‘Nautocross’ could make one-off return to harbour bed

The Guernsey Autocross Club held its first event on the harbour bed in August 1969 after permission to continue racing in a Torteval field was denied.

The last meeting in the harbour was in July 2001 and the marina occupies much of the old course.

‘This would be a one-off meeting and we wouldn’t have a big course,’ said GAC committee member and historian Reuben ‘Amos’ Ozanne.

‘We’ll have a laugh and a bit of fun and I think it would be a good crowd-puller.’

Club members were keen to take part and Mr Ozanne said some would be following in the footsteps of their fathers who had raced in the harbour.

Competitors and support vehicles used to access the harbour from by the clock tower on South Side.

The marina now makes that impossible, so slipways to the rear of Mont Crevelt House and adjacent to Abraham’s Bosom on the other side of the harbour would be used.

Ports general manager Colin Le Ray said Harbours was in talks with the club over the proposal, but some requirements still needed working through.

‘Nautocross’ took its name from the location. Frank ‘Crank’ Besnard is credited with founding the GAC and his determination to find a venue resulted in a deal being struck to hold meetings in the harbour as part of the North Regatta.

Up to 2,000 spectators would line the walls. Crates of beer were given as prizes and the largest number of cars that took part in a single meeting was 185.

‘In the early days we just raced our road cars down there,’ said Mr Ozanne. ‘They still had the headlights, bumpers, number plates and everything.’

As meetings evolved to become ‘banger racing’, the demolition derby which concluded them was a highlight for many.

Car football was also popular and in the mid-1990s the BBC’s That Life’s featured this in a programme.

At one time some three or four meetings were held there per year. In 1970, the GAC started racing at its current Chouet home and meetings were held at both venues before the number of races in the harbour began to tail off slowly.

The meeting would take place on the afternoon of Sunday 4 August – 24 hours short of the 50th anniversary of the first one.