The International Gold Cup is a prize awarded annually to the winner of a motor race held at the

Oulton Park Oulton Park is a hard surfaced track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection al ...

circuit, Cheshire, England. In the 1950s and 1960s it formed one of a number of highly regarded non-Championship

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

races, which regularly attracted top drivers and teams. With the increasing cost of F1, the number of non-Championship events dwindled and the Gold Cup fell by the wayside in the mid-1970s. After this time the Cup was open to

Formula 5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars tha ...

cars, then

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championships ...

cars, before finally being reduced to a courtesy award made for the winner of the race deemed "highlight of the weeken

The Cup proper was reinstated by the Historic Sports Car Club in 2003, for the winner of a race for historic F1 cars at the same circuit. The Oulton Park circuit opened in 1953 and the first Gold Cup meeting was held the following year. As a sign of things to come Stirling Moss won both the first and second events; he would go on to win the Gold Cup a further three times before an accident prematurely ended his career. Perhaps appropriately it was Moss that was at the wheel when the Ferguson P99 took the first ever victory by a

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer cas ...

F1 car and the last victory for a front-engined F1 car, in the 1961 Gold Cup race. Other famous winners include

Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver who was Formula One World Champion in , , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name. Brabham was a R ...

and

Denny Hulme Denis Clive Hulme (18 June 1936 – 4 October 1992), commonly known as Denny Hulme, was a New Zealand racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship for the Brabham team. Between his debut at Monaco in 1965 and his f ...

Winners

External links

*{{official website, http://www.oultonparkgoldcup.co.uk Historic motorsport events