Goodbye to short oval racing at Wimbledon Stadium

Until yesterday, Wimbledon Stadium was the last ‘proper’ motor racing track in London. Once there were plenty of them. Our nation’s short oval scene sprung into life in the capital back in the mid-1950s. Seasoned enthusiasts speak wistfully of London’s lost venues, names such as Harringay, West Ham, New Cross - even Wembley Stadium on a rare occasion.

If you had been a first-time visitor to the stadium yesterday, you would have been forgiven for assuming that the demolition job had already begun. The venue, formerly owned by the Greyhound Racing Association until it was passed over to a developer, Galliard, has definitely seen better days.

It doesn’t appear to have enjoyed much investment in recent years and is in a dilapidated state. Half of the covered grandstands are closed on safety grounds. The concrete area used as a paddock by the competitors could last night have passed as a backdrop for a post-apocalyptic movie. It was strewn with shattered glass and so heavily potholed that competitors had to carefully pick their way from paddock to enter the race track.

Spedeworth, the company that promoted oval race meetings at Wimbledon, has always put on a good show despite the increasing challenges of the venue.

The paddock is used as a car boot sale site several times a week, and those salesman had left vast piles of unwanted and worthless goods strewn around. Perhaps not worthless for all: one opportunistic stock car fan filched a couple of tapes from a box of videos that had been left behind, although he clearly wasn’t impressed with choices including Shrek and Romancing The Stone. Another enterprising driver grabbed an unfashionable and unwanted piece of clothing to mop up fluid that had spewed from his race car.

Perhaps London has fallen out of love with short oval racing. Although yesterday’s meeting was a sell-out as fans and families of competitors crammed in to the remaining grandstands to bid farewell to the track, not all Wimbledon meetings have enjoyed the same level of support. And as emissions regulations in the city have tightened, it has become increasingly difficult and expensive for competitors to drive the diesel transporters carrying their race cars into the capital.

Short oval racing is undoubtedly a niche sport, but those who follow it are intensely passionate. For the past couple of years, a group of enthusiasts led by Peter Gray have mounted a passionate and sustained argument that Wimbledon should be saved. Unfortunately, but perhaps predictably, the commercial attractiveness of the land underneath the stadium meant their pleas went unheard by those in power, despite garnering more than 12,000 signatures on a petition. That's three times AFC Wimbledon's average crowd this season.

The sport remains healthy at venues around the country, and Spedeworth has other successful tracks on its roster, but Wimbledon Stadium’s heritage made it special. It was regarded as the last survivor of an era of grand old stadiums and provided London with a valuable link to its past.

It echoed with memories. A parade of champions and replica stock cars from yesteryear was a highlight of Sunday’s finale. Those cars were immaculate reminders of how much sweat and toil amateur racers have put into their passion through the decades.