Chasewater as I remember it in the 60's and 70's
by Dave Clark
As time passes memory fades so my recollections of Chasewater may not be in entirely chronological
order, nor indeed accurate in every detail, the only thing I can be sure of is that I enjoyed every
moment of the time I spent there.
Banbury Go Kart Racing Club, later to become Shenington I think.
I first became interested in karting following a visit to watch racing at the newly formed Banbury
Go Kart Racing Club in the late 60's. I have some pics taken at this meeting and it could be the
early days of the Shenington Kart Club and might even be the site of their track as used today.
However it fired me up and in a short space of time I bought a rather tatty Dale kart with Villiers
engine and entered my first meeting at Chasewater. To my surprise I made the front row of the 'B' final
and managed to scramble somewhere near the front, in fact near enough to win a trophy, albeit about
the size of a large egg cup.
A wet and windy day at Chasewater. Car parked in centre of track looks a bit dodgy.
Anyway flushed with success I continued with my racing career and felt confident of a good result at
my next Chasewater meeting. However my confidence proved foolhardy and in a reckless overtaking
manoeuvre at the top bend I became entangled with another competitor and somersaulted into the side
banking. With a mouthful of dirt, aching bones and a very bent kart I decided that in future I would
be more prudent.
Moving on from the old Dale I bought a new Dale Sabre and as the original Villiers could not be made
to go any faster I bought a Montesa for the new National class This proved to be quite a quick outfit,
certainly for my limited ability. The Dale Sabre was followed by a Blow Invader, a very nicely built
kart, but not very good handling, and I fitted this with a 250 Ossa.
Podium presentation 1)Geoff Maddox 2)Kenny Foster 3) Don't know
At around this time I remember some great racing and names that spring to mind include George Maund,
George(Mad) Bradbury, Derek Cooper, Bill Collis, Les(Farmer) White, Dennis Rhodes, Phil Hilton, and
of course Geoff Maddox, who became a lifetime friend and with whom over passing years I enjoyed many
more motor sport adventures.
Early Chasewater Race Prog. Front cover
Chasewater was of course a very tight track and the pit area was severely restricted, particularly
by the Ghost Train in the fairground which comprised a large black corrugated iron shed in the left
of the pits. Occasionally the club spent some money on track improvements, widening and such like,
but to my memory this never stretched to improving the gents toilets which very basic (for that read
bucket) and quite fragrant in the hot Summer months.
Looking towards pit bend, big Nissan hut is fairground Ghost Train
Eventually I found myself becoming more involved with the administrative side of the club and sadly
sold my Blow/Ossa to Dave Atkinson who proceeded to get it going really quickly and landed quite a
few trophies I believe.
As we moved on into the early 70's I became the club secretary, took on publication of the club
Newsletter, and even did commentaries at race meetings. I recall we had some very good Juniors at
around this time and names that come to mind include Dougie Basset, Kelvin May and a certain Nigel
Mansell. I remember him as being a fast and gritty young driver, with a father who was dedicated to
achieving results.
A major item on the agenda at most committee meetings was the size of the track and how we might
extend it and improve the facilities. After various discussions it was decided that the club should
have an all out effort to raise funds for the projected extension and at the same time we would
approach the council to see what the chances were of getting more land. To raise funds we had a
variety of functions and also purchased some fun karts to run at the track for public use and take
to various events. These proved to be a real money spinner but as is often the case volunteers
to help were often thin on the ground.
Start line excitement. Remember the Big Wheel in the fairground?
I can remember we took our karts to a variety of fetes and carnivals also to RAF Stafford Open Days
and similar. Another event to raise funds was the Chasewater Motor Sport Show which we organized at
the track and 'blagged' various friends and contacts to bring exhibits.
We had members of the Wolverhampton Speedway team with their bikes, Martin Hone from the Opposite
Lock Club in Birmingham with one of his racing Porsches, and a whole variety of other interesting
sports cars and motor cycles.
One item that sticks in my memory is the kind enthusiast who brought along his pride and joy, a
Cooper/Buick 5 litre hill climb car; I think his name was Brian Eccles. He kindly offered to raise
a little interest by firing the car up and doing a few demonstration laps slowly around the track.
Well this went very well until he got a little too enthusiastic and gave it a real blast past the
start line, arrived at the top bend far too fast and disappeared through the top fence, taking a
12 foot panel with him. Needless to say the car looked a bit second-hand and he looked somewhat
embarrassed!
Start of 250 race.On right is Bob Kenning,centre Geoff Maddox.Start line marshall is club
Chairman Peter Groves.
However the show went on and we raised some very useful funds for our track extension.
As the Club Secretary I became involved with discussions with the Council and in a nutshell
the Council finally agreed to grant us more land, namely the area currently occupied by the
Fairground. We were however requested to provide detailed plans for the extension and attend
a meeting to confirm our intent.
I understand that at that time the rumour was that the Fairground lease was up for renewal and
the Council were allegedly not altogether favourably disposed towards renewing it. In any event
we put forward plans to extend the track down almost as far as the main entrance gate to Chasewater
and these were accepted by the Council. At the same time the Fairground was given notice and
eventually moved elsewhere. The club had raised something in the order of £10,000 towards the
proposed extension, which in those days was serious money and we also had various offers of help
and by great good fortune the father of one of our Junior karters was a tarmac contractor and
offered to lay the new track.
In line astern Geoff Maddox(30) then? followed by Bill Collis and me.
Well what went wrong I really don't know. I put it down to a lack of unity amongst the committee
members and a few cold feet. In any event the extended track never happened and I became
disillusioned and retired. The area we were allocated for the new track eventually became a
car park and pit area for competitors but how big could Chasewater have become, and maybe still
there and going strong today. Who knows?
Dave Clark, still a Chasewater Kart Club enthusiast
