Hunting old race tracks is one of my most favorite things to do. Finding the remains, standing in the location that history was made, checking out how Mother Nature has reclaimed the land that was once thundered by racers is really fun. That’s why I was super excited to hammer the play button on this video and see the history of a track that had been “abandoned” right there in London! Now, I did guess correctly in the fact that it was going to be Crystal Palace, so it made the history lesson even more interesting. There are a couple of things that made me wince, though.
The major one is a question the video raised. It is briefly mentioned near the end that people still actually race there in time trial events on the old course! So is a race track truly abandoned if it is actually still raced on?! It would seem like the answer is no and this is more a video about a track that just could not age along with the advancing technology of racing. By 1970 the professional level competition was out of Crystal Palace, a place that had hosted F1 events and more over the years, so it’s pretty well dormant but if you read the comments on the video some people tear into the piece because of the fact that they gloss over the truth that it is still raced on.
It does kind of make the whole experience of the host driving a Jag around the old course a little less exclusive knowing that people still rip on it as well. Anyway, we dig the video even though the title may be a little over dramatic.
Racing history, right there in London-town, pretty fantastic stuff.
