| National Champions |
The Ultimate 6 Lane Nationals Track (The 1987 - 1993 BSCRA Track) |
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By 1986 most of the BSCRA Nationals track was 17 years old and becoming difficult to maintain. There were a few new sections built in the early 80's to create the new layouts, but the vast majority of the lap length was sections from the original 1969 ECRA "A" track. Rather unusually the Association had enough funds to do something about it. Time for a new track! The result was the largest Nationals track ever - yes longest lap length, longest main straight and largest floor area occupied. |
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The first year for the new track was 1987, when the Isle of Man ferry terminal was the venue. Below are views from either end of the main straight. |
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The start of the main straight (Bottom left on the track diagram) |
The end of the main straight with the drivers on the rostrum behind the yellow Isle of Man banner. (Top right on the track diagram) |
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In the center of both shots the "underpass" can be seen, these rapid changes of gradient resulted in lots of deslotting and accidents under the bridge, and this section was rebuilt in time for the 88 event. |
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| These photos give an idea of just how long that main straight was. At the far left you can see the height of the drivers rostrum and the trailing cables connecting the controllers to the track. On the right is the race control desk can be seen. The rostrum and electrics were inherited from the previous Nats track. | |||
| The track at Reading for the 1989 Nats. (The corner in the foreground is at the top of the track plan). Note the much more gentle gradients surrounding the underpass. In the middle of the photo is the TV camera used to record each of the heats - the recordings were used by the stewards to resolve any protests over the lap scores. The generous spin out beyond the outside lane minimized the outside lane disadvantage from other people's deslotted cars parked in the way. The track colour looks different from the photos taken on the Isle of Man - obviously the revised underpass must have been newly painted. I wonder if anybody can remember if the whole track was repainted at the time (or is it just a question of the colour balance of the photography) |
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Now that BSCRA is again thinking about a new Nats track are there any lessons learnt from this track? It certainly took up a generous amount of floor space - it would fit in a space about 38 ft square, or a longer narrower space if it was rotated a bit.. I guess a more compact design might have advantages for fitting in some venues. Car stability on that long main straight was always fairly marginal, and occasionally cars did deslot part way down. Considerable efforts were made to overcome the problem in the early 1990s, they improved the situation but did not entirely cure it. The World Championships in 1993 gave the impetus for a new track - a shorter main straight with better constructed joints and some appropriate gradient meant that launching on the Nats main straight became a thing of the past. Would we use braid for the pick up these days? Certainly nobody considered an alternative to tape when this track was built. The lessons about the gradients for the underpass had been learnt by 1988. Chris Frost |
Copyright © 2003 British Slot Car Racing Association All rights reserved
All the photographs are copyright John Goldsmith 1987 - 1989.
