Juniors / F2s

Seniors / F1s
in the Sixties

More Seniors / F1s
in the Sixties

The Seventies

The Early Days

Some Replicas and Restos

Automotive Oddments

Some Hot Rods

Early British Drag Racing

Links

Welcome all to David Kipling's Home Page

Important: Thanks to the generous help of Rick Young's phenomenal experience and memory.

"BriSCA" Stock-Car Racing in Britain, 1950s-1970s
for fans of REAL racing in the golden age

 British drag-racing and hot-rodding, 1960s-1970s

No-holds-barred racing by real 'characters':

Over 500 photos of British stock-cars

plus one whole section on:

1960s-1970s British drag-racing and hot-rodding 

Do you have a vintage stocks or drags photo or story you'd like to contribute? E-mail me

This one was presented to superstar Fred Mitchell, # 38, who went into the '63 world final as defending (1962) world champion.  This beautiful memento passed to Fred's long-time race mechanic Pete Schafer, who has now generously entrusted it to me, in memory of Fred.  

Pete Schafer, master mechanic (Pete Tucker called him a "wizard"), friend to everyone, and loyal to Fred Mitchell and his family for many years, passed away at his home in Washington State, USA, in early 2007 at 82 years.  Pete was a gent of the old school, but with that characteristic sense of practical joking that was everywhere in stock-car racing in those days.  Pete loved this little tale, which I will pass on here as a way of winking "thank you" to Pete and his generation.  Fred Mitchell and Pete were working on the #38 car in Fred's workshop, and they called for some help from a chap who had dropped in, a farm worker who was wearing big steel-toed boots.  Fred was welding some steel plate onto the car, and he said to "Ah, just the bloke we need — stand up on this, will you, to hold it in place", and also "But keep still and shut your eyes because of the sparks."  You can guess the next bit --- Fred took a piece of scrap and tack-welded the man's boots to the #38 chassis …

The "King of Tar" 

The 1967 World Champ George Ansell 375, the tarmac titan, naturally won the Harringy qualifying round in 1970 [see below] before going on to the 1970 WF semi on Coventry's tricky shale --- and won that too.  George generously gave the QR trophy to his number one fan Ian Snoad.  Ian had followed the racing at Harringay since the age of 8, and many years later contacted George's ex-mechanic Jim Bunyan, and George himself.  Ian sent this handsome photo, saying he'd not part with it for all the money in the world.

Wave the Flag!

Ex- Harringay banger racer Ian Snoad also owns this flag from the good old days:

Two classic track programmes, from 1959 and 1960

[Brandon programme from Andrew Lively]

This is not a personal home page. I set it up to share a specialized topic for relatively few people world-wide: BriSCA "Stock-car racing" as the phrase has applied in Britain since 1954, and the early days of drag racing in Britain. This is a nostalgia page about rough-'n'-ready forms of motor sport that have too often been misunderstood or looked down on. 

British stock-car racing and drag racing thrives today in a sophisticated and high-tech way, but this web site is dedicated especially to the racers who entertained us in the 1960's and 70's.  I started with a collection of old snapshots I'd kept in a shoe box;  but over the years, many kind people have sent me their stories and their own photos. Ex-racer Dick [now 'Rick'] Young has been especially helpful with pictures and stories. This website is now become a collective and communal celebration on the part of fans who, like me, admired the early era of stock-car racing and drag racing.  Some of them are or were racers;  some are the sons and daughters even grandsons of racers featured here.  It has been wonderful to hear from you good folks over the years.  Keep 'em coming! 

You'll need a couple of hours to go through this pictorial history.  Click on those headings at the top and bottom of the pages, and you'll find a ton of stories and technical facts, plus my opinions, and most photos are a link to click on.   

I know very little about computers, and can barely work this machine, so no comments, please.

