Cigarette kiosk? Check. Blokes in Elf Team Tyrrell jackets and similar? Check. Absence of debris fencing? Check. Proximity to circuit? Check… People complain that modern racetracks tend to look the…

Two Formula 1 events on one day, about 400 miles apart in neighbouring nations. The difference? One drew a massive crowd, 20 cars and colossal global exposure, the other attracted…

Classic saloons and casual observation, Oulton Park, August 14 1976 Apologies to both regular readers that there hasn’t been a Snapshot for a week or 10 – blame perpetual absence…

BMW M1 Procar, Silverstone, Brands Hatch… and Portimão The sense of acute disappointment lingers. I’d caught an early morning coach from Manchester to Silverstone, for the primary purpose of watching…

British F3 Championship, Silverstone, June 8 1980 Check photographs of a modern mainstream Formula 3 grid and it will probably look a little busier than this, but such was the…

British F3 Championship, Oulton Park, September 15, 1979 Science is powerless to explain my failure to take more paddock shots or portraits during the 1970s. That simple sentence represents countless…

Vintage Sports Car Club, Oulton Park, June 18 1977 At the time there were fears of perhaps terminal decline. Oulton Park, one of the world’s best inventions, had been sliced…

British Saloon Car Championship, Brands Hatch, July 16 1978 The support package at a modern Grand Prix meeting is a homogenised beast, with precious little diversity. This isn’t always a…

British Open Single Seater Championship, Oulton Park, October 2 1976 Remember a time when single-seater racing cars used to develop interesting CVs, long after their original purpose had been fulfilled?…

European Grand Prix, Valencia, June 25-27 2010 This column tends to thrive on the distant past, with occasional glimpses at its recent counterpart – and this week’s shots come from…

It was the kind of invitation you don’t receive too often, a chance to wander unchallenged into a contemporary Formula 1 pit and inspect the merchandise. Some teams have security…

Formula Atlantic, Mallory Park, July 12 1981 In contemporary single-seater racing, you can drive almost any chassis you like… so long as it’s a Dallara, or perhaps a Tatuus. There…