I have many fond memories... On the racing side the main one is when John Lund burried me up to the rollcage on the last bend of a grand national... He had started a lap down after winning the final and he thought I was leading the national, even though I was only third!! this started a major rift between us untill the Hednesford World Final in 88 when he lent me his car...

At Aycliffe it seemed that certain drivers had a Knack of putting together winning streaks,  Ian Smith 367, Arthur Gibson 357, Richard Ainsworth 354, The Cool Tool 286, Graham France 216 to mention a few that I remembe, they just seemed unbeatable for a few months at a time.

Some of the funny memories I have ...

At the end of a meeting we were all in the bar having a few drinks Arthur Gibsons bus came past with his 10 year old son driving, Arthur and his machanics were laughing about it untill they went out to the car park when the bar shut.. The whole side of the bus had been peeled off like a tin of sardines... as the lad had driven out he caught the side of the coach on the pits gate and just ripped it offf!! the poor kid was hiding in a bunk bed petrified!

The time Burnsey had old man Wainman.. burried him on the first bend, then backed up and rammed him again and again untill Old Fred on his tractor Rammed Burnsey!!

Dave Tapping 412 used to travel up from Leicester.. In those days we used to change the back axle from a 5.7 to a 6.1 to be able to make the engine pick up quicker.. Tappings lot used to arrive at the meeting and change the axle in the pits every time.  He always seemed to struggle on track and was getting very dissolusioned so old man wainman went accross to see him to find out what the problem was, Dave said the car just would not pick up out of the corner so Old man marked the half shaft and propshaft and spun it round then did the same to the one they had taken out.. He said to Dave they were both 5.7 diffs!!! He had spent months chnging the back axle for one with the same diff in! Tapping was furious as he had paid some one £200 for what was supposed to be 6.1 and got a 5.7 instead.

I have loads more I could tell but time is a little short.. The people at Aycliffe were great.. the Fosters, Dowson, Jopling, Todd, Hopes and Smith the terrible duo.. the Brothers Grim a big part of racing was lost for me when Hartlepool and Aycliffe shut..

I nearly got banned for life when I was one of the eight that turned up to race for Toulkson and Jopling at Hartlepool! I still have the Tankerd to commemerate it!

I first went with my dad...probably about 7 or 8yrs old in the early 60's. Interestingly it was a thursday night. I remember a lighting pole being hit and falling over..lots of sparks! It was left wires still glowing for the rest of the night.

I was hooked. We went quite often after that. I was a fan of Tony Neal 100 and I persuaded someone to take me to Belle Vue 69 and the Stu Smith World Final win. I never missed a meeting after that... at Aycliffe you were in a different world to other tracks... but it felt good!