THE MOTOR SPORT FANATIC
DEFUNCT TRACKS | THE BIG TRACKS
Updated 03 03 08
I am keen to find out what has become of many of the tracks and stadiums that ran stock cars in the past - Here are some who's fate we know of ..but what about the rest?
Click the links to see aerial views or related websites.
Aldershot The HQ of Spedeworth for many years was demolished in the 80s to make way for the Tongham by-pass/A331 along with quite a few local houses were pulled down as well . 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
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 used as a storage site for caravans! 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) which was the replacement is apparently now due to be dug up at some point in the future and turned into a new section of the adjoining docks! There is an online petition to try and get the local council to find a new venue click here and you can see the precarious location of the existing 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 .
Blackburn Tesco's built a supermarket on this one
Boston was flattened for a development that didn't happen for many years but is now covered by a B&Q Store as visible on Google Maps.
Bradford. is just sitting there but several development plans have come and gone since racing and speedway stopped and not a lot has happened since. Various attempts have been made to restart racing and there were dates on the books for late 2003, but on tarmac rather than the shale surface that was there when it closed in 1996. Recently a brick-built hospitality/office complex appeared on top of turns 1-2 which probably scuppers all future plans for stock cars ... Google Maps link
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 had seen a mention of some sort of stock car racing in the late 50s or early 60's at the old dog track off Northgate street (now a supermarket) , next to the present rugby ground ...or the other dog stadium in Longlevens which now has a pub, called the "GREYHOUND" on the site, along with a load of houses...but no one seemed to know any details. Graham Lee emailed me to say that no, there never was any stock car racing in the city, but there was once a trial speedway event at the old Gloucester FC ground in Horton Rd sometime in the 70s.
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 and the stadium eventually got cleared and remained a waste land for years until recently being obliterated by yet another Morrison's supermarket...but having checked I can't find a Morrisons in Hartlepool so can anyone confirm this?
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
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 want to sell it for housing, not a sports facility. Recent stories say it is about to be rebuilt but only for speedway. No signs of that yet. 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 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 t have fallen into discuse in about 2003 and from aerial photos you can clearly see it still in place. With Roosecote Raceway apparently facing an uncertain future it's surprsing that Millom hasn't been slated as it's successor.
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.
New Brighton
An ex cycle track (location for cycling world championships in the
20s!) with high concrete banked
bends - 33 degrees at one end and 20 degrees at the other ! Pretty awesome
to see and drive. Located at RAKERS FOOTBALL GROUND in
Molyneux Drive and by the original Trackstar promotion who also ran
Liverpool
at the same time. New Brighton existed on a knife edge due to never having
recieved proper planning consent (to the dismay of the promotor who had been
told it was in place) from around 1970 untill it finally succomed to the
inevitable sustained opposition by
a few locals about the noise in March 1976.
Now it's disappeared under a housing estate and a sports field. There is a great
website
devoted to the track which includes some old cine film well worth a look (the
photo is courtersy of Steve Parry the author of that site) There
is also a new website devoted to the TRACKSTAR
promotion that always ran the stadium.
On the site are numerous great photos from New Brighton and in particular one that perfectly depicts the steeply banked bend and the general surroundings click here to see it.
Newtongrange. "Nitten" Reckoned to be super-atmospheric, one e mailer said that even the awesome Cowdenbeath cauldron is tame by comparison! Rotten kill-joy council refused GMP a license to run, so that's when they moved to Cowdenbeath. Houses now on the stadium site, curiously the shape of the track is preserved by the way the houses were laid out on the ground!
Norton Canes on the B1454 as you head for Norton Canes from the A5 (on the left) . Not far from Hednesford. Mike Parker ran bangers and bombers there in the 70s and 80s to the annoyance of neighboring promoter Bill Morris. The story goes that Morris wouldn't let any of his Hednesford drivers run there under threat of being banned. Dates for F2s in the mid 70s didn't happen. Site ran moto-x and dogs for some years after cars ceased then became a garden centre and you can see the track outline very clearly on this Google Maps Link
Norwich.The famous Firs stadium, home of the speedway team and legend Ove Fundin, ran midgets in the 1950s but was closed down in 1965 and is now a housing estate.
Olympia The famous London exhibition halls where the MOTOR SHOW used to be held were host to an unfortunately un-commercial indoor event, in the late 80s I think, running Hot Rods etc. The anticipated huge crowds just did not appear. The venue remains in place. A similar indoor venture in the USA running midgets has run for well over a decade.
Perry Bar the original Birmingham track was demolished and built over, a newer stadium is just across the road, running dogs.
