BROOKLANDS FINISHING STRAIGHT’S BIG REVEAL

Brooklands Museum is to celebrate 110 years of racing on Saturday, June 17 – by unveiling its fully restored Finishing Straight during this year’s Double Twelve Motorsport Festival. During the two-day event, the original opening parade, which took place on June 17, 1907, will be recreated. Cars and motorbikes that raced at Brooklands in period will run once again, followed by a cavalcade of veteran cars, taxiing period aircraft and static displays. Hidden from view since 1940 under a Second World War hangar (itself currently under restoration in South Wales), reinstating the Finishing Straight returns the layout of Brooklands to what it was in 1939 as it closed to the public. “The Finishing Straight will be reunited with the other surviving sections to restore the pre-war view from the Banking and Clubhouse,” a Brooklands Museum statement confirmed. Pictures posted online at www.brooklandsmuseum.com revealed an intact Finishing Straight surface, preserved under the floor of the removed hangar. Commentary added: “Removal of sections of hangar floor over the last couple of weeks has also revealed the extent of the wartime modifications required to the track to construct the hangar directly on top of the slightly sloping surface of the Finishing Straight, which then served as an improvised aircraft factory floor.” Builders found other clues: “Painted floor markings and services laid into the track have also come to light offering fascinating further insights into this specific area’s war-time past and even more will be exposed in the coming weeks.” The first purpose-built racing track in the UK, Brooklands was heavily redeveloped during and after the Second World War; only a fraction of the original control area, banking and Finishing Straight survive through to present day. Brooklands’ Aerodrome heritage is important too – with the Finishing Straight under restoration, the Heritage Lottery funded Aircraft Factory and Race Track Revival Project plans to reassemble the hangar it removed in a new location near Brooklands’ preserved Flight Shed later this year.