23 replies to this topic

[Buford]

When I was in England late October 1981 I was doing the typical tourist thing, looking at castles and feeding peacocks etc. Met up with a girl who was a student at the college I worked at and we... wait I digress.

It was getting cold and rained a lot and I didn't think there was any racing to be seen. But somewhere I caught wind they were going to have a race that weekend at Croft which I had never heard of and didn't know where it was. It was a big hassle finding out where it was. I think I finally called a racing club I saw listed in the phone book and they told me. So I zoomed up there. Didn't take long. Small country. Well when I got there I found out it was to be the last race at Croft. Everybody was all sad and everybody they interviewed on the P.A. was saying how much they were going to miss the place and all the great memories, etc.

Well it is 21 years later now and they are still racing there. What happened? Why did everybody think it was closing then and today it is still open?

[Mike Argetsinger]

"I have it on very good authority" that the following account is true. Actually it was the girl. The organizers were so impressed that they had attracted such a fine woman to their circuit that they were convinced that maybe - just maybe - they could make it work at Croft after all. So they approached her about coming back --- she agreed -- and they have been happily holding race meetings ever since . Apparently the key to the deal was that she would leave Buford behind next time. And so history is written.

[Buford]

Nah Mike - I didn't take her to Croft. I met up with her in London (pre-arranged), and went over to some people's flat she knew where we got high on some kind of Limey weed or something. The next day I took her to Warwick Castle and then we got lost on the little curvy roads looking for other castles and it was getting dark so I took a picture of her holding a duck and then took her back to London.

[David McKinney]

Croft's not "still" going - it's going again.
It was revived by local enthusiasts around 1996/97 after a lot of hard work

[Buford]

Oh so it did close for a long time?

[Rob29]

It was used only for Rallycross for many years.

[LittleChris]

The track now uses about half the original circuit but they've built a large infield section. Biggest meetings each year are the British Touring Cars and British F3

[Buford]

OK thanks. I banged up my rental car there. A race was starting and I was charging across the grass in the infield hustling over to a back corner. I was going pretty fast across this field and banged down into a depression in the field and dented the lower panel below the bumper.

So when I took it in they asked if there is any damage and I said I dented the front down low. She said "How?" I said I was at a race and... and then she freaked and said 'YOU RACED OUR CAR???" and I explained no, I was driving across a field at a race and it fell in a hole. So I had to fill out this insurance form and I don't think she ever did understand.

When I was leaving I saw a Mini Van Police Car. I thought that was funny as hell. Two huge guys in this little van. In the US the police like to drive more muscular intimidating cars. Well I had a Mini Van at home so I had to get a picture. So I pulled out of the slow moving exit line to the side and got out and took a picture of the little van and the two big cops in it. So I got back in and was turned around stowing the camera in the back when I heard a knock on the window. So I see this 6 foot cops knees throught the window so I roll down the window and this cop with a pretty mean look on his face said "Why did you take a picture of us sir?"

So I explained I had a Mini Van in the USA and had never seen a Mini Van Police Car before so I took a picture. So with my acccent I guess he figured I wasn't an IRA terrorist or something so he lightened up and said "We have quite a lot of them actually." So he wished me a good day and went away. I have always remembered that. Kind of scared me for a minute.

[Speed Demon]

You can find a map of the new circuit on my a site:

http://www.etracks.freeserve.co.uk

Incidentally, while the track was indeed revived by enthusiats and the Darlington and District Motorclub, it was originally created by them too. No less than the great Jim Clark used his farming know-how to mark out the esses section with his tractor! Now that's taking your motorsport seriously...

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by Buford
When I was leaving I saw a Mini Van Police Car. I thought that was funny as hell. Two huge guys in this little van. In the US the police like to drive more muscular intimidating cars. Well I had a Mini Van at home so I had to get a picture. So I pulled out of the slow moving exit line to the side and got out and took a picture of the little van and the two big cops in it. So I got back in and was turned around stowing the camera in the back when I heard a knock on the window. So I see this 6 foot cops knees throught the window so I roll down the window and this cop with a pretty mean look on his face said "Why did you take a picture of us sir?"

So I explained I had a Mini Van in the USA and had never seen a Mini Van Police Car before so I took a picture. So with my acccent I guess he figured I wasn't an IRA terrorist or something so he lightened up and said "We have quite a lot of them actually." So he wished me a good day and went away. I have always remembered that. Kind of scared me for a minute.