The only personal information you get is that I taught technical and business writing for 30 years at the BC Institute of Technology, in Canada, but I grew up in Brixworth (rural Northamptonshire UK). The field where I herded the sheep is now occupied by Indy-and-Grand Prix-winning ILMOR / Mercedes Racing Engines.  I also lived in Birmingham , North London,  Redhill (Surrey), Bristol, the South of France, and Vancouver BC, Canada. If anything you see here makes sense or revives memories, say "Hi" on spratton@hotmail.com

Below: Summer 2004, and I was happy to be back at Brandon Stadium for the first time since 1966, beside Andy Smith's and Tony Smith's cars:

-- and that's me showing off after some passenger "hot laps" on the Silverstone GP circuit in 2007 --- if I lived permanently in England I'd go bankrupt paying for more/more/more of this, because it's SO addictive. Many outfits sell track time at different locations, but this was Silverstone Circuit itself, and they had several professional racers on hand (looking for a chance to get some practice in)   My driver was Charlie Hollings, a serious F3 competitor, and his terse instructions were "hang on tight and don't touch anything!"  Just being a passenger exhausted me; this was a full-race Caterham R400, and it felt like being shot out of a cannon onto a toboggan run. With no intention of actually racing, I took a two-day racing course at a tight road circuit near Vancouver, in March 2009.  I borrowed a stripped-out Honda CRX and had a ball, though I think I come under the label "difficult learner" ---, and received a couple of black-flag warnings for going a bit over my actual skill level. Here I am leading a posh Porsche into Turn 2 --- yes, he soon passed.  Nothing like a serious training course to make you eat humble pie when you thought you were pretty good. July 2009: I visited Earls Barton to look at Aubrey Leighton's old garage, and found it is now in the hands of a hard-working racing family.  The boss, Antony Etheridge, and his sons and daughter run a flourishing 24-hour rescue / service outfit, A.E.S. Their racing motto is "Team Ethers: Hated but Rated"  and the whole family gets out on the ovals, from bombers and IncaRods to Rebels, F2 and even an occasional F1.  Nathan Etheridge has been a Masters and British champ in Rebels, and he was going to be racing at Buxton's Hi-Edge raceway later in June.  Coincidence: I'd booked a week's break in the Peaks at the same time, so off I went, and met him there:   -- and here Nathan storms into turn 1 at Buxton.

Speakers on: Remember the Rinkydink theme they played over the Tannoy?

  October 2009:   If you enjoyed Sunday afternoons at Brafield Stadium, whether early-birds with a picnic or just-in-time race fans, you were "serenaded" for 14 years from 1963 to 1977 by a fascinating chap billed as 'Rick' Thomas, real name Russ Thomas.  Russ "lived and breathed stock cars", and early on had the gumption to buttonhole manager Graham Guthrie and owner John La Trobe about having music.  Before that, Geoff Barnett had only played tape recordings of Alan Freeman's PICK OF THE POPS, and the only records at Brafield were God Save The Queen, Bobby's Girl, and the Tornadoes' Globetrotter.  Russ persisted until they let him start with a Dansette Junior record player in front of the mike.  
In 1965 La Trobe splashed out on a new PA system, and along with it a disco style twin-deck Garrard player that let Russ fade records in and out.   If "Rinky Dink" by the Johnny Howard Band stuck in your mind, it's because Russ chose it and kept on playing it, and eventually other tracks in England and Holland copied the idea.  Despite people groaning "Oh no, not again" when Rinky Dink started up,  drivers and mechanics came to appreciate it as an ideal "races starting" reminder.  

For years Brafield's PA system ran all day on a single car battery.  When it broke down, Russ would have to tour the track in a truck, holding up the race results chalked on a blackboard ---!  

Geoff Barnett had earlier been the Staines manager/commentator, and was a firm believer in entertainment --- brass bands, gymnastics displays, backwards races, the terrifying Australian speedway sidecars, spectator laps [1962 photo], burst-a-balloon, Senior-vs-Junior match races, climb-the-greasy-pole, comic commentaries, you name it, and even sudden spontaneous prizes for (an example) "Look, Aubrey Leighton's under his car doing repairs --- the first girl to run across and give Aubrey a kiss, wins three bottles of Coke!"  

