THE MOTOR SPORT FANATIC

Defunct STOCK CAR Tracks

The Deserted Roosecote Raceway in Barrow - Photo: James Waite  jwvideos.co.uk 

Updated 8 02 09

Click the links to see aerial views or related websites.

Aghadowey in Northern Ireland is apparently still there but hasbn't been used for years

Aldershot The HQ of Spedeworth for many years. The original stadium  was demolished after it's final meeting in November 1992 to make way for the Tongham by-pass/A331 along with quite a few local houses . The track itself is just below the junction with the A323 and the gas-holder which was a local landmark visible from the stadium is still visible to the North-West . Of the site itself Jake Butler says "One entrance has houses on it and one is blocked by a bank...(some) original concrete still exists with the painted marker on (leading to the old carpark) as well as the light that shone down on the turnstiles. There's also a old lamp, dated 1964 broken on the floor...I also found the entire car park, several concrete blocks (possibly track?) and also race control hut ,in a heap on the floor, 20ft away from the concrete foundations that still stand.  It brought a tear to the eye."  You can see what it looks like now on this Google Maps aerial photo. A nice banger racing photo from the stadium is on this link . A brand new Aldershot track has opened in 2008 !

Alwalton (Peterborough)  Located at the East of England showground near to he speedway track, this was the longest tarmac oval in regular use at 600 yards. Mostly ran Midgets until it closed in 2002. The increasing access pressure on both speedway and car tracks due to all the other events run at the venue made it unworkable. Today it's been concreted over to form a car park for one of the showground's new developments. Google Maps still shows an aerial photo of the track just south of the shale speedway oval 

Armadale is still there, used for speedway (shale has replaced the tarmac) in a slightly shorter form and gradually being surrounded by new housing which is causing a few concerns for it's future...inevitably! Closed for cars in 91 having been a Spedeworth track in various incarnations since it opened in 1971 it shows up very well in an aerial view on Flash Earth 

Aycliffe in November 1989 the track closed and was cut in half by a new road,Grindon Way, accessing an industrial estate. Factories now sit on each of the corners . All you can see now is the edge of the old car park entry road sat by a 40 sign on Heighington Lane - see http://www.acley.co.uk/BodyPages/stock_car_stadium.htm . For old photos of the track in it's glory days see http://bigleague.angelcities.com/aycliffe.html and also a  new and highly impressive site complete with downloadable video clips, then-and-now photos  and much more you can try http://stox.never-enough.co.uk/aycliffeproject.html is well worth a visit.

Baarlo  (Holland) was the longest fastest proper F1 stock car track of all at 1km. Sadly closed in the mid 90s and although it's track surface is still there the fence and much of the rest of it was removed or destroyed by vandals. Now it's either used as a storage site for caravans or as has recently been suggested, but not confirmed, some kind of detention centre. Google Maps Link  shows it very clearly

Bannockburn (Corbiewood) In Scotland (naturally) ran as an outlaw track in 1973, before and since it was a trotting track. Some of the old oval is just visible, situated inside the one now pounded by competitors limited to 1 horse-power!

Barrow (Park Road) is now buried under a factory which apparently makes candles so during the late 80s the stock cars moved to .....

Barrow ( Roose Sand Pits)  which was in Roose & Walney's Quarry owned by the Holker Estate. For years the place wasn't being quarried and the track was allowed to operate from the late 80s to the late 90s but then quarrying restarted  and has obliterated all trace of the track. 

Barrow (Rooscote) photos copyright James Waite of jwvideos.co.uk.  The replacement venue for the Sand Pits, , closed when a plan was put forward to dig a new section of the adjoining dock right across where the track was located, But this plan apparently stalled . As Jemima Kerr reports " A lot has happened since Barrow closed down on the 29th October 2006. John Curruthers (and the new owners) agreed to a 2 year lease. Repair was being made on the track due to vandelism and other such things. The track was set to open on the 31st august 2008.  Then on the 1st of June ... someone set fire to one of the Salthouse Mill buildings (which partly surround the track). The fire has resulted in asbestos contamination of the track and pits areas and the authorities say that it would not be safe for public access."  which seems to have sealed the track's fate as the cost of the clear up and repairs is enormous...how tragic after so much effort had been made to rescue the track. 

