The Forgotten Aintree Grand Prix

Mention Aintree to the majority of people and the first thing that they will talk to you about is the horse racing.

The famous course has seen the likes of Red Rum become a household name, Michael Jackson perform his Bad World Tour there and even some golfers head along to play on the driving range or hit balls around the nine-hole golf course.

What many people might not realise, however, is that Aintree was also once the venue for the British Grand Prix, hosting the racing event as many as five times and also seeing some non-championship Formula One races take place on the site.

The ‘Goodwood of the North’

Situated near to the cathedral city of Chichester in West Sussex is Goodwood Circuit, which began life as a perimeter track around the airfield of RAF Westhampnett. A meeting took place for the first time in the September of 1948, later becoming well-known for the Glover Trophy, which was a non-championship Formula One race.

There was a desire to create a ‘Goodwood of the North’, which is where Aintree Racecourse came to the fore. Having been created in the 1800s as a horse racing venue, it was seen as the ideal place in which to host some events by the British Automobile Racing Club.

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The first such event to take place was called the Aintree 200, which had been raced at Brooklands and Donnington Park before the Second World War and was revived on Merseyside. It involved drivers taking on a 200-mile race, with the first event at Aintree being won by Stirling Moss in a Maserati 250F.

The events that took place after that were either Formula One races or mixed F1 and Formula Two races, which were won by Moss on a further three occasions. Moss loved the circuit, winning the British Grand Prix for the first time there when he took part in it in 1955.

Hosting the British Grand Prix

When Aintree Racecourse hosted the 1955 British Grand Prix, it was not the first time that horse and car racing facilities had been combined. It was, though, quite unusual, seeing the decision taken when the Grand National and a few other meetings each year were struggling to pay the racecourse’s bills.

Having visited Goodwood, Mirabel Topham, who owned Aintree, decided it made sense to build a car course and worked to persuade the Commission Sportive Internationale, which was the forerunner of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, to allow it to host the British Grand Prix.

#OnThisDay in 1961.Wolfgang von Trips led home teammates Phil Hill & Richie Ginther in a Ferrari 1-2-3 finish in a wet/dry British Grand Prix at Aintree. It was the German driver's second victory & would be his last.© Motorsport Images #F1

— Formula 1 (@f1history.bsky.social) 2024-07-15T10:55:21.179Z

It was the facilities that won the argument for Aintree, given the fact that the track was similar to Silverstone insofar as it was reasonably flat and quite windswept. The grandstands were amongst the best in the country, used to handling large crowds and having the amenities to boot.

Built at a cost of around £100,000 in the space of three months, it operated anti-clockwise when it was first used before shifting to become a clockwise course before the first British Grand Prix. When Moss won it, he became the first British driver to win his home race and the scenes were jubilant.

Decline of the Racing

Even aside from the warm welcome received by drivers, officials and visitors heading to Liverpool to watch the British Grand Prix, one of the main reasons why Aintree was seen as the perfect venue for the race was the fact that it offered views of the entire course from the grandstand.

Having hosted the Grand Prix again in 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1962, it would end up being safety requirements that caused the need for the race to leave the circuit after the race in 1964. The speed of the cars was increasing all of the time, requiring the likes of run-off areas to ensure driver safety.

Car racing itself continued on the circuit throughout the 1970s, but the British Grand Prix had moved on to Brands Hatch, never to return. The circuit eventually fell into the hands of the bookmaker Ladbrokes, who did what they could to revive it, but by the early 2000s it was clear it was no longer fit for use for car racing in any meaningful way.

Although it continues to be promoted and supported by the Aintree Circuit Club, including for use in the likes of movies and TV shows, it no longer hosts major car races in the same manner as it once did, with Stirling Moss tearing around the circuit.