Plymouth The Pennycross stadium, such a feature of the early years of both the big league and later F2 is now a housing estate in the middle of town
Pembrey . A mix of local autograss cars and the odd national hot rod (Colin White) ran there in a winter series for several years (early 1990s) and used just once in that time for Brisca F2, very few cars appeared (I was there, almost on my own!) and didn't return. Short tarmac tri-oval using a bit of the road racing circuit which of course is still in regular use.
Peterborough (Alwalton) Longest 'short oval' regularly run in Britain at about 600 yards. Purpose built on the showground some way away from the speedway stadium. Closed down in 2002 as the showground got busier and costs rose. It's still visible on Google Maps but I believe it may now have become a car park?
Prestatyn. Rare example of a really large stock car track , well over the normal quarter mile , surfaced with smooth crushed limestone and also used as a 'long track' by the grass track riders in the mid 60s for a few years. Owned by the founders of KWIK SAVE supermarkets and originally a horse trotting and Greyhound track - apparently still there as part of the road network at the PONTINS Point of Ayr holiday camp where the static challets are lined up around a large slightly cambered oval ! The track had one curious feature : The lights all went out as soon as the winner crossed the line, a throwback to when the dogs ran and needed to be put of chasing the electric hare! It also boasted a gold painted Cadillac which acted as a water bowser. A grasstrack & banger club operates near the town these days.
Prestwood near Great Missenden, Herts, ran bangers from 1970s-1990s and can still be seen clearly on Google Maps and a nice action shot from the track is on this link
Reading There were two stadiums , Tilehurst and Smallmead. The former was used in the 60s and early 70s by Spedeworth untill bulldozed in 1973 for an industrial estate (see Google Maps for an aerial photo today) and replaced by the brand new Smallmead stadium two years later, built, I think, on the site of a former rubbish dump ( see Google Maps). Spedeworth and later Autospeed ran there but these days it's just used for speedway and the home of the Reading Racers team.
Rayleigh disappeared under a B&Q warehouse
Rochdale Yet another Morrisons supermarket! (did all tracks in the north make way for roads or supermarkets?)
Ruabon Raceway, Wales -Ran Modstox Stock Cars around 2003-2004 as well as bangers and grass-track cars. Apparently being redeveloped for motorcross events. Unusual D-shaped track with an uphill straight followed by a long long downhill bend .What little barrier there was edged the finish line the rest of it was an open field edged by distant trees. Arron O's excellent modstox site has a photo of the track
Ruisbroek(Belgium) closed at the end of 2001. Promoter only rented the premises, and had to give it up to the council for the expansion of the industrial estate. A Plant hire firm occupies most of the site today although little has apparently been done on the actual track itself beyond ripping it up! As the mainroad past the track, got moved to the other side of the track itself (near to the then backstraight), it's hard to any real spot traces. What remains is a small piece of the pit bend terraces. This aerial photo shows it's unusual location hemmed in by water on two sides.
Rye House passed into stock car history in 2000 when the lease was sold by Spedeworth to a speedway promoter who shaled over the tarmac track then later flattened it a little later and rebuilt it all specifically to speedway requirements. The original 50s track was actually alongside the current one and is now under the Kart track.
Salford (Albion Stadium) A Mike Parker-run venue was part of the Manchester Racecourse complex and also ran dogs. Flattened and now has some of the university halls of residence built on top of it. Only the main gate survives.
Selsey A curiously long and narrow shaped dirt banger track that ran in the early and mid 90's near Chichester, it's still there and easily visible on FLASH EARTH's aerial photo
Scunthorpe is now buried under a Morrisons supermarket see Google Maps
Shildon The track that never was! Built as a replacement for the much missed Aycliffe, the ground was all prepared and just needed the tarmac...and full planning permission, neither of which apparently were forthcoming - much to the frustration of promoters Toulson & Jopling who'd made a big effort to keep a track operating in the locality. Then the ex Aycliffe fence, already in place, (as were many facilities including spectator banks), was apparently stolen and sold for scrap! And the track is still there today - very easily visible on aerial photos with the new athletics track to the south west of it.
Silloth on the Solway Firth was an airfield venue just inland on the town. Also used for motorcycle racing in the 70s. Now apparently partly industrial estate, Solway autograss club had a neat little dirt surfaced track on part of the airfield untill 2006 but they have now moved to a new location beside the M6 at Hay Close Farm,Calthwaite.
When grading the planned location for their track in 2002 they found concrete a few inches below the surface, the old runways had been grassed over and there were the painted markings of the old stock car track still in place! The grass was scrapped off and that area became the pits and car cark while the racing took place a few yards away on the original grass verge area. A good quality aerial view of the airfield is on Google Maps and you can see the outline of the old track around the clearly defined grass track - question is whats become of it since the club moved out?
