CAMSO Autospeedway

History ...

The limited company CAMSO, abbreviation for Comines Auto Moto Speedway Organisation (Comines for the town where the first track, Warneton, was built) was started in April 1980 with the construction of the Warneton ¼ mile.

At the beginning, Camso was completely depending from the collaboration with Berry Van den Oetelaar (Spedeworth Continental in Tilburg, Nl), Joseph Gisbertz and Hans Gerd Heushen (ASCN Kaldenkirchen – D) and Leo Tetz (PAC Posterholt) and the drivers came exclusively from Holland and Germany. In 1981 four motor speedways were organised on the shale track (at the inside), but these was not very success-full.

In 1982 came the first big revolution, which was essential for the future of Camso: the introduction of the Prive Cars (formula who was 17 Years!! later introduced in England with the Rookie Rods). That Year the European championship for National Hot Rods was allowed to Warneton; Pete Stevens (GB) won it under bad weather conditions.

In May 1984 the ¼ mile in Ruisbroek near Antwerp was opened. With the time these track became the centre of the contact formulas. In 1985 the World championship Saloon Stock Cars was disputed in Ruisbroek; Noddy Robinson (GB) was the strongest of the 40 starters after a memorable battle, where the 15 English drivers used all the permitted and non-permitted means to keep the title in England. The big revenge came a Year later when Belgian star Dirk Thomas won the same title in England (Wisbeach).

Two Years later, in 1986, a new ¼ mile oval was built in Engis, near Liège. After the first success-full Year, the number of spectators went down, partially due to the economical crisis. In 1990 Engis was closed and the asphalt broken up.

The second revolution came in 1993 when Hartmut “Bernie” Schrimpf proposed to organise Banger racing, especially in Ruisbroek. This was the start of another success-full period from Camso; period who is still going on. In Ruisbroek, every Year 7 or 8 Banger-meetings were organised, who were memorable for the hard action, the good atmosphere and the famous Saturday nights. As we had some problems to have a prolongation of the 18 Years location period, the necessary investments were not done; Ruisbroek became uninteresting for the race formulas and was a typical contact-track. End 2001, Camso was expropriated in Ruisbroek for public utility (enlargement of the Canal). The last meeting, on 19 and 20 October 2001 was a big one with a big crowd and more than 250 drivers.

On the other side, Camso became in September 2001 an exploitation authorisation for 20 Years for the Warneton oval. Begin 2002 began an investment program: the entry was completely renewed; de inside of the oval became wider en 3.000 square meters car park was asphalted.

In November 2002 started the third evolution. The Warneton track was completely rebuilt with banked turns, like the ovals in the USA. The whole car park was asphalted and Camso could hire a big parcel behind the grandstands, so that the pits became much bigger. At the same time, a new formule CAMSO V8 was introduced, begin 2003.

In 2009, under initiation of Tony Roots, the name of Camso V8 was changed to EUROPEAN LATE MODELS.