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Added: 29 Feb 2016 Category: Older Oval Racing
8 Things Oval Racing has lost since 2001
Since NIF2 is now into it's 16th season I thought it was worth having a look back at some of the things the sport has lost or you no longer see around the ovals anymore.

Seniors/ Production cars
The Production Cars in their prime where one of the best classes at Nutts Corner and while I don’t recall seeing them myself at Portadown I’ve heard many a story from it which would suggest they were a great class there too. The Senior Productions moved from Portadown to Nuttscorner Oval when it opened in 2003 and later were replaced by the unsuccessful 2.0 Stock Cars. The Production Cars wound up a few years ago after numerous rule changes caused the numbers to fall away and seen the class come to an end at Nutts Corner.

Viewing around the outside at BMR & the O’Kane Stand
Oddly my youngest memories of Ballymena are from sitting in the stand and watching the racing from there, but my fondest memories of watching have always been standing around the bends and having a bit of craic. Sadly in recent years Health and safety has gone a bit OTT and clipboard bearing folk came along and announced you could no longer stand on the outside which in my view has ruined the atmosphere.
The O’Kane stand was also another favourite haunt of mine to watch racing, mainly because you could actually stand in it and it felt a bit more cosy and atmospheric than the Warden St Stand back in the day. Sadly I never got the chance to photo from the front of the stand, by the time I was taking photos the stand had already been condemned. Perhaps it’s the reason I enjoy taking photos from the NIOvalTV filming platforms now.

Shamrock Park
I didn’t get too many meetings at Shamrock Park, it didn’t run F2’s and we didn’t go before I could drive myself and when I could drive myself Saturday nights were spent in pubs and clubs. The odd meeting I got too seemed to have a decent atmosphere and was certainly a loss to the sport when it closed at the end of the 2002 season.

The Wire & Post Fence at Nutts Corner
Many people still cast up how good the “old Nutts Corner” was, but my memories of the drivers opinions at the end of the “old Nutts Corner” era was that the fence was a costly place to visit and a wall would be much better, certainly if you went into a post you probably weren’t going to go on to finish the race. Aside from a few shale tracks and Wimbledon Nutts Corner was one of the last tracks to still use a wire & post fence and it’s a characteristic of the era that you had long delays while fence posts were mended and you had to step back as someone got fired in or just closed your eyes if someone's throttle stuck open on front of you.

Avons Tyres
Prior to the the NIF2 era a lot of classes ran on Avon Tyres, BriSCA F2’s had run on them for what seemed like forever, Nationals had run on them forever as had Superstox and 1600 Hot Rods ran on them back in the day as well. If you’d have picked up any F2 or National Hot Rod World final programme from the 90’s you’d almost certainly have found some form of Avon Tyres Sponsorship. By the turn of the millennium I think the F2’s were the only class left running them and ceased to run them in them around 2008.

Economy/1400 Bangers
Like the Production Cars the Economy bangers and later 1400 Bangers had their time in the limelight at Nutts Corner Raceway. I think the Economy Banger days came to a conclusion around the years of the “Old Nutts Corner” and the 1400 Bangers went around the same time as the 1300 Stock Cars came in.

Contact Juniors
Sometimes it’s hard to tell but the Junior classes in Northern Ireland are now non contact, a bit of a handicap for upcoming drivers wanting to move into contact formulae when they progress from the Junior class, but insurance companies seem to take a dim view on kids driving into each other on purpose. It wasn’t always like that though, the Junior Productions and Junior Stocks were both contact classes in the early naughties. The odd thing was the way they progressed, the Junior Stocks at Nutts Corner Raceway which promoted contact class went on to become non contact and eventually merged with Junior Rods while the Junior Productions at Nuttscorner Oval which promoted non contact racing continued for a few more years of having contact Junior racing.

Saloons at Ballymena
It might be too early to say the Saloons have gone for good from Ballymena, but they’re presently not racing at the venue and it doesn’t look as if the wall is likely to be safer for them any time soon or their hard hitting is likely to subside and if it did would you really want to watch them? The Saloons were always a great attraction at Ballymena back in the day when saloons were saloons, stockcar racing, but in recent years the wall at Ballymena was no match for the saloon bumpers and the class stopped racing there after their big meeting in 2014 was stopped due to safety concerns and a hole in the wall. Hopefully some day they’ll be able to return.

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