13th-May-20, 01:37 PM
...........they just move around a bit.
IMPORTANT
The information within this first post in the thread has been discovered to contain a major inaccuracy.
All references to it being the original March Mustangs track are incorrect. The passage of time does strange things to the memory and although the history was based on first hand recollections new information has subsequently come to light which refutes it. All should become clear as you read through it.
This is the tale of a track that was born in the late 1970s and its subsequent travels round the country. Some elements of the story are lost in the mists of time and others involve a degree of fraudulent behaviour so one participant will remain nameless to protect the (alleged!) guilty party.
This is the track in question:
It is the first Mussel Bay club track which was in use at their original King's Lynn premises from 2003 to 2005 but the story starts in Cambridgeshire in 1977 when Mike Harvey (who currently runs the reincarnated Presto Park) started the March Mustangs Model Car Club.
It was initially housed in a local church hall with a Scalextric track but, later that year Mike and an American service man called Chuck Palmer built a 68ft wooden track on Mike's driveway. It was constructed from 3/4 inch chipboard and the lap recorders were built by Nigel Gibbs, now of Anglia Slot Racing. The club also found a more permanent home above a garage in the centre of March and the first open meeting was held on 4th March 1978 with several drivers from Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich clubs competing:
Later that year the track was extended to 100ft but Mike changed jobs within the police force and was unable to continue his involvement with the club. It continued for a while but eventually closed in 1981 and the history of the track becomes a bit vague at this point. It may have gone to a short lived club in Gorleston for a while but eventually ended up as the final track of the original Presto Park club at the Angel Inn, Larling. Presto was formed in the 60s and changed premises and track several times before eventually closing down. It is possible that the track was modified and/or incorporated parts of an earlier Presto track during its time at Larling but I have been unable to find a definitive answer on this.
Having been in storage in Great Yarmouth for a while after Presto's closure the track was purchased by Mussel Bay Raceway in 2003 and moved to King's Lynn. It was set up in palatial premises on the top floor of the old Skoda Tractor offices in North Lynn and run as a commercial raceway, complete with shop, for hire by the hour. The club used it on Friday nights. All went well for a couple of years but, early in 2005, at the end of a club night, we were informed by the owner that the rent had been tripled and was now unaffordable so the track was dismantled and put into storage. Some time later the raceway owner told us that the storage unit had sprung a leak, the track had been terminally water damaged so had been burnt. The club itself found smaller premises, built a new shorter track and carries on using it to this day.
End of story?......................Er..........No.
Fast forward to 2013, out of the blue I received an email from somebody in the Wirral claiming that they had acquired the original Mussel Bay track for their new club and asking about its history. I replied saying it had been destroyed but they sent me some pictures and it was indeed the one. They informed me it had been purchased from Mark Scale of Scale Models in Stockport for £200.
Intrigued by this turn of events I started asking questions and discovered that the reason the original commercial raceway had failed was that the owner had kept all the income but neglected to pay the rent for six months so was evicted. He also failed to pay for a lot of the shop stock and had not burnt the track but sold it to persons unknown and kept the proceeds. Two friends of mine who had invested money in the project were not best pleased to discover this but the owner had disappeared and has never resurfaced! Mark Scale had later acquired the track and stored it in the Scale Models track room with a view to refurbishing it for use but eventually sold it to the new Wirral club who took it to a local church hall. By now it was in quite a sorry state and needed a lot of work:
The latest owners also did nothing with it as far as I can tell, I did offer to buy it back if the project didn't come to fruition but I had no further contact from them. About a year later it appeared on eBay at a silly price, was relisted five times and failed to sell. I heard nothing more about it for a while but in January 2015 I received an email from Barry Davidson in Princes Risborough, Bucks who told me he was the new owner and asking about its history! Apparently he had bought it from the Wirral club for next to nothing and the transport costs far exceeded the purchase price. He intended to use it as a home track set up in a barn owned by a friend.
Recently I thought I would check up on its current whereabouts so emailed Barry and asked. He still has it five years later but it is still not completely restored as the barn it was intended for burnt down and it has taken a while to find somewhere else to put it. Unfortunately the new premises are too small to accommodate the full size track so the long straights will have to be omitted and stored away. Anyway, here is the original track plan:
And this is the current state of play:
Perhaps one day it will be restored to its former glory and I can go down and have a play on it but who knows where the story will end. It was a magnificent track and I miss it to this day.
And Finally..............
If anybody can fill in some of the gaps in the story I would love to hear from them.
