20 replies to this topic

[jackal]

Hello all

As anyone got any pics they could share of drag racing at blackbushe. Dad took me there a few times and I remember blasting back up to the 'paddock' wedged into the back of a mini. Awesome!

regards

Carl

[arttidesco]

Go to a Drag race is still on my list of things to do before I go to the big scrap heap in the sky :-) I remember the pics in Autosport of someone in a Volvo P1800 which I guess was upgraded to P7000 plus I wonder if that car still exists ?

Count me in amongst the folks who would love to see pics from Blackbushe :-)

[jackal]

Hello

Dad was always taking pics but he has none of cars at Blackbushe. I'll ask him who the mini driver was tho.

Off topic I was looking at a bunch of black and whites from silverstone today. Grids full of lairy looking Anglias, Mini's and spoprtscars. I will get him to scan them and start a new topic.


Carl

[David Birchall]

I went to the first (?) drag meeting at Balckbush in 1964 on me Lambretta wiv me mates. Having watched George Brown etc perform I was sure the Lambretta could do the same-to everyones surprise when I red lined it and popped the clutch I could pull a wheelie!
Wheeeee!

[arttidesco]

I went to the first (?) drag meeting at Balckbush in 1964 on me Lambretta wiv me mates. Having watched George Brown etc perform I was sure the Lambretta could do the same-to everyones surprise when I red lined it and popped the clutch I could pull a wheelie!
Wheeeee!

I wonder how many TNFers can claim they popped a wheelie on a Lambretta when they were just 62 years old David !

[taylov]

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Blackbushe in the mid 1970s at a N.D.R.C. meeting. Liam Churchill in "The Sting" Capri Funny Car. No photographer's name on this original print.

I was working the fire-up lane at this event.

Tony

[Odseybod]

Only things I remember seeing at Blackbushe was a group of three (?) Junkers Ju-52s sitting looking rather forlorn. Must have been in abuot 1978. Wonder where they went to?

[taylov]

Only things I remember seeing at Blackbushe was a group of three (?) Junkers Ju-52s sitting looking rather forlorn. Must have been in abuot 1978. Wonder where they went to?

Douglas Arnold bought the airfield in the early 1970s with the intention of building a large aviation museum and the airfield was used to store his large collection of historic World War II aircraft, including CASA C.352L [Spanish post war built Junkers Ju-52s], several Douglas C-47 Dakotas, B-25 Mitchell bombers and a number of smaller planes, such as Spitfires, which were rarely seen on the tarmac. The finest were, perhaps an RAF Avro Lancaster and an American B-24 Liberator bomber which were stored away from the eyes of the public.

British Car Auctions bought the airport in 1984 and established the famous vehicle auctions

From http://www.eglk.com/...007/history.htm

I recall Doug driving his Rolls the wrongway down the drag strip during one meeting without warning...One of those "Larger than Life" characters. I understand that he died in 1992. There's a lot of info on the web about where his planes ended up.

Tony

[Odseybod]

Douglas Arnold bought the airfield in the early 1970s with the intention of building a large aviation museum and the airfield was used to store his large collection of historic World War II aircraft, including CASA C.352L [Spanish post war built Junkers Ju-52s], several Douglas C-47 Dakotas, B-25 Mitchell bombers and a number of smaller planes, such as Spitfires, which were rarely seen on the tarmac. The finest were, perhaps an RAF Avro Lancaster and an American B-24 Liberator bomber which were stored away from the eyes of the public.

British Car Auctions bought the airport in 1984 and established the famous vehicle auctions

From http://www.eglk.com/...007/history.htm

I recall Doug driving his Rolls the wrongway down the drag strip during one meeting without warning...One of those "Larger than Life" characters. I understand that he died in 1992. There's a lot of info on the web about where his planes ended up.

Tony

Thanks, Tony. Think I have a pic pf those Iron Annies somewhere - must dig it out.

[TallGraham]

My dad has a big collection of slides and many from Blackbushe,also there was some cine film too he took,he's been saying for years about getting them sorted out,Im going to have to get it all done for everyone to see!

[ghinzani]

Anyone know who owns the track that Camberly kart club use? Love that little track, so exciting, especially the downhill right hander by the pits.

[Doug Nye]

Did anyone else go to the Blackbushe drag race meeting the year that the undergrowth on the opposite side if the A30 caught fire? Many spectators had left their cars that side and had walked in through holes in the fence to avoid paying at the gates. BIG mistake - a series of sizeable explosions followed as the brush fire first began bursting tyres and then detonating fuel tanks. Several parked cars were completely burned out while others were driven clear at the last moment, many of them seriously singed...