You can see the unusual location of the track on Google Maps

Belle Vue The original Hyde Road venue with it's huge wooden stands was demolished to much shock and rage in the late 1980s in the wake of the Bradford City Football ground disater. It's now huge car auction site , an aerial photo of the site is visible on Google Maps and some photo of it just before the bulldozers moved in on SPEEDWAYPLUS The "new" version in nearby "Kirky Lane" opened in spring 99,this was the smaller dog track which had apparently held car racing in 1954, and has the famous Speedway team sharing the track, much to the recently departed promoter's vocal objection.Nice aerial shot of this on Google Maps 

Bolton Closed in 1995 when the owners , The Raven Group, planned a cinema complex on the Manchester Road site - and made noises about a flash new dog/stock-car track they would build in it's place. Neither seems to have happened and the tarmac oval surface was in place until very recently, as you can see from this web page  and the google maps aerial photo (unless its been very recently updated...). However a BMW dealership has now been built on the site it .

Boston was flattened for a development that didn't happen for many years but is now either covered by a B&Q Store as visible on Google Maps. or as former racer Gary Morris think, it's where the bit of waste land is to the top left of the same site. Can anyone confirm?

Bovingdon the longtime ex airfield track featured in several TV series in recent years, closed in 2008 . The reasons were apparently a combination of small crowds, the financial downturn and possible future redevelopment at the site which  google maps shows the venue- which was once an emergency standby runway for Heathrow, apparently!

Braintree. Ran 1970s to mid 90s but disappeared under a section of the A120

Buckmore Park. Near Chatham. One of the "never quite was.." venues, It was planned to eun stock cars there in the 70s and a photo of Dave Pierce and Biffo Sweeney practicing on the track was published in LIVING WITH SPEDE...then nothing more was heard. The track was converted to a Kart venue ( I think F1 driver Johnny Herbert's family had some involvement ) and it flourishes today in that role. The oval is the outer part of the left half  of the layout as seen on this Google Maps aerial photo. The assumption is that a problem with planning permission stopped the stock cars running.

Burton Latimer in Northamptonshire was a grass banger track in Wold Lane, on the late Robin Attfield's farm. This ran for a brief spell in the early 70's . It fell victim to the Burton bye-pass which ran right through it. The club to nearby Crabford Rod, opposite the windmill cottages but I'm not sure how long that lasted or what became of the venue.There is a feature, with photo on a local history website 

Bury Farm. Near Houghton Conquest, Bedford, not far from the Millbrook proving grounds , ran bangers for a number of years and you can easily make out the track on Google Earth just sitting among the weeds. 

Cadwell Park is still there, the race circuit runs cars and bikes as it did before but the stock car track with it's hilly nature is just part of the infield on the first turn.Not a very clear view but heres the Google Maps link

Chasewater   A very long former trotting track, like a shale Baarlo, which I got mixed up with nearby NORTON CANES. Chasewater ran a one-off speedway LongTrack venue but local noise objections stopped any further use and I am told it never actually ran any cars event, which ios a shame. Large grandstand only demolished in about 2000, track and ticket booths still there when last I checked (2002) sinking into the undergrowth. Would it have been the longest shale track ever used in Britain ?Google Map's  aerial photo shows M6 Toll Road just missing the edge of the track but probably now burying the ticket booths that used to be there.

Cleethorpes. Built by Les Eaton on the site of a defunct zoo, sold to Vince "Skegness" Moody but always prone to noise complaints from locals and closed mid 90's. Last reported to be a half-completed amusement park project.

Coatbridge Ran round Albion Rovers football pitch for 9 meetings in 1965, a Spedeworth promotion, parts of the track remain beside the pitch.

Cowley is still there, aerial photo,  home of Oxford Cheetahs speedway team but said to have been altered a great deal since stock cars ran there.

Crayford   a new dog track exists several hundred yards from the site of the original stadium, now built on. Aerial Photo of the current stadium

Crewe  the big high speed shale oval with it's amazing atmosphere (and appalling "facilities"...) was flattened the same time as Boston but now has a retail park built over the top of it. Apparently the loss of the track was so deeply felt that several drivers torched their cars on the last night as a kind of funeral pyre! There's a website devoted to the track. Apparently a few years back one of the roads leading to the old turnstiles was still visible but that was the last remnant.

