Arena Essex Raceway
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Arena Essex Raceway | |
| Location | Purfleet, Essex, England |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°29′39″N 0°16′58″E / 51.49417°N 0.28278°ECoordinates: 51°29′39″N 0°16′58″E / 51.49417°N 0.28278°E |
| Operator | PRI |
| Opened | 1ST May 1978 |
| Major events |
Rods Stock cars Bangers Demolition derby Speedway |
| Oval | |
| Length | 0.252 km (0.156 mi) |
| Turns | 4 Turns |
Arena Essex Raceway is a stock car and speedway racing track located near Purfleet, Essex.[1] The Lakeside Shopping Centre was built alongside the venue.
The stadium
The Arena-Essex Raceway Complex was the idea of local businessman and racing driver, Chick Woodroffe. It was built in the remains of an old cement works overspill site. The new circuit was a quarter mile long with the first stock car race meeting held on 1 May 1978 which was infamously ruined by a heavy downpour. The track originally had a post and rope fence, which caused some colossal crashes and wrecks in the banger formula, and caught a few of the hot rods out. In the late 90's the track swapped the post and rope for an Armco barrier, catchfences were also put in place to protect spectators. Every September, the track hosts the oldest National World Final Championship. It's been running for over 40 years. Just over 40 cars, plus qualifiers from the wild card race, compete in the world final. 125 to 175 cars compete in the race meeting. The winner from the previous year starts the final in last place.
Banger Racing
Banger Racing is an event that takes place on Sunday afternoons and Bank holiday Mondays between second week of March to the first week of November. They race and crash into other drivers to smash up cars when they are racing. There are different types of banger meetings such as Rookie Bangers, 2L Bangers, National Bangers, Team Bangers, Big Van Bangers, Caravan Race and Unlimited Bangers. All cars are fitted with roll cages and a drivers door plate. The oldest car raced at Arena Essex Raceway is a 1928 Dodge Standard Six which started at the back in Firecracker XIII 2004. someone nearly got the car on the first turn but it got away until the driver lost it on turn four and hit a smashed car and was wrecked.
National Banger World Final
The National Bangers World Finals is the longest world final of banger racing ever over 40 year and still one of the big meetings of the season banger from all over the world race to be National Banger Champion. The cars in the meeting between 125 to 175 bangers wanted to win. Over the Year the National Bangers using Fords started as Cortinas then Granadas Then Sierras and now they are using old Mondeos. Just over 40 cars in the world finals and the others have to win the wild card race to get in the world finals. The winner every year at the world finals will be in the next years finals starting last place.
Champions: 1971 Kevin McAuley 1972 John McGirr 1973 Peter Miles 1974 Peter Miles 1975 Brain Boulton 1976 Brain Boulton 1977 John Govier 1978 Bill Smith 1979 Terry Betts 1980 Tony Wise 1981 John Govier 1982 Dave Sanderson 1983 John King 1984 Trevor Jones 1985 Les Mapp 1986 Tony Wade 1987 Steve Taylor 1988 Dennis Whiteman 1989 Steve Taylor 1990 Kevin Wilsher 1991 Steve Taylor 1992 Gray Sheldon 1993 Chris Whiteman 1994 Vince Wolf 1995 Ian Cadman 1996 Mark Boulden 1997 Alan Trickett 1998 John Harris 1999 Phil Hudson 2000 Richard Ahern 2001 Andrew Davies 2002 Brett Ellacott 2003 Andrew Davies 2004 Wayne Cotterill 2005 Matt Fuller 2006 Billy King 2007 Paul Whiteman 2008 Carl Overy 2009 Matt Fuller 2010 Lee Hughes 2011 Lee Hughes 2012 Billy King 2013 Jason Jackson 2014 Scott Cornish
Firecracker
Firecracker was founded in 1991 and is still by far one of, if not the most popular event at Arena Essex. Firecracker (up until 2008) was a banger racing only meeting; the main attraction to this event is the specific car rulings in place which outlaws more 'common' bangers such as the Ford Granada. The meeting originally allowed all types of unlimited bangers to race (which was fairly popular), but when reason the ruling on banning specific cars from racing was enforced, the meeting took off in popularity. The banning on specific cars naturally made it 'THE' meeting for drivers to race their rare classics meeting is so special is that only unusual, rare, or expensive cars are allowed to enter. There is also a firework display at the end of the meeting. This event normally attracts a crowd of around ten thousand people. In 2008, due to banger numbers falling, stockcars were introduced as a support formula, in 2010 Reliant Robin's were swapped as the support formula, which proved a popular move.
Speedway
Speedway was introduced in 1984. They were founded (as the Arena-Essex Hammers) by promoter Wally Mawdsley and stock car promoter Chick Woodroffe. The team were nicknamed the Hammers after the West Ham Hammers team that closed twelve years earlier.[2] The speedway team was renamed the Lakeside Hammers in 2007. The Hammers race at the Arena Essex Raceway on most Friday evenings between March and October and compete in the Elite League, often appearing in live Sky Sports meetings. The Elite League contains many of the sport's top international riders and the Hammers were crowned Knockout Cup champions in 2009.
May 2012 CAPT of the Lakeside Hammers Lee Richardson died in Poland after a very bad crash during the meeting. He was rush the A&E but died later at A&E. He was 33. 4 months later a big Memorial Meeting for Lee Richardson on 28 September 2012. On the Memorial Meeting selling T-shirts and other things was selling to rise money for his wife and 3 young boys. 6,000-7,000 people turned up for Lee's Memorial Meeting.