Official Opening Cavalcade recreated for Brooklands Centenary Festival

With less than ten days to go until the Brooklands Centenary Festival celebrations begin, the final touches are being made to plans for the re-enactment of the 17 th June 1907 Official Opening Cavalcade.

From 1907 to 1939, the Brooklands track was at the centre of British motor sport and witnessed countless motor racing records being made and broken. Now, Brooklands will make history again as a full lap of the protected parts of the famous track will be completed for the first time in nearly 60 years.

The circuit

The Brooklands circuit was designed to allow cars to achieve the highest possible speeds, with the greatest possible safety. With this in mind, the track was made 100 ft. wide, hard-surfaced and included two huge banked sections nearly 30 ft. high, and 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.

Today, the surviving stretches of the Brooklands circuit have been preserved to keep the fragile banking from falling into further decay, and in preparation for the Centenary Festival, the famous Railway Straight and sections of the Campbell Circuit have been re-opened for the first time in over 50 years.

The route

The re-enactment of the Official Opening Cavalcade will begin at 2pm on Sunday 17 th June 2007, exactly 100 years to the hour since the original cavalcade began in 1907.

The procession will feature more than 50 Veteran vehicles dating back to 1907 and earlier, including some cars which ran in the original parade.

The cavalcade will take in all the surviving parts of the original circuit. Where the circuit is no longer passable due to warehousing, roads and residential housing, the parade will take a detour to re-join at the next available section.

Setting off from the clubhouse at the Brooklands Museum, the procession will proceed anti-clockwise along the Members’ Banking before circumnavigating the missing bridge by turning off the original track and crossing over the river Wey to Mercedes-Benz World and re-joining the original track on the Railway Straight.

The procession will then drive the length of the remaining Railway Straight, taking the roads through the industrial estate where the original track is impassable, re-joining the Railway Straight where it leads on to the Byfleet Banking, crossing Barnes Wallis Drive onto the Tesco section of banking before crossing Sopwith Drive to re-join the Byfleet Banking.

After a detour through the community park, the cavalcade will proceed along the line of the Finishing Straight and return to the clubhouse at the Brooklands Museum.

Allan Winn, director at Brooklands Museum, said: “Despite having to miss out the missing parts of the circuit, the cavalcade will drive on more of the track than has been possible at any time since it closed in 1939. It will be a magnificent tribute to the centenary of Brooklands, with many original cars on the original circuit, exactly 100 years on from the original opening of Brooklands.”

The Centenary Festival is being held at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, on Saturday 16 th and Sunday 17 th June. For further information and to book tickets, please call 0870 850 6639 or visit brooklandsfestival.co.uk, Adults £35.00, Children (5 to 12 years) £20.00 while children under 5 years are free.