Russ has for years dabbled in the early history of the stadium and its cast of weird and wonderful showmen and impresarios ---  I hope he writes a book about it one day. Russ first trained as a motor mechanic in Northampton, and developed his career into sign-painting, becoming a lifelong sign painter, doing cars (including stockers of course), shops, antiques, vintage machinery and specializing in the arcane arts of canal-boat and fairground decoration.   Russ loves and collects and compiles the classic pop music of the fifties and sixties.  I'll finish with Russ's cheerful retrospective:

"I got a bird's eye view of some fantastic racing, witnessed the start of banger racing and the attempted revival of speedway at the track. I met people from all walks of life from all over the world, some famous, some infamous, made many friends and enjoyed every minute of it."  
 

In the words of an Alan Price song --- "Lucky Man."

 

Also the outrageous Nut Rocker by "Bee Bumble and the Stingers", which occasionally played at Brafield.  (No. 1 in 1962's hit parade, a take-off of Tchaikovsky's NUTCRACKER, and for years played at Southampton ice rink.)

If you followed the Bangers, you know this well:  MARCH OF THE MODS, by the Joe Loss Orchestra. Thanks for this to London banger racer Ian Snoad, who was and is the number one George Ansell fan and stays in touch with George.  Ian says he "basically grew up at Harringay Stadium".  

How about the Spedeworth favourite, I WAS KAISER BILL'S BATMAN by Whistling Jack Smith?  (A YouTube clip of it  from 1967 -- poor Jack works hard to keep audience interest with just his whistle and his medals --- and even the whistling is probably synched!.)

I just came across this Banger Tunes website and will let you enjoy finding and listening to the 36 tunes on it, including  "Stock Car Racing is Magic". OOPS, APRIL 2009 THAT BANGER SITE APPEARS TO BE "DEAD". So click on this link to YouTube for the song.

BBC Radio Goes in to Stock Car History

  March 2010: [from a 1960 BSCDA newsletter, courtesy of Steve Farndon]   Several stock car sites have mentioned this film:  "CRASHING THROUGH" was showing in 1960; if anyone has seen it since, please e-mail me? It was in the Rank Films series "Look at Life".

Books, Badges, and Programmes

Terrific DVD: Les Cotton has available a DVD (see sleeve image) of wild stock-car action from the 'real' Belle Vue in 1986, the new Belle Vue in 2004, and Sheffield in 1987: get in touch with Les:  stoxdvds@googlemail.com

 

The Ultimate Books: Between them, Keith Barber and Malc Aylott have given us the last word in stock-car histories.  If you see these (eg at Keith's stall?) anywhere, dish out the dosh.  Here's one.  Here's the other.  They cost a few quid, but you'd spend the same on a bad night at the pub.  To keep myself honest, I have refrained from 'stealing' from these books for my site, as that would not be fair.

Another "Ultimate" stock-car book: Who drove #304?  What years did Chippie Weston drive? Where was Karl Grossman from?  How do you sort it all out, especially when over the years, #21 has been assigned to fourteen different drivers.  Put your hands together (and in your wallet) for Mike Greenwood, who with son John Greenwood and Granville Holmes, has issued the updated and improved 2008 3rd edition [click on it:] of

STOCK CAR DRIVERS: an index of registered UK Formula One stock car drivers
and their racing numbers 1957-2007.

You can get it from Photostox, 17 Willingham Close, Sothall, Sheffield, S20 2PD, or contact  mike@photostox.demon.co.uk  Remember a driver's name?  This book has over 2,000 surnames in A-Z order.  Remember a number?  Same thing in numerical order, all with the driver's full name, home town, and years racing.

Another book:  Andrew Weltch (http://www.ovaltrack.co.uk/andyweltch.htm) is a long-time writer-journalist-announcer who has with Richard Neil, published several oval-track books.  Here are the covers of four of them, and you can order them direct from his website.  Backtracks.   Hot Rods.  Superstox.  F2s in Devon and Cornwall.

  May 2009:  New magazine on the block:  if you're visiting this website because you appreciate the good old days, then you should think about Oval Track Classic magazine.  The first issue came out in Spring 2009, from YBA Publications, the folks who brought you Short Circuit Magazine.  Here's their issue #3 cover: 

They have many veteran racers on hand, with their stories and photos from all the short circuit formulae, for instance Dave Willis at Aldershot, doing what those cars did so well!  The mag covers present-day revival / heritage cars and racing, as well as fascinating archival material going back up to 50 years.

