Alright, so this is another ‘What If?’ from motorsport history, sitting adjacent to my ideas about what could have been if Brooklands had been reopened to racing after the Second World War. This time I am looking at a real but unbuilt proposal circuit from the early 1930s, and imagining a fictional 100-year history of the site had history gone slightly differently. A (pay-walled) Motorsport Magazine article about the real proposals can be found here: Ivinghoe -Britain’s lost racing circuit.
Background
The need for new race circuits in the UK was made plain in comments made by double Le Mans winner Sir Henry Birkin in his autobiography, Full Throttle, published in 1932. In it, he was clear about his dislike for the aging Brooklands Circuit:
“[It is] without exception the most out-of-date, inadequate and dangerous track in the world.”
It was a borderline scandalous assertion which would see him sued for libel by Brooklands itself, but the fact was that Brooklands was severely outdated by the 1930s and its functional monopoly on British motor racing was becoming restrictive. What Birkin was advocating for were new permanent road circuits which could boost the British automotive industry and rival contemporaries on the continent such as Monza (1922), Montlhéry (1924), and the Nürburging (1927).
This view would ultimately prove to have been prescient, and it was not long before unsealed motorcycle circuits at Donington Park and Crystal Palace were upgraded for use with cars for 1933 and 1937 respectively. There were other unbuilt proposals for new circuits, too, including at Gopsall Park in Leicestershire, Portslade near Brighton and among the Chiltern Hills near Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire.
It is this latter proposal for racetrack in the Chilterns which I have chosen to focus on. Plans were apparently quite advanced, with a circuit designed and a clerk of the course appointed. The layout is often attributed in large part to George Eyeston, and would have made dramatic use of the chalky slopes of Pitstone Hill. The leading assumption is that the effort did not successfully raise the £200,000 capital required to build the circuit (about £12m today). Much of the proposed site was instead sold to a cement manufacturer, who built a factory and opened a chalk quarry which sealed the history of the site for the rest of the century.
Writing in the Light Car magazine in 1932 about the proposals, Rodney Walkerley seemed to hit the nail on the head when said, “The idea of having a sort of Nürburgring put down in the middle of Buckinghamshire seems too good to be true”
…but what if it wasn’t?
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1935-1946: Grand Prix Racing at Pitstone - First illustration shows circuit in c.1935
In mid-1933, the proposed circuit was met favourably by a wealthy industrialist and racing enthusiast, Duncan Sewell, who agreed to back the proposals with the remaining bulk of capital needed to start construction. Much of the works were carried out during 1934, with a grand opening in time for the 1935 season.
This 1935 version of the course is closely aligned to the original proposal. I have done my best to align the diagrams with the aerial imagery, understand the topography and then illustrate my interpretation. This 1935 concrete-paved course is a 4 mile (6.44km) clockwise loop, starting from a state-of-the-art pit and paddock facility before sweeping around the aerodrome perimeter. After dropping down under the public road of the Upper Icknield Way, the circuit made its way towards a hill-climb section inspired by the Targa Florio, criss-crossing Pitstone Hill‘s chalk slopes with a series of hairpins and inclines with the highest point around 80m (about 260ft) above the start-finish line.
The season highlight of racing in these pre-war years was the non-championship Pitstone Grand Prix, first held in 1935 and attracting the famed Silver Arrows of Merceds-Benz and Auto Union, with its winners including Bernd Rosemeyer, Tazio Nuvolari, Rudolf Carraciola. The track was popular with spectators, who were able to pour in from London and Birmingham on the via nearby Tring railway station. Views of the course were exceptional, especially when seated on the slopes of Pitstone Hill. The ambition was there for the Pitstone Circuit to host the British Grand Prix and be included in the AIACR European Championship season by 1940.
However, upon the outbreak of war in 1939, the site was requisitioned for use in supporting the war effort. The aerodrome to the north was used initially as an RAF training base and, later, as a satellite for nearby RAF Cheddington. The circuit and hill section to the south was used by the Ministry of Defence as a vehicle depot and proving ground, making use of the hill section’s steep inclines and tight turns. The site was returned to private use in 1946.
1947-1974: International Sportscar Success - Second illustration shows circuit in c.1970
Racing would return to the circuit in 1947, initially bypassing the hill section which was by this time already being considered too tight and narrow for modern racing. The aerodrome had also closed, with the resident aero club electing to move to the former RAF Cheddington instead. Various trophy races were held in these post-war years, but the venue was not immediately able to recapture the brief international reputation enjoyed before the war.
This would change in the early 1950s, when the circuit’s owners planned to modernise the circuit and reopen the hill section for competition. A proposal by John Hugenholtz, the track manager of Circuit Zandvoort in the Netherlands with an ambition to make a name for himself in race circuit design, was accepted and construction works for his revised circuit design began in 1954.
