BANGERSBANGERSBANGERS. What contact sport is still safe in the age of Covid? What sport has Mouldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon as it’s unofficial theme toon? Banger racing started in the early 1960s when a car racing promoter serendipitously realised that the most popular things were the crashes! Think football with lots of goals.
For the shamefully uninitiated, banger racing is a motorsport where scrap vehicles race around a dirt track with contact permitted between cars. How much contact slightly depends on the specific event you choose to enter. When you are starting out you can get yourself an MOT failed Nissan Micra or the perennial student favourite of yesteryear, a Ford Ka, and enter yourself in the Micro Category. If you aren’t too handy with a welder, enter the back to basics class where you can leave in the dashboard! Once you’ve gained some experience you can build up to the all conquering Unlimited World Title Events with no limit on engine size and some fantastic sign writing on the panels which at least means you can crash out in style.
There are some other wonderfully bizarre classes such as van bangers, siamese bangers, chained pairs, bus bangers and the all time Coracle favourite: caravan bangers. Taking the homely holiday domesticity of a caravan and driving a car straight through the side of it seems to be the best of British family fun. Controversially there are also vintage car categories, opposed by vintage car fanatics, it does seem a bit like combining a rare vinyl event with a frisbee competition. There’s an equally crazy dictionary of slang, like any good sport should have: Granny (Ford Granada), T boned (big hit across the side of a car), Turtled (car with all four wheels off the ground), Milk Bottlin (hitting empty cars), Tranny (Transit Van) etc.
The events at Foxhall Stadium, around the back of Ipswich in Suffolk, have a great family atmosphere. After a day’s banging you can often pick up a video of events from previous years which feels a little like buying a second hand porn movie from a Glasgow market stall.
By far the best depiction photographically comes from Sophie Green who has visited many racetracks around the UK for her two projects: ‘Bangers & Smash’ and ‘Dented Pride’. She has a wonderful eye for the descriptive details. A bleeding engine, a front bonnet tied together like a birthday present or some strong but empathetic portraits of people stopped for a moment in their day. A day at the bangers is a visceral experience and Sophie’s images evoke all the noise of scraping metal and the smell of petrol and burgers.
BANGERSBANGERSBANGERS. What contact sport is still safe in the age of Covid? What sport has Mouldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon as it’s unofficial theme toon? Banger racing started in the early 1960s when a car racing promoter serendipitously realised that the most popular things were the crashes! Think football with lots of goals.
For the shamefully uninitiated banger racing is a motorsport where scrap vehicles race around a dirt track with contact permitted between cars. How much contact slightly depends on the specific event you choose to enter. When you are starting out you can get yourself an MOT failed Nissan Micra or the perennial student favourite of yesteryear, a Ford Ka, and enter yourself in the Micro Category. If you aren’t too handy with a welder, enter the back to basics class where you can leave in the dashboard! Once you’ve built up a bit of experience you can build up to the all conquering Unlimited World Title Events with no limit on engine size and some beautiful sign writing on the panels which at least means you can crash out in style.
There are some other wonderfully bizarre classes such as van bangers, siamese bangers, chained pairs, bus bangers and the all time Coracle favourite: caravan bangers. Taking the homely holiday domesticity of a caravan and driving a car straight through the side of it seems to be the best of British family fun. For a bit of controversy there are also rare car classes which are somewhat opposed by rare car fanatics, it does seem a bit like combining a rare vinyl event with a frisbee competition. There’s an equally crazy dictionary of slang, like any good sport should have: Granny (Ford Granda), T boned (big hit across the side of a car), Turtled (car with all 4 wheels off the ground), Milk Bottlin (hitting empty cars), Tranny (Transit Van) etc.
The events at Foxhall Stadium, around the back of Ipswich in Suffolk, have a great family atmosphere. After a day’s banging you can often pick up a video of events from previous years which feels a little like buying a second hand porn movie from a Glasgow market stall.
By far the best depiction photographically comes from Sophie Green who has visited many racetracks around the UK for her 2 projects: ‘Bangers & Smash’ and ‘Dented Pride’. She was a wonderful eye for the descriptive details. A bleeding engine, a front bonnet tied together like a birthday present or just some strong but empathetic portraits of people stopped for just a moment in their day. A day at the bangers is a visceral experience and you can see in her images all the noise of metal scraping and the smell of petrol and burgers.
Related Exploring
XMAS DAY SWIMMING I Hyde Park, London, England
An empty London leaves room for a swimming spectacular
SPA TOWNS OF MID-WALES I Llanwrtyd Wells, Llandrindod Wells, Llangammarch Wells, Builth Wells
Wellness retreats for Victorian peeps
SAILORS' READING ROOMS I Southwold, Suffolk, England
Channeling old sailor vibes in one of the UK’s most beautiful towns
BEACH FISHING I Dungeness, Kent, England
Nuclear dogfish, the boil and other stories of high tide
PHONE BOX LIBRARIES I Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somerset, England (and all over)
Reinventing a British icon. Illustration by Rachel Thorlby.
SEA ANGLING I Dungeness, Kent, England
Nuclear dogfish, the boil and other stories of high tide
URBAN DIRT BIKING I Spencer Murphy. Carlton’s Strip, Croydon, London, England
Shining a headlamp on the latest biking sub-culture, straight outta Croydon. Photography by Spencer Murphy.