Way back in history:
Some 1950s shots
*Look
for  labels:
new additions are scattered randomly throughout the page.
March 2010: Three
remarkable photographs from Tamworth, and I am putting them here
because "the sixties" are getting full, and Tamworth opened in 1960;
one shows one of Sid Farndon's first Junior 10 races, which
started
about 1960. The photos were taken by a then-young lad with
his
father's camera, and he has kindly sent the scans to me; I am crossing
mmy fingers that there may be more ---. The car numbers are hard
to read but I can make out a few if I enlarge the views. I have
deliberately left them at high resolution and not cropped. In all
cases you can see the greyhound track and floodlights of Tamworth.
Thanks to Trevor Chater for establishing the decade. First photo; second photo; third photo
Thanks to David Hughes, who has also donated some Hednesford pics in the SENIORS IN THE SIXTIES section. David
also corroborates 1960 or 61 because the track Tannoy continually
played "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ricky Valance, which made #1 on the
hit parade in England in 1960. The lyrics here!
Fruary 2010: Early Brafield photo featuring numbers 43 and 51.
Four different drivers registered under #43 during the fifties,
one of which was Danny Bassett. The number 51 was either Willie
Watts from Essex or Sam Stewart from Norfolk. Run for it ---! Starter Jack Barrick uses his soccer referee skills to escape from the path of Trevor Frost's 68 car as it zooms over the start-finish line at Brafield in 1959.
February 2010: Sleek looking "coupe" with a flathead motor, shown here rather damaged, is at West Ham in 1959, driven by Vic Webb #33 from Bristol.
Where is this? --- the photo
is in a Brandon programme in 1959, but the open countryside suggests it
is one of the other two tracks owned by Midlands Sports Stadiums
Ltd (Leicester more likely than West Ham). I'd like to thank Ken Mason for his memories and detective work on identifying tracks, throughout this website.
March 2010: Trevor Chater bids for Ringwood or Lydden, on the grounds that promoters did not always use their own photos.
The
389 car is a puzzle, as the Mike Greenwood reference book doesn't list a
# 389 until Earl Testo in 1962. The 132 car is Chez Chesson from
Kent.
January 2010: Cliff Richard and The Drifters, on a stock car site?
Okay:
In August 1959, Long Eaton thought it would be a great
thing to invite Cliff Richard to make an appearance at their September
race meet. (After all, Staines persuaded Diana Dors to appear at their world qualifying round). At that time Cliff was touring with The Drifters (pre-Shadows). Here is Long Eaton's invitation,
and the bad-news reply from Cliff's manager. As far as I can see,
LE just wanted Cliff to turn up and say hi and present trophies.
Tito Burns, the London impresario and manager of the Searchers
and Dusty Springfield, wanted big money, (perhaps thinking it was a mini-concert deal they were looking for).
In any case, 1959 was a tough year for Cliff, who had been
overworking and developing laryngitis and physical collapse. How big a
fee was £500 in 1959? Using the retail price index, it would be about
£9,000. Could you get a popular singer to appear today for
£9,000?
November 2009: Two tough guys battle it out: from a 1956 Lydden Hill programme, courtesy of ex-racer Barry Redman, here are Pat Willis and Ken Freeman going at it. \
October 2009: Behind the Slough garage of Bill Webb (#162 in the early numbering system) we see Ted Pankhurst's 102 car,
and the dark-shirted "cool dude" is Bill's son Ron, later to race under
56 and 481. The photo was taken in approx. 1956. Ron's
brother Pete Webb was famous under #8, and their older brother Eric was
a non-racing member of the pack. My thanks to Barry Redman for the photo.
October 2009: A
bit of reading --- Britain's "Daily Telegraph" in April 2004 did a very
good job of researching the early history of stock-car racing, and
interviewed many of the surviving movers and shakers. The article,
entitled "The Trail Blazers", is worth a read.
September 2009: In my "home page" section, Terry Dickinson provided scans of a rare 1954 Belle Vue programme;
they are such high resolution that I have cropped and extracted
five excellent photos of cars and drivers from that meeting:
Nose-to-nose;
A Bentley (yes, one of those) gets pushed around.
Frank Haft carries a newspaper poster.
Joe Soap is what he called himself.
Tanya Crouch and John Goody chat.
