Team Jarrott - The Brooklands 120th Anniversary Races

The onset of winter usually heralds the close season for motor racing, but this year there is to be one rather special event that will take place on 29th November on the Brooklands motor circuit at Weybridge in Surrey.

On that day in 1897, the very first British motor races took place when the Motor Car Club, as a first anniversary celebration of their Emancipation Run from London to Brighton, organised a series of races for the De Dion Bouton motor tricycles on the quarter mile oval cycle track at Sheen House, Richmond Park. The 120th anniversary of these first of all British motor races is to be commemorated on the exact same date this year - which will fall on a Wednesday.  The demolition of Sheen House along with its cycle track many decades ago has seen the De Dion Bouton Club's "Team Jarrott" look to an historic venue to hold the commemoration and, following the re-opening of the Finishing Straight at Brooklands, they have found the perfect location.

"We are delighted to be able to host Team Jarrott at Brooklands" said Allan Winn, Brooklands Museum Director. "The synergy of presenting these historically significant motor races on our newly-opened Finishing Straight will bring together two of the most important early motor racing landmarks in Britain: those first races in 1897 and the opening of the world's first motor racing circuit at Brooklands, ten years later, in 1907. And, as the whole track is sadly no longer linked together, the Finishing Straight, which we have now restored to its original state, will host the first races on the circuit since it closed in 1939. The 29th November 2017 will be quite an occasion".

Event director and creator of Team Jarrott Nick Pellett adds "Over the last seven years, we have been racing the De Dion Bouton Trikes around the country; at Silverstone, Mallory Park, the "Top Gear" track at Dunsfold, and a private track in Essex. On 29th November we hope to have at least a dozen Trikes on track in a series of races, from one mile sprints, to the finale which will be the Club's Five Mile Championship race. And, make no mistake about it, these will be actual races, will be hard fought, winners will be declared, and Trophies awarded. Furthermore, they will be presented exactly as those first motor races, on a quarter mile oval circuit. The Brooklands Finishing Straight is the perfect location to re-create history".

The event is firmly in the Brooklands calendar of events and will be open to the public to attend and watch this slice of motor racing history. The format of the day will be as in 1897 - practice and fettling in the morning, lunch in the Clubhouse, (with a short talk of how racing started in Britain), followed by the race programme. Come rain or shine, the pioneers will be celebrated in style.

Now Available

 Historical research booklet and 120th Anniversary Race meeting pack

£5 UK - £6 Europe - £7 ROW

Contact Nick Pellett for more details

Further visitor information is available from www.brooklandsmuseum.com or contact Paul Stewart, Marketing & PR Manager at paulstewart@brooklandsmuseum.com.

© De Dion Bouton Club UK 2018