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This Is What Race Track Design Was Like In The 1950s
This Is What Race Track Design Was Like In The 1950s-June 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:43

Some things, such as the low likelihood of making a ton of money by owning a race track, never change. Others definitely do. Here's a glimpse back into the opening of Oulton Park in England, complete with a tour of the facility.

Oulton Park was built on the old Oulton Estate after World War II, when several former wartime facilities were being converted into race tracks. The Oulton Estate grounds had been used as an army staging camp by General Patton before the Normandy landings. No longer needed for farmland or for staging a park, a racetrack was built. Unlike many other postwar tracks in England which utilized flat airfields, Oulton Park was unique for its elevation changes and scenic setting.

Enjoy this look back in time to when trees and marshals were still right next to the track and you wouldn't dare block spectators' view with a fence. I'm so used to modern race tracks that this one almost looks more like a tarmac rally stage to me.

My, how things have changed.

Oulton Park still exists today, although the trees have been moved back from the track considerably, and this track that was "as wide as the Nürburgring" has been expanded and made exponentially safer over the years as well.

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