Scalextric Shop in Middlesbrough

fmttmadmin said:
I might be wrong but always thought it was Newton Street - and yes around that period. The town looked really different in those days before the Cleveland Centre, the new bus station and A66 - the terraced streets seemed to stretch out in all directions for ever.,
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your right it was opposite jack Hadfield on newton street upstairs,dont know the name though.
 
Found this on the “Slotforum” website where the enthusiasts go on. Looks like the place was on Bottomley Street, according to this!

“ I find this thread quite interesting having been a slot racer in Middlesbrough from the 1966, I started racing at the centre at Bottomley street on the 8 lane figure 8 track. I think this was painted blue, but could have been light grey. originally sandtex surface but later varnished polyurethane. The need for goop on this surface meant that Tony Deaves used sandtex on the 95' 6 lane banked track, this was transported to Birmingham for the 67 Nationals. the track was only operational for no more than a month before it was taken apart to go to Birmingham, as a non qualifier I was able to run on it. Simon Davies did not even see the track before the nationals, he even refused to see a sketch of it when I tried to describe it to him. The track layout is on the BSCRA web site. I may even have some old photo's in the attic.

The Middlesbrough club track was located at the Newport road Settlement building on the top floor of a 3 story building, and above the model railway club. This track was a 114' 4 lane track sandtex surface with 3" lane centres. We continued to use this track until the early 70's when I was offered the 6 lane track from Bottomley street which had been stored in the back of a local model shop since the fire which closed the Bottomley street centre. The track just fitted, and we poly varnished it, and it stayed there until the building was pulled down , by which time I had retired due to marriage and obviously cash shortages due to that.

I returned to slot racing when the track had been moved to the location in South Bank, and then stored the track in my garage while we repainted and re-taped it then relocated it over the boarder in Middlesbrough, we raced it there for several years, Mark Roberts located a balcony in a church hall for which a new track was built, this track was used for a round of the European championships in I think 1989, (I finished 5th in F1). I retired again in 1990, a year ago I returned to slot racing at Raceway 81 and race against George Kimber each week, he's still very good.

Regarding Phill Enos , we were friends and fellow club members until he left for foreign parts sometime in the early 70's, Phills's father was a clown, who had a speciality act with a little car which would fall apart as it was driven around the ring (as seen on TV). I believe his mother was actually driving it from a hidden compartment in the car, You can see he was from a circus family , I believe his brother runs a tent hire company, but I havent seen or heard of Phill since those days, and would like to get in touch with him again, if possible, We used to travel together to many area rounds and open meetings.
If any Middlesbrough slot racers would like to travel to raceway 81 for a good nights racing contact me, My son and I travel there most race nights, D3 classes are really good events, and several of the other classes are very cheap to compete in”.
 
sambaDTR said:
Found this on the “Slotforum” website where the enthusiasts go on. Looks like the place was on Bottomley Street, according to this!

“ I find this thread quite interesting having been a slot racer in Middlesbrough from the 1966, I started racing at the centre at Bottomley street on the 8 lane figure 8 track. I think this was painted blue, but could have been light grey. originally sandtex surface but later varnished polyurethane. The need for goop on this surface meant that Tony Deaves used sandtex on the 95' 6 lane banked track, this was transported to Birmingham for the 67 Nationals. the track was only operational for no more than a month before it was taken apart to go to Birmingham, as a non qualifier I was able to run on it. Simon Davies did not even see the track before the nationals, he even refused to see a sketch of it when I tried to describe it to him. The track layout is on the BSCRA web site. I may even have some old photo's in the attic.

The Middlesbrough club track was located at the Newport road Settlement building on the top floor of a 3 story building, and above the model railway club. This track was a 114' 4 lane track sandtex surface with 3" lane centres. We continued to use this track until the early 70's when I was offered the 6 lane track from Bottomley street which had been stored in the back of a local model shop since the fire which closed the Bottomley street centre. The track just fitted, and we poly varnished it, and it stayed there until the building was pulled down , by which time I had retired due to marriage and obviously cash shortages due to that.

