Just another year
30th December 2009

Stuck in the void of that time after Christmas and New Years I’m contemplating putting together a list of the best performing drivers of the year, it’s something I’ve done for several years but I’m getting a little sick of seeing and hearing every list that’s flying around at the moment. The best of the year, the best of the decade, blah. Perhaps my attitude will change as I get bored of seeing another episode of Friends on T4 and feel I need to contribute something to the masses.

Every year I can easily put a spin on the good aspects, mask the bad ones and hype up the future of the sport. In all honesty the promoters will have to work harder than ever to keep the three sports of bangers, stock cars and hot rod racing continuing. Bangers are definitely dropping in numbers and I’ve personally lost my interest in them. I’ll watch them if they are racing at a meeting I’m at but I won’t travel to see them. Firecrackers and world finals are just a distant memory of what used to me. Blame the recession, blame the scrappage plan, blame drivers who don’t want to crash, blame the sport becoming too professional, blame the rodders; whatever the excuse drivers racing are less and this has a knock-on effect to stock cars and hot rods. It is bangers that make money from the punters through the gate and they are the meeting that actually make a profit to compensate the low attending hot rod and stock car meetings.

The fans of stock cars and hot rods are usually the hardcore ones that travel across the country to see their favourites week after week. I salute you, you are the people that are keeping the sport ticking over. Your continued support is needed. My year ahead has some big plans, I’ve set some targets (remember if you don‘t specify a date and a measurable target your goals will become less achievable - fact!). For the site I do want it to become bigger and better, I’ve always thought that this site was unique and can link together all the hot rod racing unlike the other oval racing sites. Enter problem number one, I can not do everything. My recent survey wanted pictures and reports, I can’t do both, but with the fact I don’t have a fancy digital camera the reports take charge. I’ve compared my reports against other writers and although I may not have the same contact they have with the drivers I am not attached to any promoters, formula or drivers and can give unbiased view. However, YOU CAN HELP, if you have photos then send them into the site (thanks to Keith Duke, Clive Merchant and Buxton Racepix for your pictures in 2009), if you can string together a sentence or two for a meeting review/ result go for it. These little touches help, do you have a new car for 2010 share it to the world-wide-web.

Stepping away from what the site will offer next year the people that come to this site for information do it because they love the racing. They want to ingest more information, catch up on a meeting they have missed or see when their favourite class is racing next.

Fixtures are already being put together and Spedeworth seem to have put something pretty special together, 3 World finals (National Hot Rod, 2 Litre Hot Rod and Lightning Rod) at the Spedeweekend as well as the Stock Rod later on. This is to celebrate 50 years of promoting from Spedeworth. Arlington is now changing to Saturday that’ll pack out the terraces even more, while the National Hot Rods are a provisional fixture at Great Yarmouth. Wimbledon’s current refurbishment means the owners have some faith in the venue.

FMC are ready to roll at Paices Hill (Aldermaston) for 2010 and Lochgelly Complex in Scotland should also be running by Easter, everything is not all doom and gloom. The questions that’ll be answered during the course of the year: Can Boardley do it again in the Nationals? Can Woolsey do it again in the 2 Litre’s? Will there be a Lightning Rod race without any contact? Will the Starlet ever win another hot rod race? Which country will dominant in the Stock Rods? Will the blue flag stop being shown to a driver leading a hot rod? Roll on 2010!

Vote Now
24th July 2009

There are many up’s and down’s I’ve had from this site. The days of no hits on a poorly designed site are behind me, the biggest problem I still face is lack of co-operation from the promoters. Getting annoyed about their lack of vision doesn’t bother me anymore I still have plenty of ideas to keep this site improving. Bouncing around the head are several unique ideas that’ll be interesting for all the visitors. Although I can gradually plod on and get these into public domain I’m after a bit of feedback. What I think are good ideas are not what the majority of people want to see, so there’s no point in me wasting time if it’s not wanted.

Please vote in this poll. I want to know what you the viewer would most like to see on this site. Doesn’t require much work from you, just click with the mouse. You may have to disable some security measures to view the poll.

Nothing Compares
21st July 2009

I’ve been watching oval racing for about 20 years, I follow a lot of National Hot Rod meetings and plan my weekends around it at the start of the year. Even the excitement of Blur reforming would not hold me back from seeing my beloved sport. I’m not trying to find a better form of motorsport but felt surely it can’t hurt seeing anything when I have the opportunity. This year I ventured to France to see the Le Mans 24 hours race. Going on the Wednesday and spending 5 days there. It would also be slightly different to my oval racing experiences due to the fact I will be staying with 6 other guys drink would be a key theme. I don't drink when watching hot rods and stock cars, never felt the need for it.