Cross In Hand in East Sussex was curious track with the two straights on different levels so one bend was uphill and the other downhill! It fell into disuse due to noise complaints from some of the well connected locals in the 1970s . John Homewood, who spectated there in his youth,  visited the site to report the track in 2005 "I could only find one handrail intact but the actual circuit is still remarkably clear. I don't know if it's me but it certainly seems incredibly small" . The rest of the fence had long been removed and it all sat in a wood that was gradually swallowing it up.... untill 2007 when work to clear and reopen the track began! It's still early days but the plan is to run a limited programme of events  from 2008. Good news indeed!

The track outline can still be seen in this Google Maps aerial photo  which is obviously pre-clearance work and much clearler on Flash Earth

Detling was run at  ex RAF Detling airfield by Swale MRC from mid 70s to mid 80s and used an egg-shaped track with a tight bend and a long fast bend. Recent work at the airfield has obliterated the exact site which is now part of an industrial estate that uses some of the original  WW2 buildings. There is a book on KENT AIRFIELDS IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN which shows Detling in 1979 with the track very clearly visible on page 76.  

Doncaster Used the greyhound stadium , former home of the towns Rugby League team until they got their own stadium, situated off York Road as you head west out of town. TRACKSTAR ran on alternate Sundays until the late 80s. That site is now a housing estate and no trace remains. 

Edinburgh-Meadowbank Famous speedway venue used in the 50s and 60s for stock cars but torn down in the late 60s to make way for the current athletics stadium which played host to the 1972 Commonwealth Games. Views of it before and during demolition are on SPEEDWAYPLUS

Edinburgh-Stenhouse This is a 'maybe' venue. West of the town was a greyhound track and I've been told it did run stock cars at some point - maybe in the pioneering days - but the site is now an industrial estate although the results tower is curiously still in place! Anyone know any more?

Ellesmere Port speedway track ran cars for about 9 years under Mike Parker/Trackstar and it's still there, next to the M53, but with housing getting ever closer. Several attempts to reopen it have failed as recently as 2002 because although the local authority own it, the story goes that they never had the right planning permission to begin with ! Nice aerial photo on Google Maps

Farrington The dirt oval near Oxford run by the Hook family who also operate Standlake. Closed in the late 90s I think. Does anyone know why or what became of the site?

Fittenden banger club used various fields in the Headcorn, Bethersden and Great Chart area in the 70's wonder how many of them have escaped the creeping tide of housing estates?

Gatwick A dirt banger track known as BAKER'S RACEWAY at Forge Farm in Tinsley Green, to the east of the Airport. Promoted at various times by Andy Weller and 'Baker Raceway' it operated in the 1980s-90s, closing around 1998 when it was apparently developed for housing

Gelsenkirchen (Germany). Funny shaped 1000 meter tarmac track, not an oval more like a spoon (old aerial photo) with a hairpin at one end which caused some huge shunts apparently. Ran a mix of bangers, rods and midgets .This website gives you plenty of photo galleries to browse through. The tarmac is still in place among the trees in a very industrial area next to a railway line. Very easily visible on Google Maps aerial photo

Gendt (Netherlands). Closed by the local council  at the end of the 90's. The odd square shaped track is still there close to the riverbank  and gradually being overgrown as this aerial photo shows very nicely

Gloucester is a bit mysterious. I have seen a mention of some sort of stock car racing in the late 50s or early 60's at the greyhound stadium in Longlevens which was 'developed' in the early 70 and now has a pub, called the "GREYHOUND" on the site, along with a load of houses...but no one has ever found any details. Graham Lee emailed me to say that no, there never was any stock car racing in the city, but there was allegedly once a trial speedway event at the old Gloucester FC ground in Horton Rd sometime in the 70s. It seems that if a 'Gloucester' stock car venue existed it must have been a simple grass track somewhere in the surrounding countryside - the area has always been a hotbed of Autograss/Jalopy racing so maybe this was just an early incarnation?

Hackney Smart venue used for bangers and revamped at a cost of many millions in 1995 for the British Speedway GP but closed again very soon after that. Still there with two big stands and other features all in place - said to have been earmarked as a venue for the London Olympic stadium at one time.

Harringay (left) Was the original prestige London stadium from the early years of stocks, long gone  beneath a Sainsbury's supermarket, the car park being where the center green once was (Google Maps photo)The photo features 38 Fred Mitchell in a spot of bother in the early 60s(?)

Hartlepool Sold off to build a multiplex cinema, but another was built close by before the place had been totally flattened so it never got built. The stadium site was eventually cleared and remained a waste land for many years until recently being obliterated by yet another supermarket. John Robinson confirms... " It was located next to Hartlepool Football Club, with the track located within a dog racing track.  The circuit is now under the Morrisons car park with the supermarket itself built on the old pit area and car park." The Google Maps site shows the site very clearly. 

