Stock Car Racing For The Uninitiated (Car Racing)
Stock Car Racing For The Uninitiated (Car Racing)
Let’s face it: stock car racing looks great fun. Tearing around a track, bashing into other competitors cars like bumper cars on steroids. But the origins of the sport trace back to the 1920s.
Originally, it was gangsters in the prohibition era trying to outrun the police that started things off by racing each other.
The term ‘stock’ cars originally referred to cars that had not been modified in any way from their original manufactured configuration but that definition has become somewhat looser over the years.
In the UK, the sport started in the 1950s with the ever popular ‘banger’ type cars, wrecking each other as they drove round the circuit.
While there are other classes of stock car racing in Britain, it is this class of racing that is the most enduringly popular with the public.
Nowadays, the cars are production models that have been modified for safety. For example, the drivers doors are reinforced, roll over bars are added and windscreens are removed. The pleasure in this type of stock car racing is watching the cars crash into each other as they compete to win.
The race tracks are usually around 440 yards and oval in shape and there can be as many as 250 cars booked to race at any one event. In fact, the annual “Heavy Metal Classic” event in January at Standlake Arena in Oxfordshire has had over 270 at its peak.
Getting involved in stock car racing is quite easy – you don’t need to spend much on a car after all and the British Stock Association is the first port of call for anyone looking to get into the sport.
If you want to get your feet wet, many gift experience companies have stock car racing days, which would make an ideal birthday gift for the boy racer in your family.
Matt Greene recommends stock car racing and other gift experiences at Find Me A Gift Experience.com or a choice of over 2,000 gifts at Find Me A Gift.com.
Brisca F2 Stock Car Racing Skeg Vegas 12-7-09 UK Championship. Gordon Moodie’s back… Beaten at the start by Bradbury, but not for long. Moodie drove faultlessly to a comfortable, trouble free win. Enjoy it while you can… It was a one off filming the Tooz !
