s saloons running in groups of up to 20 cars at a time.
Alfa Romeo GP
The Aintree grandstands - also used for the famous Grand National horse race
As these were demonstration runs we were also treated to the unusual sight of riding mechanics (well, passengers really). If you were one of the lucky ones it was possible to get a ride in a two-seater car and do a few laps of this famous circuit. This included the several D-Type Jaguars present who shoe-horned their “mechanics” into the left-hand seat.
Winner of the first Aintree Grand Prix in 1955 was Sir Stirling Moss driving a Mercedes, and he was to win there again in 1957 with the help of Tony Brooks. When Moss’s Vanwall failed, Tony let Stirling take over his similar car and go on and take the chequered flag.
Both these great drivers supported the event by attending a charity dinner on Friday evening and completing demonstration runs each day. Brooks was reunited with a 1955 Connaught identical to his Syracuse winning Grand Prix Car, and Moss drove a Maserati 250F, despite the fact that he is still recovering from a back operation. Both were sporting their original 1950’s helmets, a real step back in time.
As Aintree is the home of the Grand National, horse-racing commentator Clare Balding was treated to a few laps with Sir Stirling in a Jaguar XK120 on Sunday. Another Aintree favourite, Roy Salvadori, was also present for the weekend joining in with the demo laps and reminiscing about his races at the track.
Gary and Mike are already working on next year’s festival and plan to mix modern and historic cars next time. No fixed dates yet, but it will be in the summer with warmer weather. They will build on the success of this year’s event with more cars and famous names, and have plans for at least the next five years. It was great to see an original historic grand prix circuit come back to life.
Don’t miss the chance next year to see these cars and the track reunited again.
Veteran Tony Brooks in a Jaguar D-Type...
...and Connaught GP car
Sir Stirling Moss driving a Maserati 250F...
...and accompanying BBC's racing correspondent Clare Balding around the famous course
Triumph TRs
Roy Salvadori and Jaguar E-Type
For further details on plans for 2005 please visit the organiser's website www.afms.info