Highwood Shortlived grass banger track in Essex near Chelmsford. Set up in the mid 90s by the Gladiators Banger racing team and sited behind the Green Man pub. The centre green had such long grass that any errant cars were visible only by the number fins on their roofs ! The reason for closure is not known but there is a faint outline of the track, which is no just a field again, on this Google Maps aerial photo 

Hinckley The Greyhound  racing stadium in Nutts Lane, near the A5. TRACKSTAR promotions held stock car and banger racing there in the mid 1970s (1976 at least..). It's still there and still running dog racing today.Aerial photo

Honsdorf in Holland - not sure when this one operated but it's now almost totally disappeared into the undergrowth and just some patches of tarmac remain see aerial photo

Iwade Now the site of the Sittingbourne speedway training track. Not, I am told, the same site as Sittingbourne's abortive Elite League speedway team were intending to use - 5 miles away and a rather more plush stadium (planners stopped that one...) There are three ovals on this aerial photo of the venue...two stand out very clearly, the third looks to be unused (which one ran stock cars?) but scroll down the page and there is actually a fourth oval visible as just an outline in the grass . Apparently  there were TWO tracks that ran at Iwade in the 1970s. One ran under the PRI banner and the other, a mere 500 yards away was run by Swale MC. The latter was, I assume, the grass track , the distances look right. It wasn't unknown for the two venues to run on the same day...  The fencing from one of the Iwade tracks apparently ended up at Arena Essex when that first opened. 

Kaldenkirchen (Germany) closed at the end of 1987 apparently due to one local complaining about the noise. He enlisted the  environmentalists lobby in the local council who sent a camera crew to the track and made a film about how much oil was spilt by the bangers.......and it got closed down ! Abandoned for years, over the past 2 years the owners have started to landfill the site to make way for a motorway/junction.  At present only part of the home straight, turn 1 & 2 (anticlockwise)  and part of the back straight survive as does the starters gantry, but the rest is under a big pile of sand. This aerial photo shows it very clearly. Here's a link to an old photo of the pit area in happier days and one of the whole track showing what great viewing it offered

Knowle. Bristol's pioneer stock car circuit on the A37 in the southern suburbs was also a speedway and greyhound venue and fell victim to housing development in about 1960. It was less than half a mile from Whitchurch Airfield (the former Bristol Airport which once held circuit racing) almost opposite the HAPPY LANDINGS pub and near the old SPORTS GROUND where first class cricket was played until  the 1980s. No signs remain of the stock car stadium today but as you drive along Wells Road the older style houses give way to a section of newer(1960s) ones. That's where it stood. Aerial photo

Kimbolton Near Peterborough - was on part of the old WW2 airfield which also plays host to the kart track (about half a mile north east ) . The oval track is lying in the weeds beside an industraial estate and still easily visible on Google Maps

Kirkby. In Simonswood Lane, not far from the Aintree racing circuit was a tarmac track built round Kirkby AFC's football pitch. However due to lack of space it had 4 distinct right-angle corners rather than the usual two sweeping bends. That slowed up the racing, didn't appeal to the locals and it closed in June 1975 due to the poor number of spectators. The area looks to have been reworked over the years and of thetwo pitches on the site today, neither shows  any sign of the concrete perimeter track in the clear aerial photo on  Google Maps

Llandow Near Bridgened in Wales was a full size road circuit in the 1960s and 70s  It was shaped like an oval with a dent on one end  A section of this track plus a loose surfaced infeld (visible to the right on the Google Maps Aerial Photo )was then used for Bangers and later a mix of Hot Rod and autograss racing took place there in the 80s and early 90s on the full track. It was then taken over, refurbished as a sprint venue with extra bends and chicanes added and a new, narrower surface that meant it was no longer suitable for oval formulas. 

Leicester Blackbird Rd stadium was like an island among a sea of  houses, was never going to survive the age of noise-objectors and got demolished so that Barrett's could put up a few more homes.

Liverpool Kirkby stadium was run by the original Trackstar promotion that also ran New Brighton. When they moved their interests to Crewe in 1975 the site was closed and is now a sports centre with an athletics track over the old dog/stocks track Aerial photo.

