British Stock-Car Racing in the 1950s-1970s
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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

and

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

This introductory page explains what's in my site and why; and it's here that I've included photos of stock-car badges, stickers, programmes, audio files, books, and so on. All the other "pages" on my website are devoted to car and driver photos and facts, according to their decade.

Look out for the labels for recent additions. The latest additions are not necessarily at the top of the page! I try to keep drivers' info bunched together, but often a race photo covers several different cars. Also, a driver may appear in two or even three decades, and some photos cannot be dated accurately. Do an "Edit" - "Find" for your favouritet track or driver.

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

Over 400 photos of British stock-cars

"Shield of honour": if you were good enough to qualify into the stock car World Final, you received this shield. 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. 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 "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 …

A classic track program, from 1960

[programme from Andrew Lively]

plus plus plus:

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 is not a personal home page. I set it up to share a specialized topic for a few people world-wide: BriSCA "Stock-car racing" as the phrase has applied in Britain since 1954. This is a nostalgia page about a rough-'n'-ready form of motor sport that has too often been misunderstood or looked down on. British stock-car 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 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 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 acouple 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 teach technical and business writing at the BC Institute of Technology, in Canada, and that I grew up in Brixworth (rural Northamptonshire UK) The farm field where I herded the cattle 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, Vancouver BC, Canada (1978 to date). 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 in a year to pay 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 course at a tight road circuit near Vancouver, this March 2009. I borrowed a stripped-out Honda CRX and had a ball, though I am not a good student, 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. Until then I thought I was pretty handy with a car --- duh.

JULY 2009: A stroke of luck this June, when I visited Earls Barton to look at Aubrey Leighton's old garage, and found it is now in the hands of a busy and hard-working racing family. The boss, father 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 told me 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:

-- and here Nathan storms into turn 1 at Buxton.

Tunes from the tracks

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

October 2009: Those who enjoyed their Sunday afternoons at Brafield Stadium, whether early-birds with a picnic or just-in-time race fans, were "serenaded" for 14 years from 1963 to 1977 by a fascinating chap billed as 'Rick' Thomas, but really Russ Thomas. Russ "lived and breathed stock cars", and had the gumption to buttonhole manager Graham Guthrie and owner John La Trobe about having music. Before that, Geoff Barnett had played tapes 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 twin deck Garrard player (disco style) that let Russ fade records in and out. If "Rinky Dink" by the Johnny Howard Band stuck in your mind, it's because Russ picked it and kept on playing it, and even had it "pirated" by other tracks in England and Holland. Despite people yelling "oh no, not again" when Rinky Dink started up, eventually drivers and mechanics appreciated 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, burst-a-balloon, Senior-vs-Junior match races, climb-the-greasy-pole, comic commentaries, and sudden spontaneous prizes for (an example) "AUBREY LEIGHTON'S UNDER HIS CAR FIXING IT --- FIRST GIRL TO RUN ACROSS AND KISS AUBREY 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: "O 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.)

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

February 2009: Out of the blue, I was contacted by Radio Northampton, who were doing a series of pieces about local heroes, and who had evidently come across my website. They wanted to hear about Aubrey Leighton #42, so here is a 13-minute conversation between myself and the excellent interviewer John Griff on his afternoon show of Thursday 19th February 2009. Like most people, I hated hearing my own voice when it's recorded.

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? Well, 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 'cos 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:

oval 1

See Brian Jones up there? That body hasn't a single piece of Topolino tin on it; it's Jones-crafted dead ringer, a Heritage car he's racing, in memory of his years-aho exploits which you can see in the JUNIORS section of this site. And how d'you like that lovely "Pop" replica racer below?

oval 2

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 your stickers and badges now?

Badges and stickers you may recognize:

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 tidy, profesional design compared to many of the badges back then.

September 2009: Belle Vue fans out there may remember this badge, preserved by Terry Dickinson on his "badge waistcoat" (the old cockney Pearly Kings and Queens had nothing on some serious stock car supporters!)

"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 Dick Young's collection]

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

Model Stock Cars

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

: 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.

Also, how about Kent's Lydden Hill circuit in 1956; the photo of Ken Freeman and Pat Willis is high enough resolution that I will enlarge it for the EARLY DAYS section of this site. Thanks, Barry!

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.

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 common 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.

I will extract some of the photos and save them into the "Early Days / Fifties" section of this site.

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).

(Home)

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