Hot Rod Stock Car Short Oval Racing UK 1980s New Book

Covers the continued development of short oval motor racing in the UK. At the top level of the sport, cars became more sophisticated and expensive, which led to the introduction of new classes to cater to drivers who no longer had the budget to compete at this level. Promoters continued to work with each other and there was a regular interchange of drivers across the country – not only at major championship events but also in one-off team meetings. Over ninety never-before-published photos and championship listings complement the evocative text. Complete with 100 nostalgic pictures from racing throughout the decade, and a comprehensive listing of major championship dates, venues and winners.

Features:
• The first book to cover short oval racing in the 1980s
• Unique and comprehensive 1980s winners listing
• Nearly all of the pictures are colour and previously unpublished

Short oval racing (hot rod and stock car racing) was, and remains, one of the best supported forms of motor racing in the country, in terms of both competitors and spectators. Hot rod and stock car racing had seen packed terraces throughout the sixties and seventies as the public went to their local circuits each week to cheer on their local heroes (and of course see the crash and bash). The sport had developed much through these two decades and arrived in the eighties as a slick, professional looking sport which now boasted national rather than local heroes.

Whilst the top level of the sport became more costly, the promoters began to introduce new classes to cater to the drivers who had got left behind in the race for purpose-built equipment. The new classes were to become the training ground for the star drivers of the future. This book is the first ever such work on the sport looking at the 1980s, and shows how the existing formulae developed throughout the decade and how the UK promoters continued to work with each other to keep the sport at a truly national (and in some classes international) level. Complete with 100 nostalgic pictures from racing throughout the decade and a comprehensive listing of major championship dates, venues and winners.

The book does not cover ‘models’ as such but short oval racing in different classes – mainly hot rod rod racing with some other classes also featuring such as Superstox, Stock Cars, Super Rods, Stock Rods, F1 Stox and Midgets.

• Acknowledgements & introduction
• 1980
• 1981
• 1982
• 1983
• 1984
• 1985
• 1986
• 1987
• 1988
• 1989
• Appendix – The Champios

Startline
Complete with 100 nostalgic, mainly colour pictures of racing throughout the decade and a comprehensive listing of major championship dates, venues and winners.

Speedscene
... for anyone with an interest in this area of the sport it will make a valuable collection to their library, if just for the photographs alone ...

Motor Sport
... a great introduction to this diverse and fascinating form of the sport ...

Motorsport News
The photographs are a wonderful walk down memory lane ... it can happily sit on the shelf as a work of reference, as well as being a good read.

The Marshal
... Illustrated with a series of photographs, contributed mainly by enthusiasts, but still of good quality , nonetheless.