The Vintage Sports Car Club used this variant in 1949, which ran from Copse, through Maggots, Becketts and Chapel down to a hairpin and Stowe and along the runway back to Copse. The early years also saw a shorter 'Club' circuit introduced for a number of national events for the first time. The Queen was there to watch – to date the only British event at which a reigning monarch has been in attendance – as Dr Giuseppe Farina won for Alfa Romeo. Significantly, Silverstone was the venue of the first Formula One World Championship event, in May 1950. The pit facilities were located between Abbey and Woodcote. From 1949, a switch to the perimeter roads only was made, albeit with a chicane at Club Corner initially. The event nonetheless was deemed a success and set Silverstone firmly on the motor racing map. The solution? Canvas screens to prevent the drivers seeing the possible impending disaster. Competitors also found themselves heading headlong towards each other at top speed where the two runways ended with sharp hairpins. Using both main runways and part of the perimeter roads, the course was laid out with oil barrels and straw bales, spectators held back from the track edge by nothing more robust than a rope line. So it was that the first Grand Prix was run at the beginning of October 1948, though on a significantly different course to what would subsequently follow. ![]() Not only did he pull off a minor miracle, Brown remained firmly at the helm for nearly 40 years, guiding Silverstone's transformation from austerity to world-class facility. In what would turn out to be one of best decisions in motor racing administration history, the RAC enlisted James 'Jimmy' Brown to organise the first Grand Prix, giving him less than two months to make the event a reality. With its expanse of runways and perimeter roads, Silverstone seemed ideal. With Donington Park being used as a storage area for the military, Brooklands being owned by Vickers Armstrong with its inevitable focus on aircraft and Crystal Palace in a state of disrepair, the Royal Automobile Club began searching for new venues. One of the contingent struck a sheep when it wandered onto the site, thereafter leading to the day's events being dubbed the Mutton Grand Prix.īy the following year, there was official interest in creating a circuit from the runways. Its first brush with motorsport was strictly unofficial a group of local enthusiasts held an impromptu thrash around the abandoned runways in 1947. At the end of World War Two it became surplus to requirements and lay dormant for several years. ![]() The circuit began life in 1943 as RAF Silverstone, home to a unit training Wellington pilots in night bombing techniques.
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