Pages:
Click on one of the following images to open up the page:
Page 1 - The Members Banking
Page 2 - Railway Straight
Page 3 - The Byfleet Banking
Page 4 - The Campbell Circuit
Page 5 - The Start/Finish Straight and Test Hill
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THE FASTLANE :: Features :: Brooklands 2004 :: Page 1
Back in April 2004, PTRACER visited the Brooklands Race Circuit and took some photos. Opened in 1907 and closed in 1939, Brooklands was one of Britain's first and greatest racing circuits. Almost oval in shape, the cars used to bounce across the concrete banking at an average speed of other 130mph. Here's the photos from that day plus a commentary of each one.
Please click on each image to enlarge:
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Maybe the worst way to start, but this photo shows the very beginning of what's left of Members Banking. On the other side of the fence is a building estate, which was built in the 1960s:
From the same point where I took the above photo, turning around 180-degrees shows just how magnificent the Members Banking was, and still is:
To the right; the Members Banking - to the left; the eerie overgrown path leading to the even eerier tunnnel, which I ran out of in fright (there's video of that!) :
From the very very top of the banking, looking down, it's quite scary...! I almost slipped on the way back down from taking this photo:
Looking one way up the circuit, you can see the banking carrying on round through the trees:
These are apparently shelters built during the war, as Brooklands became a WWII airfield after 1939. Inside the huts, it's dark, dirty and damp, with the odd bit of rubbish on the floor. There were three of these brick huts (the third totally covered in plants and therefore inaccessable - although, probably not to spiders - which is a good reason for me not trying to get in there...); each hut had three rooms inside.
In the opposite direction - the cars would have flown round here at relatively high speeds - the beginning of the remains of the Members Banking can be seen in the background:
The bridge over the Members Banking with a view in the opposite direction of the circuit:
Looking along the aforementioned bridge:
And looking over the edge of it - the view some spectators would have got:
A slightly different position on the bridge, but just as good for the spectators:
A look at the direction of where the cars would have come towards the bridge:
After the Start/Finish straight, the drivers would have turned left and gone in this direction:
A view from the bottom of the banking, looking back at the bridge over the Members Banking, with a small portion of the Start/Finish straight in view:
Further round the banking, a spectacular view of the bridge over the Members Banking and the end of the Start/Finish straight:
A little further round, and a little lower down on the banking, the view is just as spectacular:
One of the access tunnels, now blocked at both ends, with loads of sludge in front of it.:
A view from a piece of dirt and gravel being used as a car park, looking at the banking - another spectacular view:
Laying on the track to take photos does have it's advantages!:
Looking up the track at the furthest point round the Members Banking that I could go, before...:
...the fenced off section where the Bridge and the infamous bump used to be:
Continue to Page 2... |
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