abandoned race tracks

[Nathan]

Now I love the sight of anything urban being abandoned, and I remember some time ago someone posting some pictures of abandoned race tracks.

I think one of them was a section of the riems track in france and another being the abandoned drag strip from 2 lane black top.

Does anyone have these, I just love the ora of these type of places making you feel like you can almost hear the cars thundering around the track or strip.

[Nathan]

Ahh just found this

www.lakelandraceway.com

[wagoneer]

^^top link^^ loads of great stuff about the film.

[CR500Dom]

The other one was in Spain, unused and untouched since the war or something ;D

Riems is worth a visit before they completely renovate the pits/stands as well

[Speedman]

The track in France is on the outskirts of Reims a couple of hours from Paris, all that remains is the buildings on the start/finish straight which is now a main road.

We went there on our way from Le Mans to Germany and its and amazing place, theres no graffiti or damage to it and people are free to explore they just ask you to respect the site

The pit buildings


The grandstands opposite


BP pavilion


The old timing boards


Some really faded signage


Freshly painted


A lot of it has been restores ready for an anniversary race meet later this year ;D

[Deleted]

There's always Crystal Palace park but it's getting hard to see any of the signage these days now it's all been grafitti'd and abused by the losers that have moved into the area.

[Robinxr4i]

Some great stuff there, it's sad that stuff get left like that. I mean you can't imagine Santa Pod being closed down and left derelict?

Speedman: Those photos are so cool looks mental right next to the main road!

[Nathan]

AMFG I love those photos, excellent work, you have made my day fella. Well chuffed.

Do we know of anymore (Spain one etc).

There is one about 2 mins from where I work its an old Speedway, its a bit over grown but i think you can get access.

[Speedman]

Theres an old hillclimb track a few miles from us called Great Auclum, it was the path up to a big house but the whole lot has been left to overgrow, theres supposed to be an old section of banking left in the weeds



Did have a look over there a year ago with no luck but might try another dry day recce soon with the camera

[loon]

robinxr4i said:

I mean you can't imagine Santa Pod being closed down and left derelict?



don't forget its happened here to at Brooklands

[briandamaged]

loon said:

robinxr4i said:

I mean you can't imagine Santa Pod being closed down and left derelict?



don't forget its happened here to at Brooklands

It nearly DID happen about 15 years ago....I remember reading about the old owners (messrs. Meftah and Brister) who very nearly closed it down and sold it off back in about 1991.

Here's a long-disused drag strip some of our Northern Retro-Riders may not know about:

Crosland Moor just west of Huddersfield hosted just two Pennine Drag Racing Club meetings back in 1974 before the local Kirklees Council revoked the planning permission after recieving TWO complaints!!! PDRC upped sticks and moved to their current base at Melbourne near York after losing this venue.

[WillCarter]

Cool, but a shame at the same time. Wonder how hard it would be to get that place up and running again?

[dclane]

[quote author=briandamaged board=general thread=1184859833 post=1184866558
Here's a long-disused drag strip some of our Northern Retro-Riders may not know about:

Crosland Moor just west of Huddersfield hosted just two Pennine Drag Racing Club meetings back in 1974 before the local Kirklees Council revoked the planning permission after recieving TWO complaints!!! PDRC upped sticks and moved to their current base at Melbourne near York after losing this venue.[/quote]

That's now a runway from the look of it:

www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?x=411325&y=413910&scale=10000

Hmmm. Wonder if it'd be suitable for a retro go down it ;D

[Padz]

slightly on but off topic:

If you like the whole urban exploration thing etc then an excellent forum is www.28dayslater.co.uk/

It's been posted on here before but theres some excellent shots of inside Longbridge etc

[briandamaged]

dclane said:

[quote author=briandamaged board=general thread=1184859833 post=1184866558
Here's a long-disused drag strip some of our Northern Retro-Riders may not know about:

Crosland Moor just west of Huddersfield hosted just two Pennine Drag Racing Club meetings back in 1974 before the local Kirklees Council revoked the planning permission after recieving TWO complaints!!! PDRC upped sticks and moved to their current base at Melbourne near York after losing this venue.

That's now a runway from the look of it:

www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?x=411325&y=413910&scale=10000

Hmmm. Wonder if it'd be suitable for a retro go down it ;D[/quote]

There's a flying club based there now, and the runway's been shortened to 500m, so not really any use even if the local NIMBYs welcomed dragging with open arms (which I doubt....look how close the houses are to what's left of the runway )

[antz]

what a waste

[dugong]

I can add some pics of an abandoned petrol station if wanted?

And I'd love to go to Reims, my aunt lived there when I was young and I didn't even know about it!

I love the way they've left one grandstand unrestored, that's like camera sex for urbex'ers that is.

[dugong]

DP, here's some pics of my first urbex, the old Repsol in Moss Side.







May take the Volvo here when it's legal and get some better shots with a digital SLR.

[jamieandthemagictorch]

"With Spa being considered too dangerous for Formula 1 machinery, the Belgians decided to hold their Grand Prix in 1972 at a new track near Nivelles, to the south of Brussels. It was safe but inspired little enthusiasm when compared to the magnificent old Spa circuit. Because of the need to alternate the race between the Flemish and Walloon territories the event had to be alternated with Zolder and so F1 returned to Nivelles in 1974. Both races at the track were won by Emerson Fittipaldi but after 1974 the organizers were unable to sustain a Grand Prix at Nivelles and the track faded from the racing scene."










worth getting this book, if its still available;

This contains some excellent photography, almost all of it a little melancholy- fading paint, rusting steelwork, rutted tarmac- also includes Nurburgring, Reims and Keimola. Very evocative of the 50s/ 60s.

[PhoenixCapri]

Great pics for this guys. I love old race tracks such an aura about the places.
One I found out about as a kid was Rufforth (Nr York)



maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=york+uk&ie=UTF8&ll=53.949419,-1.184163&spn=0.01331,0.034332&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=1

Opened for racing on the 28th March 1959 as a 2.1 mile track on an ex-RAF bomber station, Rufforth was located on the B1224, 4 miles west of York. It was used four times that year, but for 1960 a 1.70 mile circuit was used, the dotted line on the map above showing the shortened track. It closed in 1977, but the track layout is still there (as of 2001), although unaccessible to the public.

Its now a gliding club but the tramacs all pretty good still. Think they did a couple of track days a few yrs back, but that seems to have stopped now.
Actually heres a video clip from a few days ago I just found



and a few pics of racing there back in the day