Dowty Slot Car Racing Club

Dowty Slot Car Club was formed circa 1963 in a room over the canteen on the Arle Court site in Cheltenham. The track was a typical 60s track with hills and a chicane. There was even a papier mache mountain with a cave and a light in it which hid the view of the chicane. This was an advantage for visitors, as the home drivers slowed down when approaching the chicane to avoid accidents, while visitors drove through at normal speed because they didn’t know it was there. There were four lanes and lap length was about 100’. The surface was hardboard on battens, with the rough side up and painted with Sandtex matt paint. In those days cars used rubber tyres and needed the texture for grip.

The power was a 2 amp model railway transformer. This lasted until 1976 when Dave Coward joined the club with some modern cars. The quickest one just sat on the track and hummed because there wasn’t enough power. The power supply was replace with a tractor battery and two car battery chargers, because the motors could draw as much as 15 amps on acceleration. The lap counters were dials about 150mm diameter which made a resounding clunk every time a lap was counted.

This track survived until 1977 when the club were moved to the new Sir George Dowty Memorial Clubhouse. While the new clubhouse was being built, the members built a new track in sections so which could be moved to the new room when it was ready. The room was only 6m x 4.8m and the track was built from melamine coated chipboard on a timber frame and supported on trestles. By now the cars had changed and used sponge rubber tyres which were lubricated with an oil based ‘goo’ to make them stick to the track. The track surface was smooth and painted with gloss polyurethane paint. The bends were all of a similar radius and it was very much a ‘rhythm’ track which could almost be driven with your eyes closed. After a slight alteration in 1980 to make it a bit less predictable it was decided to build a new track to maximise the space in the room and with more variations in the bends. This track was opened in 1982 and there was an open meeting held later that year. At that meeting it was found that a 10 degree bend with a radius of about 1.2m was flat out about 98% of the time. Unfortunately this bend was about a metre before a sharp right hand bend, so it was very damaging if a car deslotted and hit the barrier at full speed. It was decided to remove this bend and build a new section with a series of bends which increased the lap length to 31m. The original lap counters were still in use, with a few electrical modifications by a local boffin until the adoption of a computerised race control system in 1997, which is still in use today. The track remained in this form until 1998.

In 1998 the club was informed that they would have to leave their club room so that it could be used as an office by Gloucestershire Youth Cricket teams. After a few meetings we were offered our current home in a large concrete sectional building in the car park at the Staverton Sports & Social club. The old track was dismantled and moved to the new site. As the room was so much bigger than the old one, all the straights were lengthened by 2.4m to take the lap length up to about 38m and the drivers rostrum was placed alongside the track, rather than at the end. This completely changed the character of the track, and many people preferred the shorter version. Several national and local meetings were held on this track.

By 2004 the track was beginning to show its age. There were a few more members so it was decided to construct a new track as the old one was over 21 years old. Most of the track was built in a member’s garage so that racing could continue on the old track. The corners were routed ‘elliptically’ and braids were recessed into the surface to supply the power to the cars, rather than copper tape that was used until now. The new track is over 46m long which we believe is the longest four lane track in the country. Again we have held Open meetings, Southern 32, Cotswold Challenge and Double GT meetings on the track.

The club has had many quick drivers over the years including multiple National Champion Charlie Gooding, Phil Ratcliffe, Andy Dunan and Dave Coward, who also have national titles, Mike Rothery, Mark Rampling, Bob Rawle, Mike Broad, Rob Harris, Graham Fryer, Mike Gibbons & Mike Gibbon and many others too numerous to mention. Currently there are about 10 members ranging from 10 years old to late 50s.