Hmmm, now this is likely to end up a somewhat conterversial topic, I can see it coming....
Before I begin though, I would just like to draw atention again to the fact that I'm an
EX-racer. I don't do this sort of thing anymore, and certainly not with these sorts of cars.
Fortunatly I can more or less confirm that no real "micro" (as most of you would regard) ever seems to have met its end on the track, but I could never get to the bottom of the roumers about five years ago of something sounding like a Heinkel/Trojan being used at a three-wheeler bash at (possibley) Hendesford stadium. I've never found any pictures nor anyone who actully saw it.
Of course three-wheeler bashes have been going on for years, since 1989 in fact. Most of the time it is and was "only" Reliants Regal 3/30, Robin & Rialto. ("ONLY" he says!!!) but as time went on, quite a lot of Bond 875's were used across the country. Mildenhall June 1996 saw a Reliant Regal Mk 6 used, whilst Standlake had a Bond Bug back in 1991. That same Standlake meeting also saw no less than TWELVE Model 70 invalid carriages being used as well
I've got a number of photos becuse I was there as a ten-year-old. By all accounts, a lot more than a few other Model 70s have also ended their days in some tracks "novelty" event.
Moving onto four-wheeled stuff, by the by it's mostly been "minicars" rather than micro. One chap was legendary in the 1980s around the Speedeworth tracks for always using Honda N360/N600's. Rember, in those days, most tracks raced "all-in". As in Jags, Rovers & yanks in the same race as Cortinas, Escorts & what have you. In the early 2000's a lot of tracks latched onto what they called a "micro" format, vis all cars under 1000cc (although these days most tracks run to 1200cc). I actully raced in Standlakes very first micro bash back in August Bank Holiday Monday 2003 using a VERY rough Fiat 126. Everybody laughed at it to start with, but much to everyone's suprize, it actully went all day long in all five races whereas my racing mate Chris's Nissan Micra never got past the first bend! There's another tale I could tell about this car, but does the rest of the forum want to hear it?
Of couse as any event gains popularity, these "racers" who only want to show off starts seeking out the rare or odd stuff. I've not been involved in any shape or form with bangers for about four years now, but I've done a bit of investgating for this topic and found these two pictures on another website....
I'm not sure where, when or who, but both of these were certainly raced within the past two seasons. The same website also reported that one racer had an NSU Sport Prinz due to be used at a meeting in June.
Plus, to all those who think their rare or odd car is safe from the track becuse it is either in good nick or too high a price to buy, don't you belive it! I spent almost twentry years round these people and I can tell you that roughly 60% of them these days can and will pay ANY price to get their hands on a particular car if they want to race it, and they don't care what they do or say to get hold of it. I never paid more than £10 for any race car. Some drivers I knew thought nothing of spending £1,000 per car and then sell off the bits to the cash-crazed (their words) classic car world. Then you get the real big meetings like the annual World Final and Arena Essex Firecracker, in which case the sky's the limit as regards price for the right car. And they don't care about getting their money back as long as the croud cheers loud enough. As a point of fact, last year's Firecracker had an Alvis Greylady, TWO Checker Aerobuses, a 1948 Bentley Mk 6 with Hooper bodywork, and a 1936 Studebaker of some sort. And these were just the top cars of the day. And none of them made it past the first bend. They rekoned the total showroom value of the cars used at that single meeting was somewhere in the region of half a million pounds......