IMPORTANT
The information within this first post in the thread has been discovered to contain a major inaccuracy.
All references to it being the original March Mustangs track are incorrect. The passage of time does strange things to the memory and although the history was based on first hand recollections new information has subsequently come to light which refutes it. All should become clear as you read through it.
This is the tale of a track that was born in the late 1970s and its subsequent travels round the country. Some elements of the story are lost in the mists of time and others involve a degree of fraudulent behaviour so one participant will remain nameless to protect the (alleged!) guilty party.
This is the track in question:
It is the first Mussel Bay club track which was in use at their original King's Lynn premises from 2003 to 2005 but the story starts in Cambridgeshire in 1977 when Mike Harvey (who currently runs the reincarnated Presto Park) started the March Mustangs Model Car Club.
It was initially housed in a local church hall with a Scalextric track but, later that year Mike and an American service man called Chuck Palmer built a 68ft wooden track on Mike's driveway. It was constructed from 3/4 inch chipboard and the lap recorders were built by Nigel Gibbs, now of Anglia Slot Racing. The club also found a more permanent home above a garage in the centre of March and the first open meeting was held on 4th March 1978 with several drivers from Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich clubs competing:
Later that year the track was extended to 100ft but Mike changed jobs within the police force and was unable to continue his involvement with the club. It continued for a while but eventually closed in 1981 and the history of the track becomes a bit vague at this point. It may have gone to a short lived club in Gorleston for a while but eventually ended up as the final track of the original Presto Park club at the Angel Inn, Larling. Presto was formed in the 60s and changed premises and track several times before eventually closing down. It is possible that the track was modified and/or incorporated parts of an earlier Presto track during its time at Larling but I have been unable to find a definitive answer on this.
Having been in storage in Great Yarmouth for a while after Presto's closure the track was purchased by Mussel Bay Raceway in 2003 and moved to King's Lynn. It was set up in palatial premises on the top floor of the old Skoda Tractor offices in North Lynn and run as a commercial raceway, complete with shop, for hire by the hour. The club used it on Friday nights. All went well for a couple of years but, early in 2005, at the end of a club night, we were informed by the owner that the rent had been tripled and was now unaffordable so the track was dismantled and put into storage. Some time later the raceway owner told us that the storage unit had sprung a leak, the track had been terminally water damaged so had been burnt. The club itself found smaller premises, built a new shorter track and carries on using it to this day.
End of story?......................Er..........No.
Fast forward to 2013, out of the blue I received an email from somebody in the Wirral claiming that they had acquired the original Mussel Bay track for their new club and asking about its history. I replied saying it had been destroyed but they sent me some pictures and it was indeed the one. They informed me it had been purchased from Mark Scale of Scale Models in Stockport for £200.
Intrigued by this turn of events I started asking questions and discovered that the reason the original commercial raceway had failed was that the owner had kept all the income but neglected to pay the rent for six months so was evicted. He also failed to pay for a lot of the shop stock and had not burnt the track but sold it to persons unknown and kept the proceeds. Two friends of mine who had invested money in the project were not best pleased to discover this but the owner had disappeared and has never resurfaced! Mark Scale had later acquired the track and stored it in the Scale Models track room with a view to refurbishing it for use but eventually sold it to the new Wirral club who took it to a local church hall. By now it was in quite a sorry state and needed a lot of work:
The latest owners also did nothing with it as far as I can tell, I did offer to buy it back if the project didn't come to fruition but I had no further contact from them. About a year later it appeared on eBay at a silly price, was relisted five times and failed to sell. I heard nothing more about it for a while but in January 2015 I received an email from Barry Davidson in Princes Risborough, Bucks who told me he was the new owner and asking about its history! Apparently he had bought it from the Wirral club for next to nothing and the transport costs far exceeded the purchase price. He intended to use it as a home track set up in a barn owned by a friend.
Recently I thought I would check up on its current whereabouts so emailed Barry and asked. He still has it five years later but it is still not completely restored as the barn it was intended for burnt down and it has taken a while to find somewhere else to put it. Unfortunately the new premises are too small to accommodate the full size track so the long straights will have to be omitted and stored away. Anyway, here is the original track plan:
And this is the current state of play:
Perhaps one day it will be restored to its former glory and I can go down and have a play on it but who knows where the story will end. It was a magnificent track and I miss it to this day.
And Finally..............
If anybody can fill in some of the gaps in the story I would love to hear from them.
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