Castle Combe celebrates its milestone 500th car race meeting on Easter Monday, with 500cc Formula 3 cars rolling back the years to the Wiltshire circuit’s inaugural event, run behind closed gates by the Bristol Motor Cycle & Light Car Club on 8 July 1950.
The 500cc initiative, which blossomed rapidly from seeds sown by motorsport-hungry Bristol enthusiasts in 1946, was adopted as Formula 3 in 1950 and a key to Second World War aerodrome Castle Combe’s early success as a race track. Its opening meeting featured pre-war Morgan ace Clive Lones win the programme-closing 500cc event in his bright red Tiger Kitten II. Evolved from the first production Iota P1, which the class pioneer had debuted in 1949, Lones’s intriguing confection was powered by a JAP engine manufactured by JA Prestwich Industries in North London. The long-established and prolific marque’s accessible products played a pivotal role in the category’s growth.
