Brooklands Racetrack
from Open Country Hosted by BBC Radio 4
With the growing Formula 1 schedule and following, there's an increasing appetite for motor racing. Helen Mark heads to Weybridge in Surrey to visit Brooklands - claimed to be the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit to hear how one Hugh Locke-King's passion for speed led him to have the track designed and built on his land, almost bankrupting him. The site was used for land speed records even before the first race and also became a centre for aviation development. It reached its heyday in the 1920s and 30s but World War II saw it taken over by the Ministry of Defence and its decline as a circuit. Enthusiasts from the Brooklands Society fought to preserve it - both by digging the track free of overgrowing weeds and by getting it listed - and the museum continues to celebrate the records and achievements marked in its history. Malcolm Campbell's grandson Don Wales shares about his family's love of the track. Helen Mark heads to the track in style - in a 1929 four and a half litre Bentley - to see how it's used today. Members of the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) take tests, both of vehicles and drivers, around planned courses but how will Helen fare on her spin up test hill and the historic banking? Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.
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