16 replies to this topic

[Kart15]

Hi;

I would like to know some more about the development that James lent his name in the end of the 80´s, the "James Hunt Racing Centre", a leisure track with small motorcycle two stroke engined (I guess) formula cars, called "Sunset Formula cars". I would like to know more about this car, who made it, the specs and performance. And I also searching for a picture that I saw a year ago, where James is wearing his old Wolf firesuit, black socks, he was in the locker room of the centre.


I could only find this picture:

[subh]

For a long time now it has been known as the Daytona karting circuit, but it still exists: https://www.daytona..../milton-keynes/
I don’t really have any more information than that, unfortunately.

[Vitesse2]

Might be worth contacting Milton Keynes Central Library on central.library@milton-keynes.gov.uk - there's a good chance that the local newspaper, the Milton Keynes Citizen, will have done a feature on the track when it opened. It's the sort of project local papers love - celebrity name, on the back of which they can sell lots of advertising to the companies that built and equipped the place. According to the library's catalogue they have microfilms of the back issues in their Local Studies Collection; make sure to put 'Attn Local Studies Librarian' in the email's title.

[Michael Ferner]

Reminds me of the things Eldon Rasmussen built in Calfornia in the early eighties - weren't these called Sunset Grand Prix, or similar? There was, I think, a rival company that built the Malibu Grand Prix car, but the fad died down pretty soon. I remember there was a detailed article in one of the German magazines of the time, but sorry, I don't recall when and I'm not going to hunt this one down!

Edited by Michael Ferner, 26 July 2017 - 13:30.

[Dick Dastardly]

I thought it was there late 70s / early 80s rather than the late 80s in the OP....but don't know much else about it. I recall a "motor show" in a shopping mall that had several F1 cars exhibited

[Gregor Marshall]

Daytona took on the track in 1996 and from memory it had been shut or at least the previous business/owners had gone bust or something. Maybe something to do with the estate of James after he passed away if he was financially involved, but I don't think he was.
I remember it being there in the very 1980s (you could see the stripy clubhouse roof from the A5), but it looks like it officially opened 1990.

[MCS]

Don't remember the Sunset Formula Cars from the first poster, but - as Gregor says above - it was closed for a while.  That said, I think it's been karts for quite some time now. 

 

I "raced" there a couple of times about four of five years ago and I may be mistaken but I think I still have some of the bruises...ugh.

[RobMk2a]

I still have my have my James Hunt Racing Centre Licence No MK006611

I went go karting with college friends must have been late 80's.

I remember the Formula Car on display but as said we were in Go Karts.

Rob

[BRG]

Reminds me of the things Eldon Rasmussen built in Calfornia in the early eighties - weren't these called Sunset Grand Prix, or similar? There was, I think, a rival company that built the Malibu Grand Prix car, but the fad died down pretty soon. I remember there was a detailed article in one of the German magazines of the time, but sorry, I don't recall when and I'm not going to hunt this one down!

I seem to rememeber seeing cars of this sort at a track somewhere on the Eastern seaboard (Delaware or Maryland) back in the late 1990s.  Looked interesting but I didn't have the time to have a go.

[Marc Sproule]

adding some more tangentially related info.....

 

there was another similar operation that bob bondurant had in the mid-'70s in san jose, calif.

 

it didn't last long.

[theeulerid]

I know this is a rather old topic, but I can add quite a bit more information as I was involved with the project. Not in terms of the business side, but because I designed and built the computer system and hardware that did all the car allocation, lap counting, ticket printing, running time displays, lights and so on. All on a machine with a 4 MHz Z80 processor, 32 KB or RAM and 32 KB of ROM. It drover two timing beams, three car identifiers, a starting light system, false start light, track alarm, director light, false start light, two printers, one operators console and a number of public display terminals. I've no idea what the state of art was in racing in those days, but we are talking of the 1980s.

I also once met James Hunt at the site when he was test driving the cars. He was looking somewhat worse for wear by those days, but he did have the obligatory glamorous blonde with him.

I do have a very few old photos I took of the track when it was being built.

As for the cars, they were bespoke and had Honda (I think) single cylinder engines with a centrifugal clutch. They had rear wheel only braking using, I believe, a single disk on the solid axle. Styled to look like mini F1 cars, albeit extremely short behind the driver, they were deliberately designed to be tricky to drive and easy to spin, which is why they had rear-wheel only braking; it was a design choice. From memory, no suspension at the rear but there was at the front.

The cars were never actually raced against one another. Instead, it was a time-trial system with cars started off at intervals and timed over a lap from a standing start. Customers bought a number of laps and, on the completion of each one, they were either directed to start a lap or to go into the pits (the latter if they'd completed all their laps or if a marshall wanted a word with the driver). A giant display showed the running time of the next car expected to finish with the display frozen for a few seconds with the finishing time (to 1/100th of a second) as each car completed. There were also a couple of other colour screens in the marquee tent (or whatever it is called) showing the running time to 1/100th second of all cars on the track.

