Private view: a 'you were there' special

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September 24, 1960: Oulton Park’s Gold Cup meeting attracted a top-class entry and James Edwards, 19, was there to watch 

There were nine Grands Prix on the world championship calendar in 1960, plus the Indianapolis 500, and a further dozen events that didn’t count for points – five of them in the UK. In the slipstream of Goodwood, Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Snetterton, the Oulton Park Gold Cup was last of these. The Italian GP had taken place three weeks beforehand, teams had just contested Snetteron’s Lombank Trophy and the United States GP at Riverside was fully two months away.

Now based in Bowdon, near Altrincham (about 20 miles from the circuit), Motor Sport reader James Edwards fondly recalls the ease of accessibility enjoyed by members of the public as they roamed the delightfully period grass paddock.

“I particularly remember having a prolonged chat with Dan Gurney,” James writes. “He was friendly and answered my myriad questions. I informed him that I wanted to become involved in motor racing and he gave me some very sound advice (which worked).

“Rob Walker was a perfect gentleman and Jim Clark came across at that time as being very shy – he had still to score his maiden Formula 1 victory.

“It was a different world for the spectator in those far-off times, before F1 became the ‘synthetic’ sport we know today.”