August 2009: I cannot recall where and how I got this photo scan, of the pioneer racer Jack Tipping, with pre-1957 BriSCA numbering. Whoever sent it, let me know! July 2009: from
Ian Melton, six photos of cars that bridged the end of the fifties and
the start of the sixties: original snapshots, not programme
reprints. Two Vics side by side, Vic Muggeridge in 255 and Vic Ferriday in 73. Then the Cyril Ainsworth [from Newbury] #106. Next, the flathead-engined car of Johnny King, probably 1958 / 1959. Johnny King's Auto Moly Special #6. Johnny's son Chris King has since corrected my original "ex-Brise" label on this. Then ex-speedway rider Jimmy Wright's 236 car
parked in front of Ellis Ford's 183, and I have a feeling that those
young chaps appear in another Ellis Ford photo elsewhere on this site!
Another 'mystery': this neat and smart "hot rod" coupe, #3
(before Ellis used #3) could be that if American Melvin Linville if the
photo is 1961 or 1962. If it's 1957 to 1960, then it's Graham
Warner from Bury St. Edmunds. [Though that coupe looks so much like Pete Tucker's cars, too!)
March 2009: Treasure Trove! Probably the earliest photo in existence of the dawn of Brafield Stadium, 1948.
A big thank-you to Russ Thomas, the long-time Brafield announcer
/ deejay, and driver # 286 for the following: here are Russ's words:.
It is a photo of Dave Hughes' Irish brother-in-law, who with a friend have dug
out the start straight at Brafield Stadium in 1948. One of the two young lads is
the son of midget racer Arch Hanscombe.
Dave Hughes was a baker at
Cogenhoe. [ If you go to Northants, say "COOK-KNOW" ] He was mad keen on speedway and pre-war would organize coach trips
(via Yorks coaches no doubt) to major events. In doing so he got a lot of local
people interested in the sport.
After the war he saw the midget
racing cars, thought they had potential and bought a 'set' of Skirrows to race
as a team. They started practicing and holding their own very unofficial
meetings in a field near the village of Whiston. This wasn't very successful as
the field was only accessible across other fields, so they started
looking for something better. A local character was running dogs on the field
that is now Brafield stadium/NIR and they approached him to try and run the cars
there. He was reluctant and thought they needed planning permission. They
applied for this and were turned down at first, but eventually were given permission and,
I believe they then bought the field from the "dog man". This is where the
photo comes in. They dug the first layouts by hand, then their star driver,
American ex GP driver Spike Rhiando was given the job of commissioning and
overseeing work with mechanical plant. I think the track was first up and
running properly in 1949. The midgets never attained the success that was hoped
for and I think Dave had to organize a lot of the team events and then try and
sell them to promoters as a 'package'. They did race all over the country,
however, through until stock cars took over.
Two early pictures of the Brafield Midget Racing team. In the closer-up photo, the driver
standing on the left is Aubrey Leighton's old 'partner in crime', Wilf Davis (whose
ruthless team tactics got Aubrey's cars banned, and led to one of the
sport's most infamous on-and-off track skirmishes at Brafield,
involving drivers, mechanics, and spectators ----).
The fella that started it all, Dave
Hughes, is in the car.
More "March Midget" info from Russ Thomas, found from elsewhere on the 'Net: "Old-time midget car
driver Dave Hughes, who pioneered the British revival when he built the original
Bradfield track in 1949, helped by American driver Spike Rhiando, blames the
early post-war attitude of speedway promoters for the sport's decline from 1W
onwards. He bought his first Skirrow midget car during the 1939-45 war, thinking
that the pre-war build up of the sport would continue when hostilities ceased.
But the speedway bosses effectively blocked midget car racing's come-back in
Britain, including warding off an American attempt in 1948 to establish the
cars. In 1948, Hughes met pre-war driver Gene Crowley who hoped to re-establish
the sport, but then lost interest in promoting the sport. Hughes then bought a
dozen Skirrow midgets, and besides running the company also drove in meetings.
In 1982 Hughes was intending to revive his interest in midget car promotion."
March 2010: Did
these midgets get built and raced? Steve Farndon sent some scans of the
July1960 BSCDA newsletter, and among its news items was this:
January 2010: Russ Thomas brings more treasure from the chest: here is a promotional booklet printed and distributed by the Hughes brothers in 1950 to publicize midget racing. More below:
Two inside pages.
Two more pages
Fold-out map with advertisers.
February 2010: More
midget magic, thanks to James Gould, the grandson of the famous racer
Wilf Davis, and James's information connects with Russ Thomas's
Brafield bits. The struggle to bump-start midget as a sustainable
sport took Dave Hughes and his companions all over. Here is
a pdf file of a 1952 programme from Brough Park (Byker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne). Here below is Wilf Davis, all 6ft 4in of him to fit in the tiny car.
