designed his own car; the car was called a Lola and its creator was Eric Broadley. The highlight of the 1959 season was again the Kentish 100, with no less than 40 drivers (including 10 Grand Prix names) fighting for just 16 grid positions. Jack Brabham won both 42-lap heats driving the works Cooper-Climax. The feature race at the Boxing Day meeting was for Formula Junior, a new International Formula for single-seater racing cars using production engines up to 1,100 cc; works entries were received from Elva, Gemini, Lola, Cooper and Lotus. This new formula was to prove the death-knell of 500 cc racing. 1960s In January 1960, Kent County Council gave planning permission for the extension of Brands Hatch – an extension which would double the length of the track offering a choice of long or short circuits. The new track used, all of this existing one with the extension of Kidney Bend; South Bank became a long, uphill 160° sweep out into the country and making the approach to Clearways very much faster. From South Bank there followed a long straight dipping into and out of the next valley to the right-hand Hawthorn Bend followed by Portobello Straight to Westfield Bend leading to the dip to Dingle Dell, Dingle Dell Corner and the difficult left-hand Stirling's Bend. A short straight then brought the circuit back to Clearways at much higher speed than hitherto. John Hall said, "For the first time ever, Britain will have a Grand Prix track within 20 miles of London.'" The new track was planned to be completed in time for the August Bank Holiday meeting and was ready for testing in June. The debut of the new track came in August as planned, with works entries from BRM, Cooper, Ferrari, and Lotus together with independents such Yeoman Credit Racing, Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti and Scuderia Centro Sud. Record traffic jams were reported on the A20, and the huge crowd saw the non-championship Silver City Trophy Formula One race won by Jack Brabham in the works Cooper-Climax by just 4.4 seconds from Graham Hill in the BRM P48, after the gearbox of Jim Clark's Lotus expired after leading 22 of the 50-lap race. The fastest lap was set jointly by Clark and Brabham, in 1min 40.6sec, at a speed of . Clark had his revenge a few weeks later when the circuit saw Formula Two cars