Banged up and beautiful
Short oval racing is perhaps the United Kingdom’s most unruly sport
by Dan Giannopoulos[1]
Banged up and beautiful
Short oval racing is perhaps the United Kingdom’s most unruly sport
by Dan Giannopoulos[2]
It s a rainy and miserable midsummer Sunday in Thurrock, Essex, in the southeast of England. A middle-aged man, drenched to the bone, sits in the mud. The raincoat he has drawn up over his head does nothing to keep him dry, nor does the large umbrella which sags beneath the volume of rain bearing down on it. He yells some indecipherable orders to his son, Jack, who sits inside the car, twisting the steering wheel to the left and right. Jack, currently in second place in the 2014 PRI Junior Banger championship, is only slightly more sheltered from the rain. His dad aggressively works away at tightening the bolts on the front wheel of the battered car, reclaimed, reinforced and ready for today s race. Intense sounds swirl around the muddy pit area, like revving engines and sledgehammers violently hitting warped metal panels. Some of these cars don t even resemble a traditional car form anymore; they’re now more like giant screwed up balls of luridly painted tinfoil tossed in the sludge with the occasional jutting tire. The piercing screech of an axle grinder merges with the rabble from the gangs of mechanics frantically making last-minute repairs before the start of the next heat. In a nearby alcove between flatbeds, a mechanic with no safety goggles inhales a smoking arc of molten sparks. He doesn t care: He has a smile on his face.
A junior class ministox race is just starting on track; you can tell from gentle bee-like hum of old-school Mini Coopers. There s an exodus from the pit area. Friends, family and fans slipping in the grey-brown gloop as they enthusiastically make their way track-side to cheer on their sons and daughters, their fathers, their brothers and sisters. It was sunny 15 minutes ago and will probably be sunny again in a few minutes. The great British summer. Half-hourly fluctuations between rain, sun, rain, sun, hail. But this never puts off a Brit from driving or spectating. We Brits are defiant like that. Stiff upper lip and all.
A family gather around their flatbed in the pits at Arena Essex Raceway
Spectators watch the final wildcard entry heat during the Spedeworth Unlimited National Bangers World Final event at Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich. Oct 2015.
Unable to repair their banger for the next heat, a team load it back on to their flatbed to transport it home. Arena Essex Raceway
Oval racing a motorsport that has been highly popular among the country s working class community for over five decades. For most of its years, the sport s big draw has been the Bangers class. Banger racing is a contact race class, with drivers aiming to annihilate their rivals in order to be the first wreck to reach the chequered flag. It s an aggressive and brutal sport noisy and dirty with a high risk of injury, and it hasn t changed much since its inception. For the past two years I ve been photographing the UK s oval racing scene. I grew up watching and enjoying it, and was then estranged from it for more than 20 years. But like many boys who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, I spent a large part of my youth obsessed with motorsports. For a time I desperately wanted to be a Formula 1 driver, even though my experience of driving extended only as far as playing with toy cars in my living room.
My favorite of all motorsports was Banger racing, mostly because it was the only race that I could afford to visit on a regular basis. I spent many summer Sundays with my family at Arena Essex watching insane men smashing heavy metal at high speed into other insane men in equally heavy metal travelling at equally high speed. What was there not to love about a sport with a sole purpose of destruction?
“I love racing, it means everything to me. I do it every weekend mainly, so it’s in my blood…my favourite thing about racing is when I win” Orci Minstox driver #561 Aaron ‘Flash Jr’ Totham, Aaron has been driving in the ministox class for 4 seasons now. In 4 seasons Aaron has won 2 races and had numerous 2nd and 3rd place finishes. one of his great loves of the sport is the competitiveness among the drivers “my favourite person to race against is Charlie ‘Binks’ Lobb. but but i enjoy racing pretty much everyone”
“I’m here all the time, I drive in the bangers. and when I’m not driving I marshal here. I love it. My mum works on the recovery truck too… Last year the BBC filmed down here for a documentary, they filmed one of my races, and I wrecked my car in that race. It was great” Terry Smith, race Marshal and PRI Junior Bangers driver. Arena Essex Raceway. 2015
“My Dad used to race bangers in the late 1980’s and Early 90’s..I really enjoy racing.. I especially like to win.. When I was racing in Ninja Karts I won the 2013 Ipswich Spede-Weekend race, which was fun” Junior Rod driver #252, Callum Searle, in the pit area, in his Vauxhall Nova, waiting for the start of the second race heat of the night. Wimbledon Stadium 26/10/2014 Callum (11) has been racing for 4 years starting out in the Ninja Karts category and then moving to Junior Rods.
