Off the Wall - Issue 3

Off the Wall - Issue 3



Crimond Chronicles� It certainly was a pleasure to be back at my native Crimond for their season opener on April 14th, which had the added bonus of the BriSCA F2 chaps being in town for the first of 3 meetings at BriSCA�s most northerly outpost. Due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic, last year was the first year ever that I had failed to go to a single Crimond meeting � I�m 18 now, that says something! (Insert an appropriate punch line here � best one wins a punch.) As is tradition (it seems) up at Crimond, the conditions were damp but that didn�t stop the F2 lads putting on a great display, with the Graham Kelly and Ian Thompson Junior battle in Heat 2 being superb to watch. A very special mention must go to the travelling exploits of the aforementioned Irishman Ian Thompson Jnr and also to the 3 legged John Whitehead who came all the way from the Isle of Man to race at the unique aerodrome oval, having both raced at Cowdenbeath the night before � well done chaps, come back again! Despite what most people might think, Crimond has been running motor racing since the 1950�s when many disused war airfields started a new life as racing circuits for single-seaters and sports cars. Saturday 16th June 1956 was a very historic day for Crimond, as it was on that day the late, great Jim Clark had his first ever motor race, driving a very ungainly DKW Sonderklass Saloon against two Lotus 11�s, an MGA and a Maserati-powered Lotus. Unsurprisingly, Clark finished last, but he returned 2 years later with the Border Reivers Porsche and D-Type Jaguar, with Jim part of the team that had been racing around the continent, including the amazing Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium, a circuit which Jim never liked due to the fact that it claimed the life of one of his racing buddies. During the late Sixties and early Seventies, the airfield racing scene was in decline, and so an oval track was formed in (I think!) 1969 (maybe get Jim Riddell to confirm that cos he was probably racin� at that time as well!) And so there you have it, the start of the oval racing scene at the Crimond Aerodrome and although it may have gone through some decidedly dodgy times, the track has kept going thanks to the dedication of all the committee and fans throughout the years � nice one! So what has changed over the years? Well, the Saloons and Ministox now go in only one direction � many an argument happened when the Nitten and Armadale chaps came for their annual playtime only to find out the committee wanted the Saloons to race in both directions; the Superstox are now known as F2�s � Crimond Supers were non-contact and had fairly relaxed engine rules which allowed in tuned 2Litre Pintos alongside a few Rover V8�s; (Economy) Hot Rods and Bangers were introduced in the early 90�s and as a matter of fact, the original Crimond Hot Rod class was the idea taken onboard by Gordon McDougall when the National Hot Rods went into a major decline at the Racewall. Oh yes, and Crimond can now boast TWO Grandstands� Mentioning Jim Riddell a bit earlier on, I was quietly honoured to find out that he enjoyed my articles and exploits on the internet. For many years I watched �Jimbo� and the rest of the Cornhill Mob have some fantastic battles with Neil �Shug� Shewan which resulted (more often than not) in the drivers having a mini DD in their Saloons while the race was still in progress! It didn�t end there though as the Cornhill Mob also had a few drivers in the Hot Saloon class, in which they had regular dices with the �Pink Panthers� � those were the days! And then, of course, there were the days when Crimond had annual exchanges with the lads from Newtongrange and Armadale, which saw many Crimond Saloons and Superstox race at Nitten on the Saturday night before taking in Armadale on the Sunday, with the return leg a few weeks later at Crimond. Many big names battled around the tricky concrete oval (which nowadays has tarmac bends) including Jimmy Moodie, Les Clark, Keith Jarman and Gillian Philp. Furthermore, a former F2 National Points Champion had an �unofficial� outing up at Crimond back in 1989, which eventually led to the F2 debut of a young Graham Kelly� The Heavy Metal Brigade� The 5-week University Easter holidays meant only one thing � going to hell (sorry, I mean home up in Peterhead). However, being back up in Scotland brought one advantage�and it�s called the Racewall Cowdenbeath. With the necessary bribes posted off to Gordon McDougall and Madman McDiarmid, I decided to make the 2 and a half hour journey to Fife for the next four Saturday nights to do a spot of commentating at the infamous Central Park. In addition, this complete Uni sabbatical left me the opportunity to spend a weekend as a Saloonatic thanks to the hospitality of regular Internet Saloon reporter and occasional racer, Walker Laing. For those that may not have heard of Walker, you can find this dedicated chap underneath the 777 car of Alan Ainslie acting as his mechanic, along with helping out 221 Ray Toye on occasions. Furthermore, Walker does a superb job in sending reports of the Saloon action from Cowdenbeath every Saturday to Rolling Start along with a selection of photographs � makes you wonder how he finds the time to see to his own Saloon! Appropriate arrangements were made with my host for the weekend, and so he took me on a guided tour of �Saloon Country� which included visits to the vast Burgoyne Empire and also to the workshop of Tully Motorsport. Talk about chalk and cheese! Whereas the Burgoynes Garage is simply massive (and packed with Stock Cars on a Saturday afternoon), Tully�s facilities are simply a garage with only enough room to accommodate one Saloon. However, what this chap lacks in workshop space, he gains in knowledge of how to build and set-up Saloon Stock Cars to make them perform at their optimum. Many a title winning car has rolled out of the Tully Motorsport garage (at the hands of a Burgoyne more often than not!) The Burgoyne set-up was something else, as was Gunnar Lattka�s new bus � a superb vehicle! Walker also arranged for me to provide an extra pair of hands to the Ray Toye team, although Ray already has two great lads helping him out. Unfortunately, Ray has put his car up for sale as his Chief Mechanic Chris is only available on Saturdays, and Saloons require a bit more attention during the week as well� Certainly was very interesting to see how the different teams operated, many thanks to Walker and his family for the kind hospitality over the weekend, and to the Ray Toye team for letting me tag along! And Finally� �don�t forget to check out the Off the Wall website at http://stockcarracing.cjb.net - give me your feedback via my Forum or Mailing List. The Driver Profile section has been made available with a few new additions to the existing profiles from the old website. Feel free to contact me (and send your abuse) via e-mail to skeet@stockcarracing.cjb.net. Thanks once again, see you around the ovals.

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