The last FI Grand Prix at Aintree .

THE 1962 F1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Given the latest F1 race with Hamilton crashing out , in what is now a virtually armoured race car , it brought to my memory the time my then fiancé, Joan and I were invited to the very last British Grand Prix at the Aintree Race Circuit.

Invitation came from the Pakamac company. A company then that produced plastic rain coats in their thousands . The horror was that wearing one meant your trouser legs were saturated by the run-off of water from the plastic!

But. The invite was very welcome. Joan and I arrived with a pass for my then car – an Austin A 30 – in the privileged car park.

Escorted to our seats. The whole atmosphere tense but still so very relaxed in a way. We wandered down into the pits as cars were fuelled with what smelled like special stuff . Drivers getting ready in their open face leather helmets – for all the world like pilots of a plane. The Duke of Kent wandering about as well as ourselves . Mechanics working in very open spaces .

Such a difference to today's world . Our only ID was the swing ticket in my buttonhole- as seen.
A lovely memory of a very different world.

Jim Clark was the victor in his Lotus with Jon Surtees next – Lotus again – and Bruce McLaren third in a Cooper- Climax .
See attached for my Tag and the map of the last Aintree Race

Ralph Warburton