Scunthorpe

The North Lincolnshire town of Scunthorpe has been lucky enough to stage BriSCA F1 stock car racing at three different venues, although unfortunately, for various reasons, none of them have stayed around long in the history of the sport.

A one off meeting was staged in June 1954 on a makeshift track at The Showground (later renamed Quibell Park) and promoted by Don Luck. The track hosted speedway from 1971 to 1978. Today it is a multi-purpose stadium, with a velodrome, athletics track, and sports field.

The locals then had to wait until November 1987 when Warren Taylor transferred a date from Hartlepool to the speedway track at Ashby Ville, for another glimpse of F1 action.

Taylor's tenure was short lived, with a trio of Harry Smith, Stuart Bamforth and Stuart Smith taking on the role of joint promoters soon after. A difference of opinion soon left Stuart Smith in sole promoting capacity with Bamforth in an advisory role as Smith, H walked.

The stadium, just down the road from the steel works, was very basic with regards to facilities, but the racing was epic, and Scunthorpe soon garnered something of a cult following. The long, narrow, uneven straights and tight bends proving a recipe for excellent stock car action. It managed to stage some big events, with a British Championship, a Semi Final and a couple of Grand National Championships all being held here.

With depressing inevitability, the land that the stadium was on soon became sold and the last event was held in November 1992, before the bulldozers moved in.

That appeared to be that, until 2009, when the F1's made their return at a new venue, the Eddie Wright Raceway, home of the Scunthorpe Scorpions speedway team. Jointly promoted by Guy Parker and the speedway promotion, two meetings were held that season, with a further two in 2010, before politics intervened, and no more BriSCA events were staged. The stadium continues to hold non BriSCA/Orci stock car meetings to this day, so the hope that BriSCA may return at some stage remains.

Andre Zang