The GP was held at Brands Hatch in 1974, but by the time the new season arrived in 1975, a chicane greeted the racers at Woodcote, as did brand new pit garages. The collision also exposed the fact that debris could end up in the grandstands and it was clear that changes were needed.
![silverstone trackmap silverstone trackmap](https://www.racingsportscars.com/covers/_Silverstone-2007-05-06t.jpg)
Amazingly, Andrea de Adamich was the only casualty, suffering serious injuries which ultimately would end his driving career. The chain reaction behind saw a mass pile up behind which took out most of the field and was, at the time, the biggest crash in F1 history. At the end of the first lap, a youthful Jody Scheckter lost control of his McLaren at Woodcote, spinning into the pit wall. The 1973 British Grand Prix stands out as a significant event in Silverstone's history. Five years later, the Club purchased the freehold of the entire 720-acre estate from the Ministry of Defence. The BRDC – boosted by the revenues generated by the track – formed Silverstone Circuits Limited in 1966, to look after the circuit's commercial activities. After two accidents in the then 'open face' pit facilities, a new pit lane – separate from the main track and on an elevated platform – was built in 1964, greatly improving safety for competitors and their mechanics alike. In 1961 the BRDC acquired the lease to the agricultural land both within and around the circuit, increasing the opportunities for future development. Few significant circuit layout changes would occur for the next quarter century, although gradual improvements to pit and spectator facilities continued. The classic Silverstone layout was now firmly established, complete with a new Club Course which ran through Copse and Maggotts before turning back on itself just ahead of Becketts and running along one of the runways back to Woodcote. The pits and paddock assumed their familiar location between Woodcote and Copse, the start/finish line also moving to this new location accordingly. The start/finish was just after the Stowe hairpin, the course being run in a clockwise direction.įrom 1952, the British Racing Drivers' Club took over the running of the circuit from the RAC and a number of corners saw minor revisions and other facilities were generally improved. The Vintage Sports Car Club used this variant in 1949, which ran from Copse, through Maggots, Becketts and Chapel down to a hairpin and Stowe and along the runway back to Copse. The early years also saw a shorter 'Club' circuit introduced for a number of national events for the first time. The Queen was there to watch – to date the only British event at which a reigning monarch has been in attendance – as Dr Giuseppe Farina won for Alfa Romeo. Significantly, Silverstone was the venue of the first Formula One World Championship event, in May 1950. The pit facilities were located between Abbey and Woodcote. From 1949, a switch to the perimeter roads only was made, albeit with a chicane at Club Corner initially. The event nonetheless was deemed a success and set Silverstone firmly on the motor racing map.
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The solution? Canvas screens to prevent the drivers seeing the possible impending disaster. Competitors also found themselves heading headlong towards each other at top speed where the two runways ended with sharp hairpins.
![silverstone trackmap silverstone trackmap](http://images.ec1.com/venues/28/28circuit-silverstone.jpg)
Using both main runways and part of the perimeter roads, the course was laid out with oil barrels and straw bales, spectators held back from the track edge by nothing more robust than a rope line. So it was that the first Grand Prix was run at the beginning of October 1948, though on a significantly different course to what would subsequently follow. Not only did he pull off a minor miracle, Brown remained firmly at the helm for nearly 40 years, guiding Silverstone's transformation from austerity to world-class facility. In what would turn out to be one of best decisions in motor racing administration history, the RAC enlisted James 'Jimmy' Brown to organise the first Grand Prix, giving him less than two months to make the event a reality. With its expanse of runways and perimeter roads, Silverstone seemed ideal. With Donington Park being used as a storage area for the military, Brooklands being owned by Vickers Armstrong with its inevitable focus on aircraft and Crystal Palace in a state of disrepair, the Royal Automobile Club began searching for new venues. One of the contingent struck a sheep when it wandered onto the site, thereafter leading to the day's events being dubbed the Mutton Grand Prix.īy the following year, there was official interest in creating a circuit from the runways. Its first brush with motorsport was strictly unofficial a group of local enthusiasts held an impromptu thrash around the abandoned runways in 1947. At the end of World War Two it became surplus to requirements and lay dormant for several years. The circuit began life in 1943 as RAF Silverstone, home to a unit training Wellington pilots in night bombing techniques.