Oval Track Classic is at:  www.ovaltrackclassic.co.uk  

Where are those badges and stickers you collected?

These may remind you:

November 2009: Mark Crisp acquired this beauty at a garage where he worked over 40 years ago -- since the "fabulous Formula II" cars were called Juniors for several years after their 1961 birth, this high-quality badge is probably 1964-onwards.  A very professional design compared to many of the badges back then.

  September 2009: Belle Vue fans out there may remember this badge, below, preserved by Terry Dickinson on his "badge waistcoat" (like the old cockney Pearly Kings and Queens serious stock car supporters were often covered with badges.)

"Chizzy" supporters collected this one. BSCDA Membership, then ("worn with pride") their coveted driver's patch.  Aye lad, the North knows how to race, at Aycliffe.  Next: Belle Vue, what a disgrace that the authorities let it be demolished, an unforgivable bit of "development" .   How's about Lincolnshire's  Cadwell Park? Don't forget Kings Lynn    Next: Coventry's badge ("Brandon" if you're old ---).  Down to Notts, where Long Eaton put on great shows. South a bit to Leicester.  In Northants, Brafield printed a rather weird image of a "stock-car", but it brought the crowds in.  Down south, Harringay Stadium's badge. Here is the rare Brands Hatch acknowledgement of stock car racing.  Next, Weymouth's sticker.  Further still, the Mendip, where the lovely Bristol track sits in an old reservoir depression on the very top of the hills. Down west we go to St. Austell. [stickers courtesy of Rick Young's collection] 

 An early Brafield Stadium sticker, courtesy of Chris "Totter" Holmes, Jock Lloyd 131's long time mechanic.

 Model Stock Cars

Here (and on my Links page) is an excellent website by expert modeller Colin Moss: http://www.mossmodels.co.uk/index.htm

July 2009:  
Justin Small was lucky as a kid in the 1980's to have a model-making father, whose favourite cars/drivers are shown here (tiny gems, parked beside the towing Oxo box on a shelf!):  SuperStu 1;  
one of the Staffordshire Finnikins 55;    Willie's #2;  Dave Berresford's 260;  and Dan Clarke 203

August 2009:  Thanks to Mark Crisp, who took some "Heritage" car photos at a 2007 Brafield meet that included Heritage cars, to be shown elsewhere.  But the highlight is this amazing display case full of perfect accurate models of the great stock cars of four decades. Neither Mark nor I know who created these models, so please if you know, give me an e-mail.   I also  cropped the photo to show a close-up of one small display section here.

October 2009: Some serious 'working' model stock-cars.  Terry Dickinson has raced radio-controlled stock cars (3.5cc motors) for many years, scoring high in championships, in the UK and in Holland, at meets that attract anywhere from 40 to 90+ "drivers".  Car # 3 was a hard used racer for several years, and sports the traditional roof fin.  The other two cars are display models, without the rugged steel chassis that racers need. Terry's models are accurate down to pedals and seat belts.

 
Stock Car Programmes

 August 2010:  Graham Cox scanned this Brands Hatch programme from the historic first stock-car meet on April 10th, 1966, with winners written in. Apologies to Graham for sitting on these scans for so long.

Cover; 

Pete Arnold's regular news page; 

Driver profiles and Match race; 

Pete Arnold's intro for newcomers;  

Heats 1 and 2;  

Heat 3 and Consie;  

Final.

:  May 2010:  Long Eaton rivalled Brafield for "oldest track", as shown by this 1955 programme cover, and Graham Cox kindly scanned the full contents which you can see in The Early Days section of this site. 

: November 2009:

Another Barry Redman contribution, and the indefatigable Gerry Dommet was promoting Hell Drivers and stock cars at Weymouth's Wessex Stadium in 1958.  The 81 car is "Killer" Sayers from Nottingham --- imagine trying to enter a race under that nickname today.

