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Paul Barrow
Alan Crosier

Alan Crosier's Memories
The memories this site brings back to me of Croft in the late sixties and early-mid seventies are priceless. I was a schoolboy at the time and lived in a village (Great Smeaton) about 4 miles from Croft. My father was a farmworker and his employer's son ran the farm on the opposite side of the road to the Autodrome. To appease them for the noise (without any success I may add !) the son and family were given free tickets for each race meeting. These tickets were never used so, after Sunday lunch, I could cycle along, get a ticket and spend a happy afternoon soaking up the atmosphere, drooling over the cars (particularly the Special Saloons and the big single seaters (i.e. not Formula Fords) and watching what mostly was fantastic racing. An added bonus in the summer (for a growing lad) were the large numbers of mini-skirted dolly-birds brought along by both the male drivers and spectators. The variety of cars beats anything at club race meetings nowadays. The saloons always offered spectacular sights and sounds (Mustangs, Falcons, Camaros, twin-cam and BDA Escorts, Anglias and of course hordes of Minis, a few Imps and the odd A40 and Minor. I recall Gerry Birrell and his Escort being particular favourites of mine. Hearing the earth shattering noise of the big unsilenced V8's from over 2 miles away would make my bike fly there with pure excitement. However, I never could explain this excitement satisfactorily to the farmers son and wife who had to put up with the noise from close quarters every 2 or 3 weeks particularly as they claimed it put their pedigree friesans off producing milk ! In 1968 and 69 (or it may have been 1969 and 70) the Guards International weekends were held in July. They were unbelievable weekends with Frank Gardner in Alan Mann's immaculate Escort beating the Mustangs and Camaros, the top GT cars of the day (Lola T70's, GT40's etc) and full F3 grids. Pure bliss. And in some winters there was Rallycross to look forward to!

Paul Barrow's Memories
Croft was a favourite circuit of mine simply because it was only 50 minutes away by car. Despite the closeness of the circuit, it rarely featured in the Tyneside papers and Neasham/Croft was something only occasionally read about without knowing how close it was. During 1971, a work colleague mentioned he went to the bike races at Croft and the combine car and bike, Battle of Britain meeting was on in August. A convoy of cars started out on the August Bank Holiday Monday for Croft, the first 30 odd miles was boring Motorway, only made bearable by flashing cars of the same make on the way down. Finally we turned off at the Piercebridge exit; then followed a delightful drive through the villages of Barton and Newton Morrell, cutting out Croft-on-Tees by taking the back road to Dalton-on-Tees. Everybody went to the Bank Holiday meetings, which meant a long queue into the circuit. I found the reason for this bottleneck was a traffic light system which allowed car, one at a time, to pass through a narrow, deep and claustrophobic tunnel, which had steeply inclined ramps at either end. Later visits revealed the tunnel was prone to flooding, so car had the added problem of being swamped by the massive bow waves bouncing of the tunnel walls. One inside, most preferred to park on the grass near to their chosen viewing position rather than the main parking strip. At fist I was disappointed at the racing, bikes and cars did not race together and there seemed to cars coming passed in drip and drabs. This was immediately explained as the practice; the proper races starting after lunch. Once the racing started I was hooked straight away, it was far better than televised events, the noise from the unsilenced engines adding to the excitement. Towards the end of the last race I was warned to run for my car and leave as soon as possible - one car at a time in; one car at a time out – every car seemed to head for the tunnel at once, leading to massive traffic jam which took a considerable time to clear. After this initial visit I became a regular attendee and explored the delight of the circuit in full. Spectators usually stood on earth embankments that gave a good view of the racing. In particular, the chicane embankment was very popular because most of the circuit could be seen from the top. A grandstand and viewing area next to the start line were on the outside of the circuit and could only be accessed by a footbridge, which was closed during racing. Facilities, were, at best, primitive, the toilets were open to the elements and frequently flooded, and the licensed restaurants, where some drivers could be found with a pint in their hand, no more than wooden huts. The main thing, the racing, was good and well organised by the 4 clubs which ran the meetings. Practise was held in the morning and racing after lunch. Meetings had from 6 to 8 races with Modsports, Formula Ford, Special Saloon and Formula Libre forming the backbone of events. Weather played a big part in the proceeding, races were rarely cancelled, no matter how heavy the rain, which led to unusual results – during one rain-soaked Formula Libre race, treaded tyre formula ford cars beat slick shod Formula 5000 cars which could not get the power down or corner in the slippery conditions. Heat could also be a factor on the flat, open Yorkshire circuit; fuel injected Special Saloons were severely hampers, some retiring, because of the heat causing fuel vapourisation problems during a 1978 meeting. Hailstorms in August, shirt sleeves during the Boxing Day meeting, the weather was unpredictable and extreme.