27 December 2017
Brooklands Museum is Awarded Special Commendation by the F.I.A.
Brooklands Museum’s restoration of the original Brooklands Finishing Straight and the re-instatement of the Paddock Scoreboard was awarded a rare Special Commendation at the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile), annual gala and prize giving ceremony on December 8th at the Palace of Versailles near Paris. The Special Commendation was the first ever awarded by the FIA Founding Members' Club, whose annual Members’ Heritage Cup was won this year by the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Pensinsula (SCRAMP) for its annual historic race meeting at Laguna Seca, California.
In a letter to Brooklands Museum Trust Chairman Sir Gerald Acher, the President of the FIA, Jean Todt remarked: “Brooklands has played an important role in British motorsport for over a century, and its legacy will no doubt inspire future generations to follow in the footsteps of some of the great motoring and aviation pioneers.”
The Special Commendation is in recognition of a major part of the six-year long transformation of the 32 acre site and original Brooklands Race Track, entitled Re-Engineering Brooklands. This £8.5million project has also seen the removal, restoration and reconstruction of the Bellman Aircraft Hangar that had stood on the Track since December 1940. It was just one of many dispersal buildings erected around the site to cope with the increase in aircraft manufacture during World War II. Remarkably, the original surface of the Finishing Straight had survived substantially complete underneath the Hangar, a fact which greatly assisted the Straight’s restoration.
Welcoming the Commendation, Museum Director and CEO Allan Winn said: “We are very honoured that the FIA has chosen to recognise the amazing transformation of Brooklands through this project – it is a timely reminder that the World’s governing body of motorsport has not forgotten the formative role which Brooklands played in establishing motorsport as we know it today.”
