Old Motor racing Rufforth & Cadwell

[Andrew]

Just discovered this vid. Well worth a watch. The F3 race at Cadwell in the second half is really good quality for it's age. It's a bit of an eye opener to see the lack of barriers in places, and no kerbs. A real barn at Barn corner too. 😉 

(I actually attended a race at Rufforth too.. still got a program somewhere. )

 

Enjoy. 😎

 

 

[stickymint]

Great action at Cadwell!

[AdamR]

Brilliant. Thanks Andrew!

[Oily Steve]

Thanks Andrew, great to see some of the famous names racing like James Hunt and Ronnie Peterson

I found it hard to recognise some areas of the track compared to how it is now.

Thanks for sharing

[Andrew]

1 hour ago, Snowy Steve said:

Thanks Andrew, great to see some of the famous names racing like James Hunt and Ronnie Peterson

I found it hard to recognise some areas of the track compared to how it is now.

Thanks for sharing

 

I dont think the circuit layout has changed at all over the years. They've removed a big grass bank in the middle of Hall bends, and a tree here and there, and obviously laid kerbs and barriers.

For an international event, the paddock has a definite clubbie feel about it. A Frank Williams racing  transporter not much bigger than some club racers use nowadays.. 😉 .. and cars parked up on muddy grass.. Happy days. 🙂 

[AdamR]

Yea, the track looks pretty much identical - the proximity to grass banks, what looks like a stone-y embankment (!), barriers and lack of kerbs did have me thrown a few times though!

[Andrew]

34 minutes ago, AdamR said:

Yea, the track looks pretty much identical - the proximity to grass banks, what looks like a stone-y embankment (!), barriers and lack of kerbs did have me thrown a few times though!

 

Did you notice the lap times Adam. In practice they were doing 1-39s.. I thought, cool! I can go quicker than that in my Westy. 😎 They then knocked six seconds off in the race.. 1-33? Pretty sure a well sorted Westy (Lobbo) would get round quicker?

 

Just basking in the thought of Pintosaurus out qualifying messers Hunt, Peterson etc etc.

 

The circuit will of course be a lot quicker now than it was then.. but let's not spoil things with facts.. 😉

[cast iron]

Marshalls today don't know the half of it, building the circuit first 😉

I think those toilets are still in use at Croft

Is that Peter Bruce scruitineering at Cadwell?

[Andrew]

19 minutes ago, cast iron said:

I think those toilets are still in use at Croft

 

Mark, I can remember the toilets at the old Croft circuit by the inside of Sunny corner. It was basically a trough running into an overflowing bucket! You needed wellies and a gas mask to use them! 🤢

[jeff oakley]

That carb set up on the red mini at the start was a rare one. I suspect that would have been sat on a very trick head as well.

 

I love these old films where people got dressed up in suits and ties just to go out the an event like this

[AdamR]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

 

They then knocked six seconds off in the race.. 1-33? Pretty sure a well sorted Westy (Lobbo) would get round quicker?

 

Would be close I think, think I was about 1:36 in the Canary on 888s.

Amazing to think the video is 50+ years ago!

[Simon Marks - North Oxfordshire AO]

I would have been at the Rufforth meeting as an 11 year old.  The September Battle of Britain meeting was always special with the air displays - the memory of Vulcans doing victory rolls, loops and the roar as they did vertical climbs lives with me to this day.  It is great to see the club members building the circuit on the Friday evenings in the knowledge that they would have to pack it all away again on Saturday evening after the racing to allow the gliders back on the runways on Sunday.

 

My parents used to take me there from about 1968 (in the family Humber Sceptre MkII) and a cousin of dad's raced there in the early 1970s with a Ford Cortina MkI with a Buick V8 (forerunner of the Rover V8) fitted.  Tony Dean was the local star and I saw him race legendary cars like Ferrari Dino 206SP, Porsche 908, McLaren M8, Chevron B42 (F5000).  It was always exciting to see the latest Chevrons making their debuts each Spring.  Great times - once I got my bike in 1973, I wasn't reliant on lifts as I used to cycle the 18 miles there and back (with a flask full of Mum's chicken curry to warm me on a cold day)!

 

Rufforth was also the first place that I ever marshalled a rally.  I saw a note in Motoring News one Thursday in February 1976 that De Lacy Motor Club needed marshals there for the following day's stage on the Mintex Seven Dales Rally.  A school friend had the use of his Mum's Hillman Imp so he was roped in so we could go and help out.  We put out empty barrels to define the course.  It was a foggy morning and we nearly drove off the end of the runway into a ploughed field as we could hardly see past the end of the bonnet.  Andy Dawson won the rally in the Chequered Flag Stratos, followed by Russell Brookes and Ari Vatanen in Ford Escort MkIIs.  We watched all the cars through, then cleared up and still home at normal time so my parents were none the wiser!  The start of a hobby that still excites me 45years on.

 

[cast iron]

Since the northern saloon championship and the battle of Britain meeting moved to croft, I' feel quite honoured to have won both of them in my Westfield 😉