Wallopalooza

Tracks have closed and used car values have soared, but the wacky world of banger racing is still going strong, discovers John Evans

- John Evans

It's the third and final banger race of the day, and what resembles a Vauxhall Corsa is tearing around the track at Aldershot Raceway on three wheels. Its fourth, the nearside rear, was bashed sideways early on and now hangs at 90deg. The old nail is still in with a chance, though, albeit a swiftly diminishing one as the pack, smelling blood, closes in.

The final of a banger race always brings out the evil eye in drivers. Whereas in rounds one and two competitors may strike the rear quarter of a rival as they round the next corner to turn them harmlessly into the infield (a technique known as 'nudge and spin'), now it's absolutely okay to nudge them into the concrete blocks surrounding the circuit, although not aggressively so. As they say here, the point is to crash properly.

Is banger racing just dodgems for grown-ups? Probably, although if it were that casual, how come many of today's drivers have been banger racing for years, if not decades, while one or two admit to feeling properly stressed before a race?

Drivers such as Danny. He has travelled 250 miles from Burnley in Lancashire for today's meeting.

"Stress-relieving?" he repeats in response to my question. "The opposite, more like. It's stressful getting the car ready, and even then you can be stranded on the start line by something unexpected, like a broken fuel pump."