Aintree

This is another of those "not a history lesson" posts which come before historic Grands Prix.
Before the Nurburgring GP, I had written a post about the Nordschleife track - which is no longer used for racing. Since its the British GP this weekend, its time to talk about a long forgotten race track where the British GP used to be held almost 50 years ago.

Welcome to Aintree.

It is of course famous for the first ever GP held there - back in 1955 - when Stirling Moss won the British GP from Juan Manuel Fangio, and became the first British driver to win a British GP. The race (and the qualifying) was a closely fought affair between the two drivers, as Moss took pole by 0.2 seconds and won by a similarly narrow margin. That race also marked the debut of Jack Brabham in a Cooper-Bristol.

Being right next to the Grand National horse racing course (in Liverpool), the facilities were good, and spectators were plenty.

Start of the 1961 British Grand Prix won by Count Wolfgang (Taffy) von Trips - Ferrari 156 (3rd Ferrari - white helmet far right).

27 Formula 1 cars line up for the start - the legendary Tatts Corner is immediately behind these cars. Despite the rain, the stands are full to capacity. Apparently, all of the department stores in Liverpool sold out of plastic macs that day!

Aintree hosted an F1 GP from 1955 to 1962, and after that , continued to host many other events - most notably, the Aintree Festival of Motorsport. But, development work has destroyed a big part of this track, and last year, work began on building another grandstand for the racing course right where the historic Tatts corner stands.

The narrow strip of tarmac between the green fence and the white running rail is all that remains of this famous corner.

Someday, I will get to writing a more detailed post about Aintree (I know I am yet to do one on Nordschleife!).. which it truly deserves, for it is a track of enormous significance to the world of motorsport.