In New South Wales (AUS) in the late 60's we had Mini Cooper S highway patrol cars, what a laugh to see a huge cop get out of one of those.

[Buford]

Originally posted by Speed Demon
You can find a map of the new circuit on my a site:

http://www.etracks.freeserve.co.uk

Incidentally, while the track was indeed revived by enthusiats and the Darlington and District Motorclub, it was originally created by them too. No less than the great Jim Clark used his farming know-how to mark out the esses section with his tractor! Now that's taking your motorsport seriously...

I did Speed Demon! That's what reminded me and prompted the question.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Speed Demon
No less than the great Jim Clark used his farming know-how to mark out the esses section with his tractor!

If you belive that you'll believe anything. Weren't there any tractors in Yorkshire at that time?

[Speed Demon]

Well, it probably wasn't his tractor, but you know what I mean...

[MrAerodynamicist]

The croft track is included in the TOCA touring car games
http://www.codemasters.com/toca2/

[Darren Galpin]

Some form of motorsport has taken place at Croft since 1927, interrupted by World War II when it was commissioned as an airfield for Bomber Command and opened in October 1941.
Motor racing resumed in 1950 on a 1.64 mile circuit, similar to that shown above. The Jim Clark Esses were known as The Esses, the Hangar Complex was a piece of straight, and the Hawthorn Bend was a larger loop to the top of the map. Racing continued through the 1970s on the 1.8 mile circuit showed above. However, in the early 1980s the ownership of the track changed, and tarmac racing ceased in 1981, Rallycross taking over instead.

However, in 1994 tarmac racing resumed, and for 1997 the track was reprofiled to the 2.127 mile track shown below.

[Buford]

Thanks Darren. That's what I wanted to know.

[Ray Bell]

Looks like they stuffed that infield section nicely... really too tight, a Winton in England.

Now, the story about the cop and the camera, that I can relate to... the other week I took a pic of a rusty bootlid on a Fairlane in Melbourne, the driver saw this, came over and in a threatening way asked 'why?'... ready to pummel me.

I said, "I'm from Queensland and I thought they'd be interested to see such a rusty bootlid up there..."

"Okay," he grimaced and went away... little did he know I'd post the pic here:



Well, little did I know, too... and I told him the mirror had hidden the numberplate as well...!!

[Darren Galpin]

Ah, a Ford Cortina, otherwise known in Europe as a Ford Taunus. They made great cars for using on the Castle Combe skidpan, as they were one of the few cars that wouldn't fall apart in a great hurry.

[Ray Bell]

No, Darren, much bigger than a Cortina... it's actually a Falcon Fairmont, not a Fairlane, but I wasn't measuring the wheelbase at the time (about the only difference, apart from badges)...

All about the same build quality, of course. We got the same six-cylinder engine in both for a while, though.

[Darren Galpin]

Shape looks the same though. Could it be what we knew here as a Ford Granada? (we didn't have Fairmont's or Fairlane's in England, although I was young at the time!)

[Buford]

I looks like a Chicago car the way they rust out due to the winters and the salt they put down to de-ice the roads.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Darren Galpin


Some form of motorsport has taken place at Croft since 1927, interrupted by World War II when it was commissioned as an airfield for Bomber Command and opened in October 1941.
Motor racing resumed in 1950 on a 1.64 mile circuit, similar to that shown above. The Jim Clark Esses were known as The Esses, the Hangar Complex was a piece of straight, and the Hawthorn Bend was a larger loop to the top of the map. Racing continued through the 1970s on the 1.8 mile circuit showed above. However, in the early 1980s the ownership of the track changed, and tarmac racing ceased in 1981, Rallycross taking over instead.

However, in 1994 tarmac racing resumed, and for 1997 the track was reprofiled to the 2.127 mile track shown below.

Is a paragraph missing Darren? I remember the circuit in the 1st diagram opening in 1964. Don't remember any racing 1952-63. Also what sort of motorsport took place there before WW2?

[danielking]

I have a circuit diagram of a Croft variant which used the original airfield runways here

This plan was sent to me a year or so ago by a visitor to my website. Unfortunately, they had no information regarding lap length or time period when it was used

Could this be the circuit used between 1950 and 1963 or a pre-WW2 incarnation?

[LittleChris]

Blimey, it's Monza in reverse !!!