Cooper seals title
Circuitplanstorunindycarandnascardemosbeforeclosing
Luke Cooper wrapped up the Castle Combe FF1600 Championship on Monday in spite of failing to finish either race after an engine failure. “I was exactly where I wanted to be going into the final lap when the engine let go at Camp,” he said. The team briefly considered cannibalising a sister car to get Cooper back out for race two, but with the only other contender, David Vivian, finishing back in fifth, Cooper already had an unassailable points total.
Rockingham Motor Speedway is planning a ‘send-off’ race meeting in November, where it hopes to attract Indycars and NASCARS to demo at the circuit at its final racing event before motorsport activity ceases for 2019.
The circuit announced its sale two weeks ago, to a group expected to turn the venue into a car storage and auction site. The businesses stationed at the circuit are understood to be safe.
The already-arranged motorsport events taking place for the remainder of the season at the Corby, Northamptonshire venue are safe and will go ahead.
However, no motorsport will take place at the track next year and the outgoing operators plan to give the oval venue – completed in 2001 – a big send off.
The circuit hosted the Champ Car Championship in 2001 and 2002, with races won by Dario Franchitti and Gil de Ferran respectively, and is looking to drum up some nostalgia to end the circuit’s motorsport life on a high.
“The team at Rockingham is working really hard at the moment, the idea is to hopefully try and get some Indycars back on circuit, that’s the primary aim,” said Michael Galjaardt of Rockingham. “We’re also on the lookout for a few NASCARS that would do some laps with us as well. That’s the idea, to make it a nostalgia trip for everybody in terms of the brilliant history of the track. More news on that in the coming weeks, but that’s definitely the plan.”
The circuit has worked hard in the last two weeks to canvas clubs, championships and manufacturers and has a variety of all three which are interested to come on board for the new club meeting, a twoday event on November 24/25.
Friday testing will be on offer, and for the moment the circuit is looking for drivers, championships and clubs to come forward and confirm entries. It is merely an expression of interest at this point, and this can be done on the circuit’s website, rockingham.co.uk.
At a minimum, the circuit is offering multiple allcomers races, but will offer further grids depending on the amount of interest received.
“It’s going to be Rockingham staged and managed with the support of major clubs, so the BARC, BRSCC and MSVR, those guys have said they will support the event as best as they can,” added Galjaardt.
“It looks like we’ll have involvement from three of the major manufacturers, so Ginetta appear keen to put together a grid, as are Caterham. Radical have said they’re keen to support with some entrants too.
“We’ll have allcomers in different categories, and then if there’s sufficient demand from individual championships or makes then we’ll have specific grids for those as well.
“We’ll go out to the C1 guys [C1 Challenge] and try to get them involved with a grid, either as part of the allcomers or on their own, it’s probably the biggest series in terms of grid size.”