Forgotten Race Tracks - Rockingham Speedway - Corby Northamptonshire

[Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning hello and welcome to water shenanigans my name is john don't be jealous but today i'm in corby again really we previously visited corby to look at an abandoned road and you can watch that video here but not yet do that after this video corby is a delightful dump of a town in north northamptonshire north today they make wetos but once upon a time it was home to the largest steelworks in europe it opened in 1930 and enjoyed a near 50-year career before closing in 1979. reasons for this closure included a drop in steel value and the site not offering competitive pricing amongst other when it closed over 11 000 people lost their jobs me 11 000 that's incredible and not in a good way in the space of a few years corby went from an industrial giant to nothing over 30 percent of the residents of corby were unemployed to add insult to injury the steel companies left a ton of toxic waste behind that had to be cleared out and it was during this process that a small amount okay that's probably a bit larger than a small all right an absolute massive amount of toxic waste was released into the atmosphere but no biggie it only resulted in an abnormal rate of birth defects throughout the town for decades after corby borough council would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids but they were found liable in 2009. anyway none of this is really relevant with the steel works gone and a large lump of land sat there doing nothing someone had an idea what if we built a mahusiv nascar style race circuit right here in kobe we could be the motorsport capital of the world yes [Music] the engines fire up for the first round of the ascart midtex cup the goodyear 100 from rockingham motor speedway and this is a start to a new era in british motorsport v8s rumbling around a one and a half mile oval that's right ladies and gentlemen today we've come to look at this well all right not not this behind behind there just through the trees we've come to look at that behind there can you see that hang on just there right yes that's going to be a bit of a problem if you're a regular to the series you'll know that i like to walk or drive around the race circuit that we've come to explore to give you guys that up close personal touch that you deserve unfortunately today that's not going to happen therefore i am unable to film the usual selection of shaky out of focus b-roll footage for which i apologize ideally we need some sort of device perhaps a camera that could fly now hear me out it could be controlled via some sort of wi-fi based network system maybe with a range of one or two miles and we could call it a drone oh my god we've totally got a drone why am i pretty cameras [Music] you're watching forgotten racetracks on auto shenanigans smash that subscribe button and welcome to rockingham speedway rockingham speedway was the first oval banked circuit built since brooklyn's hmm brooklyn that sounds very interesting check out this video here we already did a visit well we're looking down over the brand new rockingham motor speedway i'm ben edwards with john price as we're getting ready for this first round it's been a little while in the making but john we're looking forward to some great racing rockingham speedway was the dream of peter davis who purchased the toxic waste tainted land for 60 000 pounds in 1991. there was no messing about and by 1993 he'd obtained planning permission the council loved the idea unfortunately the investors did not and by 1998 with planning permission about to expire and no funding davis took to the land himself with a jcb digger to start work and thus legitimize his planning application there was no going back now and shortly after davis found the funding that he was looking for to turn his dream into a reality but not long after in the year 2000 the investors decided to fire davis off the board that kind of sucks doesn't it the raceway was built with exceptional speed and by january 2001 it was open and ready for business it had a capacity of 52 000 a 1.5 mile u.s style banked oval circuit with the potential for 13 track configurations and when it opened it was a massive failure in fact so much so that the press described the first six months of operation as a complete disaster i imagine peter davis is having a little chuckle to himself at this moment in time several races such as the ascar series and the champ car series tried and failed they didn't attract anywhere near enough spectators and by 2002 pulled out of the venue the british superbike formula 3 and pickup truck race series fared a little bit better lasting until 2003. it looked like nothing was going to save rockingham speedway but then along came the btcc or british touring car championship to save the day sort of the btcc had already been held at rockingham in 2003 but it wasn't until 2007 that it became a permanent feature it was immensely popular with fans and it lasted right up until rockingham's last moments in 2018 but the btcc and the other smaller race events that occurred were just not enough and the fact of the matter was rockingham hadn't turned a profit since opening it was offered up for sale in 2016 leaving a bit of a questionable future over rockingham speedway it was purchased by rockingham automotive a vehicle storage company who still operate the site to this day racing ended in 2018. this next bit may not make the final edit depending on whether i get permission or not to use the footage but hopefully we're going to cut to some onboard footage with racing driver john barnes who drove the last race at rockingham in 2018 it seems like rockingham was destined for failure right from the start on the very first event water seeped up from the foundations onto the track and over the years the large grandstands had to be closed on health and safety grounds due to subsidence underneath so despite its larger capacity it often looked empty and lacked atmosphere the flat ground that the racetrack was built on was fairly uninspiring and was often criticized by drivers who said that the track was quite bland today the venue still stands and offers a fantastic reminder of better times there is talk of demolishing the grandstand so if you do want to see it you're going to have to be quick it could have been so good couldn't it we don't care enough about cars or motorsport anymore with venues closing left right and center and isn't it such a shame for corby the once industrial giant turned motorsport city stripped of its hopes and dreams again and turned into a car park and there we are guys that's rockingham speedway in corby i hope you liked the film if you did there is a button specifically for that and if you haven't already please consider subscribing to the channel it really does help me out and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside in the meantime enjoy the rest of your week whatever it is you're doing i shall see you guys next time for another exciting episode of something i think i've run out of racetracks now so who knows but i shall see you guys then take care bye bye bye bye bye always the showman the car disappearing in just total firestone smoke [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Auto Shenanigans

Views: 40,696

Keywords: street race, motorsport, abandoned, race tracks, racing, race, track, history, travel, vlog, old race track, forgotten race track, race track, unused, cars, automotive, england, race circuit, urbex, urban exploring, roads, exploring, disused, uk, britain, road trip, raf, raceway, usaf, btcc, corby, northampton, northamptonshire, rockingham, speedway

Id: RUfen2LeGdo

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022