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Yalson

Model Junction Racing Club, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK

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I no longer live in my home town of Bury St Edmunds, having moved to away to go to university 25 years ago and mostly lived elsewhere ever since. I still visit my parents there as often as I can and whenever I do I always try and visit Model Junction, the excellent Local Model Shop, even if it's only for a chat. My Dad still visits there regularly, though, as he is building a model railway in his retirement. On a recent visit, David the co-proprietor said he had something for him. David has been working in the shop since I was racing regularly back in my teens and my Dad was my mechanic, and lo and behold, he had a picture from those days which showed me and some other racers at a charity presentation.

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It is dated 9th September 1992 and is taken in the area where we usually held our races, a stretch of open grass wedged between the local sports centre (out of shot to the right), the sports centre 5-a-side football pitches (behind the photographer here) and the sports centre car park (on the other side of the hedge behind the caravan). I am the ungainly youth in the light-coloured shirt with the no 87 Mid kneeling in the front row.

I don't remember the names of most of the other people in the shot except the chap holding the Toyota pick-up, who was David's predecessor as Model Junction's owner and who I think was called Colin. Next to him with the moustache is Ian, the race controller from our Saturday morning meetings. He started out doing race control exclusively, as it was a very intensive process involving a lot of manual counters, and totalling of laps and compilation of finals by hand. Later he trusted some of the rest of us with race control duties and was able to take a race off every round to have a go himself with a demilitarised Fast Attack Vehicle.

I cannot be sure, but I think the embarrassed-looking chap in the back row with the black sweater and the red Cat may be William Mitcham, the Bury Buggy Club driver who ended up reaching the final of one of the IFMAR Worlds. The BBC was a separate entity to the MJ Saturday meetings. They were a proper club with organised membership, computer race control and a permanent circuit in the village of Shimpling just outside Bury, where they raced on Sunday mornings. There was some crossover and a lot of the MJ Saturday crowd were also BBC members, as shown by the fact that the 87 on my car is my BBC racing number – Ian would have made me cover up one of the digits for Saturday racing so it just said 7 or 8, as 87 had too many syllables to be shouted constantly by the manual counters.

There was no membership as such for the Model Junction club, and anyone could walk up on the day, pay a small fee and race. The weekly results were compiled up dilligently by Ian, though, and two championships were awarded per year: the summer off-road series and a winter tarmac series which took place on the car park when the weather made racing every week on the grass impossible. I was lucky enough to win the summer series twice (89 and 92), but never really got the hang of the rough tarmac in the cold car park. The track for the Model Junction meetings was made up anew early every Saturday morning by Ian out of rubber pipe, rope, tyres and whatever else came to hand (for a while the off-road circuit regularly featured a jump on the main straight made out of an old road sign). The fact that it was dreamed up by Ian every week meant that you never knew when you arrived what the track layout was going to be or whether the potholes (which remained static) would be in the middle of the main straight or on the apex of a hairpin.

Its portability also meant that it could be packed up and used in different locations, which was a great promotional tool for the shop. As a result we frequently found ourselves racing at village fetes and similar events, including on one memorable occasion on the lawn of Gedding Hall, the country house of former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman. We ripped it up quite badly, as I recall, but he seemed alright about it. Our prizes that day were presented by car transporter magnate and former F1 proprietor Ted Toleman.

I am not sure what the presentation here was for. The fact that William Mitcham is there means that it might have been related to a charity non-stop 24hr team race which Model Junction organised and supplied the equipment for – stock Tamiya Falcons – and which he legendarily won almost single-handed. One of the cars involved remained on display in the shop for some time, complete with war wounds and patina, as an example of the durability of Tamiya's products. We weren't really involved with that, though, so it may have been something entirely different. The fact that Mr Mitcham might be in the shot means it was probably something special, though, as he was normally a bit good for our meetings.

Happy days.

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Great photo! Buggies where so much more fun to drive on grass and dirt, Astro and carpet killed the class for me.

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On 1/11/2019 at 3:48 AM, qatmix said:

Great photo! Buggies where so much more fun to drive on grass and dirt, Astro and carpet killed the class for me.

Spot on.  

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Hi yalson, the guy you think is William mitcham is actually me. I raced there for several years and also raced for bury buggy club alongside William. Didn't have the same budget as William as he was a works driver. Happy days .

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On 10/12/2019 at 6:38 PM, Bobby g said:

Hi yalson, the guy you think is William mitcham is actually me. I raced there for several years and also raced for bury buggy club alongside William. Didn't have the same budget as William as he was a works driver. Happy days .

Oh, hello Bobby! We probably knew each other back in the day, then!

Happy days indeed. I used to love racing there on Saturday mornings. Great fun!

Hope you're well and thriving, wherever you may be.

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i used to race indoors at trowse in norwich back then, a few of us ventured down a few times to the model junction club, i was on 12 then so my memory is a bit hazy, but i remember it being great fun, those were the days!

great thread, and great photo by the way!

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Amazed to see this photo. I am the chap holding two cars in the front row. Really enjoyed the racing back then. Just wished I’d had more of a budget!! 

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Hi Matthew

What a smashing photo! I am more than a little gutted I am not in it! Those were some of the best days of my youth. I wish I had carried it on, when I could actually afford some descent kit. But running with what we had still created the best memories. I remember your dad from when I worked at Vinten's too, but that was later in life.

I can always remember you having Help painted on your undertray. Great fun.

I can remember sitting in the little caravan, I am sure i pressed the counters for a race once. And the little plastic wall plant pot, with a red light in it to start races.... it all floods back. Shame we didn't have mobiles with cameras, then we would have more proof of the times we had.

Its a shame there doesn't appear to be much of a racing scene anymore in Bury. I believe they did have a club at Risby Village Hall, but not sure if that is still up and running. Would be great to see if one of my boys fancied a go. I could be that dad, that bought everything and was pit man. I think some dads enjoyed it much more than the kids. lol.

Anyway. Great photo. Hope you are well.

Mike

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Ha ha! Hi @Mike76. Yes, I always used to have stuff painted on the undertray. "Help" or "PTO" or something. I believe I once had "If you can read this you're paying more attention than I am" on there.

I am amazed at how few pictures I have of racing, given how much time I spent doing it BITD. I know my Dad has some of us racing on the sports centre car park during the winter and there are some that were taken at a meeting at the Smokehouse circuit in Mildenhall. Like you say, if we'd had camera phones there would be loads, but who thought to bring a film camera to a Saturday morning's racing? Especially since you'd have to pay to have it developed.

I know my Dad used to love being the pit crew. He wouldn't have done it if he didn't. We had a lot of fun doing it and went to some pretty good events. I used to really enjoy doing the fetes and fairs around the countryside most. Racing in front of kids who'd never seen it done before was always fun. You'd hear them run off after the race and tell their parents they'd changed their minds about what they wanted for Christmas.

I know the Risby races were running until quite recently but I don't live in Bury now, so I've lost touch.

I'd forgotten the light in the plant pot! Ha ha!

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Great photo - I'd be interested to see any of the Smoke House track, I often used to run my (then new) Laxer ZX round it on days off & sometimes attended the meetings as a spectator. 

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On 8/7/2021 at 1:05 PM, Mad Zero said:

Great photo - I'd be interested to see any of the Smoke House track, I often used to run my (then new) Laxer ZX round it on days off & sometimes attended the meetings as a spectator. 

I think my Dad has some at home of us racing at the Smoke House track. I will see if I can dig them out the next time I go up and see him.

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