{"id":853278,"date":"2026-08-10T19:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853278\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T19:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:16:12","slug":"120-grand-prix-racers-celebrate-a-century-of-the-british-grand-prix-at-brooklands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853278\/","title":{"rendered":"120 Grand Prix Racers Celebrate a Century of the British Grand Prix at Brooklands"},"content":{"rendered":"

A century ago, and two decades before Silverstone existed, Brooklands hosted the first-ever British Grand Prix.<\/a> This past weekend, the ancient track celebrated its storied place in motor sport history with a centenary celebration of that first British GP, with more than 120 grand prix cars from all eras coming together for the event. Some drove on the bumpy sections of the old track, while more modern machinery ran on the test circuit at the adjacent Mercedes-Benz World facility.<\/p>\n

Many assume that the British GP was born with the opening of Silverstone in 1948, although the first non-championship race at the former airfield actually ran under the \u201cEuropean Grand Prix\u201d name. The first British GP was run actually at Brooklands on August 7, 1926, 24 years before Formula 1 was around. The banked track had been in operation since 1907, a year after the first French GP was held, and two years before the birth of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Located to the south of London not far from the town of Weybridge, it soon became the focal point not just of British motorsport, but also aviation. The mighty concrete banking saw some epic events, drawing huge crowds.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Heritage Images\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It took almost two decades before the \u201cGrand Prix\u201d name was used. Only nine cars started that inaugural 1926 race, with the entries including several big names from the racing and record-breaking worlds: Malcolm Campbell, Henry Segrave, George Eyston, Robert Benoist. Victory in the 287-mile event went to the Delage shared by Robert Senechal and Louis Wagner, both of whom suffered burns to their feet thanks to the exhaust being rather too close to the cockpit.<\/p>\n

The race was run again in 1927, before it dropped off the calendar. A Donington GP was subsequently held in 1935\u20131938, but the actual British GP title was not revived until the post-WWII era at Silverstone. In 1950, such a race was the first-ever grand prix run as part of the modern Formula 1 championship.<\/p>\n

By then, though, Brooklands had been consigned to the history books. It closed in 1939 at the outbreak of the war in 1939 as the site became a center of bomber and fighter production, and it was not reopened after hostilities ceased. Aircraft production continued until the 1980s, however; to date, more planes have been built at Brooklands than any single location worldwide. Sadly, a large section of the fabled banking was bulldozed to make way for development, and as time went on, the venue\u2019s role as the host of the first British GP faded into memory.<\/p>\n

\"1913<\/p>\n

Heritage Images\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

That was addressed by last weekend\u2019s centenary event, courtesy of the Brooklands Museum\u2014the charitable organization that preserves what\u2019s left of the banking as well as the original paddock buildings and garages, and which has kept the spirit of the place alive. The permanent museum already contains some fabulous machinery, but the aim for the centenary was to mark the occasion by getting more than 100 Grand Prix cars in one place. In the end, the target was comfortably exceeded.<\/p>\n

The assembled collection ranged from a 1908 Austin to modern cars from the likes of McLaren and Haas, along with every era inbetween. Although most were on static display, the sounds of the BRM V-16 and Honda V-12 were heard in demo runs.<\/p>\n

\"Brooklands<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Brooklands Museum<\/p>\n

Poignantly, on the day before the main public event\u2014and to the minute of the actual 100th anniversary of that first Grand Prix\u2014the start was recreated on the original grid. The sister car of the winning Delage was among the featured machines. Also present was the Thomas Special 2, which was entered by creator Parry Thomas in the 1926 race but wasn\u2019t quite completed in time. It was the subject of a recent restoration, however, so the sleek machine finally claimed its rightful place 100 years on.<\/p>\n

The centenary event was a one-off, but a trip to Brooklands is a must for any gearhead visiting the U.K. Alongside the racing cars, there\u2019s lots of aviation history to take in, including an example of Concorde, and one of only two extant examples of the Wellington bomber. There\u2019s even a London bus museum on the site. The real star, however, is the remaining section of the track: you can climb up the concrete banking and spare a few minutes to pay homage to the legends who once raced around its steep curves, 24 years before F1 as we know it was around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A century ago, and two decades before Silverstone existed, Brooklands hosted the first-ever British Grand Prix. This past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,183855,782,296733,784,578,576,577,237154,1642,296732,273948,82],"class_list":["post-853278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-motorsport","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-fa23a7fd-290f-421a-b79d-cb2b75e103c5","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-120-grand-prix-racers-for-100-years-of-british-gp","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}