Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Oval and Out - April 2007
Oval and Out - April 2007
I’ve been doing a little more digging into the England / Denmark hot rod races that took place in the early seventies and it was largely John Hyam’s February column that got me looking at Danish stuff again. You may remember that John was talking about the Argentine speedway rider Carlos Villar who was paralysed in an accident here in the UK and is now looking at racing Midgets in his home country. The train of thought to Denmark was via Jason Watt – the talented young Dane who was also paralysed after a motor cycle accident. These drivers/riders have strong wills and Jason, after reaching formula 3000, was not going to let that be the end of his racing career. With assistance from Peugeot on Denmark he returned to Touring Car racing in a specially adapted car and went on to win the Danish Championship.
One of the drivers who raced in the first year of the England Denmark hot rod tests was Steen Erik Mikkelsen. Sadly no news on Steen himself but one of his dirt racing BMWs surfaced in pristine condition a little while back – apparently after being in storage for over twenty years. The car has had some TLC and is now competing in the Danish historic scene. The driver who replaced Steen in 1972 was Carl Erik Kristensen who has had quite a few mentions on this page in the past. Gamle-K’s grandson, Oliver, is now doing a bit of karting and there was a super picture of three Kristensen generations, Carl Erik, Tom and Oliver at a Danish Winter kart event on one of the Danish news websites.
A quick scout around the internet and two emails later I was in touch with Søren Meder who raced in both the 1971 and ’72 test matches in his fantastic looking Imp. Believe it or not Søren is still hillclimbing with a 1971 Lotus Elan which he says he is also using for daily transportation!
I was sorry to learn of the death of Les Lyons. Les raced hot rods in the seventies before moving onto the circuits with his mk 2 Escort. He was a quick pilot too. Sadly I never got the chance to chat to him but I lucky enough to have commentated on several races he took part in.
Thanks to one of my regular surfing visits to Roger Venison's excellent site I found the website of Jo Polley and was pleased to see that she will be taking part in the Mighty Mini Championship this year. The Minis are part of the bill at the Rockingham meeting on 28th and 29th April and I'm sure the crowd will a) enjoy the Mini racing and b) give Jo a lot of vocal support.
Rockingham should be a good show again this year with big things expected from the SCSAs as well as the Pickups. One question though: Please, please could someone from the stock cars get around to sending me the news updates???? It’s impossible getting to see all the drivers on a race weekend and a formula with such potential should not have such problems getting the information out. And yes, I have asked people for information… I’ve already mentioned the Minis who will be racing at the Rock that first weekend – the other formulae on duty are the BRSCC Alfa Romeo’s, Fiat Racing Challenge, VSR Super Silhouettes and the LMA Euro Saloons. It’s going to be a great weekend!
I must be getting old. I went down to Arena a couple of Fridays ago and actually struggled to work out which formulas some of the cars were in. I suppose it could also be that there are too many classes these days...
Legends driver Peter Morton has been over in Finland again. As reigning world champion it's good for him to be doing things like that although he reports that the ice racing this year was more like Rallycross as there wasn't much snow. No doubt the environ-MENTAL-ists will enjoy this piece of news and blame global warming on anything car related.
Rob Collard has moved from the British Touring Car Championship to the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain. It’s a shame for BTCC to lose a driver of Rob’s ability but the ex hot rodder finds himself in a competition which is every bit as keen. His main rivals will include 1992 Touring Car champion Tim Harvey.
If you’ve ever fancied having a go at piloting a late model V8 around a big oval yourself then you can now do just that thanks to ex Superstox World Champion Tony Roots who has set up an American style experience at Warneton. It’s only an hour or so from Calais so is very accessible. You can find out more on Tony’s website www.rootsv8racing.com.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Renault Clio Cup this year has a number of ex short oval racers taking part. One name I missed from previous scribbles was Steve Collison. I think it’s the ex Stock Rodding Steve C (from Sussex) rather than the Bucks based Superstox Steve C. The latter has been a decent circuit racer in the past having competed in Caterhams so it was nice to see ‘Sussex Steve’ on the list. Also moving into the Clios (from Legends Cars) is Scotsman Derek Pierce who could find himself at home back in front wheel drive as he kicked off his circuit racing career in the Scottish XR2 championship where he won the newcomers cup.
A new long circuit initiative this year is the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup for production specification cars. The championship is seen as a cost effective stepping stone to the British Touring Car Championship. The Cup is class structured according to power/weight and is open to cars up to five years old, so there will be an opportunity for existing race cars such as the Seat Leon Cupra and Renault Clio to run in production spec alongside potential new entries representing other manufacturers. I mention the new competition as sometime Rookie Banger pilot Paul Lund has entered an Alfa Romeo 147. Paul’s something of an all rounder (and a good ‘un at that) – an ex motorcycle champ (he won the 1989 Shell Production championship) and has won races in other saloon car championships. More recently he’s been doing ‘tout terrain’ rallies (a bit like raid rallying) in France in a production Toyota RAV4.