Long Eaton  is now just a wasteland , the fence is now used at Belle Vue, the shale went to Kings Lynn, the old bar/stand was torched by vandals and the rest of it is disappearing into the undergrowth. Lots of local protesters have tried long and hard to get it re-opened and lots of potential buyers have been thwarted by owners who sought planning for houses. Finally after wasted years, in 2008, they have apparently got their wish and it's scheduled to disappear under housing...just as the housing market hits a major crash! Frankly many will hope they've been well stuffed on the price as a result and feel it serves then right for the sins of the past decade....... The site it still easily visible on this  Google Maps Link 

Longridge a Kart track in a quarry that was enlarged to run circuit racing. Mike Parker wanted to use it for banger racing but nothing came of the venture. Became a caravan site late 70's and still is with bits of track still visible under the static 'vans. Google Maps link

Lydden Hill pioneer venue, originally grass, revived i the 70s, reverted to just circuit racing in the 80s . Plans for it to be razed to the ground by current owners, the McLaren F1 team, who had plans for a factory/test track on the site seem to have abated at the moment. F1 stock cars s have run demos there in the past few years I am told and there is Banger racing on the site once again. It shows up well on Google Maps

Manston Another ex RAF airfield

Manston Another ex RAF airfield site, now Kent International Airport , was run by Thanet Auto Club and used a section of the base known as The Loop and that's still visible, close to industrial units now built on part of the site. See Google Maps

Millom  in Cumbria was opened on a former pit slag heap circa 1995 when Barrow's Roose Sandpits closed down. It seems to have fallen into disuse in about 2003 and from aerial photos you can clearly see it still in place. NorthernBangers.co.uk have an online album of photos showing the track in the summer of 2008 .With Roosecote Raceway apparently no-longer about to be revived you do wonder if  Millom has been considered as it's successor - although it's location on the west coast of Cumbria makes it hard to reach for visiting teams/drivers and now there are no longer many active locals it's unlikely to be viable.  

Motherwell Was Scotland's first oval, first running in July 1954 but like many pioneer tracks didn't last beyond 1955! Then used as an 'outlaw' venue in 1979 before the stadium itself was demolished. Curiously the actual track surface remains, hidden among the long grass on a piece of open ground to the west of Milton Street. It shows up very clearly on Flash Earth.

Nazeing This is another on those places where there may be two possible venues of this name used the the late 50s. One appears to have also been a pioneer kart track and was located on a landfilled gravel pit in Green Lane . The locals didn't like the noise so the karts moved to Rye House and one assumes the stock cars did too? The other possibility is the local airfield which may have hosted stock cars as well or perhaps they ran their and the gravel pit was just for karts? Anyone got any more info? The airfield is now an industrial estate.

Neath Abbey the first purpose built stock car track? Surface made of crushed up coal. No less a famous name that Bernie Ecclestone raced there !  Now an industrial estate. On Google Maps you can seen estates both to the north and west of the Abbey ruins. Photos from the time suggest it was located on the estate to the West. The track certainly ran very close to the ruined outer Abbey walls.

Nelson was everyone's favorite grass-roots, dirt-under-the-finger nails, shale-in-the-eyes track. Compulsory purchased in 1979 to build a bit of M65 motorway. Only 20% of the track was used, the rest remains as waste ground  to this day . On Google Maps you can make it out as the square patch of bare land below the althetics track and cricket ground , sandwished between the motorway and the trees.Pity they hadn't moved the road a few yards to the east instead!

Newcastle Brough Park is just used for speedway now although repeated attempts to run stock cars even in 2000 have been fraught with problems and objectors. A nursing home built right next door being the main stumbling block. Google Maps clearly shows it's urban location 

New Cross the tiny (just over 200 yards round) venue of the first ever British stock car meeting and long-time speedway venue. Located on Hornshay St. in south London and known as the 'Frying Pan' it was closed in 1963 and is now a sort of public park/garden in amongst housing estates. The bowl of the stadium is visible but grassed over with a trace of terracing, bits of wall, gate posts and other features surviving.Google Maps Link shows how small the stadium area was and there are some photos of it in better days on SPEEDWAYPLUS

Newton Abbot was at the horse race course and though that still remains the oval track was razed to the ground when the horse-types and the car promoters failed to agree on new terms a few years ago. The oval track visible on Google Maps  is actually the former greyhound track, not the stock car track as I once throught, that was located to the left of that central link road, opposite the grandstands. All the is left is the former track bar, now used as a nursery of some kind and the 'watch tower' which has been disguised with fence panels.