2010 Photos all courtesy of Steve Parker Earlier photos courtesy of Martin Underwood
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GREAT GIDDING As it was in January 2010 |
Back To Defunct Stock Car Tracks
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The 'left hand' end of the track |
Back Straight |
New offices on the edge of the old front straight |
Main Gates seen from the road |
..and from the other direction, away from the track |
Looking down Hemmington Lodge Rd from the main gates |
MARTIN UNDERWOOD (327) recalls I used to race with a
team called the “Paxo Squad” the cars were green with an orange stripe
and we raced in all the formulas. On a good Day the “Paxo Squad “
would turn up at the meeting with about 6 mini stocks, 4 or 5 bangers and
2 or 3 hotrods I think the track died
around the 1990. When I used to race there
the track was owned be a Mr Drake who died in the early 1980’s the track
was then run by his widow and her children ( I believe they still
live in the area) until it closed. The Cars that were in the
Salvage yard when I was racing there were mainly old bangers that had been
used on his track And were at the end of their useful life. But he would
sell bits of off them back to the drivers at a cheap rate i.e. you could
get a wheel and tyre for 50p BILLY BLAKEMAN says... "I was a regular at Great Gidding during the (I think) late 70's and early 80's. I was just a kid (born 1970) and went there with younger sister, our parents and late nan.
The track ran a program of bangers,
mini-contacts and hot-rods in equal number. The predominant banger teams
were 'The Hound Dogs' in red, black and white and their rivals 'The Mr
Men' in orange - both teams having mostly Oxfords or Cambridges. As I
recall, we were big fans of 'The Silver Machines' who ran Triumph
2000's.
Such a shame it is now an industrial estate.
I have tried to research a bit of the history but not been very successful. It is like the track never existed."
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STEVE PARKER says ...
i work for an advertising company which
is on the old Great Gidding raceway site In Cambridgeshire so thought it
best if i took a few photos!
I never had the pleasure of watching racing
at Gidding in its heyday which is a shame because i dont have anything
to compare it with and there's very little evidence to say there ever
was.
Im told a few various companies have had the site before the firm i work for took it over and the tarmac or concrete surface was broken up for unknown reasons leaving us with huge flooded potholes.
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