We finally made it to one of the UK’s longest established independent short ovals, the simply named Oval Raceway on the south coast at Angmering, roughly halfway between Brighton and Portsmouth.  Starting life as a SEGTO grass track, the family owned Angmering track’s developed into a busy motor sports centre hosting karting, car and bike track days as well as racing on the long and fast concrete surfaced oval. Back in 1998 the track hosted a NASA-SEGTO Challenge round, but since then Angmering’s had several years of complete independence, before coming back into the SEGTO fold last year to fill the gap left by SAA’s loss of its Horndean venue. With quite a few SAA racers now switching to the W (for Worthing, just up the coast) prefix and the first 2016 SEGTO round scheduled here at Easter, it was about time we took a closer look at Jim Hazelgrove’s unique facility!

The track itself is an exaggerated egg shape – like the original Aldershot track only more so. One of the long straights runs downhill into a tight hairpin bend while the top of the hill features a fast sweeping curve. It’s all surrounded by double Armco inside and out, with tyre walls above the outside barriers and the spectators parked trackside looking down from the banking.  Even on a dull and drizzly February day, at the end of a four-round Winter series, the spectators were parked two deep round most of the track and it was easy to see why Angmering packs in the crowds  for its largely contact racing programme. We though we’d seen it all in short oval racing but this was a little bit different!

The first indication that this isn’t your average oval race venue comes when you arrive early in the morning and find the pits packed with hundreds of varied cars parked in neat rows in front of the promoter’s house, which doubles as the medical centre! Turns out that local drivers are allowed to store their cars here for a very modest weekly fee, so those who turn up on race day just squeeze in around the resident racers.

Before visiting, we were very vague about what we’d see – Angmering doesn’t have much of an online presence (maybe with its strong local support it doesn’t need one) and results, points, rules, and even a basic list of classes, was hard to find. On arrival, though, there’s an excellent printed programme which fills some, if not all, the gaps.

The normal approach to the non-contact groups at Angmering is to mix up all the Hot Rod-type cars that turn up on the day and then split them into performance related groups A and B. On this occasion the turnout comprised just two RWD Hot Rods, the 2-litre cars of Lee Munday and Matt Wells, an assortment of seven FWD Super Saloons and 1450s, three Prod Bs and a couple of SEGTO Specials that raced with the saloons. The Prod Bs had their race mixed with four cars from SEGTO’s new Stock Hatch class, plus a couple of others that we assumed were FWD Saloon Rods, while all the others raced together.

In the first group, two quick Honda Civics set the pace from the front of the grid. Gary Horne, in the ex- Jason Norris car led most of the first heat before Jody Withers hit the front and just held off her brother Ian to the flag. Dave Madge in the ex-Charlie Sayers car joined in and led heat two up to the last lap, being caught by  the battling Corsas of Ian and Jody Withers and the 106 of Graham Goddard, plus Chris Dancooks' Nova which narrowly headed Ian Withers over the line. Gary Horne led the final as Dave Madge dropped out with a broken driveshaft but in another well handicapped race Ian Withers took over in the closing stages to win from Bradley Locke, Gary Horne, Jody Withers, Matt Wells and Graham Goddard.

RTS 1450 Champion Chris Constable, looking for a future with SEGTO now that the RTS class has reverted to Stock Rods, made a first visit to Angmering but only managed the first heat, while other local contenders included Ian Staff’s 205 Gti.

The two Specials struggled a bit on the greasy track; Bradley Lock mixed it with the saloons while Chris Jewer was just after some track time, second time out in his Honda-powered car based on an old Isle of Wight Class 10 chassis. All good practice for the SEGTO round!

Quickest of the “Group B” mixture was genial track owner Jim Hazelgrove, in the Stock Hatch division with a rare Honda Del Sol rather than the Rover he raced at the Expo. The Boss was too busy to race in the final though, where Ashley Manktelow’s Prod B Nova came through from the back to win from long time leader Josie Wilson’s Nova and Stuart Orford’s 1300 Starlet. Stock Hatch winner was Andy Dawson in a Celica Coupe from Nick Dawson’s Tigra and Michelle Coutts’ Puma – there’s a slightly more sporty look to the Stock Hatch formula here!

The only car we recognised in the Juniors was Brad Wells’ Tongham-based Nova. Brad had a healthy lead in the Winter Series points but as far as we could work out he was starting with a lap and a quarter’s handicap in each ten lap race. The rest of the field were local Prodstox-type cars but Brad had his work cut out to catch them. From the front of the grid Lauren Hounsome’s Fiesta set a quick pace to win all three races with the Micras of Alfie Spokes and Jake Ford next up in the final.

The class that totally baffled us was listed simply as “CB”, which came in non-contact and contact varieties, although some cars turned out in both (for as long as they lasted). It was the first time we’d seen Ford Kas racing against an ironed-up Range Rover, with the rest of the field ranging from Hot Rods to Bangers, plus a few who appeared to have driven their road cars straight onto the track, with their kids still in the passenger seat! Most of the cars had no race numbers so we assumed they were simply out for fun, with no results given. Once we finally discovered what “CB” actually stood for, though, it all made perfect sense!

Then of course there were Bangers – on this occasion 1400cc “Micros” billed as a team meeting between Angmering and Tongham. By the end of the first race the Tongham team had been effectively exterminated and after much wrecking, two major fires and a further depletion of the national stock of Bubble Micras, the surviving Angmering team members turned on themselves for a Destruction Derby.

“Banger Stox” were a visiting formula from the Dover Raceway,– a grid of mainly 1600 Fiestas, Corsas and Civics racing in a limited contact style. They were billed to race against the Stansted Raceway “Dirt Rods” but we weren’t sure if any of the Essex cars had made the 100-mile trip.

Visually similar was the local Prod Stox formula, which appeared to be the budget non-contact division. There were also FWD and RWD “Saloon Rods” groups, but only a couple of FWD cars turned up this time. The RWD group comprised three BMWs and a couple of Mercs  racing in “Drift Rod” style.

An interesting day then, so we'll be looking forward to the Easter Sunday SEGTO meeting; the Oval Raceway uses Bank Holiday Sundays to give the non-contact classes the run of the place before staging big Banger events on the Monday.