The Brooklands Podcast

Vicki Butler Henderson in conversation with Harry Sherrard

Karun Chandhok in conversation with Harry Sherrard and two pieces of music celebrating Donald Campbell.

Brooklands celebrates 50 years since our Concorde delta Golf's first flight.

Vicki's grandfather raced a Frazer Nash at Brooklands and, with heritage like that, small wonder that she made her career in the motoring world. She started racing karts at the age of 12 and went on to compete in a multitude of cars and categories. Notable achievements include becoming the first woman to win a Maserati race in the history of the marque, when she competed in a support race at the British Grand Prix in 2004. Vicki has been a motoring journalist from the age of 18 and in 1994 joined the Top Gear team on BBC, before moving to Channel 5 to present Fifth Gear, staying with the show when it moved to the Quest channel. Her journalistic skills have featured in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including Auto Express, What Car?, Performance Car and the Sunday Times, earning Vicki the accolade of being the UK's number one female four-wheel journalist.

We welcomed Vicki to Brooklands and she delivered a fascinating conversation about her outstanding career.

Who were aviation’s greatest pioneers, influencers and heroes? A light-hearted look at the men and woman at the forefront of more than a century of aviation, from Brooklands’ own Harry Hawker, to Amy Johnson, to Chuck Yeager and beyond. Concluding with an audience vote as to who should head the Hall of Fame.

Our speaker is Andy Richardson, former Avro Vulcan crew member turned civil aviation consultant and historian. Andy returns to Brooklands having delivered a sell-out talk about his Vulcan career.

Unconventional and controversial, in the 1990s the Benetton Formula 1 team rose through the ranks to challenge the big names of Williams, Ferrari and McLaren. After black flags, disqualifications, a pitlane inferno and political manoeuvring, the tumultuous 1994 season ended with Michael Schumacher sealing the World Championship title for Benetton, after a controversial clash with Damon Hill in the season finale in Australia. Our speaker is Damien Smith, former editor of MotorSport magazine and author of the new and authoritative history of this most colourful of Formula 1 teams. Damien is joined by senior Benetton engineer Pat Symonds and other former team personnel.

10 June 1907, Peking. Five cars set off in a desperate race across two continents on the verge of revolution. An Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a conman and various journalists battle over steep mountain ranges and across the arid vastness of the Gobi Desert. The contestants need teams of helpers to drag their primitive cars up narrow gorges, lift them over rough terrain and float them across rivers. Petrol is almost impossible to find, there are barely any roads, armed bandits and wolves lurk in the forests. Updates on their progress, sent by telegram, are eagerly devoured by millions in one of the first ever global news stories. Their destination: Paris. More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris provided the impetus for profound change. The world of 1907 is poised between the old and the new: communist regimes will replace imperial ones in China and Russia; the telegraph is transforming modern communication and the car will soon displace the horse. In this book bestselling author Kassia St Clair traces the fascinating stories of two interlocking races - setting the derring-do (and sometimes cheating) of one of the world's first car races against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological rush to the future, as the rivalry grows between countries and empires, building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything - the First World War. The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that shaped the world we live in today.

Karun is in conversation with Harry Sherrard.

Karun Chandhok was born into a motor racing family where his father, grandfather and even grandmother used to race! After winning Indian and Asian championships, Karun moved to England where he was a front-runner in Formula 3, which served as a launch pad up to GP2 and then Formula 1. Karun was a test driver for the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team in 2007 and 2008, before racing in Formula 1 for Hispania Racing and Team Lotus in 2010 and 2011. He went on to compete at Le Mans and in the Formula E series.

Since 2016, Karun has been a regular driver and consultant for the Williams Formula 1 team’s Heritage business, showcasing their World Championship winning Formula 1 cars. He is also a Goodwood Revival regular, winning the Whitsun Trophy in the CanAM McLaren M1A in 2019.

Best known today as commentator and technical analysist of the Sky Sports F1 team, Karun also sits on the Board of Motorsport UK.

We are delighted that Karun made time in his busy schedule to come to talk to us at Brooklands.

On 13th February 1974 G-BBDG took off for the first time. Our panel of Allan Winn, Terry Selman, Gordon Roxburgh and former Chief Concorde Pilot Mike Bannister discuss Delta Golf's remarkable journey from test flights to arriving here at Brooklands and and most importantly, what it was like to fly her.

UPDATE - WE ARE DELIGHTED THAT CONCORDE PILOT JOCK LOWE JOINS US FOR THIS PANEL TALK.

Allan Winn

Allan's role in beinging Delta Golf to Brooklands was to fight the legal, regulatory, technical, financial and commercial battles to get it to Brooklands in the first place, and then get it restored and into service as a genuine revenue-generator forthe Museum.

Mike Bannister

Mike's proudest association with DG comes from my time at British Airways, the owners of the aircraft. Whilst at BA he was one of a very small group that decided where each Concorde should go after retirement. Mike lobbied heavily for Brooklands and managed to convince the others that the Museum was the right site and that DG was the perfect 'Concorde' to be allocated.

Terry Selman

Joined BOAC (BA) from school to complete a 5-year apprenticeship, went on to obtain UK CAA maintenance engineers licences before taking up a position as an Overseas Line Station Engineer. In 1975 attended 3-month Concorde training course in Bristol after which posted to RAF Fairford and Brize Norton to provide maintenance support during the Pilot, Flight Engineer training program. After completing the training program, he was posted to Bharain for 2 years to provide line station support for the first Concorde commercial passenger flights.

Gordon Roxburgh

Gordon Roxburgh, founder of the ConcordeSST website, used the power of the internet to bring together and lead a group of over 100 volunteers, many new to Brooklands Museum and to aircraft engineering for that matter, to help restore G-BBDG. The Team also worked on the restoration of the Concorde Simulator. Many of the team are still volunteers today at Brooklands and other museums around the country.

In 2024 we mark the 80th anniversary of the most infamous prisoner breakout from Nazi Germany. The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III was immortalised by the 1963 Hollywood blockbuster; but what really happened?

Our speaker is Joanna Bristow-Watkins, whose father, Squadron Leader Alec Bristow, was a Mosquito pilot who was shot down and incarcerated in the notorious Stalag. He kept a diary as a POW, from which Joanna has drawn her fascinating talk.

What was it really like for an RAF Officer in the camp? How challenging was the planning and construction of the famous Tom, Dick and Harry tunnels? What actually took place on the night of 24th March 1944? And what were the after-effects of this bold affront to the Nazi Regime?