Memories of Strange Race Meetings?

[E.B]

OK, my first thread here in the History of Motorsport at TT, so be kind.

I am sure many of us recall meetings we have been to where something strange happened, perhaps something unexpected. Here is the place to share such tales.

I will start the ball rolling....

Back in 1975 BBC had recently launched Radio 1 as their new 'Pop' Music Channel, and Radio 1 sponsored one of the Production Saloon Car Championships. They used to promote some of the events with what they called 'Fun Days', which involved celebs and side shows happening. One of these 'Fun Days' was at Mallory Park in May 1975..... I am sure others reading this might well have been there as well. So enjoy the memory!

.....this memory is of that Mallory Park 'Fun' Day. I was one of the close to 50,000 (yes Fifty thousand!) people that were at Mallory that weekend. i was working for Arian Automotive, who built and ran a number of Mazda RX3's in ETCC, BTCC plus the Radio 1 Prodsaloon Championship.

I have never seen so many people at Mallory, that I know, and to start with was hardly a fun day I can assure you. One of the cars I was looking after was the Cozy Powell Hitachi sponsored entry. Cozy was a drummer of some note (he had a UK #1 hit with a drum solo called Dance with the Devil, was drummer with Whitesnake and many top Bands) and so of great media and fan interest. (Sadly I read of his passing a few years ago, in a road accident near his home - RIP Cozy) Noel Edmonds was also racing that year in a Radio 1 / Castrol backed Capri, so there was always plenty of attention.

Of the huge crowd there on this day, very few were motor racing fans. Most were screaming girls there to catch a glimpse of the Tartan Terrors, the Bay City Rollers, the 70's equivalent of a 'Boy Band', who were to be the 'guest attraction'. There were also other celebrities involved in the day.

The thousands of girls around started off as being a delight bearing in mind I was a testosterone brimming 19 or 20y.o. at the time....being asked for autographs was a bit embarrassing, but I coped. It soon all started to go wrong though.

The Island in the middle of the lake had been converted for the day into a stage, and the band were supposed to play, or at least appear at some stage, and the DJs were doing their thing there. All the top DJs (for those not from the UK you have to understand that DJ's of a radio station that was National and the only source of music other than pirate radio were huge media stars) of the day were there, Tony Blackburn, David Hamilton, DLT, John Peel, plus of course Noel Edmunds. Another DJ, Paul Burnett, was broadcasting appeals for the public to stay away! They were all being driven round the track in course cars or around the lake in a small speedboat.

The arrival and landing of a helicopter indicated the 'Rollers' had been deposited on the island. Im sure the helicopter landed on the island itself. They were scheduled to do a 'lap of honour' but that never materialised due to the safety risk. What safety risk you might ask.....

The Formula Ford race was running full bore when the band appeared on the island, but that mattered not. At this point sheer hell broke out as hundreds of tartan clad crazy schoolgirls proceeded to run across the track, MID RACE, totally oblivious of the cars racing by.

Like lemmings they hurled themselves into the lake to try to swim to the island in the middle of the lake, which IIRC had a control tower on it. The band and others barricaded themselves in the tower as scuba divers in wet suits and flippers were flapping around, and with what seemed to be hordes of police, were trying to round up these girls. Part of the entertainment was a speed boat that was used to convey the DJs to the island.....

Indeed, one of the clearest memories I have of the proceedings was of this speedboat, cruising around the lake at this point, being driven by a Womble dressed in full regalia, whilst Tony Blackburn (Radio 1 National Breakfast Show DJ) was sat up behind, looking every bit like the Queen, waving regally to the crowds, with all these schoolgirls trying to cross to the island. The speedboat accelerated off back to the island with Blackburn flung from his throne onto the floor of the boat. The helicopter tried to land again to recue 'the Rollers', but there was no space. The band tried to escape by boat but the fans were hanging on to the side so it returned to the island and they scurried back into the tower. Frogmen were still running into and out of the lake collecting girls and depositing them on the bank for PC Plod to deal with.

Racing was naturally stopped, and when control was regained all those involved on the racing paddock side of things began to see the funny side of it. I know there were quite a few injured in the melee, none seriously I believe. The day continued with no further interruptions. Thankfully the intended Bay City Rollers performing a couple of songs did not go ahead.

In fact Cozy Powell won his class that day so we were quite happy by the end. However, by the time we had loaded up the race cars, the traffic was as bad as Silverstone on GP day at its worse, compounded by thousands of overly excited pedestrians dressed in Tartan and 'under the influence', walking in the roads aimlessly, in a state of euphoria .

By this time I was getting very peeved trying to escape the circuit driving one of the transporters, from memory a V6 petrol engined flatbed Transit with a car on the back, dragging a trailer with another car on it behind (although it may have been a caravan, my memory fails me). We were on the road leaving the track, at barely walking pace, literally bumping pedestrians out of the way to try and clear a path. Pedestrians were clambering on the rig, trying to cadge a lift and my mate in the passenger side of the truck was trying to tell them to 'get off please' ...or words to that effect. A few 'brake tests' did the trick, until the road started to clear and we were able to pick up speed. Thankfully the rest of the journey was straight forward.

The reason I was in a big hurry to escape...... I had tickets to see some real music that night. Led Zeppelin were playing at Earls Court and my mate and I had tickets. My next challenge that night was nearing Earls Court trying to find a suitable park to fit 40ft of transporter and trailer.

A while ago I actually emailed the friend of mine from UK who was with me that day to verify some points for that story. He related the story as an onlooker trying to reverse park 'the rig' in a side street space in Earls Court that was a little ambitious. There was a nice new car behind.... the owner of which came out from his flat to check what was happening, and seeing the size of the space, told me my rig wouldnt fit the space. Bear in mind at the time I was even younger looking than the 19 or 20 yo I was.... certainly IIRC I was still 'young enough to know everything'! so nowadays I can fully understand his concerns when apparently I very confidently said 'Oh yes it will', and continued to inch towards his car. At which point he screamed out Stop, pulled his keys out and moved his car to another spot up the road leaving a space that I fitted comfortably. Who said size doesnt count or mean anything!

We locked everything up and ran off towards the concert. So, Yeah I got to the gig, and it was great. Louder than a Mazda megaphone exhaust. A great end to a long day and night.

Altogether one of the more unique and certainly most memorable days motoracing I have had.

Fun to look back on but scary at the time.

Some pics I found....



I am sure that you all have some amusing tales from either the paddock or spectator enclosures that were interrupted or became memories for reasons not expected. Surely some of them can now be told without fear of legal reprisals!