Silverstone See below
Sittingbourne (Wormshill) An early grass track that ran stock cars on three dates between July and September in 1955. Marked out by barrels and set in a rather attractive wooded valley (and apparently called Valley Raceway) the promoters were Auto Sports Ltd who also ran Lydden at the time (Bill Chesson?) The location appear, on Google Maps to be much the same today, pleasingly free from development and urban sprawl.
Skegness Airfield this one is pretty obscure, apparently there were stock cars racing there back in 1956.A couple of runways seem to survive next to the ever growing caravan parks of the area is this the location on Google Maps?Snetterton the famous east Anglian race circuit - see below. Still there but the bits of tarmac used for the link road have, I think, now been grassed over so about half of the stock cat track remains as part of the circuit from the Esses through to Coram curve.
Southampton Bannister Court stadium, more famous for it's speedway team, now vanished under early 70's housing development
StAustell now the site of a retail park
Staines the last bits of it disappeared under the M25 many years after a bye pass got the rest. The ruins feature in the 1960's film SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON in which Richard Attenborough hides a kidnap victim among the deserted buildings. No sign of anything now on Google Maps
Stanley Stadium Prescot Rd Liverpool. A pioneer track from the mid 50s, the stadium was home to greyhound racing, LIVERPOOL CHADS speedway team and also LIVERPOOL STANLEY football team . It was located to the east of the railway line and south of Prescot Road on a site that's now a huge fruit and veg' wholesale market complex . This can easily be made out on Google maps
Stoke (Chesterton) Ran somewhat intermittently from 1974 when it was built new as a stock-car/speedway/dog racing venue until, I believe, 2002 when the stock cars stopped (am I right here or are they still going?) Speedway keeps going. It was originally a much bigger tarmac track of around 500 yards with the present shale oval in the middle for speedway and dogs. The outer track vanished in about 1980 , the dogs then running over part of it and the cars and bikes sharing the shale. The terraces stretched past the bends rather a long way, edging a flat bit of wasteland surrounded by grass banks which gives you a perfect impression of the original layout. The small grandstand was converted to a bar/cafe in the 80s by filling up the base with concrete and blocking in the sides! Google Maps shows the site very clearly
Stoke (Sun Street) Speedway track started to run midgets pre war . Closed due to noise complaints from the nursing home build adjoining turns 3 and 4 ! Built on soon after and now the location of car dealers CHATFIELD FORD. The rear stadium gates survive, complete with the painted legend "Speedway 7.30 Saturday Nights" fading into oblivion.Google Maps Link
Sunnyvale. Hipperholme,
Halifax, on the site of the former Sunny Vale Pleasure Gardens which began in
Victorian times attracting massive visitor numbers. It closed
in the 1950s and ran go-karts on reclaimed land that had been a small lake .
Stock cars and bangers took over in the early 60s and ran until the mid
80s.
It's been described as "Real
basic hillbilly racing, turn up smash out the windows and race..."
and local resident Chris Marshall recalls "..a kind of dust bowl, the
remains of the old Go cart Track, the whole place was a complete mess of
mud and slime and bordered the Red Beck, it could have easily been mistaken
for a quarry." . Gavin Robinson recalls the track in the early 1980s
"in the middle of some woods. It was like something out of the
film DELIVERENCE - pretty mad!" This
site was later landfilled and then levelled off . Now it's just a small field surrounded by trees north the lake visible in
this aerial
photo . Apparently the odd bent wheel and twisted panel still lurks in the
undergrowth a the only ign of it's former existance.
A book on the Pleasure Gardens & it's subsequent stock car existence is available from author Chris Helme who also donated this photo of local hero "Bonnar Coleano"
Swindon has remained a speedway and dog stadium throughout but stock cars keep coming and going around once per decade. The last time was in 2002 but increasing speedway use has pushed the cars out again. Sadly plans are in place to demolish the stadium for housing and move the dog track (but not the speedway, so certainly not the stock cars) to a new stadium somewhere nearby. Google Maps Aerial photo
Tadley The banger track at Paices Hill , Oxford, right next to the old Aldermaston airfield site (is that the famous Nuclear site that was the subject of CND marches in the 60s?) closed in 2004 and apparently is still there with the planning permission 'situation' unresolved. It shows up well on Google Maps you can even make out the piles of tyres at the edge of the track.
