{"id":541442,"date":"2026-07-14T19:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/541442\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T19:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:01:13","slug":"the-crowd-are-there-for-the-crashes-how-a-play-performed-on-a-racetrack-became-a-smash-with-banger-racers-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/541442\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The crowd are there for the crashes\u2019: how a play performed on a racetrack became a smash with banger racers | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lexi Crosbie was five days old when she went to her first ever banger race. \u201cI grew up around the track,\u201d the 14-year-old says. At nine, her racer dad gave her a chance at the Micro F2s, the junior league, and Crosbie has been racing ever since. \u201cYou\u2019re so filled with adrenaline,\u201d she says of the motorsport. \u201cIt\u2019s the best feeling ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month, Crosbie went to her local Cornish track, United Downs Raceway (also known as St Day), for a different kind of event. The Kneebone Cadillac, Carl Grose\u2019s raucous play about a banger racer and her family, is set and performed on the track. For Crosbie, it was her first ever theatre show. \u201cI really enjoyed it,\u201d she says. \u201cMy whole family did.\u201d Director Kyla Goodey has loved seeing how many racers have come along, when theatre isn\u2019t part of their regular lives. \u201cIt\u2019s been a bridging of worlds,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banger racing is about speed and damage. Regular cars are gutted, stripped and fitted with safety equipment for \u201cnudge and spin\u201d races, where contact is limited but still impressive. In a collision, the car crumples but the driver is safe. \u201cThe crowd are there for the crashes,\u201d acknowledges Leeta Rawling-Aldridge, 27, a local care-home worker. She has raced for the last five years with her brother at St Day, where their dad has driven for three decades. \u201cI\u2019ve never been nervous,\u201d she says. In recent months she has fractured her shoulder and sprained her ankle, but \u201cI\u2019m just focused on getting back out there\u201d.<\/p>\n

double quotation markEverything\u2019s a risk assessment in theatre. But here I watched a 10-car pile up<\/p>\n

Built on an old tin mine and having survived threats of redevelopment, St Day is the centre of the lives of banger racers across Cornwall, particularly since so many other tracks have shut down. \u201cYou turn up to a meeting and it\u2019s like you\u2019ve got a whole family there,\u201d says Crosbie. Grose, who grew up savouring St Day\u2019s screaming tires on bank holidays, wanted to capture this community. Beginning life as a radio play in 2011, The Kneebone Cadillac was commissioned for Plymouth Theatre Royal, where it was staged in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s been a bridging of worlds\u2019 \u2026 the show\u2019s director, Kyla Goodey. Photograph: Steve Tanner<\/p>\n

Grose\u2019s high-octane comedy follows determined young racer Maddy Kneebone on a bumpy journey involving her scrapyard-owning dad\u2019s death, the inheritance of a precious Cadillac and a secret stash of gold. \u201cYou just do not stop laughing,\u201d says one of the race track\u2019s co-promotors, Crispen Rosevear. In 2024, he cleared its schedule so Wildworks, Goodey\u2019s company, could put on the show. Two years on, The Kneebone Cadillac is back.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a moneymaker for the track. \u201cI do it out of my love for the play,\u201d Rosevear says. He lovingly describes United Downs as \u201cthe rough end of racing\u201d because \u201cthat means it\u2019s accessible to all\u201d. The world of racing seems to work on this ethos of generosity: \u201cIf anything goes wrong,\u201d says Crosbie, \u201cyou\u2019ve always got someone there to help you fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the racers are getting a glimpse into theatre, the theatre-makers are falling for the sport. \u201cIt blows your mind,\u201d says Goodey. \u201cEverything\u2019s a risk assessment in theatre, and here I watched a 10-car pile up, and a young woman walked right out of the middle of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though racing is still heavily male-dominated, the picture is changing. \u201cWhen I started,\u201d says Crosbie, \u201cmost of the girls were very doubted, like they were out there to get in the way. But we\u2019re all trying to prove them wrong.\u201d Caitlin Emery, whose parents and grandparents also raced, has been doing it for five years and has won several championships. \u201cI still get nervous,\u201d says the 19-year-old, \u201cfrom the unknown of what\u2019s going to go down. But it\u2019s the buzz. When you\u2019re in the car, you forget about everything.\u201d Racing against both men and women, she has dipped her toe into national banger races, a more extreme category in which aggressive contact is allowed. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot scarier,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot harder hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Woodvine as Tannoy Sue with musician Pat Moran in The Kneebone Cadillac. Photograph: Steve Tanner<\/p>\n

All the drivers agree about the addictive nature of racing. \u201cIf banger racing grabs you, you\u2019re hooked,\u201d Rosevear says. \u201cIt becomes a way of life.\u201d Kerry Birch is in her second year of racing, after meeting her partner, a racer of 23 years whose father\u2019s ashes are scattered at the St Day track. \u201cHe got me in a car and that was that,\u201d she says. \u201cIt just looked fun, as crazy as it is. Once I\u2019m on that track, I\u2019m in my own little world.\u201d She is a mum to four girls, including a seven-year-old who worries Birch will get injured but is also eager to have a go in the Micro F2s. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to get the funds so she can get out there,\u201d Birch says.<\/p>\n

Like theatre, racing is an expensive sport. Even at the top of the game, drivers will spend far more than they can win. \u201cIt\u2019s the rush,\u201d Rosevear reasons. \u201cYou can\u2019t buy excitement like that.\u201d Goodey was firm that the show shouldn\u2019t exclude those it speaks about and to. With tickets starting at \u00a31, the radical pricing echoes the generous principle that surrounds the track: if you\u2019ve got a spare part, you give it; if someone needs help, you step up. With puppets and songs and the setting of the sun behind the track, The Kneebone Cadillac works to reflect back some of this magic of the track. \u201cI hope the show captures the spirit of going to the Raceway,\u201d Grose says. \u201cChaotic and thrilling and a little bit dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lexi Crosbie was five days old when she went to her first ever banger race. \u201cI grew up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-541442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}