Superstox

Superstox is a type of single seat formula racing, similar to Sprint car racing developed in the 1960s in the United Kingdom. Racing is 'contact' whereby drivers can use the front bumper to help dislodge any car in front. Like most other forms of short oval racing, the higher rated drivers normally start at the back of the grid for each race.

Its original roots come from the mid-1950s, it derived as a cheaper alternative to , where a smaller junior formula was raced nationally before the Southern 'Spedeworth' short oval tracks broke away from the main promoting body in 1961 to run their own version of Juniors which they called Formula Two. The cars were originally standard or 'stock' but became more modified over the years until 1968 when a new 'stock' car formula was introduced and the original much modified class became known as Super Stock Cars. This was later shortened to Superstox. Today the class bears no resemblance to a road going car. Chassis are generally built by specialist companies and all the components are special racing ones. The cars are all of front engine design although rear engine was allowed up until the mid-1970s.

Previous famous drivers include 1973 World Champion Derek Warwick and British Champion, Paul Warwick.

First raced at Ipswich in 1961 before moving to its longtime home at Wimbledon stadium. The 1962 World Championship was actually the first car meeting held at Wimbledon. The race originally was a World title in name only although it was an English domiciled Czech, Jan Scott, who won the first running. Later in the sixties the event attracted Spedeworth's Scottish drivers and then the European competitors (the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium) from the NACO organisation. The first European cars to race in the UK were different specifications to the UK counterparts - the 1966 Dutch team having V8 powered saloon cars. A stronger affiliation in the early 1970s saw the European drivers racing rear engine cars although this type of machine proved less robust than a "Super Stock Car" and they become Midgets (non contact short oval racing cars) leaving the newer front engine cars that were appearing on the continent as Superstox. The Superstox formula remained essentially a European one until the appearance of some South African drivers in the late 1960s when Spedeworth gained an affiliation there. The South Africans only contested the championship until the mid 1970s as there was no longer an equivalent class there. One American driver, Al Contreras, represented the USA in the early 70s but he, like the inaugural champion, Scott was serving as an airman in this country at the time. The Scottish Superstox died out in the 1980s when Gordon McDougall started his own promotion, breaking away from Spedeworth and affiliating to BriSCA. The Scottish were represented in the title again in 2011 when the class started up again north of the border.

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