Tamworth
(left; photo courtesy of Steve Farndon shows the opening meeting) A bespoke speedway track built in the 40's
with a dog track round the outside. It ran stock cars in the mid 50s and was the venue that launched Formula 2 stock cars in the early 1960s. No sign appears of it now beneath a housing estate called Deer Park in the Fazeley
district. The start and finish straight was where the shops on Sambar Road now stand
see the Google
Maps link for an aerial view.
Thorrington Cross Is now an industrial estate with a caravan dealership exactly where the old track entrance (with the hump) was.
Tilburg (Netherlands) Closed at the end of 1994. Abandoned for a few years (people still "tested" there for a while...) In the end the major A65 motorway junction which was supposed to pobliterate the site actually misses it.... . The track was originally built on a disused section of dual carriageway with the road to the track, the pits and the track itself all located along one section, which has now been turned into a cycle-path, while the entrance to the track is now part of the motorway junction. Nothing of the track itself can be made out on this aerial photo but you can see the cycle path and if you scan left you can see the old bit of motorway which eerily runs out into nothing.
Tilehurst Now developed and known as "Stadium Industrial Estate" down by the Thames
Trent Raceway Near Burton on Trent, a dirt track that ran bangers & Modstox, seemingly reverted to agriculture
Walthemstow the tarmac track still exists inside the smart dog track.Google Maps
Wembley Finally been knocked down to be replaced with a super-stadium which is be football only, with no perimeter track - BOOOOOO!
West Ham. The legendary Custom House stadium (not the football club's ground) which was 'The Daddy' of London tracks run by the same people as Coventry. Sold off by them in the late 60's, the profit paid for Coventry's upgraded grandstands and restaurants and PRI ran there until it finally closed down in 1972. Now a housing estate.
Weymouth disappeared under a football pitch (Google Maps aerial vew) and the town's speedway team went too. The speedway club was revived in recent years, rebuilding a track round the practice pitch , which is alongside the stadium , and then it was apparently shutdown again for a time due to noise complaints until some extra sound barriers had been put in place which has allowed it to reopen (as with all the information on this page I am happy to be corrected if any of this is inaccurate of new developments occur).
Whip's Chicken Farm. Not so much a stadium as a somewhat humble field at Crowland in Lincs where pioneering promoters Harold Bozzy Bosworth and Raymond E'Tere set up their stock car fence for two or three dates in the mid 50's. Drivers included some top names like Pat Frost but this embryonic "autograss" venue obviously didn't pay as well as expected and reverted to it's original use. Today there is a grass landing strip "Crowland Corner" on the site. (I'm very keen to see any photos from this particular venue if anyone car help?)
White City Manchester is a shopping arcade, only the entry gates survive . Google Maps link
White City London , the old 1908 Olympic stadium, partly pulled down for a BBC TV studio car park in the early 80s and most of the rest went recently to make way for more BBC offices. Funny how some VERY historic venues can be trashed while other's have all manner of preservation orders on them... Google Maps aerial photo
White House Farm. Home of the Braintree Auto Club's activities from 1972 closed at the turn of the millennium when the re-routed A120 went right through the middle
Wisbech In Feb 07 it's reportedly just about to be bulldozed, after being the site of Sunday/antiques markets with some kind of roof/canopy covering the two straights. Stories that it would be back in 2005 run by the people who lost Alwalton did not come true. It was sometimes seen on daytime TV Car-Boot-Sale type shows. Google Maps link shows it very clearly before development overtakes it....
Woolwich situated in Stadium Road opposite the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in London . The track only ran in 1955 but as it was Crown land a large chunck of the revenue went straight ot eh government and that means the sums didn't add up for the promotor. It's now grassed over with the faint outline visible on Google Maps.
Wolverhampton . Monmore Green stadium was a smallish shale oval that Mike Parker operated for a time. It still runs Elite League speedway on a regular basis. Quite a smart venue.Google Maps aerial photo
Yeovil a bit mysterious as it ran either 55 or 56 , we aren't sure, and some of the few printed references are apparently incorrect. Now a housing estate.
WHAT HAPPENED TO
Great Gidding, , Hog's and Hounds near Newbury, Point Clear, Blackham , Pembury (not the one in Wales..) Tilbury , Hatfield( near St Albans), Drift Road (Maidenhead) and the continental tracks such as Amsterdam or the original Buffalo stadium in Paris where it all started .....?
WHAT ARE THEY NOW?
Also ANY photos would be great - either from the glory days or as they are now.
Thanks to the following people for information on the tracks mentioned above....
