The Other Heritage Project - [North of the Border]
Why? I hear you ask?
Firstly, as with the parent British Karting Project, I would ask the question… Karting history has already been written… but can it be read?
The stark reality is that, for several reasons, kart clubs have never considered the preservation of their club karting records and local media publicity as a priority. The result - Scottish karting history cannot be easily accessed and is at risk of being lost.
Those recipients are currently intended to be four Scottish kart clubs and the Association of Scottish Kart Clubs. [Note: The clubs and ASKC have not been consulted about this project]
Since retiring from active officiating duty in 2023 I have been researching and compiling a compendium of Scottish karting history from 1960 to 1980. The result of scanning the British Newspaper Archives and collections of the Scottish Clubman / Motorscot magazine, Karting Magazine is four [yes 4] volumes totalling some 950 A4 illustrated pages of karting history from North of the Border.
Now it is not intended that this tome will be offered for sale - as only 6 copies will be printed. Nor is it meant to be read cover-to-cover, but instead it was conceived to be a comprehensive and enduring historical reference - to be consulted as and when required by those karting enthusiasts interested in the karting heritage of Scotland. It is envisaged that each club might choose to ‘lend’ the publications out to individual members.
Karting at the National Archives
Tucked away on shelves in the archIves of the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh is a complete 31 year set of Scottish Clubman & MotorScot magazines. It took 7 full day visits to the archive to conduct my research and cull all the narrative needed for the publication “Racing Through The Pages”.
Although the Scottish Clubman/Motorscot magazine was a multi-disciplined motorsport monthly periodical, it was an especially staunch supporter of karting from the early days, and often published between 3 and 5 pages of karting news, opinion and race reports in each edition. It has proved to be a valuable insight into early Scottish karting history.
The British Library in Boston Spa, Yorkshire and London also hold part collections of “Karting Magazine” and “Karting News and Record” - but archive access has been disrupted for over a year now, due to a major technology outage as a result of a devestating cyber-attack on the library back in October 2023.
Note: Library membership and a prior appointment are required to access the archives at all locations.
Karting and motorsport magazine sources aside, I also discovered a totally unexpected rich seam of karting history from the British Newspaper Archives - enabling over 1,400 articles about kart racing in Scotland to be extracted from a diverse range of local, regional, and national newspapers.
Surpisingly and interestingly, the newspapers often presented a totally different perspective on the sport. They focused more on a local interest/impact storyline, or adopted a ‘behind the scenes’ viewpoint and the personalities involved. In short, content that you would never find in a karting or motorsport magazine. These newspaper features have been chronologically interlaced with content from Scottish Clubman and Karting Magazine to build a more complete history of kart racing in Scotland - 1959 to 1980.
These publications, along with a forthcoming Scottish Karting Heritage website are all intended to form a legacy… ”Giving Scottish Karting History a Future”
