Unbeknownst to many, stock car racing in the UK has always been quite popular: both asphalt and dirt. Some of the dirt venues are actually grey hound racing tracks. The same tracks used for speedway motorcycle racing. Bangers (street stocks) Hot Rods (basically their version of a late model sportsman) and what was once called Formula 1 (Basically a sprinter consisting of OEM production car components in order to keep the cost of racing down. ). They also quite often race clockwise because of the right hand drive set up.
Yeah, I try to get to the oval every couple of weeks or so - always regret not getting to race Ministocks when I was a kid, but a little 1/12th RC action helps a little...
I followed the sport breifly in the 70's. At the time, Barry Lee was the man. However, I was a real fan of british club saloon car racing. Your R/C Mini reminds me of the special saloons that were popular then
Some of the 'novelty' stuff can be quite entertaining, though I'm sure it riles the purists for Reliant Robins to share a meeting with F1 stock cars Some pics here, from the Mildenhall dirt oval, in case anyone's interested, and some here from the Bovingdon tarmac oval (which are a bit better, what with it being daytime)
I like the fact that the track is flat. There was once a pavement (tarmac to you Brits) track that I frequented that was flat, a nice deviation from banked venues. It was difficult to negotiate and required greater subtlety of the drivers, else guaranteed spinouts were ***ured.
Thing is, all these operations are pretty low budget, so I'd imagine the expense involved in landscaping a banked oval would make it impractical. I know there are some here, but they certainly arent the norm...
These pictures were taken at my local stock car track last year and show some Heritage stock cars, these guys build and race cars as they were in the good old days.
Glad to see they're making a come back in the UK. Here in Maine, a growing group of people are revitalizing the sport, many rescuing actual old stockers from the woods and wrecking yards to do it. Trying to squeeze in track time between the modern stocks has been a pain, but it's gaining popularity. Most of the guys are old farts, many former racers. Then others, like me, are young and were born long after these cars ceased running in circles. I'm building a 39 Buick now on a 54 Chevy truck frame powered by a 302 GMC - All Vintage- All the Time. The only modern concessions permitted on the cars is safety equipment (fuel cells, fires suits/helmets, maybe a fancy roll cage) - other than that, it is ALL old stuff. I love it and am glad to see you blokes in the UK are keeping it alive as well. To check these guys out, visit http://www.wickedgoodracing.com/ for a load of pics.
Was chatting to a couple of the stock car racers last year at the Nationals because they had their cars on display. The smaller cars are all running upright Anglia/Pop 103E running gear with 100E engines which are 65 cubic inch flathead 4's. They run period tuning goodies and put out about 65hp at 6500rpm. Not as much as back in the day when they could get 80hp out of them but it's not far off and it's all good cheap fun! There was a Pilot running a flathead V8 but the owner wasn't about so I didn't get to speak to him.
Those tracks really remind me of the old Saugus Raceway out in Canyon Country (SoCal)....it was a flat asphalt oval, the guys would show up from other tracks for an "open comp" race and always had real problem getting the setup "right".........good racing though, it was a sad day when that track closed.
Saugus was great and the locals who mastered the track proved more then a match for those accustomed to "banked" tracks. They still host kart racing there, I think
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