“Racing Means a lot to me. It’s a big part of my life. I love being in the racing community.. there’s loads of good banter with all the racing lads… and what happens on the track stays on the track. The best part of my racing career to date was when only me and my brother were left in a destruction derby and I had to finish him off with a big head-on smash… we got a great picture of that” – Nicky ‘ Nicky Boy’ Dingle (29) – races in the Spedeworth Rookie Bangers class alongside his brother. Nowadays, as a properly grown-up 35-year-old adult, I find the most appealing thing about banger racing is its enduring, defiantly working class Britishness. This sport in important, especially in a time that the lower classes are increasingly vilified, ridiculed and targeted by those in power.
Oval racing is one of the last working class cultural bastions, home to many of the things that made Britain so great in the past. Race days are always full of humor, eccentricity, grit and a deep sense of community of the like that you ll never find among the sterile, Jamie-Oliver-cookbook-loving middle class.
Drivers line up on circuit for a Ministox race heat. typically a children’s race class. The drivers ages range from 11 – 16. Arena Essex Raceway.
Marshals assess the damage to race barrier after a junior banger becomes wedged during a race. Wimbledon Stadium. 2014
T Jay is taken away by St John’s Ambulance paramedics after being cut from his banger after a heavy collision during a race heat at Arena Essex Raceway.
Mechanics undertake repairs to their vehicle ahead of a Big Van Bangers heat at Arena Essex Raceway on August Bank Holiday Monday. 2014
Short oval racing is a sport completely lacking in pretension, though that s not to say that the drivers in the scene are any less dedicated or passionate about the sport. Drivers put themselves in direct danger week in week out for the entertainment of others. And what they do elevates vehicle destruction to the level of art. Cars are resurrected (barely) from their mechanical graveyards and fortified for one last battle to the death. The cars are often adorned with colorful, humorous slogans and affectionate messages to loved ones both alive and dead. It s a sport that is uniquely eccentric. No other motorsport has an annual event in which racers attach a humble British caravan to their car for no other reason than to add an extra layer of carnage. And no other sport has a day dedicated to destroying vintage Ford Mustangs, Jaguars, Bentleys and Rolls Royces much to the despair and outrage of classic car enthusiasts the length and breadth of the UK. Race days are always full of humor, eccentricity, grit and a deep sense of community of the like that you ll never find among the sterile, Jamie-Oliver-cookbook-loving middle class.
Each circuit has its own feel and charm but all are connected by certain constants: The waft of race fuel, burnt rubber and overheated clutches, the noisy, oil-sodden expanses of pit areas etched and scored with tire trails haphazardly intersecting one another. And the ground is almost constantly rumbling underfoot as cars move to-and-fro from the track. The jarringly cheerful pre-race musical jingles and the always joyous and enthusiastic commentary. Yet for all its charm, in recent years, there has been a noticeable decline in the sport, both in driver participation and fan spectatorship.
PRI Junior Bangers driver #521 Jack Coveney (2nd place winner in the 2014 PRI Championship points table)
Reg Fairs, a ticket collector at Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich.
Mr Grumpy #152, driven by James Dillon. queues at the track entrance ahead of the 2015 Spedeworth National Bangers World Championship final. upwards of 200 cars entered into the contest for this year’s championship with 150 entrants battling for just 3 wild card places in a final race line up of approximately 50 drivers.
Ongoing austerity in Britain and the general belt-tightening of working class families, coupled with a dramatic increase in the price of scrap metal, has meant that the frivolity of racing has had to take a back seat for many racers while they struggle to make ends meet in their everyday lives. And with some races seeing only five to 10 competitors show up per heat, ticket sales have dwindled accordingly. That said, flagship annual races such as the Spedeworth Unlimited National Bangers World Final still draw massive crowds well into the thousands and see drivers entering from across Europe. This year s Spedeworth Unlimited National Bangers World Final event at Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich saw more than 200 entrants, with approximately 50 of those taking part in the grand final itself.
Though there is no sign of it completely disappearing from the UK s working class cultural landscape anytime soon, it would be a real shame to see a sport with such character and humor continue to wither away. It would be sad to see oval racing be claimed as a victim of the surge of cultural and social cleansing that is turning every area of UK life towards a bland and sterile middle class ideal, void of any real personality or grit. In that respect, this great nearly 60-year-old cultural tradition should be fought for and preserved, unlike the classic cars that they anarchically destroy every weekend.
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Photographer and Writer:
Dan Giannopoulos
Photo Editor:
Elizabeth Pierson
References
^ by Dan Giannopoulos (mashable.com)
^ by Dan Giannopoulos (mashable.com)