Way back in 1983, I started to take photos at Rallycross and that continued as I attended quite a few meetings during the seasons that followed.
I stopped going to that at about the same time as John Welch retired from racing, which year actually escapes me right now.
However, a recent meet-up with John and a catch up on various things highlighted that nowadays there is a part of the British Rallycross Championship that runs as Retro Rallycross. He also mentioned a really big meeting based on retro that is due to be at Lydden Hill, Kent, in mid July.
Having not been to Rallycross for quite a few years and being curious about the current state of play, I decided that I would go to Lydden Hill for the 1st round of the Championships for this season on Easter Saturday. The 2nd round is on Monday, but I am not attending that - just wanted to go for 1st round, meet Shirley from Retro Rallycross and take a few photos for fun.
Well, Pat Doran and his team down at Lydden have made a lot of changes since my last visit. Much smarter and vastly improved as a venue, there were also a couple of alterations to the Rallycross part of the Circuit.
The first set of qualifying runs had already started by the time I arrived, but I hadn't missed much and was soon ready to take photos.
The spectator viewing at Lydden is very good and there are a number of decent spots to photograph from. Set in a natural ampitheatre, spectators can actually see the whole Circuit and find it easy to follow how the races are progressing.
The first corner for Rallycross there has always been a section of loose surface, originally mainly chalk and quite rutted. Now though, it has a more gravel surface and is banked up towards the outer edge - hence it now being named Talladega. Soon after that part and taking the place of the old route out onto Dover Straight, there is now a raised section that has a bit of a flat table top - with this section called the Jump.
That is exactly what the cars now do there, they take off and get big air before landing and having to squirrel their way onto the tarmac as they head into the Devils Elbow corner. That section of exiting the loose soon after being airborne certainly seemed to be the trickiest part of the lap now and caught a few out during the day.
A good day of racing ensued, with quite a variety in classes now catered for and some stand out performances, some strange incidents but fairly minimal delays as the organisers kept the action ticking along nicely.
One final surprise for me came in the Final for the Super Retro class, where someone that I used to watch racing all those years ago John Cross took victory. Still racing, no longer in mk2 Escorts etc but in a Lancia Stratos.
