Oulton Park is one of Great Britain’s most challenging tracks. Although too narrow to be considered for international events, most national series visit annually. The traditional highlight is the Gold Cup meeting that started in 1954, a year after the circuit had opened. Once a major non-championship Formula 1 race, by the 1980s the Gold Cup suffered without a suitable senior category to promote, and eventually it became a round of the British Touring Car and later GT championships. Originally configured as a square, Oulton was soon extended with a hairpin next to the lake. Various alterations to this section followed until it was bypassed in 1975. The hairpin was reopened in 1989, but further modifications were necessary following Paul Warwick’s fatal accident at the fast Knickerbrook corner in 1991.
