Double Twelve gathers pace

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Brooklands track echoed once more to competition engines in June when the museum and the VSCC hosted the third Double Twelve festival.

Large crowds watched Chris Jaques tackle a series of driving tests in his Type 35 Bugatti and then shine in the concours to collect the Double Twelve award from Prince Michael of Kent, narrowly beating Motor Sport’s Simon Taylor in his 4¼-litre Bentley Sedanca, from a field which ran from veterans to ’60s GTs. Mercedes-Benz World hosted the Speed Trials on its nearby test track, where Pete Candy’s Riley Special made FTD, leaving Terry Crabb in ERA R12 to head the pre-war class, with Martin Overington’s T35 as best vintage.

The huge site throbbed with activity, with the Test Hill in constant use, one-make club displays and noisy demos on the test track. Brooklands Museum director Allan Winn called it “the biggest competition event here since the circuit closed in 1939”.