Greetings from all over the United Kingdom
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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My 2004 Trip to the United Kingdom!
Tracks seen during my 2004 visit U.K. Overview I have now made nine separate trackchasing trips to the United Kingdom. I first started going there to see their racing in 1999. I returned in 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013 and most recently in 2016. You will be able to read all about the tracks I visited and the things I’ve seen and experienced all over the United Kingdom. I’ve done my share of driving on the “wrong side of the road”. However, I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until I had seen about 425 tracks. That means I have no formal notes from my 1999 U.K. trip. Ya, I know. I bummed about that too. As you will read throughout my U.K. Trackchaser Reports I love so many things about the racing in this country. Almost no rainouts, inverted starts, lots of contact and few yellow flags. They know how to handle their racing in the United Kingdom. My complete U.K. track list is published below. As this is written I have seen racing at more than 2,600 tracks in 85 different countries. These many trips have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. I’ll try my best to respond. Thanks! My travels have taken me to 63 tracks all over the United Kingdom. As you read through my reports you will see…..I love U.K. racing. Below is my current U.K. track list. BOVINGDON CIRCUIT Greetings from Bovingdon, near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, Now I don’t think most trackchasers determine where they travel based upon input or actions from their in-laws. But of course, on occasion I do. Here’s how it worked out. Wife, Carol, decided to meet Saratoga, Wyoming based and teacher sister, Patty, at their parent’s house in Las Cruces, New Mexico during Patty’s teaching spring break. Patty’s spring break occurs this year over the Easter holiday. Since I can’t follow Carol on every visit to her parent’s house (my words) that left me with an Easter weekend free. I immediately went to my trackchaser race date database (which I have spent countless hours compiling) to develop a trackchasing plan. What did I find out? There is virtually no racing in the United States on Easter Sunday. My database showed absolutely no new trackchasing opportunities. The “Racing Around America” website also showed nary a U.S. race operating anywhere. The only event they did show was a road-racing event at the Thruxton Raceway in England. England. Huh? Maybe I should check out another trip to the U.K. That is exactly what I did. I must say I have my in-laws to thank for my fourth racing adventure to the land of Big Ben. I was somewhat surprised to find out there are tons of racing in the U.K. over the Easter weekend. The entire country of England is not that big. I found 20-30 tracks racing over the four-day holiday that I had not been too. Surprising to me was that Saturday was the least popular day for tracks to race. There were several events to choose from on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The most popular race day was the Monday after Easter. Some of you may have noticed that I occasionally run into travel problems on my race trips. Yes, that’s what makes the trips so interesting! The prep for this trip started out with a call to American Airlines. I secured a fare from Los Angeles to London for $592. That’s not the best fare I’ve ever gotten to London by a long shot. One benefit is that I will earn almost 25,000 frequent flyer miles for this trip. American charges 25,000 miles for a free domestic round-trip ticket. That means for $592 I will get round-trip airfare to London AND a domestic round-trip ticket for future use. That made the airline ticket purchase a little more reasonable. Just before I was leaving for the trip, I learned that London is now considered the most expensive city in the world! This is because the value of the U.S. dollar has been falling against almost all currencies, most notably, the British pound and the Euro. That’s both good and bad news. It’s bad news for this trip because things are going to be expensive. It’s good news for the Procter & Gamble (I’m retired from P&G) stock shares I hold. When the U.S. dollar declines, Procter & Gamble’s earnings from their overseas operations become more valuable raising the stock price. The stock price gain will far outpace the 5-day pain of high prices in the U.K. As they say, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” Our flight path took us from New York over Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Greenland. We had a huge screen at the front of the plane that showed a map with a small figure of a plane making its way toward England. We flew at 38,000 feet, with an outside temperature -85F and airspeed of 566 M.P.H. I had an emergency exit row seat on the plane that was located next to one of the lavatories. The door to the lavatory stuck badly and people had a difficult time opening it. Seeing people struggling with this door for six hours in the dark reminded me of a Candid Camera stunt. A couple of people spent more than five minutes trying every which way to open the door without success. Then they walked away. Yes, on a long flight you try to find whatever you can to pass the time. Now I must announce my “mystery racing guest” for the U.K. Easter Tour. Allan Brown is the man. As many of you know, Allan is the publisher of the National Speedway Directory. The NSD lists almost all racetracks in the U.S. and Canada in a pocket-sized paperback book. It is considered the bible for any serious trackchaser. Editor’s note: This metaphor is not meant to be sacrilegious on Easter weekend, as I don’t need that burden as I’m flying at 38,000 feet! Allan and I met up at New York’s JFK airport. From there we would catch a flight to London’s Heathrow airport. I had forgotten how out of date, crowded and generally dirty JFK was. Nevertheless, after a five-hour flight from LAX to JFK, we jetted an additional six hours from JFK to Heathrow and landed bright and early at 7 a.m. on Good Friday morning. London is eight hours ahead of Los Angeles which meant I landed to a rising London sun at 11 p.m. my time. I was the only person in the entire London Heathrow airport wearing shorts! Customs was a breeze. After we picked up our bags, I had to make a stop at a cell phone store in the airport called, “The Link”. At this store, I bought a European “SIM” card by Virgin. This will allow me to use my U.S. phone in England. This will pay big dividends as we call to confirm races at various tracks, etc. Special thanks to son, J.J. for turning me onto this idea. Randy, Colin, Allan One of the first people we encountered at the Bovingdon track was one, Colin Herridge. Colin is a member of our trackchaser email conference. As I was taking track photos, he came up to me and with a British accent asked, “Are you Randy?” He knew I was coming to England and was gracious enough to look me up. Allan and I had a nice chat with Colin before we headed off to our next track. Colin has 97 lifetime tracks and will probably reach 100 on his vacation next month in Florida. Nice meeting you, Colin! I must say that if Will White were British, he would be just like Colin Herridge. Of course, I mean that as a compliment to both gentlemen. Car mileage when I entered these states/provinces during the trip: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) RACING NEWS: The Bovingdon Raceway is my 689th track. It is also my 18th United Kingdom track, which gives me the lead among U.S., based trackchasers for tracks seen in the U.K. The Bovingdon Raceway website gives this description of their facilities: These Englishmen does some things differently “The track is a 300-meter tarmac oval with an Armco barrier. The spectator can get close to the action at Bovingdon due to the close proximity between the racing and the spectator. The facilities include hot dog/hamburger stalls, grass banking ideal for picnics on those hot summer days, although if wet, take your umbrella, as there is no shelter. There are also toilets and ample car parking.” In the U.S., we have racing “classes”. The classes are made of the different types of racecars based upon engine size, body style, cost, etc. In the U.K. the different types of racecars are called, “Formulae”. Here’s a list of the different formulae that race at Bovingdon: Stock cars 2.0 Hot Rods Ministox Super Stox Rookie Bangers V8 Stock Cars Stock Rods Lightning Rods Rookie Rods Bangers We arrived at the track at 10:30 a.m. This was three hours before the scheduled start time. We were the third car in the parking lot. I am the driver on this trip. Allan is the navigator. Since we landed at 7 a.m. (11 p.m. my time), my body said, “Even though the English day is just starting, I’m your body and you need some sleep”. This seemed like good advice. I hopped in the back seat of our Saab and took a one-hour nap. Allan, like any good navigator, continued to study our maps. When I awoke, it was time to go into the track. While I had been asleep, Allan had met with the promoters of the track and convinced them to let us in free. This saved us nine pounds or about 16 dollars. Nice job, Allan! Upon entering the track, we were given a quality promotional piece. This booklet listed the entire 2004 fixture list for the Spedeworth promotional group. They promote the Yarmouth, Ipswich, Swaffam, Arlington, Wimbledon and Bovingdon tracks. The weather was sunny with temps in the mid-fifties. This was better than the forecast. This was also Bovingdon’s opening day. They had 82 rookie bangers, about 25 junior mini-stox and around 20 formula 2 stock cars. The first race on the track was a 25 car, 16-lap junior mini-stock race. This class is defined as follows by the track program: “Ministox: This junior formula is the ideal training ground for the Stock Car, Hot Rod or Banger driver of the future. All cars are based on the 998cc Mini, the engine is virtually standard and has a restrictor plate. The cars are fully “ironed” for driver protection. The drivers range between 11 and 16. This formula provides all the thrills and spills of traditional stock car racing.” The junior mini-stox put on a fine race with a good deal of beating and banging. Next up were the formula 2 stocks cars. These were the only racers at the track to race in the American style counter-clockwise direction. The last class to race was the rookie bangers. I am a big banger fan. They started almost 40 cars in their race. Suffice it to say, this created a lot of mayhem and the crowd loved it. Speaking of the crowd, there were many people on hand for a facility with very few creature comforts. There are no bleachers or any formal seating at this track. The fans sit on a grassy hillside. That was fine on today’s sunny day. I am not sure what they would do on a rainy afternoon. There are no lights at the track. Just off the backstretch is a men’s prison. Since a spectator mound has been built up, prisoners can no longer see the racing action. We were told the prisoners had filed a lawsuit claiming the racetrack noise disturbed them! The announcer was very enthusiastic and entertained the crowd with his antics. I asked Allan what his impression of the track was. His reply was, “It’s a real dump”. He wasn’t being critical. Besides being located on a WWII runway the track appeared to be located at a REAL dumping ground. Anyway, this was a nice way to start our trip with a planned itinerary of eleven tracks. RACE TRACK FOOD: We ate at the track’s “Burger Diner”. Allan went with the hot dog and chips (fries). I had a cheeseburger and chips. We were tired and hungry and the food tasted good. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: I will be driving the Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab. It is a right side steer car. I will drive it on the “wrong side” of the road. More on this later! Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. MILDENHALL STADIUM Greetings from Mildenhall, England, Although the area has been inhabited since Neolithic times, Mildenhall is probably better known today as being the location of RAF Mildenhall. This was one of the United States Air Force’s major bases in the UK. The Mildenhall Air Show, the largest military organized air display in the world operates here as well. Certainly, as you wander around the town, you cannot help but notice the accents of our American cousins, and the occasional low flying aircraft. Meeting Kath Lomax I was able to meet three employees of the Mildenhall racetrack. First, I renewed my acquaintance with Kath Lomax, the track scorer. I had met Kath a couple of years ago the Swindon Abbey track. I also met Mike, the announcer, who I had corresponded with via email. Mike, stated that I was “one crazy …. …..”. He’s probably right. Finally, I met Charlotte the race starter. Charlotte is a good friend of my racing friend and Cowdenbeath Racewall, starter, Graham Alexander. Of course, all of the folks were very friendly and it was nice to see and meet them. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) RACING NEWS: Mildenhall Stadium is my 690th track (#19 in the U.K.). This info came from the Mildenhall website, “The Mildenhall Raceway features a 280 yard banked shale track with concrete terracing around half the track and grass banking around the rest. The home straight has a large covered grandstand with a tea bar. On the pit turn, there is a large licensed bar and the best stadium food in the country.” Additionally, there is a dog-racing oval track that touches the outside boundaries of the racing oval.” The main attraction today will be bangers. There are 28 teams of six cars each. Each team has a common paint scheme and there own team name. Some of the more unusual names are twisted metal, wonder bras (of course this was an all-lady team!), scrapyard dogs and condoms. Remember, I don’t make the news I only report it! The Mildenhall program was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. We still managed to see all four of the scheduled racing features. By arriving late we avoided the nine-pound ($16) admission fee. Net, we didn’t pay anything today to add two new tracks to our lists. As most know, there is no free lunch. Even though I got the double bed and Allan got the hide-a-bed, no good deed goes unpunished. Allan can snore! RACE TRACK FOOD: Allan and I acted on Colin Herridge’s dining recommendation. We both had the fish and chips and enjoyed them very much. I also tried the 10-pack of mini donuts (Yes, the Atkins Diet is temporarily in my rearview mirror!) smothered in sugar with black cherry dipping sauce. I recommend it! RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Our Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab started with only a quarter tank of gas. We must return the car with at least a quarter tank of gas. This necessitated an early stop for petrol. Allan sprung for the first tank. The regular petrol price was 82 pence per liter. For the math-challenged, that’s about $7 per gallon! The bill was a little more than 47 English pounds. That translated to about $75 for the tank in a relatively small car!! Randy Lewis P.S. As you might imagine a person can spend a lot of money when they’re out trackchasing. Actually, the money I spent isn’t that important to me. It seems to be more important to the people I owe. That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT Greetings from Silverstone, Northhampton, United Kingdom, As most of you know these trip reports are meant to both summarize the racing facts at a particular track and give you a feel for the human-interest aspect that accompanies each and every trip. The information is designed to be of interest to both the hardcore trackchaser and the casual race fan or just someone whose email I happened to snag somewhere along the line. With that being said, we continue. When I left San Clemente with a slight push from Carol at the front door, she said, “Be safe and don’t get in trouble”. Little did I know that might be harder to do than expected. Carol and I have visited England a few times. Each time we have a little currency leftover and usually just put it away for our next trip. That being the case, she gave me 130 English pounds in bills and about 25 pounds in coins. Little did I know that some of this money was no longer legal currency in the United Kingdom. The question is did Carol know this when she advised me not to get “in trouble”? It turns out that sometime during the past couple of years the U.K. has changed both their five and 10-pound notes to make it harder for criminals to pass counterfeit bills. The new bills have a bright silver seal on them and the old bills do not. I found out about this the hard way. While in line to buy a few things at a convenience store, I unknowingly tried to use the outlawed currency. In short order, the clerk picked up on my mistake and made a big scene. She informed me that my money was not legal tender. I could go to jail if I tried to pass these bills into the system she told me. The people behind me in line looked me up and down as if I had been caught shoplifting. After that embarrassing scene, I began to wonder how much of my funds were not going to be accepted. Never being known as a shrinking violet I decided to challenge the system at the Silverstone Circuit. The daily admission to the Silverstone Circuit was 10 pounds. There were only a few cars waiting to get in the main gates when we arrived. Now would be a good time to risk it all. With a 10-pound note craftily crumbled up, a chipper smile and a hearty good morning to the female ticket taker (all to create the appropriate diversion), I was able to pass the contraband along to the next unsuspecting soul. Allan allowed that he had never seen an international currency smuggler before. Then we were safely in the Silverstone Circuit compound. Once we were inside the confines I purchased a program for two pounds. It was about 45 degrees and windy. The first race was to begin at 1:30 p.m. This gave us a full two hours to explore this large road course facility. We also had time to lunch at the paddock diner. Road course facilities almost always cater to the “wine and cheese” set rather than the rough and tumble stock car or sprint car fans. This means a little more in the way of “racetrack cuisine”. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 RACING NEWS: The Silverstone Circuit is my 691st racetrack. I am not much of a Formula 1 fan. I must admit that I didn’t even know that F1 raced here. Allan knew this was a first-class facility with a long and storied racing history. The track opened for business in 1948. They have grandstand seating for 60,000 and an overall capacity of 90,000. The main grandstand seats are a British racing green. Each seat is a theatre-style seat. When no one is occupying the grandstand you can see in huge white block letters the word, “Silverstone”. The look is similar to a card section at a football game. Today’s races were operated by the MG Car Club and also featured the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club and the TR Register. I would estimate there were about 80-100 cars at the track. There weren’t any famous drivers in attendance today, but some big names such as Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi have won here in the past. We stayed for one race on the 1.639-mile course. The F1 course is just over three miles long, so today’s racing was only about half of the F1 length. The race we saw was for 15 minutes plus one lap. The race was called the MGCC Total Butler Championship. There were 26 entrants and they drove MG Midgets with a few Austin Healeys thrown in. The average speed for the fastest car was 69.81 M.P.H. There were three classes of cars in the race with engine sizes ranging from 1,380 CCs to 3,948 CCs. We would have liked to have stayed longer. However, the weather wasn’t good for staying outside. Since we had visited the media center, the pit garages, the paddock diner as well as a major part of the road course racing area it was time to boogie….and we did. RACE TRACK FOOD: Lunch for Allan and I was the peppered chop steak, chips and beans. This was our best racetrack meal of the trip. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Many road courses let you take your passenger car out on to the track during the lunch break for a few under control laps. I was ready with the Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab but the on-track offer was never extended. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. SKEGNESS STADIUM Greetings from Skegness, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, A few weeks ago, I invited Allan Brown to accompany me on this trip. Allan is the #2 trackchaser in the world. Allan has driven to more tracks in the United States than anyone ever. He has personally visited more than 2,000 tracks (both active and inactive). I figured he could fill the job of navigator for this trip better than anyone could and he did. Allan was able to use our traveling technology to the max. He had the A to Z Great Britain Road Atlas for mapping. Additionally, I provided him with AA.com’s point A to B driving directions (similar to Mapquest) for each of the 11 tracks we would visit. Many people have the best golf clubs and can’t play golf worth a lick. Allan was able to take these logistical tools to a new height of traveling efficiency. In the United Kingdom, the “roundabout” or “traffic circle” is the way virtually all highway intersections are handled. There are very few stoplights. As you approach an intersection, you enter a circular ring. As you go around the circle, in a clockwise direction, you are given options to turn off the circle in different directions. You may recall Chevy Chase in the movie, European Vacation and his famous line, “I can’t get left, I can’t get left!” I am not exaggerating when I say we exceeded driving around 1,000 traffic circles during the trip. I did all the driving (a little more than 1,000 miles). Allan did the map reading. I have never had a better map-reader in my life. Allan could tell me about an approaching traffic circle and the direction we needed to head with uncanny accuracy. To think I purchased an in-car navigation system for thousands of dollars in my personal vehicle. I should have just hired Allan. Now my readers know that I am required by literary standards to be honest and direct with you. Of course, none of these words is meant to offend anyone (not even Guy Smith). It’s possible Allan has these map reading skills because he is a man (I said it’s POSSIBLE). Recall, Rosanne Barr, a woman in her own right, said there are three things women can’t do. According to Rosie, women can’t 1) read a map, 2) pee in the snow and I can never remember #3 (if any readers know what number three is please let me know). I contend, in defense of women, that they don’t need to know how to do these things! Expert navigator I normally force the navigational duties on my wife, Carol. As I said, Allan is the best navigator I’ve ever seen. That being said why not just replace Carol with Allan? As we all know, no one is perfect. What is Allan’s Achilles heel so to speak? Allan snores. Yes, that’s the best way to describe it. I had to decide if I wanted to visit 11 tracks and never get lost, (this would be a first) and not got any sleep OR be a well-rested trackchaser who never knew where he was. Some folks may have seen me draped over a table inside the Belle Vue Greyhound track fast asleep. This was despite a P.A. system’s sound that exceeded all public safety decibel levels. People should know I was not exaggerating about my sleep deprivation. Of course, when I give it some thought, even though Allan kept me awake at night, Carol has been known to keep me awake at night as well for much more pleasant reasons. Before your prurient mind takes over you should know I’m referring to Carol making a mean cup of late-night hot chocolate. Net, net even though Allan is a great navigator, I prefer to keep Carol, assuming she agrees after reading this paragraph. Carol is always fond of saying that she can’t wait until I get Alzheimer’s so the kids can hear the strange things I tell her! Before I leave Allan and his snoring, I must tell you that he was very apologetic for his nighttime noise. He tried everything to minimize it, even putting a large blanket over his head in a warm hotel room. Nevertheless, in the middle of the night, a loud gust removed the artificial sound barrier. We were back to square one. All this said Allan was a fine travel companion. I would do the trip all over again with him if given the opportunity. Allan and I also ran into Colin Casserly. Colin was taking photos professionally for a racing publication. I had met Colin previously as Swaffam Raceway. All of the photographers are required to wear fluorescent yellow coats while in the infield or the pit area. This helps the drivers see them better so we have the same number of photographers at the end of the evening as at the beginning of the race night. Colin’s a very friendly chap. It was good chatting it up with him. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking RACING NEWS: Like any upstanding organization, the trackchasers have a set of rules by which tracks are counted. I just filed my income taxes. I view the trackchaser rules as somewhat open to interpretation, similar to the IRS tax rules. The federal government has the IRS to enforce its rules and we have our unofficial “commissioner”, Will White, to enforce our rules. Will looks upon individual creativity the same way the IRS does. I won’t elaborate. I know that we have a few CPAs reading these reports. Just curious, does anyone you work with replicate the entire federal and state tax return in Excel? I do. My spreadsheet has 439 rows to it and goes out 30 years into the future so I can project cash flows. My tax accountant says I’m the only “non-engineer” to do such a thing. If I’m going to fund the “stay ahead of Ed Esser” project, some thought has to be given to positive cash flow. Anyway, back to the trackchaser rules. For the most part track surfaces are either pavement or dirt. Pavement tracks can be called asphalt, tarmac or concrete. Dirt tracks are called clay, shale, grass, or, as you might imagine, dirt. From time to time a track may change its racing surface from asphalt to dirt or vice versa. When the trackchaser rules were first devised it was decided that once you had seen a track with one type of surface you could count it again if it changed surfaces. I don’t really agree with that type of thinking. However, it’s printed that the trackchaser rules making is a democracy (it’s really controlled by just a few Pennsylvania based power brokers) so I do my best to go along. Here’s how the track surface rule reads: “Tracks that change between a paved surface and a dirt surface can be counted once for each surface. Changes between different types of pavement (asphalt, concrete, etc.) or different types of dirt (dirt, clay, shale, grass, gravel, etc.) surfaces only count once. Ice tracks formed over an existing paved or dirt track cannot be counted as an additional track, but they can be used to count the track once. Ice tracks held on a body of water are countable. European style rallycross courses, and other tracks which consist of alternating sections of paved and dirt surfaces, can be counted as a second track if part or all of it is also used as a completely paved or dirt track.” As you can see trackchaser rules really are like the IRS (Combine lines 7b and 16 and enter the result. If a loss, enter -0- on line 17b and go to line 18. If a gain, enter the gain on Form 1040, line 13a, and go to line 17b below). Today I stood to benefit from a rule I don’t really support. The Skegness Stadium opened in 1977 as a tarmac (asphalt) track. From 1998-2003 it raced as a dirt track. On a beautiful Wednesday evening, June 30, 1999, I visited Skegness Shaleway and counted the track as dirt. Editor’s note: This was the night before I played the Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s British Open golf course, which ranks as the number one golf course I have ever played. The Skegness Shaleway changed its name and racing surface this past December. The track is now called Skegness Stadium and has a tarmac-racing surface. As a special treat to folks who have read this far I invite you to listen to the music played on this site. British tracks play a lot of American rock and roll music during breaks in the action. Allan is a rock n’ roll officiado and can “name that tune” pretty well. Surprisingly, no very surprisingly, Skegness played rap music during its racing breaks. This seemed most unusual, as some of the lyrics would be too strong for even this forum let alone a PG crowd at the track. The Skegness Stadium is my 692nd-lifetime track. In addition, I became the first American to be able to count a foreign track with both a dirt and asphalt surface. Allan called this the dustiest asphalt track he’d ever seen do to the oil dry that flew throughout the night. The P.A. system was outstanding even though it blasted rap music. The starter was also the pit announcer. I’ve never seen that before. Overall, I’d have to say that if Skegness facilities were upgraded 100% the track’s status would improve from dilapidated to just “run down”. A bulldozer could plow the entire place under in just a few hours. The main racing attraction was the BRISCA Formula 1 stock cars. This would be their first appearance of the year on tarmac. The track also had a full field of saloon stock cars. Tonight I think I preferred the relatively high-speed saloons with their full contact approach to the top-rated F1 stock cars. This is a description of saloon racecars: “National Saloon Stock Cars: They may look like a normal road car with big bumpers, but when you see the action, you know they’re something special. Built like tanks and used like tanks, driven by drivers who go through the opposition rather than round it. Drivers are licensed by the Saloon Stock Car Association of which RDC are one of the principal promoters.” We got to the track early and had to decide if we wanted to go into town for some decent food or snag one of the last parking spots where you could watch the races from the comfort of you own car. Skegness is located near the sea and can get a bit chilly at night. We elected to forgo good food and get one of about 15 car parking spots above the F1 turn one and two area. By the way, stock cars race in the counterclockwise direction in England. All other formulae race in the clockwise direction. Allan and I discussed whether seeing cars race in both directions could count as two tracks. I’ll leave that argument for another day with my trackchasing buddies. RACE TRACK FOOD: You know you’ve been going to too many tracks when you begin to recognize the cooks at the track’s food trailer. I was in line to order a loaf of bread and two hamburgers (in the U.K. they call this a cheeseburger) when I noticed a previous antagonist. The cook was in a very heated discussion with the fellow in front of me regarding whether or not the sausages that were being fried were really done. This brought back memories of my videotaping this guy’s food trailer at Swindon. That cook gave me the finger and told me to stop videotaping. Yes, both cooks were one and the same! As Dr. Phil says, “Don’t mess with people who make your food!”, I kept my head down and ordered my double cheeseburger. By the way, the hamburger at these tracks tasted like fried Spam. Don’t get me wrong, I like Spam and I like the Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota even more. I just don’t like my hamburger tasting like Spam. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Sitting in our Saab to view the races was just the right ticket on a very chilly evening. Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. HUNMANBY RACEWAY Greetings from Hunmanby, North York, United Kingdom, Our hotel stays in England were, for the most part, uneventful with one minor exception. Being a risk-taker, I prefer to make my hotel commitment at the latest time possible. My theory here is that if the race plan changes a locked in hotel reservation won’t prevent me from driving, on a moment’s notice, to a new destination. This plan worked well except for one night. Following the Skegness races on Saturday night, we had a 107-mile drive to Hunmanby for our autograss race on Sunday morning. We drove for a long time before we came across a perfect looking little English pub and inn that advertised accommodations. We stopped and entered the pub. It was just like an English pub you might see in the movies with everyone drinking and having a merry old time. Unfortunately, they were full for the night but did direct us to a hotel a few miles up the road. I should stop right here and remind everyone that England’s English is not United States English. Normally, about 15 seconds into an Englishman’s two-minute spiel on directions you have absolutely no idea what words are being spoken. For the remaining one minute and 45 seconds, I’ll listen politely and thank them for their help. Then Allan and I would agree we had absolutely no idea what had been told to us. Speaking of accents, I’ve come across a website dedicated to people with different accents speaking the English language. This site examines the accented speech of speakers from many different language backgrounds reading the same sample paragraph. They have more than 300 people from various locations around the world. They even feature a “Pennsylvanian” speaking English! You might want to give it a try at: http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/ If we had 15 miles to go, each person’s direction would get us about three miles down the road until we would have to stop and get three more miles worth of direction. It took a little longer this way but we always felt we were advancing. The next hotel we located was a beautiful and quaint old resort hotel located directly on the North Sea. Unfortunately, the hotel’s rate was 90 pounds. That’s $180 U.S. That seemed a bit pricy for what would amount to a 10-hour stay. I would have loved to have checked into a place like this for a couple of days with Carol. We trudged on with the clock showing only about 11 p.m. The next hotel was a modern-looking Marriott Courtyard type place with a sign that said “Rooms for 49 pounds”. Perfect. Well, not so perfect since they were full. The desk clerk did give us some more directions, in what was totally non-understandable English. Finally, he put us on the phone with a desk clerk in the city of Hull. She confirmed they did have room for two. It was only a 15-minute drive. As you might expect we got lost. It took us about 40 minutes to find the place. They didn’t have any onsite parking so I left Allan with the car and I went in to get our room. The car was parked just outside of a disco with music blaring and a lot of people activity. There was one major drawback with this hotel. Their room for two had only one bed. That didn’t seem like a workable idea. I returned to the car. Allan mentioned that while I was away five police cars had stopped a motorist for some unknown infraction. This would not be the last of the police sirens we would hear throughout the night. Fortunately, another hotel, our 5th stop for the night, would have a room for just 39 pounds. Later in the trip, our English trackchasing counterparts would tell us that the town of Hull was voted the worst town in all of England. It didn’t look too safe but sometimes you have to take what you can get. What’s up with the bathroom showers in English hotels? It’s nearly impossible to figure out the controls so you can take a shower. Some of them have about seven knobs which must create about 2,000 permutations. The Hull hotel shower had only three knobs and it was impossible to get the shower to work with hot water. I ended up filling the bathtub with hot water and taking a bath rather than submit to an ice-cold shower. Just as I had completed my bath I made once last stab at the shower controls. Low and behold hot shower water rained down upon my head. It is not difficult to ask for directions and understand them or get a bathroom shower to work. However, it is almost impossible to find a place for breakfast on a Sunday morning. We drove for several miles through four towns and could not find one restaurant serving breakfast at 9 a.m. in the morning. Finally, we stumbled across a “Little Chef” restaurant. Little Chef’s are somewhat similar to a Denny’s. This place had seating for about 30-40 people. We had a little more than an hour before the 11 a.m. races began. We were within 3 miles of the track. Perfect. Well, not so perfect. Allan ordered the apple and cherry-filled pancake which looked delicious in the picture on the menu. I ordered the traditional English breakfast which is a fried egg, sausage, ham, beans and chips (French fries) as well as the advertised half-priced “pudding” which was really chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream (you never know when you’ll get your next meal!). Well, we waited and we waited and then we waited some more. Finally, after nearly an hour I was served my English breakfast. I had completed eating my breakfast (I think Allan gave me permission to go ahead and eat). Allan was yet to be served. When Allan finally collared the waitress she told us she hadn’t served Allan’s pancakes because it was a dessert. She was waiting to serve it when my pudding was served. I guess we didn’t understand the serving protocol. The bill for my breakfast was about 9 pounds ($18 U.S. dollars). Can you imagine paying $18 for breakfast at Denny’s? How can I ever hold off Ed Esser if my racing funds are being consumed at this pace? DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 RACING NEWS: The Hunmanby Raceway, run by the East Coast Autograss Association, was my 693rd racetrack. Some may recall that I was invited to participate in an Autograss race in Tirley, England a few years ago. I had a blast doing it. Today’s track was similar to the track I raced at. In addition, I was able to pass my last five-pound contraband note to an unsuspecting ticket taker. The track itself was a dirt oval and about one-quarter mile in length. Spectator seating was on a terraced hillside. Folks either watched from their cars or sat in lawn chairs. Each race of the 52 scheduled races started 6-8 cars. Autograss racing has a very unusual starting procedure. The cars are lined up side by side just a few yards outside of the oval itself. When the starting flag drops, they race from a standing start onto the front straightaway and the race is underway. The races are short, only about five laps. Track facilities were basic The Hunmanby Raceway has 10 meetings scheduled for this season. Today’s events were supported by about 100 cars in the pit area. You will see a lot of unusual racing machinery in an Autograss pit area. I am impressed by the brightness of most cars’ color schemes. By the way, I am in the process of putting together a photo album of our trip to England that I will share with you online. Look for it to appear in the next couple of days. Autograss racing draws lots of racers We took a tour through the pit area and examined the cars. We then stayed for about 15-20 races before heading off to our next track. If I lived in England, I would probably be an Autograss racer. There are several man and wife combinations. Each person drives the same car but in a different class. Here is a listing of the different Autograss car classes: Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Class 7 Class 8 Class 9 Class 10 Class 11 Class 12 Class 13 Class 14 Junior Racing RACE TRACK FOOD: The Little Chef was our food for the morning. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab got a bit muddy in the Autograss parking lot but continues to be a very comfortable road car. Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. BLYTON RACEWA Greetings from Blyton, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom Our ride from Hunmanby to Blyton was only 75 miles. Blyton is 153 miles north of London. With an excellent navigator (Allan) and a European veteran racer of grass track venues (me) driving, we made it in very good time. We arrived about 30 minutes before the program started. This allowed us to pay our six-pound admission price and roam the pit area. The weather was good with blues skies, white puffy clouds and temps in the 50s. No seating at U.K. short tracks. Stand or bring a chair Allan’s comment was that Bovingdon “looks like a superspeedway” compared to Blyton. Bovingdon is no superspeedway. Blyton is no Bovingdon. Everything’s relative. It’s just like in golf. There’s always someone you can beat and there’s always someone who can beat you. Although Blyton was rural and rundown, it would still be better than the track that would come the next day, Brampton. Yes, it does seem like every run down track starts with the letter B. I would liken this track to Glad Rag Speedway in Saratoga Springs, New York. You should know that Glad Rag ranks as my all-time worst racing venue in the U.S. During our drive to Blyton, we did make a stop at McDonald’s. When I’m traveling in foreign countries I do my best not to stop at chain restaurants. You can always go to a McDonald’s at home. One of the main reasons to travel is to see and experience things you do don’t normally get to see and do. However, I had a special reason to visit McDonald’s today. I was there to purchase McDonald’s kid’s toys. No, I don’t collect them but Lillian the bartender at our golf country club does. She always gets excited when I’m able to bring back some foreign toys for her collection. Since Lillian pours the drinks at the club it’s good to have her on your side. During the trip, Allan and I were always trying to figure out the conversion amounts between liters and gallons as well as Fahrenheit and Celsius. I wish we had access to the website linked below. It converts all kinds of things easily and quickly. Now I know that it’s about 3.8 liters to the U.S. gallon. At 80 pence per liter that made the cost of a gallon of petrol about 3 pounds, 4 pence. At an exchange rate of almost two dollars to the pound, our petrol was costing us about $6 a gallon. Now, regular gas at just over $2 per gallon in the U.S. doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Here’s the link to the converter website: http://www.onlineconversion.com/ Of course, there’s no extra charge from me for the knowledge you’ll gain from the information provided in these reports. It’s all part of the reward you get from reading this far! Be sure to check out the racing food section of today’s report. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 RACING NEWS: The Blyton Raceway is my 694th track. It is also the 6th track for Allan and I to see racing at during our planned 11 track United Kingdom Easter Racing Extravaganza. The Blyton track is located in a very rural area. Like the Bovingdon track, it is also built on an old airport runway. I had corresponded with the track’s webmaster who also doubles as a banger formulae driver. His name is Eric and this is what he had to say about there track layout: “There are 3 tracks at Blyton; a grass track tri oval, a short circuit tarmac oval and a long circuit supermoto track”. I believe it was Spike Rixon who said he had been to Blyton earlier this year and was able to see racing at two of Blyton’s countable tracks. Our plan calls for seeing 11 tracks in England on this trip. If we make that number my overall total will be 699 tracks. It would be great to squeeze in one more somewhere along the line to reach the 700 plateau while I’m in England. We’ll see. I must standout physically in some way when I attend the racetracks I visit. Maybe it’s the shorts. Although I wear shorts more than 95% of the time in my life, that trend has not yet caught on in the U.K. Maybe it’s because it’s April and the temps are about 50. But, even when I go to the south, I get that, “Boy, you ain’t from around here are you”, look. Eric, track webmaster and driver Nevertheless, Eric, the webmaster and banger driver discovered me before I discovered him. We had a nice talk. He provided me with some new information about his racing program. He drives a Russian made car. I got a great picture of Eric in front of his red and white #51 banger, which I have already forwarded, to him. Before I leave next Thursday for my Syracuse, New York based racing trip I’ll forward to each of you an Ofoto.com U.K. racing trip album. Eric told me he paid 50 U.K. English pounds for his car. It took him another 15 pounds and some free work traded to complete the car. Frequently, a banger car only lasts for one event because of the hard contact the cars have with each other. Eric said this car was on its eighth meeting. Frankly, it looked like it had been through the wars. Unfortunately, for Eric, he crashed during the first lap and was unable to continue. I’m standing next to a Formula 2 U.K. stock car In addition to bangers, the track also raced Formula 2 outlaw stock cars and hot rods. The hot rods are a fun class to watch. Here’s a program description of the hot rod class: Hot Rods: Up to 1600cc front wheel, drive non-contact formula. A budget formula aimed for newcomers to get into the sport but also features a number of experienced racers who enjoy the division. The cars are all small family cars, like Ford Fiestas, Ford Escorts, Vauxhall Novas plus the odd Mini and Metro and others. All cars are fitted with a roll cage and smartly presented. I spent some time talking to one of the F2 outlaw stock car drivers. By the way, everyone we ran into in the pits at all of our tracks was more than willing to talk to us and answer all of our questions. The English are very friendly people and seem too really like “chatting it up” with Americans. The stock car drivers said they bought all of their overhead wings from the U.S. The outlaw F2’s are a cheaper version of the BriSCA F2 class. Actually, they’re very similar to the modified stock cars my uncle used to race around the Danville, Illinois area in the 1950s and 60s. RACE TRACK FOOD: Here are just a few of the items on the restaurant menu (priced in English pounds): Pie & peas 2.20, jacket potatoes 1.80, milk flavoured .60, cans (not sure of what!) .60, crisps .35, lollies .05, strawberries & cream .75. When I took a photo of the food menu this evoked curiosity from the lady working in the food trailer. We got into a nice conversation and she mentioned she had been to the U.S. and always found Americans very friendly. Later in the meet, I treated Allan and me to chocolate and raspberry sundaes, which were very tasty. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Our Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab started with only a quarter tank of gas. We must return the car with at least a quarter tank of gas. This necessitated an early stop for petrol. Alan, sprung for the first tank. The regular petrol price was 82 pence per liter. For the math-challenged, that’s about $7 per gallon! The bill was a little more than 47 English pounds. That translated to about $75 for the tank in a relatively small car!! Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. SHEFFIELD STADIUM Greetings from Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Tony, Spike, Mark, Randy, Allan A very special treat at the Sheffield Stadium was to meet up with several of our U.K. trackchaser brethren. Allan and I had scarcely been in the Stadium for two minutes before a big Englishman was yelling my name out. Turns out I was recognized as the only person in the entire stadium wearing short pants (the English call shorts, “Golfing trousers”.). In no time we were able to meet Spike Rixon (if that’s not a rugby player’s name I don’t know what is), who was the big Englishman, his wife Linda, Mark Kelly (I forgot to ask him if he was Irish) and their friend Tony. Both Spike and Mark are part of our trackchaser email group. We had a lovely time comparing trackchaser stories. All of the U.K. fellows had been to the U.S. to see many tracks. They liked Kokomo, Eldora and Knoxville. They were also very interested in which tracks we liked the best on our trip. This gave us lots of useful hints and other tracks to visit in the future. Spike and Linda will be coming to the U.S. to see racing at Talladega in a couple of weeks. By the way, Spike is looking for a Sunday night race following the afternoon Nextel Cup race at Talladega. Spike said he will be using the “Guy Smith 50/50 rule”. As I understand it, this rule, possibly it’s only a guideline, says that when Guy and his wife Pam go on a vacation 50% of the days are reserved for Guy’s preferences and 50% for Pam’s. Gee, I never knew I could expect 50% of the available vacation time (just kidding, Carol!). Spike’s plan was to allow Linda to have both airplane travel days, where she could be watching an airplane movie, as part of her 50%. Of course, Spike was just kidding….. I think! Nevertheless, as an advocate for the disenfranchised, I tried to get Linda’s tourist time up to 65%. She seemed to like that idea. I’m sure they talked about it on their ride home. Mark, Tony, Spike and Linda, it was great meeting you all! From the Sheffield city web site: Sheffield looked safe enough to me, although my son, Jim, says the Cutco cutlery he sold during college can cut circles around any cutlery from Sheffield. Note to Bev Herrin: We saw the name Hallam frequently throughout our U.K. travels. The races were held at Sheffield Stadium, which is located in the middle of this good-sized city. The stadium is also home to greyhound racing and speedway motorcycle racing. You can check out the activities at the track from www.sheffieldspeedway.com. We did have some trouble finding this track. We used our “stop at a convenience store and ask for directions” mapping plan once we got inside the city of Sheffield. It was necessary to stop several times before we literally ran into the stadium itself. Arriving after the first couple of races started allowed us to skate in without paying an admission fee. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free RACING NEWS: The Sheffield Stadium was my 695th track. This stadium like several of the better tracks in the U.K. is also a greyhound dog racing track. The dirt auto racing oval is located just on the inside of the dog track. Sheffield Stadium is host to speedway motorcycles each Thursday night. F1 stock cars in action The main attraction tonight was the BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars. This class totally inverts the racing field for each race. Most major U.S. sanctioning groups start the fast guys in the front. Often in this format, the winner comes from the front row and you never get to see winner pass anyone for position. The U.K. racers in almost all divisions are “graded”. Their grade is based upon the points they’ve earned from previous finishes. The best drivers are rated either superstars or stars and their car’s roof is painted red. The next best group have blue roofs, then yellow and finally white. The white roofed cars are positioned at the start/finish line. The other colored grades start their race about 50-100 yards behind the grade in front of them. It’s just about unheard in the U.S. to have America’s leading drivers passing more than a few cars for an actual racing position. In the U.K. Frankie Wainman Jr. is the Jeff Gordon or Steve Kinser of BriSCA F1 stock car racing. BriSCA F1 heat races are 16 laps long and start about 25 cars. The feature is 20 laps long and starts around 30 cars. Each driver also races in two heat races, whereas in the U.S. a driver races in only one heat race. Can you imagine Steve Kinser starting at the back of two 25 car heat races and then starting at the back of a 30 car, 20-lap feature event? You’ll never see it! Frankie Wainman Jr. starts every race in the back row nearly three-quarters of a lap behind. He does this for three or four races each night and probably passes 40-60 cars for position in one evening. Another Formula 1 feature called the “all-comers” event capped the evening’s activities. Fortunately, the U.K. gang gave us some information about this race. The feature winner from earlier tonight starts in the pole position of this race. He gets extra points and prize money for any car he can lap in the 20 lap race. Tonight’s winner started on the pole, with about 25 cars in the race and lapped all but about eight or nine cars. U.K. starters love to entertain the crowd Surprising to me was the very low prize money offered in this class. I believe Mark told us the winner might get only 200 or 300 pounds for winning. This is the top class of open-wheeled racing in the U.K. The top class of open-wheeled racers in the U.S. (World of Outlaws) get anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 for most of their races. Several of the drivers I talked to during the trip that race in lower level U.K. classes said they get no prize money whatsoever. I must add one comment that somewhat justifies this handicapping system. In the U.K. most racing classes (formulae) are allowed contact with each other. This means the car can legally and without penalty run into the car ahead and gently or not so gently punt them out of the way. Although in America, for the most part, this is not allowed, in the U.K. it’s part of the racing action. When cars crash and spin out on the track, normally a yellow flag is NOT dropped. The cars just continue to race around the cars and debris that litter the track. Of course, if the track is totally blocked they will yellow or red flag the race and remove only the cars that are directly blocking the racecourse. In my last racing report of this trip, I’ll be providing my comparison of the pros and cons of U.K. vs. U.S. racing. I’ll also be giving you an “Ed Esser Update” as I will do in the last race report of each racing trip I do. Of course, I publish my racing itinerary in advance. This itinerary is based upon hours and hours of pouring over schedules and putting the race dates into a queue designed to yield the most race tracks for the time and money available. Some have asked why I publish my race plan in advance when others can simply copy it without putting much work into their own racing plan. I’m all for sharing as much racing information as I can. When I share my plan, others have some idea where I’ll be and frequently I get the chance to meet up with them. That’s exactly what happened today in Sheffield and as they say, “It was all good!” One of the best parts of the greyhound type of track is the enclosed seating areas. These parts of the grandstand have liquor bars, dining rooms, slot machines and lounges where you can watch the races indoors behind a large glass window. I spent some time roaming around this track, which turned out to be the largest “short-track” facility we would visit. You can also hear the public address announcer much better from inside. The folks who view the action from “outdoors” must stand or sit in a lawn chair. RACE TRACK FOOD: We decided to forego any track food so we could have dinner in a true English pub. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Enterprise Rental Racing Saab continues to motor on. Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. YORK AUTOGRASS CLUB Greetings from York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Following the Sheffield Stadium race, we had our first opportunity for a sit down English pub dinner. We chose the Red Lion Inn in Sheffield. Here, Allan and I dined on some authentic English food and ale. The building was constructed of old English grey stone with steeply pitched roofs. The restaurant service was not very good although we enjoyed the break from racetrack burgers. My son, J.J., lived and worked in England for two years. He told me the wait staff in English restaurants would not bring our check unless we asked for it. It would be considered rude for the restaurant to bring your check as if the establishment was asking you to leave. We only had about 60 miles to travel tonight to get to York. The York racing would begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow. This was our last full racing day of the trip. We figured we would drive up to York, get our hotel, and then be able to sleep in. That planned worked well. It was about 10 p.m. when we passed the York Autograss racetrack. There wasn’t much activity going on but there were many campers in the grass field parking area. It rather reminded me of seeing the campers in the fields near Eldora. Less than a mile past the racetrack we came across a bed and breakfast with the same name as our dinner restaurant…..the Red Lion Inn. We stopped and they had a double room, which included a full English breakfast for 60 pounds. As they say, “Location, location, location”. We could almost walk to the track from the hotel. Other than an unspecified plumbing problem our room was fine. We awoke in the morning for the fourth and final full day of our racing trip. Days 1 and 2 called for seeing two tracks each day. Day 3 had three racetracks on the schedule. Today, day four, would have four tracks to see to complete our planned 11 track, four-day total. The hotel’s full English breakfast was very good. We started with juice, coffee and cereal. We were then served our hot breakfast that consisted of toast, fried eggs, beans, sausage and bacon. Soon we were on our way to complete a very busy but satisfying day of trackchasing. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 RACING NEWS: Admission to the York Autograss Club event was five pounds. This price also included a very nice 28-page program. We arrived early to a very wet grass and mud pit area. I’m not sure if it rained overnight or not but the cars had a very difficult time driving from the pits to the race starting area. There were tons of racecars. I’d estimate at least a hundred. I grew up near Peoria, Illinois, which is the worldwide headquarters of the Caterpillar Tractor Company. There was one grass track racer with a beautiful black and yellow car sponsored by Caterpillar with the number ST121. The letters in a grass track racer’s car number indicate the club they belong too. When I raced in Tirley, England my car’s number was B106H. My car was registered at the Breden Hill Autograss race club. Today’s event at York was sanctioned by the largest Autograss club in England, the York Autograss Club. They race at this venue once a month from April (today is opening day) through October with no racing in August. We attended the driver’s meeting before the racing began. The issues were similar to a typical U.S. short track driver’s meeting. The stewards criticized the driver’s for not helping to work the track and for aggressive driving. They also mentioned that people had been seen “tampering” with competitor’s cars. They said anyone caught doing this would be banned from all U.K. Autograss racing. We’re in Northern England, very near the North Sea. The accents up here are a bit different. I can detect a much stronger Scottish brogue, which at times is very difficult to understand. We stayed for about 20 of the programme’s 54 scheduled races before heading out. Most tracks in England use the Union Jack flag to mark the midpoint in the race. At York, they use the Union Jack flag to start the races. The York Autograss facility was by 696th track to visit. RACE TRACK FOOD: I downed a hot chocolate on a cool and cloudy morning. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab was parked just off one of the racetrack’s turns. From the pit area, it looked like it wouldn’t take much for an out of control racecar to flip over into our Swedish chariot. It did give me some pause for thought. Allan advised there was much more space between the track and the rental car than I was projecting. Since it was my credit card on the line with Enterprise, I continued to keep an eye on that part of the track for the rest of the day. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. BUXTON RACEWAY Greetings from Buxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, One of the things common to all of the U.K. tracks is a noticeable lack of souvenir merchandise at U.K. tracks. The merchandise that is there looks like its been sitting on the shelf for 20 years. Fans don’t wear much in the way of local driver hats and shirts like they do in the U.S. I think I saw more U.K. fans wearing U.S. related fan wear than anything else. The best souvenir I came across was a British racing green Jaguar shirt. This was perfect for Carol since she drives an “S” type Jaguar. Of course, we may have to get rid of it if more funds are required in defense of my ranking race with Ed Esser. At least she’ll have the shirt as a Jaguar remembrance. Speaking of Mr. Esser, my “Ed Esser” update will appear in tomorrow’s last and final U.K. race report. I will provide an Esser update on the last day of each complete race trip I do. I appreciate the words of support that I’ve received, especially from Connecticut (proving that East coast bias does not permeate the entire area). It seems that Ed is now being viewed as the next “Wal-Mart” of trackchasing. The town of Buxton is famous for Buxton Spring Water. Buxton is located at the highest elevation in all of England. The Buxton weather station is at an elevation of 1,100 feet although it seemed we were much higher. I do know it was cold and windy. This area was definitely the most picturesque of everywhere we went in England. The roads were narrow and winding and the hillsides green and rocky. Once we got to the track (our third track of the day) I was lucky to get a prime parking spot. The racing program was already underway for more than two hours when we arrived. We parked near the first turn where we could watch the races from inside our Saab. Allan and I drank Fanta orange soda and munched on pretzels while the bangers banged. The programme mentioned that last year’s Easter races were nearly canceled by fog. Last week’s event was run in the rain and snow. Even though rain was forecast for our entire trip we did not use our windshield wipers even one time for rain. We watched four or five feature events before we headed off to our final and 11th new track of the trip. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles Brampton En Le Morthen, South York – 54 miles Buxton, Derbyshire, U.K. – 42 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 Brampton – 5 Buxton – 2 pounds, 50 pence RACING NEWS: The Buxton Raceway is my 698th track. The track was formerly called High Edge Raceway. It’s listed as a 380-meter tarmac oval with Armco fence. The facility also has a traditional figure of 8 track. I was hoping that Buxton would race on the figure 8 configuration that would allow me to get track #700 before I left the U.K. However, that did not happen. They do have figure of 8 races scheduled about four times during their season. Buxton also has another oval track just behind turns one and two. I’m guessing it’s used for speedway motorcycles. We arrived at the track at 3:30 p.m. The racing program had started at 1 p.m. Allan was able to use his superior negotiating skills to get the admission price reduced. I think the original charge was 10 pounds, but we both got in for 5 pounds in total. I think since Allan rarely has to pay to attend a race in the U.S. that U.K. ticket takers are no match for this fast talker from Michigan. Since we arrived late we missed, “Chris Clough’s Amazing Domino Stunt”. I would have liked to have seen this. Apparently this fellow lines up old junk cars in a vertical position and knocks them over like dominos. I guess I’ll just have to come back again to see this. We did get a chance to see the children’s running race. They had two classes of kids, upper class and lower class……no, I’m just kidding! One group of children completed an entire lap of the speedway and the other ran one-half of a lap. There were a few children who crashed and burned (fell down) in what turned out to be a fun race to watch. They had a huge crowd at the Buxton Raceway. There is no formal seating although part of the track has a roofed-in area. The temperature was about 45-50 degrees with a piercing 20-25 M.P.H. wind. The program started at 1 p.m. and we left at about 5 p.m. The hour and a half we spent at the track was mainly inside of our warm car. I did take a walking lap around the track and spent some time in the pit area. I can’t imagine the normal fan STANDING for four hours in windy and cold weather. During the downtimes between races, they played American rap music. One of the racing formulae today was the rookie banger class. They have an unusual rule regarding contact. This class is only allowed to “nudge and spin” another car after three laps of non-contact racing. The track also ran the hot rod class. We only saw the hot rods at a couple of tracks and their racing was very good. This racing trip has taken place north of London. I think stock cars are more popular in the north of England and hot rods are more prevalent in the south of England. I think I may make another U.K. Easter run in 2005 in the southern part of the country. RACE TRACK FOOD: Pretzels in the car were the extent of our food consumption at the Buxton Raceway. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Fortunately, we were able to use Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab as a windbreak at today’s races. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. BRAMPTON RACEWAY Greetings from Brampton En Le Morthen, South York, United Kingdom, Not much happening on the people/travel news front. This track was just 54 miles from York. It was our third track of the day and our 10th new track for the trip. