The facility was originally named Winfarthing when it was allocated to the United States Army Air Forces in 1942.

Pilots would take off manually and then parachute to safety, leaving the bomber under the control of another aircraft to be flown to its target in Europe.

The last Aphrodite mission was on 20 January 1945, against a power station at Oldenburg: both drones missed their targets by several miles.

One year later, on 22 April 1951, the club’s first race meeting took place at Fersfield, which is situated near Diss in Norfolk.

Cars taking part included pre-war racers such as Bentleys, Frazer-Nash, MG and Bugattis plus Jaguars, Connaughts, Healeys and even a Ferrari.

The RAC steward requested the fourth race be red-flagged (stopped) as spectators had encroached into a restricted area; but some drivers declined to obey the flag and were reprimanded for their colour blindness!

According to folklore, the RAC steward once insisted that everyone present at Fersfield should sweep the track clean of rubbish before he would allow racing to continue.

As with most circuits there was always a lighter side and Fersfield was no exception, for the story goes of the road sweeper which did two laps to clean the track without the brushes working.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency