For three decades this famous racing track, placed like a giant footprint in the Surrey countryside, just 20 miles south west of London, was the centre of British Motor Sport. The two and half mile circuit with its two massive concrete bankings was the very epitome of speed and captured the imagination of the period. What happened at Brooklands was news and the drivers that raced there became household names. In the summer of 1906 at a dinner party with some influential friends in the motoring world, Hugh Locke King found that he had volunteered to build, at his own expense and on his own land, the world's first purpose-built motor-racing track. Locke King was himself a keen motoring enthusiast and had been to see a big international motor race on the continent and was very disappointed that there were no British competitors. He was told that Britain stood no chance in trials and competitions because there was nowhere in this country that British cars could be tested or raced. As soon as the design of the track was entrusted to Colonel H.C.L. Holden of the Royal Artillery, the original plans began to grow beyond Locke King's wildest expectations. Far from the idea of a simple road circuit, Locke King was persuaded that, in order for cars to achieve the highest possible speeds, with the greatest possible safety, the 2¾ mile circuit would need to be provided with two huge banked sections nearly 30 ft. high. The track would be 100 ft. wide, hard-surfaced and include two long straights, one running for half a mile beside the London to Southampton Railway, and an additional 'Finishing Straight' passing the Paddock and enclosures, bringing the total length of the track to 3¼ miles. Because Brooklands was the world's first purpose-built motor-racing circuit there were no previous examples to follow. To begin with, many of the rules and procedures were based on horse racing in order to try and attract a ready made audience to this new and somewhat curious sporting venue. In addition to the unique banked curves, features of the new motor course included the distinctive green-domed Clubhouse complete with a weighbridge for cars and changing rooms for competitors. On the 17th June 1907 after just nine months of work the still unfinished Brooklands Motor Course was opened - this outstanding feat of engineering having eventually cost Hugh Locke King a personal fortune of £150,000, a price equal to millions of pounds today. The first official race, on 6th July 1907, was heralded by the motoring press as a 'Motor Ascot'. SPEED RECORDS Before the first race was even run, Brooklands was the venue for a dramatic speed record attempt. A few days after the ceremonial opening of the Motor Course in June 1907, the motor-racing pioneer, Selwyn Francis Edge, used the Track for establishing a 24 hour record. With hundreds of roadside lanterns to mark the inner edge of the Track and bright flares to illuminate the rim Edge drove his green six-cylinder Napier for the whole 24 hours covering 1,581 miles at an average speed of almost 66 miles an hour. Supported by two other Napiers on the run, Edge established a record which stood for 17 years. However on the morning of 15th February 1913, in front of a large crowd of press and public, the small but courageous Brooklands racing driver, Percy Lambert, achieved 103.84 mph. Tragically, while trying to improve his own record a few months later, after promising his fiancée that he would attempt no more, he crashed and was killed on the Track. Many still say his ghost regularly walks at Brooklands in full racing attire.