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles Brampton En Le Morthen, South York – 54 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 Brampton – 5 RACING NEWS: The Brampton Raceway was my 698th track. Both Allan and I agreed it was probably the worst of the 11 tracks we would see. Today’s event was for the banger class only. There were two or three banger classes and about 40-50 cars in total. Racing at Brampton Brampton was the most rural of all the tracks we saw although many of the tracks were in rural locations and quite run down. The racing surface was a very muddy shale. We did get just a minute or two of light showers while at the track. This would be the only rain we saw during the entire trip. The track was nearly a quarter-mile in length. The inside and outside, “walls” were large rubber tractor tires buried in the ground. I have a great picture of Allan standing atop a large tractor tire. The tire is partially buried in the ground but still got A.B. about 10 up in the air. The remainder of the crowd stood just 20 feet from the racing surface and beyond the tractor tires protected only by a thin wire fence. If you want to imagine what grassroots stock car racing was like in the U.S. in the 50s all you have to do in go to Brampton Raceway today. Allan watches the action from on top of a tractor tire We did not see a set of bleachers at any track during the entire trip. Silverstone was a first-class facility with chair-type seating. Both greyhound tracks, Sheffield and Belle Vue had classy indoor seating areas where food and drink were sold and patrons sat at tables. Outside of the above everyone either brought their own chairs or stood. When we visited with our U.K. friends we stood for the entire meeting. We were also able to sit in our car at two of the tracks to view the action. Fortunately, for us, we were able to be in the car at the two tracks where the weather was coldest. RACE TRACK FOOD: Except for the greyhound track facilities, all of the track concession stands were simply trailers. For the most part, they sell hamburgers, hot dogs, chips (fries) and occasionally fish. Having just come off the Atkins Diet eating bread is a bit foreign to me. I had to get over that quickly! All of the hamburgers we ate came with a bun the size of a small loaf of bread. I switched to eating double cheeseburgers so I could tell there was some meat in the bun! The hot dogs at Brampton were the size of a thick pencil and the hot dog bun the size of my forearm. Speaking of arm size there was a huge English woman serving the food in a sleeveless blouse. She had a tattoo on the outside of her left bicep made up of several Chinese letters. I asked her what the tattoo meant. She smiled a one-tooth grin and said she wouldn’t be able to tell me. I can only imagine how that tattoo got there and what it means! RENTAL CAR UPDATE: No, this is not our rental car but one of the Brampton competitors Our Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab was parked next to the one porta-potty in the parking area. This made a good landmark so we could find the car upon our exit. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. BELLE VUE GREYHOUND STADIUM Greetings from Belle Vue (Gorton) Manchester, United Kingdom, Editor’s note: This is the last report from my 11-track United Kingdom Easter race tour. I have never seen this many tracks in such a short time so I apologize if I have inundated you with emails! That being said, I already have an eye on a 2005 Easter U.K. trip if I can get Carol shipped off (invited) to her parent’s house again over Easter. Tomorrow, it’s away to Syracuse, New York for a planned seven-track, four-day trackchasing trip. I don’t stop. The Belle Vue Greyhound track was our last, and 11th track of the trip. Following this race, our attention turned to efficiently getting out of the country. We said good-bye to Mark, Tony, Spike and Linda, who were also at Belle Vue and left this venue at 9 p.m. We drove a little more than 100 miles to junction 10 on the M40 where we found a Travelodge in Cherwell Valley. By the time we got to bed it was nearly midnight. Our plan called for a 7 a.m. wakeup call and we were on the road by 7:30 a.m. This was the first workday after the four-day U.K. Easter holiday. We were concerned about traffic as we approached London’s Heathrow Airport. Fortunately, there was very little traffic. We arrived at the Enterprise Rental Car lot earlier than expected. A very competent young woman named, Sam, inspected our car inside and out (like she was buying a used car) and pronounced it fit and unworthy of any extra charges. Allan and I then hopped on the rental car bus. We had a nice conversation with a U.K. born, now living in Holland truck driver. Like most, he was amused at our trackchasing hobby. He was on his way to join a skydiving group for a few days in Florida. Everybody’s got something! Upon arriving at the airport I was able to show Allan the benefits of frequent flyer membership at an advanced level. I’ve flown almost 6 million miles on American Airlines. This entitles me to a few perks. Think of it as similar to the Winner’s Circle program in NASCAR. When we entered the airport the line to get a boarding pass was about 100 people long. I get to check-in at the first class counter regardless of the class of service I fly. This line had only two people in it. In no time we were having breakfast near but not at the Burger King at the American terminal. The last time Carol and I were at Heathrow we were eating at the Burger King. All of a sudden the entire area was evacuated for a bomb scare. Following breakfast, it was time to go through airport security. No problems here. Security was much less time consuming than in the U.S. They did not require me to take my laptop out of my briefcase. They didn’t ask us to take off our shoes. We breezed through in less than a minute. How can U.S. security be so different than U.K. security in they both have the same effectiveness? After security at Heathrow, there is lots of shopping for that tourist who hasn’t found just the right gift for that someone back home. Of course, at the current exchange rates, you won’t get a bargain. The exchange rate is near two U.S. dollars per English pound. Therefore, when you see a price in pounds simply double it and you’ve got the U.S. price in dollars. Obviously, you will pay a lot for this mathematical simplicity. I checked out the gold Rolex presidential model watch. It could have been had for just 9,285 English pounds with no VAT tax. I settled for some therapeutic massage oils for Carol. They were priced less than the Rolex and could kill two birds with one massage bar. More information on these products is available at www.lush.co.uk. (Spike, I recommend these highly). After security, we were off to the American Airlines Admirals Club. This is a private club where travelers can relax while they wait for their flight. We’re talking free booze and food, mahogany paneled walls, internet access, TV, etc. It seemed like Allan could relate to the atmosphere almost immediately (similar to the way Will picked up on the drinking margaritas idea). My remembrance of Allan is with him relaxing in a recliner with his feet up with a drink in one hand and a cookie in the other. He looked comfortable! My flight would take me directly from London to Los Angeles. The flight’s duration was about 11.5 hours. Allan would go from London to New York’s JFK to Cleveland and then on to Grand Rapids, Michigan (delays would force Allan to stay overnight in Cleveland before finally getting to Grand Rapids). My flight on the way home was flown entirely in the daylight. We flew for a couple of hours over Greenland. It was clear and the sight was beautiful. You could see the sparkling white ice flows in the sea. Everything looked crystal clear and pristine. I didn’t see too many good places for an emergency landing! While at my departure gate, I did have the occasion to talk to an old woman with a cane who sat down next to me. Although now a resident of the Los Angeles area, she was just returning from Budapest where she had grown up. She spoke in a Hungarian accent. She mentioned she had lived on the east coast prior to moving to LA. I asked her where on the east coast she had lived. Her answer, “Chicago”. Based upon her “East coast” experience I asked her if she had ever heard of “east coast bias”. In a smiling Hungarian reply, she said, “Of course, I have!” I rest my case. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles Brampton En Le Morthen, South York – 54 miles Buxton, Derbyshire, U.K. – 42 miles Belle Vue (Gorton), Manchester, U.K. – 25 miles London, Heathrow Airport – 204 miles – trip ends TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 Brampton – 5 Buxton – 2 pounds, 50 pence Belle Vue – 13 Total – 60 pounds, 50 pence (about $120) RACING NEWS: It’s hard for me not to want to compare racing in England with racing in the U.S. So, here’s what I see as the plusses of each country’s racing. UNITED KINGDOM The fields are handicapped with the fast cars staring in the back They have very few interruptions (yellow flags) during each race There is no charge to enter the pit area from the spectator grandstands There are plenty of cars in each racing class The heat races generally run 10-16 laps, which are about twice the distance of heat races in the U.S., and heat racecar counts are two-three times those in the U.S. They race rain or shine UNITED STATES The creature comforts are much better including seating areas, bathrooms and, for the most part, concessions and souvenirs The Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium was my 699th track. Only one more to go to reach the 700 plateau. Belle Vue racing action was run over a 290-meter shale oval. The track was narrow. It was difficult to pass. The track was also very wet and the cars were covered in shale after only a few laps. BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars were the featured class. They also had some banger racing. This was our third consecutive night of seeing the F1 stockers. Allan and I grabbed a seat in the glass-enclosed indoor seating area. Belle Vue is primarily a greyhound-racing track with pari-mutuel betting. Their indoor seating area is very comfortable. I’m sure I looked a little odd leaning over our table and taking catnaps, but I was beat. The indoor public address system was excruciatingly loud. There also are a lot of smokers in the U.K., many more than in the U.S. and California in particular. I took a tour of the pit area. For some reason, the pits were very muddy. There was a 75-yard one-lane dirt (mud) stretch that the racers had to use to get from the pit area to the racetrack. This lane was also used by spectators to roam the pits. The narrowness of the road made for some close calls between the pedestrian traffic and the racecars. Our U.K. friends, Linda, Spike, Mark and Tony attended. I believe they follow the F1 stock car circuit. It was a pleasure meeting these folks on the trip as well as the two Colins, Herridge and Casserly. If I can be of any help to you on your trip to the U.S. please don’t hesitate to call. Parking at the track was tight. There was a very large crowd and all of the facilities parking spaces were full. We ended up across the street and parked at a bingo casino. After the races, we tried to go into the bingo parlor for a look around. We were stopped at the door and told this was a private club and no non-members could come in. RACE TRACK FOOD: It was double cheeseburger time again. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: I put a little more than 1,000 miles on the Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab. We only used about 2.75 tanks of gas. At about $75 per tank, it was good that we didn’t use more. The car ran flawlessly and except for a close call on a winding mountain road near Buxton raceway, everything with the car was great. Randy Lewis ED ESSER UPDATE: As you may recall I’m trying to keep Ed from passing me in the trackchaser standings during 2004. I started the season at 682 tracks and a 54-track lead over Ed. The U.K. trip raised my 2004 total to 699 tracks. But Ed now has 28 new tracks this year and an overall total of 656 tracks posted. This gives me a 38-track lead over the Wal-Mart of trackchasing. I compare Ed to Wal-Mart because he has a commanding take no prisoners style that allowed him to dominate the annual trackchasing standings for the past year and a half. His total of 114 in 2003 stands as a reminder of the power that Ed can wield behind the wheel of his Chevy Blazer. You might think a 38-track lead would be safe during 2004. My lead will not be considered safe until I pop the cork on a bottle of Champaign this coming New Year’s Eve. You see there are really two obstacles I must overcome before I can declare victory over Ed. First, I have several personal non-racing trips scheduled during the year. I’ll only trackchase one or two weekends a month through September or so. Ed will go EVERY weekend and during the summer nearly every night. It doesn’t take long for Ed to erase any lead a competitor may have. My wife Carol and I have a beautiful cruise through the Panama Canal planned for the first two weeks of September. Early September is still prime trackchasing time. By that time I will also know what it’s going to take to stay ahead of Ed in the trackchaser standings. I really don’t want to have to break the news to Carol after she’s already got her bags packed that, no she won’t be going on the cruise, because I have to go out and protect my lead. Ed, you’ve met Carol. You wouldn’t want to see her disappointed would you? On a more positive note, I’ve sold by 1999 Lexus LS 400. I felt I could better use the funds to finance my defense against Ed Esser. San Clemente has a fine city bus system should I need a transportation lift. Secondly, and more importantly, Ed has some special “help” in the form of a racing manager. His manager is also a cheese head (oops) I meant to say resident of Wisconsin. Actually his manager is the 6th leading trackchaser in the world. These two conspire to research every known countable racetrack at every county fair in the country. I think they even get a little help from rural Indiana to uncover every trackchasing rock. Like Wal-Mart they sometimes are a little hesitant to share their competitive advantage until after the races have been run. My plan is to take the funds from the Lexus sale and hire Ed’s manager away from him. I’m sure a signing bonus, possibly a dental plan and even a few cases of 3.2 beer will do the trick. So, I say to Ed’s manager, give me a call, and let’s talk. That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. **Sunshine Speedway (oval), Pinellas Park, Florida, April 3 **Central Arizona Raceway, Casa Grande, Arizona, January 20 Bovingdon caravan racer Bovingdon Circuit – the first U.K. track visit of 2004 . . Banger racing result Mildenhall Stadium – great banger racing . . Silverstone Circuit – one of the most famous tracks in England . . Skegness boneyard Skegness Stadium – the tarmac version . . Starting line for autograss racing Hunmanby Raceway – grass racers everywhere . . Youngish trackchaser visits Blyton Raceway Blyton Raceway – flat track rural racing . . U.K. starters are entertaining Sheffield Stadium – really good dirt track racing at a dog track . . Autograss racing draws huge fields York Autograss Club – autograss racing in the mud . . Aerial photograph of a motor race taking place at Buxton Raceway in Buxton Derbyshire England UK Buxton Raceway – only two photos! :( . . Allan Brown – my companion for this trip Brampton Raceway – this isn’t the middle of nowhere but you can see the middle of nowhere from here . . Belle Vue Greyhound Park – one of the best U.K. racing venues I’ve seen
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Bovingdon Circuit
Bovingdon
England
United Kingdom
April 9, 2004
PO
Mildenhall Stadium
Mildenhall
England
United Kingdom
April 9, 2004
DO
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone
England
United Kingdom
April 10, 2004
PRC
Skegness Stadium
Orby
England
United Kingdom
April 10, 2004
PO
Hunmanby Raceway
Hunmanby
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
DO
Blyton Raceway
Blyton
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
PO
Sheffield Stadium
Sheffield
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
DO
York Autograss Club
York
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
Buxton Raceway
Buxton
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
PO
Brampton Raceway
Brampton en le Morthen
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium
Belle Vue
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
#
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
1
Onchan Raceway
Onchan
Isle of Mann
United Kingdom
July 31, 2000
PO
#
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
1
Ballymena Raceway
Ballymena
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
April 14, 2006
PO
2
Tullyroan Oval
Dungannon
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
March 26, 2016
PO
3
Nutt’s Corner Raceway
Crumlin
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
March 27, 2016
PO
4
Aghadowey Oval
Coleraine
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
March 28, 2016
PO
#
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
1
Cowdenbeath Racewall
Cowdenbeath
Scotland
United Kingdom
August 5, 2000
PO
#
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
1
Anglesey Circuit
Ty Croes
Wales
United Kingdom
April 22, 2011
PRC
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Bovingdon Circuit
Bovingdon
England
United Kingdom
April 9, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Mildenhall Stadium
Mildenhall
England
United Kingdom
April 9, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone
England
United Kingdom
April 10, 2004
PRC
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Skegness Stadium
Orby
England
United Kingdom
April 10, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Hunmanby Raceway
Hunmanby
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
Men’s Racing Classes
Class 1
This class is restricted to under 1000cc unmodified Mini’s where the main requirements are for safety regulations. The
engine is allowed to be “Blueprinted” which means it can be constructed to all the + tolerances but apart from that must
remain standard The gearbox must also remain un-modified.
This class has a restriction of up to 1300cc engines which can be either a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive car such as a
Escort or Starlet, a rear-engined rear-wheel-drive car such as a NSU or Skoda, or a front-engined front-wheel-drive car
such as Nova’s or Micro’s. Limited Modifications are allowed such as “blueprinting” the engine, and also the inlet manifold
and carburetors are free! as long as they breathe through a 32mm restrictor plate. Once again the gearbox has to be
standard for the make car that you are racing in!
This class is for front-engined rear-wheel-drive cars with an engine capacity of over 1421cc but with a maximum of two
valves per cylinder. Any engine and gearbox combination is allowed subject to the front-engine rear-wheel-drive format.
so a few hybrid cars appear in this tail end happy class such as Escorts with V8 Rover engines or 8v Vauxhall engines
as well as Starlets with various engine combinations and becoming more popular are Peugeot 205 which have been
modified to rear-wheel drive cars to save weight!
This class is for up to 1130cc modified machines, which can be, either front or rear-engined and front or rear-wheel drive.
The restriction in this class is that the engine must remain in the original position and must be of the type originally sold in
that type of car. Ultra-lightweight Mini’s and Imps are very popular in this class!
This class is for modified saloons with a capacity of between 1131cc and 1420cc and can be either a motorcycle engine
or car engine. Any engine can be placed either in the front or the back of the saloon which makes a variety of
machinery available like ultra-lightweight mini shells with a motorcycle /front-wheel-drive configuration to Micro’s/Nova’s
with rear-engined/rear-wheel drive combinations.
This class is for over 1421cc front-engined/front-wheel drive modified cars. The most popular cars in this class appear to
be 2litre-16valve Novas with highly tuned engines although 16valve-Golfs, Turbo-charged Fiesta’s and other hybrid motors
have been known to appear in this class.
The “King” of the saloon classes, this class is for modified rear-wheel-drive saloons over 1421cc. This “anything goes
Class” can have all sorts of exotica machinery with such diverse engines as 16-valve turbocharged Ford Cosworths, V6
0r V8 often with super/turbocharged engines, to twin motorcycle setups. the engine is usually mid-mounted in the rear of
a small lightweight saloon shell. This is definitely the “Loads of money” class but is also one of the most exciting classes
as well!
Specials up to 1420cc. The first of our specials built just for Autograss racing. These are constructed using a home-built
space frame chassis, using an open-wheel format with varying engines but now mainly motorcycle engines and over the
last few years have probably developed into the fastest of all the classes but all the specials are very close in performance
to each other! top class racing from these small but extremely light machines!
Specials from 1421cc to 2070cc. A very popular class for people wanting to race open-wheeled cars but generally not
having to spend quite as much money on them as the other two special classes (but not always the case!).
Used to be the undeniable king of the specials classes with engine capacities over 2071cc, with engines similar to that of
the class 7’s, but due to there lightweight class 8 are now so competitive, really have to work to get to the front in
handicapped racing!
Class 1 and class 2 cars driven by Ladies racing other ladies duly handicapped race in this class.
Class 4, 5 and 6 cars duly handicapped race against each other!
Class 3 and class 7 cars race against each other duly handicapped.
Classes 8, 9 and 10 cars race against each other duly handicapped!
Drivers are aged between 12-16 year old and can be either Girls or Boys, who after passing a test are allowed to race
Using class 1 Mini’s only!
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Blyton Raceway
Blyton
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Sheffield Stadium
Sheffield
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
York Autograss Club
York
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Buxton Raceway
Buxton
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Brampton Raceway
Brampton en le Morthen
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
TRACK
CITY
COUNTRY
DATE
TRACK TYPE
Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium
Belle Vue
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Racetracks visited in 2004
(** Not the first time to visit this track)
