SPECTACULAR entertainment for all the family can be enjoyed at Rockingham this Bank Holiday Monday (August 31) when the Northamptonshire venue holds Cars & Stripes, its first ever all-American auto festival.
With NFL-style cheerleaders, a marching band, and live music, Cars & Stripes will be staged with all the razzmatazz of an American sporting spectacle.
The colourful event will feature dazzling static displays and track parades of American muscle cars, IndyCar and NASCAR racers, customised trucks, hot rods, custom cars and custom bikes.
There will be an Xtreme Stunt Show with trials, cycle and motorbike; a breathtaking aerial show by the Pitts Special biplanes of the Wildcat Aerobatics formation display team; plus three 45-minute bouts from the big stars of Extreme American Wrestling.
American-themed fast food outlets and trade stands; and a KidZone with fun fair rides, a disco dome, face painting, Rocky Racers soft play area, and a mini cinema showing Disney films. Right outside the KidZone will be two stars of the Cars and Cars 2 movies, Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater.
The highlight of the day’s track action will be the inaugural Rockingham 100 - two heats and a final over 100 laps of the UK’s only high-speed banked oval circuit by race-bred pickup trucks.
In addition to spectating, visitors to Rockingham will also be able to take part. There will be opportunities to ride shotgun around the high-speed Oval track in a NASCAR stock car racer, and to drive or ride in American muscle cars on Rockingham’s Lake Circuit.
Sizzling R&B band The Revolutionaires will kick-off the Cars & Stripes festival on Sunday evening (August 30) with a gig at Rockingham in a US-style barn. There will also be a mechanical rodeo competition on Sunday evening, when there will be camping facilities on site for those wishing to stay overnight.
Gates open at Rockingham on Monday at 9am. Adult tickets can be bought on the day for £23; children aged 15 and under go free. More information can be found at www.cars-and-stripes.co.uk
With NFL-style cheerleaders, a marching band, and live music, Cars & Stripes will be staged with all the razzmatazz of an American sporting spectacle.
The colourful event will feature dazzling static displays and track parades of American muscle cars, IndyCar and NASCAR racers, customised trucks, hot rods, custom cars and custom bikes.
There will be an Xtreme Stunt Show with trials, cycle and motorbike; a breathtaking aerial show by the Pitts Special biplanes of the Wildcat Aerobatics formation display team; plus three 45-minute bouts from the big stars of Extreme American Wrestling.
American-themed fast food outlets and trade stands; and a KidZone with fun fair rides, a disco dome, face painting, Rocky Racers soft play area, and a mini cinema showing Disney films. Right outside the KidZone will be two stars of the Cars and Cars 2 movies, Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater.
The highlight of the day’s track action will be the inaugural Rockingham 100 - two heats and a final over 100 laps of the UK’s only high-speed banked oval circuit by race-bred pickup trucks.
In addition to spectating, visitors to Rockingham will also be able to take part. There will be opportunities to ride shotgun around the high-speed Oval track in a NASCAR stock car racer, and to drive or ride in American muscle cars on Rockingham’s Lake Circuit.
Sizzling R&B band The Revolutionaires will kick-off the Cars & Stripes festival on Sunday evening (August 30) with a gig at Rockingham in a US-style barn. There will also be a mechanical rodeo competition on Sunday evening, when there will be camping facilities on site for those wishing to stay overnight.
Gates open at Rockingham on Monday at 9am. Adult tickets can be bought on the day for £23; children aged 15 and under go free. More information can be found at www.cars-and-stripes.co.uk
Two IndyCars, one a Penske and the other a Reynard, will be appearing at Cars & Stripes.
The 1991 Penske PC-20 CART IndyCar (shown here) is the same type of car that won that year’s Indianapolis 500, in the hands of Rick Mears, and the very same car that Mears took to victory in the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. Mears also put the PC-20 on pole at Indianapolis, at an average lap speed of 224.113mph. His Penske Racing team-mate, three-time F1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, took the PC-20 to another victory that year at Detroit.
Designed by Englishman Nigel Bennett and powered by a Chevrolet 265A V8 turbo engine designed by British engineering company Ilmor, the PC-20 pumps out more than 800 horsepower and can reach a downforce/drag-limited 235 mph.
It was the very similar Penske PC-21, powered by an Ilmor-Chevrolet 265B engine, which three-time F1 World Champion Ayrton Senna tested at Firebird Raceway in Arizona in December 1992, at a time when he was unsure whether or not to continue in F1. Whereas F1 cars of the time had normally-aspirated engines, semi-automatic transmissions and carbon brakes, the heavier IndyCars had turbo power, a traditional transmission with a clutch pedal, and iron brakes.
The Arciero Wells Reynard 98i-Toyota was raced throughout the 1998 ChampCar season by American-domiciled Italian Max Papis, who is Emerson Fittipaldi’s son-in-law. “Mad Max” scored three victories and 11 podium finishes during his Champ Car career.
The 1991 Penske PC-20 CART IndyCar (shown here) is the same type of car that won that year’s Indianapolis 500, in the hands of Rick Mears, and the very same car that Mears took to victory in the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. Mears also put the PC-20 on pole at Indianapolis, at an average lap speed of 224.113mph. His Penske Racing team-mate, three-time F1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, took the PC-20 to another victory that year at Detroit.
Designed by Englishman Nigel Bennett and powered by a Chevrolet 265A V8 turbo engine designed by British engineering company Ilmor, the PC-20 pumps out more than 800 horsepower and can reach a downforce/drag-limited 235 mph.
It was the very similar Penske PC-21, powered by an Ilmor-Chevrolet 265B engine, which three-time F1 World Champion Ayrton Senna tested at Firebird Raceway in Arizona in December 1992, at a time when he was unsure whether or not to continue in F1. Whereas F1 cars of the time had normally-aspirated engines, semi-automatic transmissions and carbon brakes, the heavier IndyCars had turbo power, a traditional transmission with a clutch pedal, and iron brakes.
The Arciero Wells Reynard 98i-Toyota was raced throughout the 1998 ChampCar season by American-domiciled Italian Max Papis, who is Emerson Fittipaldi’s son-in-law. “Mad Max” scored three victories and 11 podium finishes during his Champ Car career.