Rockingham Motor Speedway to Close Down?

[Kenny Paton]

Sad news, but hopefully someone will make a good mod of it so it's still alive in the virtual world.

 

[Emery]

There's a pretty decent mod in rF2, but I suspect it's a rip.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

A few notes

*The first purpose built racetrack in the world was an oval in the UK ( admittedly with one turn in the other direction! ). We just generally like going fast on our twisty roads, I guess that carries over.
* There's still oval racing everywhere on 1/4 mile ovals - speedway ( dirt bikes ), various small stock cars, bangers. You could turn it round and ask why larger ovals are so popular in the US.
* CART did Rockingham twice and then I think did Brands at least once this millenium. I think Indycar at Spa or Brands would be rather more popular than Rockingham, not least for the surroundings...

I really tried to feel some unhappiness about it closing but all I can seem to muster up is some general disappointment at losing a circuit ( I guess given MSV didn't want the place that is probably a common feeling ). I wonder where British GT is going to go - they used to run at Croft in GT1 days but I'm not sure it's considered suitable now. Knockhill would be a bit chaotically small...

It didn't help that it's not really all that far from Oulton, Silverstone & Donington in terms of going out for the day.

 

[wombat999]

A similar project was opened around 1986-87 here in Oz when one of the 'Old Guard' ace drivers and entrepreneurs (Bob Jane) decided NASCAR was a good idea. It wasn't.
The first 'NASCAR' event featured a few decent local drivers and a modest field of mediocre grid fillers from the US in older cars.
It was all downhill from there, with exception of the 'AUSCAR' series, which ran around 50 car fields of Falcons and Commodores in lightly modified form.
Needless to say the whole thing fell over and the last I heard of the 'Thunderdome' (how bloody original?') was as a venue for paying passengers.........! Best 'NASCAR' racing we experienced here in Oz were a few special support races at Bathurst.
You can build it but 'they' won't always come.

 

[speedfreak75]

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

There`s also a version for Race07, GTR2, GSC and RF2.

http://****************:100/?search=rockingham

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

Oh yeah there's mods. I meant officially licensed in the original release

 

[Sim Strata]

I am suprised Jonathan Palmer didn't grab this venue if it was up for sale.

 

[Raikku]

There should be some global laws against shutting down historically important race tracks. We don't need new apartments for filthy rich people, they can find other place to live.

 

[Kenny Paton]

There should be some global laws against shutting down historically important race tracks

I'm not sure you can class Rockingham as historically important, certainly not in comparison to some other UK circuits.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I'm struggling to think of any importance other than being a modern venue, tbh. Even NASCAR's euro series hasn't touched the ovals & they're not good venues to spectate road racing. That ( and presumably the lack of maintenance ) would probably be why MSV didn't want it.

Anyone remember a historic race there?

 

[NDG]

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".

No that's not stupid. It all comes down to your preference how you wanna endure things. There's endurance racing, F1, GT3, whatever formula car and whatever GT car... My personal opinion... Road courses is like an adventure and I don't get bored. On the sim racing side of things, I didn't ignore Oval racing when I first started. At least I still do one oval race once every two years just trying to convince myself that there's something there. None at all TBH. The constant ring of the engine is relentless and I admire oval racers can endure that, because I can't. I like hearing the engine singing different tunes, and tyres locking, sliding, etc. I can do 2 hours of non stop road but cannot withstand 20 minutes of oval, that's endurance right there.

I'm not bashing Ovals here, no. All I am saying is, different strokes for different folks.

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

Yep, it's closing to racing. Much like Istanbul it'll become a storage place for cars and businesses, most likely.

https://www.autosport.com/national/news/138156/motorsport-will-cease-at-rockingham-after-2018

 

[Simon Clark]

This is the story from the local press:

https://www.northantstelegraph.co.u...-grand-plans-for-the-racing-circuit-1-8607889

But in a nutshell, the track and stands are to be demolished to make way for fleet re-processing and car auctions. Now this doesn't make sense as there are already large areas in Corby where vehicles are stored, and those are rail-connected. Rockingham is only on the road network. It does mean that house values in the surrounding area will go up, because the track was a blight on the landscape. It wasn't sheltered in any way, so the sound also travelled a long distance. Quite why it was ever put there is beyond me.

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

That article did das some of the grandstands are off limits as they're sinking. But it's sad news anyway. A shame the European ChampCar rounds ended so badly really. And that IndyCar/NASCAR couldn't do anything there.

But, yeah, it's not ideally placed, etc. At least it's in a few race games.

 

[Jurld]

I thought it was Groundhog Day (i.e. as in the movie) for a minute, then remembered there was another Rockingham track in the UK. The one they closed in North Carolina, USA was really one of my favorite tracks back in the NR2003 days.