The deliberate design of the cars, to have high grip, but be tricky to drive caused an inherent operational problem. That is, inevitably, there were going to be accidents, and when that happened all the cars had to slow down (there were orange flashing lights) and no more cars could start until the accident was cleared. Needless to say, this directly affected revenue (not to mention fixing the cars if they got bent - or some of the trackside gear was damaged). As an indication of how tricky the cars were to run, on the opening event, one of the invited guests managed to roll his car (with suspension on the front only, then that's always going to be more likely) and he was carted away in an ambulance with, I think, a broken arm. I think they might have stiffened the suspension up after that and slowed he cars somewhat (they could reach over 50 mph).

They company that set this up, which may have been called Sunset Racing (this is a long time ago now so taxes my memory) was somewhat opaquely funded, and I seem to recall some Lebanese business men were involved. They spent a huge amount of money on the building of the track and facilities, to a way higher standard than the average go-kart track. They spent shed loads more money on the bespoke cars, which proved to be very unreliable, so they had staff fixing them up all the time. it became quite clear from early on that the enterprise was in some trouble, and it only limped on for a year or so before the business was closed and it was later taken over as a more conventional go-kart track.

I should add that I have the spare/development computer for the system plus all the documentation that I wrote for the computer hardware, software, car identifiers (which used infra-red transmission) with the timing provided by photo-beams. It was most definitely not suited to timing races in the modern manner with timing under the tracks and car-born transceivers. Technology has moved on a lot, and I'm entirely unconnected with the car racing industry.

Edited by theeulerid, 31 December 2022 - 14:53.

[Sterzo]

A fascinating and bizarre story. Having raced karts* at the excellent circuit twenty years ago, I had no idea this was how it originated. I wonder why they didn't just run karts - it would have made far more sense.

 

 

*(Modesty forbids me from mentioning the plastic trophy in my loft. Oh dear, I just have).

[theeulerid]

Those behind the system were adamant that they weren't just going to be running a regular public kart track, which they rather looked down on. They thought they were doing something better, larger and more interesting. However, they did also build the track to a very high standard (with drainage if I remember correctly), and it was configured so that it could be used as a proper race track. They were very ambitious, and he marquee (or whatever we might call it) was to have a restaurant and had a merchandise store.

I seriously doubt that whatever business case they had would have justified such a huge investment for a normal come-along-and drive kart circuit (although there was a small one of that sort behind the pit area - not sure if that's still there).

I also seem to recall that they'd based their plans on a circuit in the USA. If I was to date this it was right at the end of the 1980s and it collapsed in the recession that started in 1990. Personally, I think it was doomed from the start as I don't think the business model would have worked, but at least it's left a decent race track. James Hunt died just 2 or 3 years after the circuit that bore his name went into receivership, but I don't think he put any of his own money into the venture. However, using his name now doubt cost the company some more money it could ill afford.

nb. there's a photo of James in one of those cars here :-

https://www.stevepaf...om/adamant1980/

Edited by theeulerid, 31 December 2022 - 14:09.

[jonpollak]

Thank You so much theeulerid.
It’s stories like yours that make this place what it is.

I remember driving up the M1 and seeing the red and white striped awning and thinking… ‘definitely have to go there soon’
Never did.

Malibu Grand Prix in the States was similar but not nearly as cool.
Jp

[LittleChris]

Malibu Grand Prix in the States was similar but not nearly as cool.
Jp

Think there's a photo of Ronnie and Barbro ( in car ) at the Malibu Grand Prix in Alan Henry's book on Ronnie.

[jonpollak]

They had these little 2 seaters cars they called Can-Am’s
I bet it was those.

Jp

[Clyde Peffar]

Milton Keynes had a lot of Motorsport business at that point in the 1980s.Blakelands industrial estate had the Nissan works group C team,Paul Stewart Racing,BS Engineering,the Vauxhall Rally team were on another industrial estate.Arrows formula one team and probably more that I can’t remember.

 

The annual Racing car show in the shopping center was organized by the BRMC and many F1 teams supported it as a thank you and it was well worth a visit.

 

From memory the James Hunt Racing Centre didn’t involve his money only a license to use his name and his involvement was minimal. I vaguely remember the local newspaper raising safety concerns but can’t recall the details,the stripey tent thing became a rather expensive Thai restaurant which I  ate in once,by that point the circuit had closed prior to becoming a proper kart track.Not sure that the original business concept was ever popular with the kart fraternity and it was expensive.