Hotstox

Hotstox was a concept developed by then promoter of the now defunct Long Eaton Stadium - Keith Barber. Barber also edited and produced the premier Stock Car publication Stock Car Magazine (SCM). It was in the pages of SCM in 1983 that Barber outlined the idea of a budget contact racing formula as an alternative to BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars. The rules were influenced heavily by Stock Cars that Barber had seen in New Zealand. The New Zealand cars featured 'Stock' bodies and small capacity engines. Barber derived the name Hotstox from a formula that he had seen in South Africa during a visit in the 1960s.

Early Hotstox rules allowed a basic ladder chassis construction with power provided by a Rover V8 or Ford V6. Suspension was restricted to leaf spring arrangements with strictly standard shock absorbers - rules which exist to this day. Stock bodies from production road cars were to be used and although the first constructed Hotstox featured such bodies, it became clear that creating a stock bodied car was not practical as the time taken to fabricate them proved both time consuming and costly.

The first cars constructed were built by Paul Lomax and Dennis Howell. Lomax's car featured a Ford Fiesta body. Demonstration races began taking place - mainly at Long Eaton with the first meeting proper running at Long Eaton in April 1984.

6 cars contested the races at the first meeting. The pioneering drivers being #69 Paul Lomax, 7 Nigel Parker, 8 Ron Poyser, 50 Graham Bird, 58 Steve Booth and 99 Jack Eyres in the Lomax prototype. Howell never raced a Hotstox. The first ever race was won by Nigel Parker who also took the feature final. The 2nd heat race was won by Graham Bird. A month later, the 2nd meeting took place at Long Eaton where two more competitors appeared: 3 Pete Clinch and 68 Alf Lomax (cousin of Paul). The race results were exactly as at the first meeting with Parker winning the 1st heat and final and Bird taking the 2nd heat.

Grids of 15 cars were soon achieved Grids of up to 15 cars began to appear and meetings were staged at other venues: Scunthorpe, Coventry, Rochdale and Northampton. The first National Championship was held at Long Eaton and was won by 3 Pete Clinch with a 3 Litre V6 Ford – and the Points Champion was Nigel Parker. By season’s end, 19 meetings had been raced plus 1 demo (Coventry).