Rockingham Motor Speedway to Close Down?

[Tony Dean]

A great idea poorly executed, I raced there during the opening years in ASCAR and though it was fun I preferred Lauzitz in Germany. Even they got the pit exit wrong resulting in Zanardi's huge wreck.. Maybe ovals should remain in America where people understand them. It would be nice if they built a new road coarse on the site but I suppose the Gods of Profit won't have that

 

[mrbungle83]

Coming from an American, I've never quite understood why oval racing is not very popular outside of North America. I mean yes, technically less skill is needed, but in exchange you get closer racing, more consistent paces, and you can actually see the car of your choice at almost any point on the racetrack.

I understand why road courses are so popular, but I can never figure out why people are obsessed with wanting to watch a car win a race by 30 seconds because somebody had a slightly better setup. In oval racing, that (usually) doesn't happen.

But then again, I'm an American, so maybe it's because I'm "too stupid to understand".

They Tuk err Jeerbs!
They Tuk ur Juubs
T Ju Or Jeb
Cockadoodle Doo

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

They are doubling up on Thruxton for next year.

That's a shame, there's tracks like Castle Combe and Anglesey out there.

I might have to get the laser scanned version for Live For Speed S3 then, at some point, to remember what was...

https://www.lfs.net/rockingham

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

Trying to think of other games with the track; I can only come up with Total Immersion Racing and ToCA Race Driver.

And apparently this, which I don't think came to much: http://igcd.net/game.php?id=1000008981

 

[Matt Y]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I was hoping that one day Indycar would race there.

 

[wombat999]

One not very clever idea born of Mansell's CART effort.
Ditto for the German Lauzitz oval where Zanardi lost his legs.
The one time the US Indy series came to Brands Hatch and Silverstone a long time ago was a blast, turbo Offys and Fords lighting up tyres on the relatively small straights at Brands was spectacular, the sound was staggering, followed by some very rapid times around Silverstone, looking back I think it was 1970 something.
IIRC it was a success but they never came back.

 

[unseen]

Always seems to be cheaper for them to buy up motorsports venues and tear them down to put up whatever they fancy. Pick somewhere bloody else, dammit.

Rockingham was never the greatest venue for motorsports here, but it always hosted an interesting BTCC.

 

[RufGTI]

There just seems to be no room for oval tracks in Europe. The Lausitzring/Eurospeedway Lausitz has had similar problems.

 

[Andy-R]

They are doubling up on Thruxton for next year.

Thanks. I would rather see somewhere new but no complaints about Thruxton twice, a great circuit!

 

[Petr Dolezal]

This track get famous (for me, outside UK) because of LFS.
I had a chance to drive Formula car on the oval during GT Academy

Sad news...

 

[alice3d]

It's gonna be really missed if finally dropped from BTCC calendar. I like Thruxton but i found one race weekend enough for this track.

There's a really nice version, besides LFS's laserscanned, thats BTCC classical layout for Game stock Car Extreme:

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/rockingham-btcc.98912/

Unfortunately Patrick did not an Automobilista upgrade but you can use the GSCE version with a couple and easy tweaks:

http://downloads.xtremefactor.es/de...tutorial-para-usar-pistas-de-gsce-en-ams.html

 

[woz9us]

Coming from an American, I've never quite understood why oval racing is not very popular outside of North America. I mean yes, technically less skill is needed, but in exchange you get closer racing, more consistent paces, and you can actually see the car of your choice at almost any point on the racetrack.

I understand why road courses are so popular, but I can never figure out why people are obsessed with wanting to watch a car win a race by 30 seconds because somebody had a slightly better setup. In oval racing, that (usually) doesn't happen.

But then again, I'm an American, so maybe it's because I'm "too stupid to understand".

Weather

 

[Ben Lee]

Its a bit of a conundrum Rockingham. Yes, it offered great views over the race track, but where all the action happened (ie the infield) the cars are like dots on the horizon. When the cars come past you on the straight, great, they whiz by, but thats all they do on that section, there is no outbraking or real overtaking done.
Sad to see it go though as it was something different. I dare say that if it were a traditional style track, the venue might have had more success.

 

[RobJLee]

Never been a great fan of Rockingham. However this is part of a wider issue.

If this was an athletics venue the government would likely step in and do something. however because it's motorsport they won't, if they haven't got fingers in the pies behind the possible closure in the first place.

The motorsport industry in the UK reportedly brings in billions, yet gets zero support from the government - when it should. How many times have we heard that the British GP is under threat due to funding issues?!

 

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Sad times. Was never the biggest fan until I worked a lot as an instructor there from 2009-2013 and learned to love the place and it's quirks. I really feel for all the circuit staff, marshalls and events people there. Some of those guys have worked at the circuit since it opened.

 

[Ben Lee]

Never been a great fan of Rockingham. However this is part of a wider issue.

If this was an athletics venue the government would likely step in and do something. however because it's motorsport they won't, if they haven't got fingers in the pies behind the possible closure in the first place.

The motorsport industry in the UK reportedly brings in billions, yet gets zero support from the government - when it should. How many times have we heard that the British GP is under threat due to funding issues?!

I feel I must comment on that.

One of the main problems for that is the UK F1 event. F1 is like a blood sucking leech which drains companies and organisations of its money to fund its own self important existence. I can appreciate that many UK jobs come from this, however its to the overall detriment to the lower down racing ladder. The reason the UK government don't step in to things like the British GP is that F1 is awash with money, but they don't want to give anything back, its just take take take. The UK government is naturally unwilling to give money to a sport which is seen a rich mans play thing.

Things like athletics aren't really like that, the athletes aren't earning 20-40 million a year and the teams don't spend $250 million a year on their athletes like the top teams spend in F1. There is lots of money in F1, but its all sent in the wrong direction to facilitate a sustainable sport.

 

[RobJLee]

I can see what you're saying Ben, however I don't agree.

Top athletes do earn considerable amounts of money, as well as being funded by the govt. and lottery.

Perhaps the British GP is a bad example, and you are right in what you say about F1, however the govt. could fund grass roots motorsports and secure thousands of jobs and the economy that surrounds them, in the same way as it does funding for Olympic sports such as horse dancing and sailing, another pair of rich man's playthings.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

I love you, just for using the phrase "horse dancing"!!

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Antony Snook]

Sad to see it go. I never saw it as i m up here in Canada watching NASCAR, who have a track by the same name in North Carolina. I did run a sporscar race on a old PC game. The oval and the infield road corse. Better than Silverstone as a F1 venue me thinks