Book celebrates London's last circuit

Crystal Palace saw great racing until the 1970s

By PH Staff / Friday, 17 June 2005 / Loading comments

Excellent accessible circuit saw some great names

There's a new book out about one of London's (almost) forgotten circuits: Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace is one of the oldest motor racing venues in the world -- this is its story, which focuses on the development of the venue over the years and its untimely demise. It includes many rare and previously unpublished photos.

Racing continued there after WWII until 1972. There were some great races there just before it closed due to development of stuff like leisure centres and safety rules...

1970 saw Jochen Rindt, Graham Hill and Emerson Fittipaldi in Loti, Jackie Stewart, Carlos Reutemann, John Watson, Henri Pescarolo and Derek Bell in Brabhams, Reine Wisell in a Chevron, Francois Cevert and Clay Reggazzoni in Tecnos, with a March for Ronnie Peterson and a Pygmee for Patrick Depailler. And your editor can remember seeing Emerson Fittipaldi win the 1971 F2 race there in a Lotus (and still has the photos somewhere).

The author

After dropping out of a degree course in Automotive and Motorsport engineering, S.S. Collins went on a mission to write a clear and easy-to-use guide to getting started in motorsport (How to Get started in Motorsport - Veloce). Currently Collins is working in the commercial section of ‘the voice of British Motorsport’ that is the weekly newspaper Motorsport News. Collins is also a regular on entry lists as he competes in sprints, hillclimbs, races, rallies and trials. Collins was introduced to the sport in 1997 when his local park at Crystal Palace was turned into a sprint venue.

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