On 7 August 1926, an exhausted Louis Wagner crossed the finish line at Brooklands after four gruelling hours of racing in the Delage that he had taken over from Robert Sénéchal to take victory in the Grand Prix of the Royal Automobile Club – better known as the very first British Grand Prix.
Ninety-five years later to the very day, grand prix cars and appreciative enthusiasts gathered once again at the carefully preserved and cherished remnants of the famous old Surrey speed bowl to pay a nod of respect to a pioneering landmark in British motorsport history.
The weather threatened a dispiriting washout early on – but, as if to order, the taps turned off for long enough to ensure a pleasant day of warm nostalgia that gently reinforced just how lucky we are to still have Brooklands, the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit.
Quite a feet
There was nothing gentle about that grand prix back in 1926, especially for Wagner and his poor feet, which were badly burnt by the heat from the exhaust of his Delage – a design fault that had plagued its drivers all year. He had been forced to stop regularly to plunge his feet into cold water as mechanics wrapped the exhaust in asbestos. But his lead was enough to claim the win from Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bugatti, which had taken over second place from future French Resistance hero Robert Benoist, who had pitted his flaming Delage. It returned to the track, now in the hands of André Dubonnet, who hadn’t been expecting to drive. He nursed the car to the flag, wearing a natty blue lounge suit as flames belched from the bonnet.
It was another world away from Lewis Hamilton versus Max Verstappen, but a grand tradition of British GP drama had been well and truly established.
Brooklands relived
The highlight of the recent celebratory event, dubbed Brooklands Relived, was a session of semi-competitive ‘race starts’ on the bumpy, crumbling concrete of what’s left of the Finishing Straight, where the action had begun and ended 95 years earlier.
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