2005 marked the 10th anniversary of the Teesside Radio Car Club (TRCC) Mike Leonard Endurance Race. On 22 January 2006, teams of eight took part in a relay during the endurance event, taking turns to race their model cars around the track. The event raised £500, which is fantastic.

The race is named for the late Mike Leonard, who was a member of the Teesside Radio Car Club from his early teens and who loved the off-road side of the sport. Mike, also a Teesside Branch member, had Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy but he didn't let this get in the way of his racing. Supported by his father Tony, Mike competed at local and regional level in the 1/10th scale four and two wheel-drive classes. He died on 10 April 1997.

Saddened by the news, the TRCC members wanted to keep Mike’s memory alive by running an endurance race annually. Mike had a lot of friends in the North East Clubs; racers from Batley, York, Harrogate Durham and of course Teesside, joined ranks to race and have continued to do.

"Saddened by the news, the TRCC members wanted to keep Mike’s memory alive by running an endurance race annually."

The club was formed in the 1980s by Humphrey Bloor of Stockton Modelers as the Stockton Buggy Club. They raced the early electric off-road buggies at a site behind the Stockton Football Club’s ground in Thornaby.

At that time there were two classes of cars around, the buggies that raced outdoors on undulating grass and dirt tracks, and the “flat-pan” cars that raced on smooth carpeted tracks indoors. There was no suitable venue in the area so the club was purely a Buggy Club.

It became very popular and produced drivers who were Regional and National winners. As the numbers grew the club became the Cleveland Buggy Club and moved to a larger track within the grounds. The club began holding large competitions within the grounds of Preston Park in Stockton. In conjunction with the British Radio Car Association this culminated when they were chosen to hold the British Grand Prix in 1994 and then the European Championships in 1995.

Around that time there started to appear some conversion kits to make the off road buggy into an on-road saloon car. However the club had nowhere to race them until a 12th scale club started at the old Topspin Tennis Club at Teesside Airport. It soon became obvious that the two clubs would be much better served by combining and so, to reflect the increase in the types of cars being raced the name was changed to the Teesside Radio Car Club (TRCC).

In 1994 the club was offered the use of a large disused warehouse in Commerce Way and so the present set-up was started. The building is large enough to hold two permanent tracks, a full sized carpet track for saloons and 12th scale and a mainly Astro Turf off-road track for buggies.

The club has become a regular host for a round of the prestigious 12th scale National series as well as the venue for the Annual North East Carpet Championship.

The club's members race in all classes and hold competitions throughout the year. We also hold fun nights, and are very much a friendly family run club.

Practice nights - Wednesdays from 6pm-9pm
Race nights/competition - Saturdays from 4.30pm-till late (racing starts approx 6.15pm - late).

For more information, please email Jim Shankley at jims_place@hotmail.co.uk