11 replies to this topic

[MarkBisset]

I’ve just completed the article below about 40 years of racing at Sellicks Beach in South Australia.

It got me thinking about how many ‘Beach Circuits’ there were globally.

In Australia we had Sellicks and Buckland Park in South Australia, Gerringong in New South Wales and Southport in Queensland (in addition to the Southport road circuit) and maybe more?

But what other places are there? Daytona immediately springs to mind.

https://primotipo.co...beach-adelaide/

[Vitesse2]

The original Southport - the one in Lancashire - hosted regular beach races between the wars.

 

La Baule in France - first used by US doughboys waiting to be shipped home in 1919, then for sporadic races until 1938 (the 1939 race was supposed to happen on September 3rd ...).

 

British Pathé has various bits of old newsreel tagged 'sand racing', although most are record runs/cars or bikes and some are not relevant at all: the unidentified one entitled Motor Speed Track (1920-1929) looks like Southport to me. I'm pretty sure the unidentified lady at the end of Brooklands by the Sea (side-by-side sprints at Skegness} is Ivy Cummings. Lure of Northern Speed Trials is at Druridge Bay in Northumberland.

[Tim Murray]

These earlier threads may be of interest:

Speed on the sand: digressing a bit...

Beach racing history

Fano beach races

[Charlieman]

In the UK, the promenade (hard surface) speed trials survived longer at Brighton, Weston Super Mare, Blackpool etc. One would hope that recent UK law changes might have created new events. Owing to how the River Ribble estuary has changed in the last 100 years, I don't know whether you could set a circuit on the Southport flats.

 

Incidentally, high wind speeds last weekend led to the cancellation of the Blackpool air show and a kite flying competition two miles away in St Annes. I didn't know that the two mixed very well. 

[GazChed]

On Pinterest there is a postcard featuring a Brooklands type racing car awaiting the start of a race on Weymouth sands , now the venue for a very popular Beach Motocross every October .

I also remember a Formula Libre race at Thruxton at the beginning of the 1975 season which featured a Lola T142 , driven by a Channel Islander who planned to turn it into a Beach racer . On a very wet March day the witty commentator said the driver was ' waiting for the tide to go out before he put his foot down ' !

[MarkBisset]

Tim Murray,

Many thanks, I popped ‘Beach Racing’ into the TNF search engine and didn’t see these- feel free to consolidate this thread into one of the others, no point having the duplication, didn’t realise the topic was already well ventilated.

Mark

[DCapps]

While Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach have received the most attention, there were others, of course, in the USA.

 

A sampling of them:

 

Orchard Beach, Maine

Denver Beach, Galveston

Pedro Beach, Jacksonville

Cape May, New Jersey

Ventnor Beach, New Jersey

Wildwood, New Jersey

[Lee Nicolle]

These days the green loonies do not want cars on the  Sellicks Beach because it may it may harm the enviroment of some marine life. Maybe. 

Sellicks is a big wide beach you can park your car and set up camp for the day. Can be a lovely day.

The reason it was used for racing though it was rough.

My father competed there once in the 50s and scared himself, not his forte. And he was an excellent endurance trial rider with major wins to his name. 

One of the reenactments found him there as a spectator and he restablished contacts with many of his era. And became a member of the local ex motorcycle competitors association.

I have seen footage of the NZ beach races complete with Burt Monroe and that too looked decidedly rough.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 17 August 2019 - 01:32.

[ellrosso]

Eclectic assortment of pics here Mark, I've put the Wizard Smith speed record attempt in NZ for good luck rather than actual racing. Perth beach sprint is probably in the same category - all speed events though.

Bakers Beach in Tassy was a popular venue for a while - bikes and cars.

Edited by ellrosso, 17 August 2019 - 10:08.

[Lee Nicolle]

I have heard of Bakers Beach in Tassy, even looked for it on Google maps.

Is that the beach Austin Miller set his record on?

That Daytona Beach pic is oh God!! Over 50 cars.

[Lee Nicolle]

In the UK, the promenade (hard surface) speed trials survived longer at Brighton, Weston Super Mare, Blackpool etc. One would hope that recent UK law changes might have created new events. Owing to how the River Ribble estuary has changed in the last 100 years, I don't know whether you could set a circuit on the Southport flats.

 

Incidentally, high wind speeds last weekend led to the cancellation of the Blackpool air show and a kite flying competition two miles away in St Annes. I didn't know that the two mixed very well. 

Air show and kites,, what could go wrong!

[MarkBisset]

Great images Lindsay, especially the one of Wizard- the angle avoids the ‘dingo ugly’ nose imposed on the original design! I wonder which of the Perth beaches was used? One for Ken Devine