Crash

Archival Giclée Print

Tyrrell’s photographs tell the story of Cornwall’s last banger stock car racing track, United Downs Raceway. One by one, banger racing tracks are disappearing throughout the UK as the subculture succumbs to a slow decline. For 50 years, United Downs Raceway has been kept alive through the love and devotion of its community. The track faces demolition, a ‘more appealing’ tourist attraction planned in its place. While poignantly capturing the quiet moments on the track, Tyrrell documents the energy of what’s kept it alive: of the hobby that often leans into an obsession, with racers spending thousands of pounds fine-tuning their vehicles, rescued from scrap, gutted, and filled with new parts to make them track worthy. These photographs are part celebration, part protest– documenting an important part of Cornish history and the dedicated community who have used the track for generations. This is a sub-culture of racing that spans the perceptions of class and experience, and one that holds a mass of generational knowledge passed down through the community that continues to be so enthralled by it
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