22/10/2021
wants to close down the Birmingham Wheels facility, just look at what Wheels means to Matthew Bull. Wheels is just not “some land” it’s our weekly social networking event, our learning land for the young stars of the sport starting their way!
"Hello. I am Matthew Bull and I made what could well be my last trip to Birmingham Wheels Raceway last Saturday. I sadly cannot make the final two fixtures, so put off higher profile meetings to say a proper farewell to a track that I have been attending since the 1980s. It's a track that has provided countless thousands, such as myself, with so much fun and entertainment over a great many years.
In many respects I always considered it to be one of the best tarmac venues in the country, in my view it is the perfect dimensions for an oval, not too fast, wide bends which allow Stock Car racers to 'sort themselves out' when getting bumpered wide, and then go for a revenge hit next time round, not just pile into the fence like elsewhere.
In my early days I would walk from Duddeston station, with a camera tucked under my coat, praying that I was not going to get mugged through a pretty deprived part of the city. The Raceway was like a ray of light in a dark distopian landscape. It was a safe space.
In later years I might have moved a hundred miles away, but I would still come to Birmingham Wheels and enjoy both high profile Banger and Stock Car events, as well as the I-Factor type meetings that would throw a half dozen or so of the lesser profile formulas together. In fact it was the latter I began to enjoy more and more. Without the pressures and expense of the higher profile categories, this was club motorsport for the masses. Everyone was racing for the love of racing. Without the crowds of spectators that are attracted to Banger and top level Stock Car racing, pay to race was the way forward and the drivers had no problem with that. It is a hobby that all the family can get involved with. For many it is a way of life.
In the past few years we have only seen the park flourish and grow. I had never really paid too much attention to the other activities in the park but the site is more vibrant now than at almost any point in its history. There is Drifting, karting, speed skating, rally driving, Corporate Stock car events and of course our sport, oval racing. The park is in almost constant use. Yet now is the time that the council choose to shut the site completely. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Saturday was a typical oval racing event. There were around 150 competitiors at a guess. Many of the formulas were for the younger members of the racing family. As I walked round the pits there was a group of Micro F2 kids playing football. Ninja Kart kids were excitedly telling tales of recent racing exploits, fun and laughter was heard amongst the sound of industry going on as cars were being coaxed back into life and maintained. As soon as race time comes, the youngsters turn into speed demons at the drop of the green flag and show the impeccable racecraft that they have all picked up from the absolute earliest age. They then stop, climb out and grab a bag of Haribo Star Mix. You cannot fail to be impressed.
A lot of these formulas are going to struggle to fill their calendars following the closure of Birmingham and there is certainly no existing realistic alternative anywhere near the area. An available tarmac oval of Birmingham dimensions just does not exist.
Ninja Kart racers in the Midlands can either throw all their eggs into the Swaffham basket, or race with the ORCi at Aldershot. Apart from Aldershot, they are looking at long hauls to Scotland or Northern Ireland! The Junior Rods that were introduced relatively recently at Birmingham do have options at Buxton in the Peak District, but that is largely where the choice ends.
Senior formulas too have found Birmingham to be a welcoming place to base the majority of their fixtures. Whilst they can be slotted into meetings elsewhere, they are very much there at the whim of the individual promoters and will always be down the pecking order when it comes to fixture planning.
For years we have almost worn as a trophy the fact that our sport is the best kept secret in Motorsport. It has been referred to as a sub-culture. That is all well and good, but we are suffering for it now. When the tracks come up in conversation, people who arent involved in the sport say things like "Oh is that still going". Really, there should be little doubt that all these tracks are very much still going, and we should perhaps all take a little responsibility for that. Press coverage and social media interest are more essential parts of promotion than they ever were. If you fall off the map, you no longer exist.
Undoubtedly the new regime at the Birmingham Wheels Park have done wonders in the two years since they took it on. But perhaps the real damage was done in the years prior to that when the park went about its business almost invisibly.
The Park has so much to offer the people of the Midlands. It's loss will be keenly felt. I do hope these photos will turn out to not be my last from the venue. We can all certainly hope for some divine intervention. That intervention in an ideal world would have to be someone like Lewis Hamilton, who would have the finances to be able to sweep up the parks activities and promote his diversity campaign for Motorsport. What better venue and name could attract the widest of backgrounds into Motorsport at such an affordable level. Kart racers and oval racers have both gone onto race in F1 and other top level Motorsport, they would not have made it without that all important bottom rung of the ladder. Anything at a traditional circuit has quite an inherent cost from the outset, it is not a realistic starting point for many. Budget motorsport on the circuits does not really exist. Birmingham Wheels IS budget motorsport. The industry will be a much worse place without it.
Birmingham Wheels means a lot to me, and if this is indeed the end, I shall miss it greatly."
