You were there

Tim Reid went to school within earshot of Silverstone – very handy for a young enthusiast

“I could hear cars testing through the classroom window,” writes London-based Tim. “Whenever the noise sounded promising I was on my bike as soon as school finished. I usually headed for the inside of Abbey, which the teams used as a base rather than the pits. If it was a race weekend I’d head for the pits or the inside of the circuit. We schoolboys knew where to find all the holes in the hedges…” He was also conveniently located for landing potential scoops. “I got shots of John Surtees testing a Cooper for the first time after he’d left Ferrari in the middle of 1966,” he writes. “I’m not sure there was anybody else with a camera present.” The images here are from tests and a selection of local F1 events (plus two from Brands Hatch) between 1965 and 1968. Such easy access, such simple pleasures: Silverstone might not have had the facilities it does today, but it dripped with
atmosphere that many think has long since faded.