October 2009:  Ian Melton is proud owner of this mint Coventry/Brandon World Final poster --- there's no year printed on it, but the interesting "artist's impression" is  adapted from this real  track photograph of the 1950's -- but which track?  The trees look like Brafield but Brafield didn't have lights?  Between the Brandon WFs of 1960 and 1964, I am putting my money on the 1960 meet.   March 2010, Trevor Chater confirms this is indeed the 1960 poster.

 October 2009:  From ex-racer Barry Redman #151, a trip back through 54 years to Staines, on 1st June 1956:  the programme cover.  Look closer here and remember that, post-war and with National Service, soldiers enjoyed discounts (and some of you remember it was normal practice to pick up any soldier hitch-hiking in uniform, anywhere in Britain).  Also, notice that good old phrase, the "popular enclosure" --- like the public bar vs the lounge bar.  Then, the inside pages, showing famous and less-familiar names, racing under the old numbering system.

   September 2009:  Historic programme, kindly scanned and sent by Terry Dickinson.  Belle Vue, October 30th, 1954, with Johnnie Hoskins's notes and all the drivers, and some results pencilled in.  This was apparently the seventh meeting of that inaugural year at Belle Vue. The six double-pages are scanned at high resolution, so you can zoom in and get every detail, even if it takes a while to open.  Terry and his father spectated for many years, and both raced saloon formulas on ovals, and it was his dad who picked up that historic programme at Hyde Road all those years ago. Thanks a million to Terry for this gem.  

Front and back covers;  first inside pages;  

Next two pages;  centre-spread with drivers and results;  

Next two inside pages;  last two.

 August 2009:  Gavin Davis found a few stock car treasures among his collection of speedway programmes, and kindly sent me this bit of history --- a stock-car fan's handwriting in Biro on the Southampton programme for Tuesday 12th October 1954.  The wonderfully named "Maxie Bacon" from Plumstead won the Consolation and collected 12 pounds. And here is its cover.

Move on eight years to Tuesday 2nd October 1962, and some familiar names line up at Southampton, including Danny Bassett and Maxie Bacon, who had both been there in '54. Here too is its cover.

  August 2009:  Mark Crisp kindly dug out this Long Eaton programme from 19th May 1973:  Cover;  Heat 1 names;  Heat 2 names;  L.E. promoter Keith Barber's unmistakable cartoons;  a programme photo of Smithy vs Len Knapton.

Here are 12 programme covers scanned for us by Trevor Richings, all early 1960's, and an early one from Ken Mason.  I will leave you to read the exact dates from the covers.  This brings back memories:

Brafield 1963;  Belle Vue 1963;  

Hednesford 1963;  Leicester WF Qualifying Round1963;  

Matcham's Park 1964;  Norwich, 1963;  

Plymouth 1963; Southampton 1963;  

Staines 1958 from Ken Mason;  Swindon F2 Junior WF 1964;  

West Ham WF 1965;  White City 1962.

February 2009:  Brian Clements, long-time veteran F2 fan, sent these scans of a  Walthamstow Whitsun 1965 programme: a then-traditional "mixed meet" of Juniors and Seniors, with star drivers like Dougie Wardropper, Chick Woodroffe, etc, racing both formulas. Here is the (June 7th) programme cover.  Here are the first two races, showing winners and placemen.  Here are the third and fourth races, and the trophy race, again with results added.   More of Brian's histororic programmes can be seen in the Junior F2 section of my site.

Also from Brian, this programme from Plymouth's Pennycross Stadium, 1965.   The pages include a comprehensive list of South West drivers, details of the (notoriously rough) team races, and the regular heats.   And the advert for the Plymouth Stock Car Association. 

Pennycross Stadium ran from 1928 to 1972, with greyhounds, speedway, and stock-cars.  I just uncovered a photo of a poster from one of the rock concerts there --- anyone in 1969 shake their long hair and bell-bottoms to FLEETWOOD MAC and "THE HERD"?  Two old aerial photos of Pennycross:  one, and two.

Stories / Heroes / Photos /Criticisms???
E-mail me and I'll reply from my 'real' e-mail (to avoid spam).

Juniors / F2s

Seniors / F1s
in the Sixties

More Seniors / F1s
in the Sixties

The Seventies

Links