When I first arrived the speed of the cars was awesome, the V8 Corvette passing was immense, but there’s only so much you can see. As the days passed the highlight was probably watching the regular public completing burn-outs. The race was fun, but I couldn’t be bothered to stay up all night. I’m not sure I even saw an overtaking manoeuvre for position which included the use of a hand-held television. Perhaps I was being biased but I can’t see how this type of motorsport can compete with the short ovals for pure entertainment. Painting an old Jaguar with a chequered roof and building beer mountain probably surpassed the quality of the race, which is slightly sad considering how long I’ve thought about going.

The previous week I was at Northampton, for the final round of the National Hot Rods World Qualifying. Like Le Mans there was a Peugeot coming out on top, Haird’s 206cc probably contains as much standard Peugeot parts as the LMP version that trashed Audi. Sitting on the banking with my father is nothing new, but this time we had three of my friends. What did they think of the hot rods, stock cars and bangers? They loved it, I was bombarded with questions: Why do these race the other way? Why do they line up this way? Will Podge be out in the next Banger race? When is the next meeting? Being an oracle I answered all the questions. It made me feel good that I brought these people into my world and loved it and wanted to come back again.

Whilst the cars were practicing I asked which driver they would support, without any prior knowledge they picked Carl Boardley. I hadn’t explained anything about grading at this stage but they liked the gold roof. Even though these are adults I took, his name and number weren’t remembered he’s just known as ‘gold top’. When I went to the World Final I was asked if ‘gold top’ would be racing, of course he was he won again!

When you compare these two meetings that happened only days apart which won did I prefer? The hot rods, even though this was a bog-standard meeting where the highlight was Boardley’s move on Murray in the heats. I know in my heart that the short ovals rock, I should make more effort into getting new fans to the ovals.

New Track Ahead
26th March 2009

Something I get excited about is the prospect of visiting a new track; this Sunday will be no different as I venture to the new Aldershot track. I only went to the old track once and to be honest can’t remember much of it, but do remember being picked up from cubs in the daytime and heading there. Strange how that bit still sits in my memory.

The National Hot Rods having a different track for a qualifying round is a move in the right direction for the formula; there are too many meetings at Ipswich. The class should be more a travelling circus that has a buzz as it hits another track. There certainly are tracks that are good enough to host the class.

For 2009 the rounds have been sponsored and named, I really like this, it is a positive move forward. Looking back the named meetings give a chance to compare who was once winning. The opening meeting at Birmingham was sponsored by Titan Motorsport but was not named. The next meeting at Aldershot will be the Southern Championship; I have been gradually collating the championship winners in the class but don’t have that much info on this one. As far as I know the title was last held in 1990 at Aldershot but don’t know who won. The ones I do know are Steve Burgess won the title in ‘86 (in an Escort mk2) and George Polley won in ’68 (Wimbledon) ’73 (Walthamstowe) and ’84.

Give us what the fans want
15th February 2009

Best hot rod class in the UK? The super fast National Hot Rods with its roots as the original class, the competitive Stock Rods that race throughout the UK or the rough and ready Lightning Rods that have earned themselves the nickname of Frightening Rods. Personally Nationals on their day nothing compares, yet there is another formula that sits nicely underneath it, the Spedeworth 2 Litre Hot Rods.

Putting together the ideal meeting would need the National Hot Rods and then stick the 2 Litre Hot Rods on the support bill. The cars are like a scaled down version of them, similar build and style just a cheaper version. Although a one promotion formula in England they have a large register of drivers, no other promoter with their own formula has the same quality line-up.

Seems obvious they should run together yet they only have one meeting together in England in 2009 which is the Spedeweekend. Instead the Nationals have bangers as their supporting role most of the time. This strange way of laying out the fixtures also appears at Hednesford. With Incarace now controlled by Spedeworth Deane Wood has kept the Incarace formulas in tact and added a few meetings for the Spedeworth formulas on those tracks. This sees the Superstox and 2 Litre Hot Rods having a few away days. Last November the 2 Litre Hot Rods hit Northampton for the National Championship. This year they have their World Championship at Hednesford, the first time the class has been there since 1991 when they used the 1600 crossflow engine.