Paul Carter, Graham Brown, Dave Helliwell, Graham Eccles(Ex F2 319), Neil Hobson, John Sargeant, Mike Moseley, Graeme Mearns, John Abbey and Alan (didn't get your surname - you told me about West Ham) ,Dan (re Hartlepool),Steve Alcock,
Iain House, Simon Burton, Gary Checketts(ex driver at New Brighton &
Liverpool), David Carter (Iwade),Allan Wilson (ex F168 -Aycliffe) Ian
Suddaby (Nitten),John Homewood (Iwade, Detling and Manston) Matt Moore (Silloth),
Reg 126 (Norton Canes) Mick Winter ex 235 (Whips Chicken Farm), Kerry Miller (Knowle)
Steve Bell (Doncaster) Dave Vine (Sunnyvale) Malcolm Brown (Silloth), Geert
"Limbo" Roubroeks (Gendt, Kaldenkirchen, Tilburg, Ruisbroek, Baarlo)
Neil Jenkinson (Gendt, Baarlo, Kaldenkircken) Mark Dell (Rye House, Nazeing),
Dave Vine (New Brighton), Mark Lloyd (Cross in hand), Gavin Robinson
(Sunnyvale), Glynn Stockin (Prestatyn & Crewe) , Paul Mills (Frittenden)
Rebecca'Bexbabe' (Hogs & Hounds , Tadley) Matthew Rogerson (Barrow), Gemma
Kerr (Barrow and Bolton), Sacha (Kaldenkirchen,Tilburg,Gendt,Ruisbroek,
THE "BIG TRACKS"
Several of the established road race circuits had stock car tracks on certain sections from the 50s to the 70's despite the apparent lack of co-operation between road racers and oval racers at the time. It just goes to show that if something attracts crowds, makes money and isn't too expensive to arrange, the prejudices can easily be overlooked!
BRANDS HATCH
The most unusual stock car track layout used wasn't remotely 'oval' in shape ! The 1000 yard, steeply inclined Paddock Hill track had a hairpin behind the pits and used the first two corners of the Grand Prix circuit. This ran late 1960's. The circular clearways Oval ran often in the early - mid 1970's and the steep Druids Hairpin loop, which was used by Spedeworth for Hot Rods, Midgets etc. in the mid 70s. I think they also ran the Paddock Hill track the wrong-way round (clockwise). A great aerial photo is on this Google Maps link
SNETTERTON
Used in the 60's and 70s comprised the Coram and Bomb-Hole bends plus a bit of the old runway down through the infield. This bit of the track has been altered since but I think most of it remains. An excellent quality aerial photo can be seen on Flash Earth
MALLORY PARK
oval was used much as for Eurocars in the late 1990s (remember them?). Now used once a year for Hot Rods and so forth. Also used at one time was a loop up to the hairpin, which is more what you would expect from a stock car track being about a third of a mile in length, but the hairpin was very tight! The track shows up very nicely on Flash Earth
PEMBREY
Thus funny little tri-oval ran a solitary F2 event (I was there, so were at least 7 others...) and for a few years a 'winter series' used the track combining races for autograss and oval cars, single seaters and saloons. For some reason this was promptly stopped halfway though the final 'season' . A good aerial photo appears on Flash Earth
CADWELL PARK
Used a narrow and undulating combination of the circuit and part of what later became the rallycross track.Sharp hairpin at the foot of the hill must have caused some excitment!600 yards long, very popular in the 60's and early 70s. I think there was an earlier version of this track, much more of a regular oval, that only ran along the bottom of the valley and didn't use the steep sections that later made the place unique. You can see the layout of this track on Flash Earth, but the later hilly track seems to have vanished under the grass infield.
LYDDEN HILL
There were grass surfaced tracks running here in the pioneer days of the mid 50's, one ran for contact stuff and another (at the same meeting) for an early type of non-contact Hot Rods, but where were they on the current map? The track shown here ran in the 70's, promoted by PRI. Great aerial photo on this Google Maps link
KNOCKHILL
Uses the hairpin and a short link between the start and finish straight and the curving back straight. Used in the 1980s I think and again from 2002 onwards
SILVERSTONE
Oh yes! There were a number of meetings for the hot rods known as INTERSALOONS in the early 1990s and they ran on a curious oval-ish layout based on the Luffield/Woodcote "loop", the very last real corners of the Grand Prix circuit and using a bit of the pit lane to join it up. The billing was shared with truck racing. Strange... The numerous re-workings of this section of track means the only bit actually left is the straight out of the final bend towards Woodcote. The rest is under grass and gravel traps and other bits of trackside hardware. An excellent aerial photo is on this Google Maps link
Any More information would be gratefully received on any of the tracks featured
