The Aycliffe Project

The Beginning
Coming Soon

The End
NOW ONLINE!!!

Welcome to the Aycliffe Project. A small group of fans, drivers and track staff are currently working to put together a comprehensive history of Aycliffe Stadium which will develop here over time. If you feel that you have anything to contribute to this project please get in touch - any help or comments would be really useful. At the moment we are putting together a timeline of the significant events in the stadium's history and randomly pooling our memories... 04.01.07: Massive Update!!!! Including - Bell's New View, Aycliffe Timeline and Document Archive, Stockcar Supporter Photo Archives, Big Al's Photos of the stadium site as it is today, loads of personal memories and more!!!! So many people to thank for this... Paul Jenkins, Stuart Bell, John Lund (95), Ian Higgins, Joe Jopling, Richie Monkhouse, Ron and Cissy Deane, Al Wilson, Lesley Tate, Brian Watson, Neill Holdsworth, Carlton Elliot, Andy Hirst and anyone else who has been involved in any way in the Aycliffe Project! Cheers all, Chris
Photos: The Stockcar Supporter Archive Photos provided by Paul Jenkins Many thanks Paul! Aycliffe People 1955 Presentation Evening taken by Les Grainger (RIP) 1983 ASSC Xmas Do provided by Lesley Tate Downloads: Video Clip: Aycliffe Tribute (Complete with rolling lap music!!! Thanks to MC... Coverage taken from DVD 4) Video Clip: 1966 Aycliffe Juniors / F2s Video Clip: 1987 Aycliffe F2s 1985 F1 Semi Final Programme (PDF Format) The Last Programme Ever (PDF Format) Article by Carlton Elliot on the early days of the stadium. Reproduced here with many thanks to Carlton and Short Circuit Magazine. (PDF Format)	AYCLIFFE NOW The site which was once Aycliffe Stock Car Stadium is today eaten up by the industrial estate which it was closed to accommodate. The picture below shows how the site looks today. To illustrate where the stadium was, I've chisselled the Buxton track out of the Peak District and transplanted it where a track should still stand... As you can see, the track itself was cut in half by an access road, and then built on with a couple of factories. From this point of view, the only distinguishable feature of the stadium which remains is the far corner of the F1 pits, although it is fair to say that the car park has never been touched. Another interesting feature of this photo is the 'road to nowhere'. The optimism of Aycliffe's mini industrial boom led to access roads being built in anticipation of the industry that was still to come... Eventually Fujitsu, the catalyst for the rise of the industrial estate pulled out, the factories stopped being built and the access road and bridge accross the railway line accessed nothing more than an empty field. ADDED JANUARY 2007: Aycliffe Now... Photos from Big Al Wilson. Click Below for whole set...
	Aycliffe Odds and Sods* 1. Vince Moodie once took the day's takings home in the boot of the pace car. Forgetting that the pace car was full of rusty holes, Vince arrived home with much less that he left Aycliffe with... 2. Len Wolfenden was once fined £10 by the steward for fencing Stu Smith too heavily. Wolfy handed over £20, stating that the extra tenner was an advance for the next race... 3. The infamous holes on the infield were no mistake! Influenced by a heavily rutted track at Doncaster in the late 60s, Cissy Deane decided that holes make cars fly better than barrels... She promptly grabbed a shovel, a few willing helpers and set about hacking bloody big holes in the infield. 20 years later, any car which dared try corner cutting at Aycliffe was still to be seen entering the bends airbourne... 4. Not everything about Aycliffe is as rose-tinted as it can seem... During the 1980's a spectator was blinded when a piece of an F1's bumper hit him in the face... 5. Jim Wilkinson has kept two of the famous Aycliffe vehicles. He restored the old blue tractor to 'as new' condition - it can occassionally be seen at vintage tractor shows. The old wrecker / pick up truck is still in storage - Jim was last heard complaining that the window winders had seized, because Fred Geldard had removed the doors, took them home and not looked after them... 6. Joe Jopling's plan to set up a stall to sell his teacakes was thwarted by Vince Moodie who felt that it didn't fit with the image he wanted for Aycliffe. Disheartened and disillusioned, Joe stopped selling teacakes for over 6 months... 7. As revenge for an earlier fencing, Stuart Smith once hit Aycliffe favourite Tony Neal so hard that #100 leapt over two cars and almost went through the fence - it took a while to get Tony out of the car. Smith loaded his car up and set off home to the sound of a lot of booing and the odd bottle being thrown at his transporter as it left the stadium. Tony Neal never retaliated... 8. Len Wolfenden (that man again!) and John Toulson once had a play fight on the centre green during a race. The race was stopped. Wolfy was again called to see Harry Lynas (the steward), but claimed that he was only sitting on John to tickle him... 9. Richie Monkhouse once spent a month secretly living in the commentary box while his bedroom was fitted with a sunken jacuzzi... 10. Fred Geldard got the nickname 'Welly' for the boots which he wore to match his gold hard hat... * That doesn't mean that everything here is necessarily true!