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Oulton Park is a hard surfaced track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about 5-mile (8.0 km) from Winsford, 13-mile (21 km) from Chester city centre, 8-mile (13 km) from Northwich and 17-mile (27 km) from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection along the Mid-Cheshire Line. It occupies much of the area which was previously known as the Oulton Estate. The racing circuit is owned and operated by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation. Circuit The track is characterised by rapidly changing gradients, blind crests and several tight corners. The full circuit is 2.692 mi (4.332 km). The highest part of the course is Hill Top. Paddock facilities are reasonable in size with large areas of hard-standing and some power points. The race track can be adapted for shorter courses. The "Foster's" Circuit, which is 1.660 mi (2.672 km), comprises half of the "Cascades" corner followed by the "Hislop's" chicane, it then heads onto Knickerbrook and up the 13% gradient of Clay Hill to work its way round to the start/finish straight. The British Touring Car Championships uses 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. Beginning in 2007, all the circuit's marshalling stations were redesigned with protective cages. This was to prevent incidents similar to those seen in the 2006 season when cars had collided with marshalling posts. A cage-protected marshals station was also built at the bottom of the back straight near the chicane preceding Knickerbrook. Knickerbrook corner The corner is named after an event that occurred when the British demolition expert and raconteur, Blaster Bates, was removing tree stumps with dynamite close to the corner with a colleague. After the first detonation, a courting couple were seen to run off at speed and in some disarray from a nearby a bush or bank. On the closer investigation, the pair discovered some ladies underwear in the brook and this resulted in the naming of the corner. Despite its colourful name, it was a notorious corner on circuit because of accidents and driver fatalities. The death of Paul Warwick in 1991 led to a chicane being added at the entry to the corner. Before Warwick's death, the bend had a reputation as a "racers' corner" because it demanded a driver's full commitment and total courage. Originally it was a fifth gear, off camber right-hand bend at the end of a downhill straight called Hilltop. Deep kerbing on the inside of the corner combined with an off camber could easily affect a cars' handling causing it to veer to the outside of the circuit. As an Armco barrier on the outside of the corner eventually intersected with the grass verge, there was a significant lack of run off area for drivers forced wide on the bend. Since 1991, a right-left chicane (named Hislop's) was installed about 135 m (443 ft) before Knickerbrook to reduce the speed of cars coming down Hilltop. History Origins – 1950s In the early 18th century the Oulton Estate comprised a manor house and a formal garden surrounded by Cheshire farmland. By the end of the century this farmland was converted into a park, which now is the site of Oulton Park. Some buildings that were part of the estate still exist; the entrance gates, lodges and screen designed by Joseph Turner. During the Second World War, Oulton Park's grounds were used as one of the staging camps for US Army units under the command of General Patton (he stayed at nearby Peover Hall) before the Normandy landings in 1944. American World Heavyweight Champion boxer Joe Louis put on several exhibition bouts for the troops garrisoned at Oulton Park. The fights were staged within the vicinity of the Deer Leap section of the modern circuit. After the war, much of the estate remained unused. The estate's original house had been destroyed by fire in 1926 leaving vacant parkland. By the early 1950s England had a number of motor racing tracks but the northwest was not well served. The members of the Mid-Cheshire Car Club took it on themselves to rectify the situation. The circuit they developed was on the estate of the Grey-Egerton family. With Sir Philip Gray-Egerton's permission, a circuit was mapped out starting early in 1953 and by August the new track was in existence, measuring 1.504 mi (2.420 km), almost rectangular in shape. The first meeting took place on 8 August, but the RAC would not allow the public to attend, wanting an opening meeting to be run successfully before allowing paying spectators; nonetheless some 3,000 club members and their guests attended as spectators. The main event of the day was the 33-lap 49.6 mi (79.8 km) Formula Two race, won by Tony Rolt driving Rob Walker's Connaught A Type. The supporting Formula III event was divided into three 10-lap heats (won by Don Trueman, Charles Headland and Don Parker) and a 17-lap final which went to Les Leston. Oulton Park has a vast catchment area which includes Liverpool, Manchester, Chester and Crewe so it is little surprise that the second meeting and last of 1953, on 3 October, attracted a crowd of 40,000. It was a joint motorcycle and car event, the Wirral 100 Motor Club joining the Mid-Cheshire Car Club in organising it. The car side of the day was confined to three Formula III races and a final, which was won by Glaswegian Ninian Sanderson from Ken Tyrrell. By April 1954, the track had grown to 2.356 mi (3.792 km) in length and within a year of the opening meeting had grown again, to 2.761 mi (4.443 km). On Easter 1975, another circuit layout, measuring 1.654 mi (2.662 km), came into use. Oulton Park is unique amongst the new post-World War II circuits in that it is a true road circuit whilst its contemporaries were, with one exception, converted airfields (the exception being the short-lived Blandford). It has something in common with Mallory Park in that it can trace its history back a very long way (possibly as far as Roman times) and is mentioned in Domesday Book as ‘Aleton’. The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) brought the British Empire Trophy to Oulton Park in 1954 and ran it for sports cars on the new 2.356 mi (3.792 km) Island Circuit. Alan Brown won the race in a Cooper-Bristol from Roy Salvadori, driving a Maserati A6GCS, who set a new lap record at 74.73 mph (120.27 km/h). In August, Oulton Park saw its first international meeting when the Daily Dispatch sponsored the Oulton Park Gold Cup. Apart from the 11-year period when Aintree ran international Formula One races, it fell to Oulton Park to bring the major formulae to the northwest of England and the Gold Cup was run for all the major formulae: Formula One, Formula Two, Formula 5000 and the big sport cars. Its first running over the second new circuit of the year, the 2.761 mile International circuit, and was for Formula One; the entry was enti.... Discover the Harry Oulton popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Harry Oulton books.