“Silverstone was a very different circuit at that stage – a sort of distorted figure of eight on which drivers turned off the perimeter road at several points and charged towards each other from opposite ends of the same runway, with a closing speed approaching 300mph and not much separating them in the middle. It was a miracle that nobody hit each other at a colossal cumulative speed. But although the facilities were zilch – proper loos didn’t exist, the hangars were in disrepair, broken glass, barbed wire, bits of aeroplane were scattered everywhere and there wasn’t really any structured car parking, you just stopped where you could find a piece of land – nobody cared because top-level racing was back.
Alberto Ascari finished behind fellow Maserati driver Luigi Villoresi
Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images
“The main race wasn’t particularly exciting, with Alberto Ascari against Luigi Villoresi for Maserati and Villoresi winning after Ascari was delayed. There were about 10 ERAs up against the might of Europe, Bob Gerard taking third in the best of them and being mobbed by the crowd as he crossed the line. But although it was archaic and primitive, pretty awful by today’s standards, we thought it absolute nirvana. I watched from one of two grandstands opposite the start/finish, which back then was between Abbey and Woodcote, and I had a paddock pass, which you could buy for 30 shillings – the equivalent of £1.50, though that was a lot more money in those days. I thought it was all fabulous. I must have blagged a grandstand pass somehow or other.