Hednesford has fewer fixtures this year compared to years gone by and the National Hot Rods have suffered by having only 2 qualifying rounds and the National Championship. Yet the 2 Litre Hot Rods have three for this year, but they are the only away days for the class, none at Birmingham or Northampton. So what you might ask, but to me it doesn’t seem logical that the track with least meetings available hosts this class when the National Hot Rods are losing meetings. Then you also have to consider being the most northerly of all the Incarace tracks it will also be the furthest away for the drivers.

In Northern Ireland things are a little different; the Nutts Corner track normally has many formulas racing at one meeting. During 2008 Nationals hit the circuit 8 times and 2 Litre’s were on the same bill 8 times, this is likely to occur again in 2009. This year at Rolling Thunder the Outlaw hot rods venture there 8 times and every time the almost identical 2 Litre Hot Rods race with them.

It seems a real shame that the two classes that compliment each other so well can’t be seen together in England. Do the promoters not care about the race fans that having been coming year on year, are Bangers more important to put alongside the Nationals. It’s obvious that Bangers draw the crowds, but the top end formulas do have their own fan-base. Why not have the bangers out with the regular formulas so the tracks can be cleaner when the faster cars are out there.

To end I would like to stress that I do like Stock Cars and Bangers. I’ve been to the big meetings and like a crash. I wouldn’t want them to separated and never run together just limit those meetings they are together. More nationals and 2 litre in the future please.

Rule Breakers
8th February 2009

Looking back over a year of National Hot Rod Racing there has been some good racing and some poor. The points that stand out are perhaps not the highlights but this year might be remembered as the one where the promoters failed to adhere to the rules.

I was one of the fans that were left wondering how things are meant to be run at the World Championship. I wrote the qualifying farce as I saw it being wrong and it seemed like I wasn’t the only person who thought would be different as the official souvenir World Final programme also thought the top Irish drivers should have been slotted into group one.

In Nationals plenty of drivers have been banned over the years for a multitude of reasons. Some of them bounce back stronger, some brush it off, some drivers are still considered squeaky clean and it was all an accident.

It seems that the drivers who are favourites with the crowd can take the ban and continue as a liked driver, whilst others become hated/ disliked figures. For those that have come through it still smelling of roses are John Steward and Ricky Hunn. Steward raced with an illegal engine and duly took his ban; Hunn has been banned a few times amassing too many penalty points and just ramming another driver.

While the popularity of Colin White seems to have dropped since he was banned for bringing the sport into disrepute. Blackman also seems out of favour as well.

So what differences do those drivers have, all have been world champions, but Steward and Hunn took a lot longer to get their world titles. When favourites they didn’t take their chance and eventually took gold a few years later. Did this help create their legendary status? Is this the British attitude of always loving the underdog, building them up and knocking them down when they eventually make it?

Those in trouble this year have been Boardley, maybe not banned but he was effectively loaded-up for having his car run under the legal limit of inside weight. Due to running so close to this limit when weighed he was under. Matt Simpson had an illegal engine at the World but somehow the NHRPA decided they shouldn’t ban him even though it seemed the same as the Steward situation in 1999.

The National Championship also threw up the problem where most of the Haird built cars being illegal due to using tubing being too thin on the rollcage, this was rectified but how long had these cars been running illegally, surely they should have been spotted in the World Final the month before and removed from those results.

Blackman got himself into trouble in the 2 Litre Hot Rods, though collecting a black cross he wasn’t docked places and only lost out on a trophy when the carburettor was larger than the rules permit. He took a one month ban in that class yet could race in other ORCi formulas. Gordon Moodie lost out on the World Final due to illegal tyres and carburettor he is now sitting on a 15 month ban. The fans have their favourites and the promoters seem to have theirs as well which doesn’t seem very professional.

When running on the edge or looking for a loophole in the rules sometimes the drivers go a little too far, in these situations they should be banned. Even if they have bought the part from a recognised supplier. It’s the driver’s responsibility for the car to be legal when they race the car and buck should stop with them. There needs to be far more consistency in breaking the rules, the percentage rules in Nationals allows a small discrepancy to be amended through the meeting and larger one result in a ban, yet other problems do not have a system with the same logic. This needs to be applied across all of the ORCi formulas.

Can 2009 be better? Will Deane Wood and co get rid of the grey areas in the sport or do we thrive on controversy?