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| Newton Aycliffe
Race Track |
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Aycliffe Stadium, Aycliffe Trading Estate, Near
Darlington, Co Durham. Speedway practice and training took place here 1948 &
1952. Management of what should have been a viable speedway track
was left to a lady who knew nothing about speedway and the track was lost
forever, becoming a stock car stronghold from 1956 onwards
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Courtesy of Peter Bell |
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| Steve Harland says: Hi John, I have a little book with some
info on this place. I will have to dig it out. One fact I do
recollect was that the original surface was ash that was
supplied by a local power station in Darlington.
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Steve says:
I lived in Newton Aycliffe between June 1975 to Dec 1977 and
went occasionally to watch the stock car racing there. There
was nothing else much to do in such a dull town. The track was
tarmacked over by then and full of pot holes. It was also very
small and was quite a sight to see Formula One stock car
racing taking place there. Before a race started the cars
would be two abreast and covered three quarters of the track.
I can still remember some of the drivers who competed like
Frankie Wainman, Mike Close, Rod Falding, Stuart Smith, Willie
Harrison and John Toulson, who was a haulage contractor from
Middleton in Teesdale. The stand in the photograph was still
there in the 1970s though the stock car track I'm sure was
closer to where the fans stood. There were no seats, it was
just a stand set back with a farm trailer underneath it! If
you stood on the back straight it was really narrow and the
safety fence was the dodgiest you've ever seen, just like it
is portrayed on the home straight in the photograph by Peter
Bell.
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I think a guy called Tony Neal ran it when I was going. The
meetings were always well attended but usually by fans of the
drivers competing, most of whom appeared to live in the
Yorkshire/Lancashire corridor. If you stood on the back
straight you would always arrive home with your shirt collar
black as the ace of spades. You really were that close to the
action.
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It's a real shame neither Middlesbrough or Newcastle took
advantage of it to use it for training facilities. I used to
have all the programmes from meetings I attended but I gave
them away to a lad I worked with in the 1980s who was
fanatical about stock car racing. They are probably worth a
few bob nowadays. |
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| John says:
Steve has been back in touch his comments follow this: - |
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Steve Harland says: Hi John,
I've dug out a book on stock car racing called Barney Reilly's
Stock Car by Johnnie Hoskins. I've no idea what year it was
published because it has some pages missing but looking at the
handful of pics inside it looks like mid-1960s to me. Here is
the info on AYCLIFFE STOCK CAR TRACK as promised :
The track was 370 yards long and the surface was tarmac.
Ron Dean was the manager and the promoters were APEX
PROMOTIONS Ltd. Meetings took place on Sundays at 3pm and
also occasional Bank Holiday Mondays at the same time. I'm
sure the Dean Family were still involved in the 1970s when
I started going to the occasional meeting.
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Some other trivia
from the same book: Chick Woodroffe was the manager of
stock car racing at King's Lynn alongside Doug Wardropper,
whom I'm sure raced the cars himself. Woodroffe was the
man who later masterminded the track at Arena-Essex
(Lakeside). He also was the manager at Rayleigh too.
Lots of speedway and stock car tracks sharing the same
stadium including: Belle Vue, Coventry, King's Lynn, Long
Eaton, Plymouth, Rayleigh, St. Austell and Swindon. A
couple of odd ones include Brands Hatch in Kent - a tarmac
track of some 533 yards and Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire,
another tarmac track but this time even longer at 602
yards.
Former speedway rider turned promoter Trevor Redmond was a
busy man running stock car racing as the manager for Auto
Speed Circuits at both Newton Abbott a 330-yard circuit
made of tarmac and St.Austell.
Former speedway
tracks where stock car racing had taken over included:
Brafield, Harringay, Ringwood & Walthamstow - all had been
tarmacked over.
If I can I will try and
dig some more info up about the earlier years at Aycliffe
when it was used for speedway training and the surface was
ash. Regards Steve Harland
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John says: Thanks Steve. Many speedway fans and
officials hate stockcars and I would too if speedway and
stocks were operating at the same venue. However
there is a connection with short oval tracks like Aycliffe and
Barford as both venues would have liked to run stocks AND
speedway, but alas it didn't happen. |
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Ex-Driver
Dave Turnbull's Memories Of Aycliffe |
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| Dave Turnbull says: Hi John, Picked up
your email via Facebook here in New Zealand, I used to race
Bangers at Aycliffe in the early 70’s when the track was indeed
run by Ron and cissy Dean of Apex Promotions. I remember The
Geldards father Fred and his son and the track crew. |
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I have a collection of photos ranging from
Early Tony Neal, young Stuart Smith and of course my favorite
Destruction racing, I have also many programmes from that era
I
would be happy to send copies if you would like them. |
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My son Stewart Turnbull has now taken the
reigns these days having recently gained second place in points
championship at our local Baypark Track in NZ.
Regards Dave |
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| John says: I have asked Dave for
some stocks pictures for this page. Stock Cars like Speedway
need help to continue so my Aycliffe page is turning into an
advert for 4 wheels around an oval circuit |
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