Held over three days, the Historic Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park was very well attended, perhaps because of the long overdue Summer weather!
This year saw the 70th anniversary of the event, which started as a non-championship Formula-One race as part of the Grand Prix calendar. There were several of these non-championship races throughout the year at various venues; Oulton Park sometimes also held a Spring Cup F1 race involving the same Grand Prix teams and drivers- it is very hard to imagine that these days!
Over the years many of the star drivers were involved including Jim Clark, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham and many more. As times changed the event was run for various categories of contemporary cars and in the early 2000s it was revised as a Historic race meeting; it is regarded as a jewel in the UK historic motor racing schedule.
This year there was an emphasis on single-seater racing with the Gold Cup being awarded to Historic Formula Three cars, from the period 1964 to 1970, so they are celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. The cars were known at the time as 1000cc Screamers; their one-litre engines being tuned to reach incredible RPM (hopefully without bursting).
Other categories included the Derek Bell trophy for 1970s single-seaters, comprising mainly the ultra-powerful Formula 5000 machines along with Formula-Two cars, which produce an equal amount of noise but at a much higher pitch. The Formula 5000 cars were extremely popular back in the day; many are now resident in Australia and New Zealand and we were pleased to welcome the return of some NZ cars, drivers and crews; it’s great that they made the long journey for several appearances in the UK.
There were two races for the Historic Grand Prix Association with grids of classically-shaped front-engined Formula-one cars; these were what I watched on black and white TV as a rather younger person and it is always great to see these, still very rapid, machines in the flesh.
Other categories were the very well-represented Formula-junior single-seaters, 500cc Formula-three, classic sports cars, Vintage Sports Car Club, classic saloon cars, and Ferrari Club classics. All of the races were 15 or 20 minutes, with two races for each category; this works out really well and gives variety for the large crowd of spectators; however for some reason a 50-minute race was included for Historic Touring (sedan) Cars- when there are only ten entered, nine of which start and only seven finished then something is rather wrong. Perhaps the organizers need to rethink that one, as the number of folks heading for the exit gate early was notable.
Apart from the racing there is always a variety of “other stuff” going on and this year it was pretty remarkable; the Classic Car Show had plenty of entries both from the owners-clubs and from individuals. The Cheshire Concours d’Esprit entry was fully subscribed, with sixty fabulous cars on show; rather than the “trailer queens” of some other events the “Esprit” (or spirit) bit means that outright condition is not the be-all and end-all (however there were many that would not have been out of place in a fully show and shine event) it was great to see them up close and also getting a couple of laps around the circuit so that the crowds could see how splendid they looked.
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There was a fairly large auction held by one of the local auction houses, the entries were diverse, varying from barn-find to perfection, and from what I could see business was brisk. Despite the more expensive lots my personal choice was a VW beach-buggy; I always fancied one of those back in the day but I didn’t live in California!
For those farm-boys out there (Cheshire is a very rural County, mainly dairy and arable crops) there was a collection of vintage tractors, including some wonderful scale-model steam-tractors; these were not really models and they were big enough to carry the driver, and pull trailers holding several smaller people!
We sadly lost local racing-driver hero Alan Minshaw early this year and his passing was marked by the display and demonstration of some of his cars, including Maserati Birdcage, Chevrons, Buick-engined DAF (yes, really), massive US stock-car and slightly smaller Mk1 Golf (Rabbit) GTi. It was very poignant for those of us who had known Alan for many years. If he was looking down on us, he would have been very pleased with what he saw.
There was a display of double-deck buses of the sort I used to travel to school on back in the 1960’s, funny how they still smell the same and it was great to see them. It was also great to see the Classic Ice-Cream vans and various mobile burger joints too but that’s another story.
On the music stage, the entertainment was suitably historic, the girls were singing stuff from the 40s, 50s, and 60s when I went past and a sizeable audience was watching, sounded good and added to the atmosphere.
The pit-lane walk was very popular with the spectators, particularly the kids; it’s very easy for those of us who have been involved in racing for years to forget that not everybody is fortunate enough to get close to the fabulous beasts they can see on the track; a great initiative and it seemed much appreciated by the crowds.
Oulton Park is a splendid parkland circuit in the North West of England. Formally the estate grounds of a stately home, which burned down in the 1930s, it was used by the US military as a training camp in WW2.
General Patton was based here with his chrome helmet and pearl-handled revolvers and then the site was used to house, for some years, displaced people from Europe (Poland mainly) who could not return home when hostilities ended. Someone then had the brilliant idea of building a racing circuit and the rest is history!
Full details of practice times and race results can be found here: https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/243056
Any questions, or suggestions, please get in touch with me via: www.petetaylor.org.uk
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