Sunday October 24 saw the last ever scheduled BriSCA F2 stock car race meeting to take place at Cornwall’s only surviving short oval racetrack, United Downs Raceway at St Day.
United Downs Raceway has provided race fans in Cornwall with family friendly days out since stock car racing was first introduced to the track in 1969 and Sunday saw the BriSCA F2 stock car Grand National Championship take to the historic track for only the second time in its 50-year history.
The racing started at 12:30 pm and saw 13 races across the afternoon and evening, with a combination of Banger, Saloon stock car, and BriSCA stock car events, culminating in the Grand National Championship to finish off an emotional day that saw an attendance of over a 1000 people make the day a special occasion.
It was a good day for the South West drivers who claimed the biggest prizes of the day but the event was not exclusive to the region with some drivers travelling from as far as Yorkshire to take place in the historic last race.
Plymouth’s Jon Palmer retained his position at the top of the National Points table with a day of successful races that saw him eventually take home the prized Grand National Championship trophy and looks to be well on the way to securing another successful season.
It was also a good day for Dobwalls, Ben Borthwick who finished 2nd overall in the Grand National Championship and 1st place in heat 3 of the BriSCA F2 stock cars race earning valuable points in the process.
Race promoters Autospeed will continue their campaign to save the track which they are leasing from Cornwall council until the 31st of October and have set up an online petition which is close to hitting 10,000 signatures.
Co-promoter of the track Crispen Rosevear insists that they will not give up without a fight and sees no sense in closing the raceway:“If stock car racing was on a downward spiral and it was only going to affect a small number of people then I could agree that it was time to kill it off, but the sport’s alive, it’s buoyant, it’s in good health.
"There is still a demand for drivers to go racing, there’s still a demand for spectators to be entertained by cars doing crazy things. It has a purpose, and it remains a popularity, it still has a place.” Crispen added.
Whilst the future of the site remains uncertain and there are no future scheduled stock car events set to take place at United Downs, the raceway will hold its last ever event on Sunday, October 31.
The event titled End of the road will feature banger racing from the unlimited cc national bangers and banger vans events and has discounted tickets available online.
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