The government has provided a new £1m grant to Brooklands Museum to allow work to begin on the restoration of the historic Brooklands racing circuit.
Brooklands Museum intends to restore the start-finish straight to how it would have looked back in 1939 - the heyday for what was the world's first purpose-built racing circuit, originally opened in 1907. The circuit hosted its last race in 1939, due to the outbreak of World War Two.
£4.7m was previously provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the restoration back in February 2015.
The restoration will include the removal of a World War Two aircraft hangar from the track, as the location was used for the assembly of Wellington bombers in the 1940s and for industrial purposes later on.
The Wellington Hangar, which is Grade II listed, will become The Brooklands Aircraft Factory - a museum where visitors will be able to see the history of British aircraft from biplanes right up to Concorde.
The track at Brooklands was used for several land speed record attempts within its first 20 years.
Once restored, the straight of the race circuit will once again be used for motoring activities and displays.
Unfortunately the full circuit cannot be restored back to a usable state as parts have been turned over to industrial estate use or merged into local roads in more recent times.
Image: John Chapman / Wikipedia