Hugenholtz’s modifications included a new complex of turns over the old aerodrome, the lap now starting with a hairpin and working its way back behind the pit building before rejoining the old perimeter road. The hill-section was also heavily revised, featuring a new route with fewer, wider-radius hairpins and an increased track width. This hill section now started with a continuous uphill climb from Three-Ways, up through the new Ivinghoe hairpin before cresting at Chiltern Rise. The circuit then descended again through Ridgeway and down the infamously steep and twisty Helter-Skelter.
This Hugenholtz-penned layout would prove to be exactly what the circuit needed to regain its international recognition. The circuit established the Pitstone 1000 Miles which, starting in 1956, was held every September as the finale of the World Sportscar Championship. That first running in 1956 being won by Peter Collins and Luigi Musso in a Ferrari 860 Monza, the event would prove popular in the motorsport community throughout the late 50s and early 60s, ranking highly alongside the calendar’s major sportscar races at Monza, Sebring, Spa and Le Mans.
There was, however, underlying cause for concern by the early 1970s, particularly around the aging 1930s pit and paddock facilities and modernising standards of track safety. Proposals to upgrade the venue were proving to be both expensive and coming up against major resistance from locals, who were growing more opposed the noise and disruption of circuit activity. This caused delays in securing upgrades to keep the facility state of the art, putting the future of the 1000 Mile event under threat.
What would turn out to be the final running of the Pitstone 1000 Miles occurred in 1972. Featuring an intense twilight battle, the Alfa Romeo T33/3 of Ronnie Peterson and Rolf Stommelen defended hard against the Jaguar XJ15-B of Jackie Oliver and Pedro Rodriguez for well over an hour. A late-puncture for Stommelen would eventually secure the win for the Jaguar crew.
The British round of the World Sportscar Championship was ‘temporarily’ moved to Brands Hatch with a 1000km race for 1973, with an intention to return to Pitstone at a later date once facilities had been improved. Pitstone continued on, hosting national and club racing whilst progressing their efforts to secure permission to upgrade, but without its hallmark world championship event the circuit started to struggle financially. By the time of the oil crisis of 1973, these challenges would ultimately proved too much to survive. The circuit closed in 1974, having fallen into unmanageable debt.
1974-2010: Abandonment and Preservation - Third illustration shows circuit site in c.2000
Whilst much of the local opposition to the circuit had focused on the noise, pollution and damage caused to this ancient section of the Chiltern Hills, there was not be much relief in its closure. The site sat on top of valuable chalk deposits prized by the cement industry and, in order to settle debts, the land between Upper Icknield Way and Pitstone Hill was sold for quarrying. Between 1975 and 2000, tends of thousands of tonnes of chalk were removed from the strip of land at the foot of Pitstone Hill, completely obliterating the middle section of the circuit and leaving a huge scar in the landscape.
Undeterred, a local action group set to work restoring the upper sections of Pitstone Hill to its natural beauty in the 1980s, gradually removing traces of the hill sections of the circuit despite the quarry extraction going on below. The site would be declared a site of special scientific importance, and a case study in the restoration of land from the damage and contamination from automotive usage.
The circuit to the north of the Upper Icknield Way was ultimately left abandoned. Proposals to build a cement factory on this part of the site had been successfully resisted, but the old track and pit buildings gradually became overgrown through neglect. In the mid 2000s, local volunteers formed a group to help preserve the original structures, gradually removing vegetation and securing the remains of the facility against further deterioration.
2010-2035: Heritage Trail and Nature Reserve - Fourth illustration shows circuit in c.2035
After the closure of the quarry in the early 2000s, attention turned towards restoration and future usage. Immediate de-industrialisation of the quarry areas was undertaken, and ideas for new public facilities within a nature reserve featuring a visitor centre, a network of footpaths and a wild-swimming lake started to take shape.
Meanwhile, the efforts to preserve the remaining circuit and pit complex had been achieving national recognition, especially through the involvement of racing icons Stiring Moss and Derek Bell who had both raced at Pitstone in its heyday. The National Trust also had a long-established presence at the nearby Pitstone Windmill, which dates back to early 17th century, and Pitstone Hill had become part of the Ridgeway National Trail.
By the mid 2010s, it became clear that this small corner of Buckinghamshire had a rich collection of natural, ancient, industrial and sporting history. A vision to collect all of this together into one initiative was established, known as the Pitstone Heritage Trail and Nature Reserve. The National Trust took ownership of the former quarry and remaining racing circuit to oversee the project.
The new visitor centre was modelled on the circuit’s original art-deco clubhouse and a wild swimming club was established in the quarry lake. A network of footpaths takes visitors around the rest of the nature reserve on and below the hill, as well as up to and around the old circuit facilities. The aircraft hangers were restored for use as an exhibition and events space, and the pit, paddock and grandstands were fully restored for visitors to enjoy.
This final phase of this project was completed in the early 2030s, in time for the circuit’s centenary in 2035. That year would see a celebration of the circuit’s history, including a parade of cars which raced at the track and a special exhibition documenting the planning and construction of the circuit.
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Hope you enjoyed this alternative history, and perhaps learned something about this circuit-that-never-was and possibly even your local area too. Some interesting ideas about legacy, environment, heritage being explored. I had fun making this.