I’ve been doing a little more digging into the England / Denmark hot rod races that took place in the early seventies and it was largely John Hyam’s February column that got me looking at Danish stuff again. You may remember that John was talking about the Argentine speedway rider Carlos Villar who was paralysed in an accident here in the UK and is now looking at racing Midgets in his home country. The train of thought to Denmark was via Jason Watt – the talented young Dane who was also paralysed after a motor cycle accident. These drivers/riders have strong wills and Jason, after reaching formula 3000, was not going to let that be the end of his racing career. With assistance from Peugeot on Denmark he returned to Touring Car racing in a specially adapted car and went on to win the Danish Championship.
One of the drivers who raced in the first year of the England Denmark hot rod tests was Steen Erik Mikkelsen. Sadly no news on Steen himself but one of his dirt racing BMWs surfaced in pristine condition a little while back – apparently after being in storage for over twenty years. The car has had some TLC and is now competing in the Danish historic scene. The driver who replaced Steen in 1972 was Carl Erik Kristensen who has had quite a few mentions on this page in the past. Gamle-K’s grandson, Oliver, is now doing a bit of karting and there was a super picture of three Kristensen generations, Carl Erik, Tom and Oliver at a Danish Winter kart event on one of the Danish news websites.
A quick scout around the internet and two emails later I was in touch with Søren Meder who raced in both the 1971 and ’72 test matches in his fantastic looking Imp. Believe it or not Søren is still hillclimbing with a 1971 Lotus Elan which he says he is also using for daily transportation!I was sorry to learn of the death of Les Lyons. Les raced hot rods in the seventies before moving onto the circuits with his mk 2 Escort. He was a quick pilot too. Sadly I never got the chance to chat to him but I lucky enough to have commentated on several races he took part in.
Thanks to one of my regular surfing visits to Roger Venison's excellent site I found the website of Jo Polley and was pleased to see that she will be taking part in the Mighty Mini Championship this year. The Minis are part of the bill at the Rockingham meeting on 28th and 29th April and I'm sure the crowd will a) enjoy the Mini racing and b) give Jo a lot of vocal support.
Rockingham should be a good show again this year with big things expected from the SCSAs as well as the Pickups. One question though: Please, please could someone from the stock cars get around to sending me the news updates???? It’s impossible getting to see all the drivers on a race weekend and a formula with such potential should not have such problems getting the information out. And yes, I have asked people for information… I’ve already mentioned the Minis who will be racing at the Rock that first weekend – the other formulae on duty are the BRSCC Alfa Romeo’s, Fiat Racing Challenge, VSR Super Silhouettes and the LMA Euro Saloons. It’s going to be a great weekend!
I must be getting old. I went down to Arena a couple of Fridays ago and actually struggled to work out which formulas some of the cars were in. I suppose it could also be that there are too many classes these days...
Legends driver Peter Morton has been over in Finland again. As reigning world champion it's good for him to be doing things like that although he reports that the ice racing this year was more like Rallycross as there wasn't much snow. No doubt the environ-MENTAL-ists will enjoy this piece of news and blame global warming on anything car related.
Rob Collard has moved from the British Touring Car Championship to the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain. It’s a shame for BTCC to lose a driver of Rob’s ability but the ex hot rodder finds himself in a competition which is every bit as keen. His main rivals will include 1992 Touring Car champion Tim Harvey.
If you’ve ever fancied having a go at piloting a late model V8 around a big oval yourself then you can now do just that thanks to ex Superstox World Champion Tony Roots who has set up an American style experience at Warneton. It’s only an hour or so from Calais so is very accessible. You can find out more on Tony’s website www.rootsv8racing.com.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Renault Clio Cup this year has a number of ex short oval racers taking part. One name I missed from previous scribbles was Steve Collison. I think it’s the ex Stock Rodding Steve C (from Sussex) rather than the Bucks based Superstox Steve C. The latter has been a decent circuit racer in the past having competed in Caterhams so it was nice to see ‘Sussex Steve’ on the list. Also moving into the Clios (from Legends Cars) is Scotsman Derek Pierce who could find himself at home back in front wheel drive as he kicked off his circuit racing career in the Scottish XR2 championship where he won the newcomers cup.
A new long circuit initiative this year is the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup for production specification cars. The championship is seen as a cost effective stepping stone to the British Touring Car Championship. The Cup is class structured according to power/weight and is open to cars up to five years old, so there will be an opportunity for existing race cars such as the Seat Leon Cupra and Renault Clio to run in production spec alongside potential new entries representing other manufacturers. I mention the new competition as sometime Rookie Banger pilot Paul Lund has entered an Alfa Romeo 147. Paul’s something of an all rounder (and a good ‘un at that) – an ex motorcycle champ (he won the 1989 Shell Production championship) and has won races in other saloon car championships. More recently he’s been doing ‘tout terrain’ rallies (a bit like raid rallying) in France in a production Toyota RAV4.