I returned to slot racing when the track had been moved to the location in South Bank, and then stored the track in my garage while we repainted and re-taped it then relocated it over the boarder in Middlesbrough, we raced it there for several years, Mark Roberts located a balcony in a church hall for which a new track was built, this track was used for a round of the European championships in I think 1989, (I finished 5th in F1). I retired again in 1990, a year ago I returned to slot racing at Raceway 81 and race against George Kimber each week, he's still very good.

Regarding Phill Enos , we were friends and fellow club members until he left for foreign parts sometime in the early 70's, Phills's father was a clown, who had a speciality act with a little car which would fall apart as it was driven around the ring (as seen on TV). I believe his mother was actually driving it from a hidden compartment in the car, You can see he was from a circus family , I believe his brother runs a tent hire company, but I havent seen or heard of Phill since those days, and would like to get in touch with him again, if possible, We used to travel together to many area rounds and open meetings.
If any Middlesbrough slot racers would like to travel to raceway 81 for a good nights racing contact me, My son and I travel there most race nights, D3 classes are really good events, and several of the other classes are very cheap to compete in”.
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This is film material...perfect for Toby Jones
 
Yes, I remember the scalextric shop in Mbro. We lived in North Ormesby and on Saturday afternoons our family would all meet up. Whilst the mams and dads talked my cousin and I would walk to the shop where he used to race his car on the track. It had lots of lanes about 8? You went in the front door and the track was on the left of the shop. There was a counter on the right hand side with lots of spare parts you could buy. I remember he bought some tyres for his car and was really excited on the way home. That Christmas I got a scalextric set from mam and dad. The cars were not that fast so I didn't dare take them to the shop. A Lotus and a Cooper. Still got it in the loft. Cant remember the name of the shop though, sorry.
 
sambaDTR said:
.

The Middlesbrough club track was located at the Newport road Settlement building on the top floor of a 3 story building, and above the model railway club. This track was a 114' 4 lane track sandtex surface with 3" lane centres. We continued to use this track until the early 70's when I was offered the 6 lane track from Bottomley street which had been stored in the back of a local model shop since the fire which closed the Bottomley street centre. The track just fitted, and we poly varnished it, and it stayed there until the building was pulled down , by which time I had retired due to marriage and obviously cash shortages due to that.
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Thought I hadn't dreamt that graffiti
 
fmttmadmin said:
Just chatting to my dad about the shop in Newton Street, now Cleveland Centre, where we kids would go to watch the Scalextric on a Saturday.
It was a really big track with rally minis as I recall.
But what was the shop called?
Anyone remember it?
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You are correct. It had about 8 lanes in the shape of an "8" I seem to recall .It was raised at back so sloped towards the window of the shop .Cant remember name though.
 
Why are the hand controllers now designed like a gun? Is it to satisfy the geek’s fetish for armour/ shoot up obsession. What was wrong with the small plastic box with a black petruding knob?

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60A08163-0068-46D2-8D1D-05705BB0B8D8.jpeg
 
My memory could be playing up but I always thought (if someone asked) ”it’s over Franky Dees, Uptons way”.Could have just been cutting through like I remember the place just not the exact whereabouts.
 
This giant scalextric track must have taken years to set up. Even the normal ones took about fifteen billion hours to set up I believe. Plus how many transformers did they hold in reserve for the inevitable dodgy one?
 
fmttmadmin said:
Just chatting to my dad about the shop in Newton Street, now Cleveland Centre, where we kids would go to watch the Scalextric on a Saturday.
It was a really big track with rally minis as I recall.
But what was the shop called?
Anyone remember it?
Click to expand...
If you are still interested I found this for you which might be of interest

www.slotforum.com

Middlesbrough Club

www.slotforum.com www.slotforum.com

Post 31 is of most relevance


I cannot remember Middlesbrough without Cleveland Centre so I was trying to find what the area looked like back then (born in 1970)
 
It was upstairs in a building in Bottomley Street. It was 2/- (10p) to race a car which was expensive! Used to be packed out on a Saturday morning!
 
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