A large crowd lines the motor racing circuit along the seafront at Bexhill-on-Sea in 1905, while a photographer stands with his tripod-mounted camera to record the event. Bexhill enjoyed five years unchallenged as the home of British motor sport before Brooklands opened in 1907.
Motor racing originated in France in the mid-1890s, but the first race to be held on British soil took place in the early years of the twentieth century: in May 1902 in the perhaps unlikely location of Bexhill-on-Sea.
The idea originated with Earl De La Warr, who saw interest in motor sport as being a means of raising the profile of the town, much of which he owned. The Bicycle Boulevard, which ran along part of De La Warr Parade, had the makings of an ideal sprint circuit. For his first racing event, the Earl, in collaboration with the Automobile Club of Great Britain, attracted over two hundred entries, and huge crowds came along to watch the spectacle of cars doing 50mph along the seafront – over four times the legal speed limit of the day. The event became hugely popular, and the Earl drew up plans to develop a proper racing circuit for the town, but they never came to fruition. By the summer of 1907, the focus of motor sport had moved to Brooklands near Weybridge, to the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit. The first event at the new circuit was held on 28 June (the day the circuit was officially opened), and three Napier cars raced. The first ‘official’ meeting was held on 6 July 1907, again attracting large crowds, and Brooklands quickly became the centre of British motor sport. At the fourth meeting at the new circuit, in September 1907, only two months after it had opened, amateur driver Vincent Herman, driving a 52hp Minerva car, became the sport’s first fatality.