Oh what fun.

DCN
.

[bigears]

I used to live near Blackbushe Airport a long time ago, never knew it was used for drag racing.

I went there a few times, there was a big open air market I recall.

I don't recall the A30 fire, when was it?

[taylov]

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Dennis Priddle's "Mr Revell" top fuel dragster is pushed back at Blackbushe after a burn out - no reversers in 1974. Love the crowd protection measures.

Tony

[bradbury west]

Wasn't Blackbushe one of the venues used by the American dragster chaps in 1964? ISTR we saw them at Elvington, Ronnie Sox, Dante Duce et al.
Roger Lund

[Odseybod]

At a tangent, managed to find my pics of the Doug Arnold aircraft, posted here for interest. Were all my black and white pics so spotty in them days?

[jackal]

Hello

To Bradbury West

Yes Blackbushe was on the tour that the Americans did. I think there was an article in Motorsport magazine a while back.

----------------------

Alot of activities stopped at Blackbushe following completion of the nearby housing development but I beleive the kart track is still active.

For plane interested people Blackbushe was also used for a film, possibly Memphis Belle. There were a whole load of fake Flying Fortress built so to look like there were in fact more than 1 plane on the airfield. I dont even think they were more than clever looking flat panels mounted at clever angles.

For music interested people it was also used for a massive Pink Floyd concert. I remember this as me 'n' me mates spotted a huge inflatable elephant(maybe pig) flying about in the sky and we chased it around on bicycles until it came down on the green outside our houses. Then a whole bunch of scarey looking and, slightly off their head, hairy blokes turned up to collect it.

Regards

Carl

Edited by jackal, 13 October 2010 - 06:54.

[taylov]

Hello

To Bradbury West

Yes Blackbushe was on the tour that the Americans did. I think there was an article in Motorsport magazine a while back.

Regards

Carl

The opening and final rounds of the 1964 Dragfest were held at Blackbushe on 19th September and 4th October.

A second Dragfest was held the following year when 8 Top Fuel Dragsters came over to the UK but the Blackbushe weekend on 25/26 September 1965 was a wash out - 200 mph dragsters, slick tyres and standing water do not mix. The organising club, the British Drag Racing Association took a huge financial hit and despite a succesful meeting at RAF Woodvale in Ooctober 1965, the club was forced to fold.

TNFers may recall that the losing driver in the final at the Woodvale meeting was Danny Ongais. This is from the front page of Autosport that autumn and shows Bob Keith in a dry interlude at Blackbushe.

Tony



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[RS2000]

I recall a massive fire on the south side of the A30 that blistered paintwork on cars stuck in a traffic jam (but probably just east of Blackbushe itself) way before the one at a drag meeting.
Blackbushe (officially Hartford Bridge or Hartford Bridge Flats when first built) was a serious aircraft spotting site. I remember Mosquitos with 4x20mm cannon (fake or otherwise) visible and I think the Meteor (NF11?) that became the "Biafran Air Force" in the Nigerian civil war was briefly there.
I'm fairly sure sprints at Blackbushe have been mentioned on another thread. The forest just south west of the airfield (known as Yately Heath?) is due to be used on the forthcoming Tempest Rally and has formed part of a group of forest stages around there on and off since the 60s.

[jackal]

Hello

Blimey...didn't know Yately Heath was still used for forest rallies. They were good days. Yateley Heath, warren Heath, Hawley Woods(once used on the RAC rally, i believe) and of course Minley Manor. Crazy days to think we all stood at the gatehouse at the end of a very long straight at a double 90 left. It was great to see BDA Escorts slide out onto the top of the straight and give it all down to us.

So much has changed around that way. Lots of housing and forestry plantations. Aldershot arena is still a good place to watch but it's a shame they don't use the Eelmoor driver training area. FDMC may still hold a sprint there once a year but I think kart racing has stopped.

Once upon a time you could drive out onto Eelmoor from the Aldershot-Fleet road and goon around. I taught someone to drive there in my road rally mini.

Anyway.....back on topic. thanks for the info and pics. I asked dad who the mini driver was but he can't remember. i remember the mini being yellow and went like stink, but I was quite young and a bicycle was fast.

Regards

Carl

[Nordic]

http://speedhunters....a-pod-1969.aspx

Not Blackbushe, but the right era, late 60's.

Also intresting to see what looks like a Ferrari GTO running. There are also other years on you tube.