History
The circuit was originally developed by the Mid-Cheshire Car Club on the estate of the Grey-Egerton family, with the track attracting a crowd of 40,000 during the 1950s. Oulton Park regularly hosted the International Gold Cup event which attracted many Formula One teams (Stirling Moss won it 5 times), but as the F1 calendar shrank to include only Grand Prix events, the Cup became less well-known. The event has been run for a number of other categories including Formula 5000, sports cars and touring cars. It has now, however, been re-established as a highlight of the classic racing calendar. The British Touring Car Championship, the British F3/British GT Championship and the British Superbike Championship meetings are also highlights of the year.
The track is characterised by its rapidly changing gradients and blind crests leading into unforgiving corners. The full track is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) long, with a selection of shorter circuits also possible. Among many British and foreign drivers it is considered one of the most challenging and thrilling circuits ever constructed.
One of the short circuits is the "Foster's" Circuit which comprises half of the "Cascades" corner followed by Hislop's, or "Hizzy's" chicane. The circuit then heads onto Knickerbrook and up Clay Hill to work its way round to the start/finish straight. This circuit is 1.66 miles (2.7 km) in length.
The other short circuit that is used almost exclusively for the MSA British Touring Car Championship. This circuit comprises all of the Cascades Corner and Lakeside but then forks off into a hairpin before Island Bend. This hairpin cuts out all of the Island section of the circuit and takes the cars straight back over Hill Top.
For the 2007 season, the marshalling stations were redesigned with a protective cage around each of the marshalling stations. This was to prevent incidents similar to those in the 2006 season, when cars were known to "fly through" the marshalling stations. At around the same time, the marshalling post at the bottom of the back straight, near the chicane preceding Knickerbrook, also had a proper marshals post built behind the existing armco barrier and was fitted with caging similar to the other marshalling posts.
The paddock facilities are reasonable in size, with large areas of hard-standing and some power points.
A highly-entertaining though rather risqué monologue about the construction of one part of the circuit, "The Naming of Knicker Brook", is told by demolition expert/raconteur Blaster Bates.
A good spot for spectators is alongside either the Fogarty Moss Centre or alongside Hill Top. Most of the track can be seen from these areas.
Read more about this topic: Oulton Park
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