Here is a publicity photo of midgets on the track. The programme mentions something that I bet not many people knew: Wilf's brother Stringer Davis was married to Dame Margaret Rutherford,
the famous stage and film actress, and appeared in several Miss Marple
films with her, and was friends with the great Sir John Gielgud.
November 2009: also on my "Links" page, thanks to John Hyam, here is a site that will fascinate you: http://midgetcarpanorama.proboards.com/index.cgiIn
1948 film-star Lana Turner, with her millionaire husband,
helped ship 20 (twenty) midget racers from the States for an English
tour. Among the tracks they visited were Charlton Athletic's
Valley ground, Walthamstow Stadium, and Stamford Bridge. The
whole story is told and illustrated on this website.
I have
found a press photograph of Lana
Turner on a parade lap of Stamford Bridge stadium (Chelsea FC's
home). The arrival of the midget racers (with V8-60 motors)
brought in 50,000 fans on the day! One of the directors of
this tour was listed as Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, a name
we all remember popping up as producer on the early James Bond films! The
midget tour brought with it 8,000 gallons of methanol and 500 tyres. Midget racer, [more
photos below] courtesy
of Clayton Sampson, who raced this "Skirrow"
car. The midget was built in the 1930's and was one of
several midgets owned by a man named Hughes, a baker from Cogenhoe. It
had a JAP 1100cc air-cooled V-twin motor, giving four-wheel drive,
no differentials, through TWO clutches -- one at each end -- (but
only one pedal). The motor ran on alky fuels, with a wicked
15:1 compression ratio, which engine-braked the thing so fiercely
with the gas off that no brakes were required. Some people
may recall these motors needed careful "pull-it-back-off-compression" before
attempting a hefty push-start. Clayton fondly remembers the
very high performance (and the unforgettable din) of these tiny
cars, which he raced mostly on shale tracks (Coventry).
Sadly, USAF veteran Clayton Sampson is no longer with us, but his wife
Margaret has kindly sent these three snapshots
from those days. First, Clayton in
the Skirrow: Second, Clayton "needing
a shoe-horn to get in" as he used to tell Margaret. For
any USAF viewers, here's Clayton
in uniform with wife Margaret and baby daughter Marie. More midgets: I think I found these two photos on the Hulton Archive photo collection: Midget 1; and Midget 2.
Just
for a comparison, fifty years later, here are two Grand Prix Midgets at
Buxton raceway in 2007, courteasy of Rogers Oval Racing Home Page.
March 2009: Brian Clements sends these four interesting scans of the VERY FIRST BRAFIELD PROGRAMME, from a limited edition painstakingly reproduced by Keith Barber in the 1970's. Keith also reproduced the first New Cross programme, and important Harringay and West Ham ones. [Outside oval tracks, Keith had studied Graphics at Coventry CAT, and was of course an accomplished draughtsman].
For Sunday 15th 1955, "Digger" Pugh is writing the inside notes. Here are the back and front covers. Here are pages 2 and 3,
with Geoff Barnet named, and that eternal warning "Cameras Prohibited",
which makes you smile, given the tens of thousands of Brafield
photographs over the years. Look at the centre spread of entrants and recall those names, e.g. Roy Goodman -- did even he guess he would still be racing 40 years later? The Grand Final paid 30 pounds
---- big money in 1955 (my gross wage ten years later in 1964 was 8
pounds a week) Notice that "B.A.S.C.A.R" intended to share racing
with Sweden, Spain, and Belgium. Thanks again to Brian Clements (who hastened to admit that No, he was not there that day in 1955 ---.)
July 2009: Tragedy we don't enjoy rembering. John Payne, who has controbuted quite a bit to this 'early days' section, scanned three original
newspaper clippings in his archive that described the terrible 1955
crash at Brandon in which Mrs Nese ["Nessie"]
Hodgkins was killed,
driving car 39, in the same race as her husband Jack Hodgkins, #38.
In addition, Nigel Stennett-Cox, who used to work for Jack and
who today still knows him and his daughter, sent the night's Coventry programme and the following meet's programme notes. I have the scans of the three newspaper articles,
which of course are dramatic and sensational, one of which pretty much
aims at banning the sport. I will gladly e-mail the scans to
anyone interested who contacts me,
but I don't feel like publishing them here. Nigel points out that
Nese Hodgkins, who raced stock cars even before the better-known Tanya
Crouch, was driving a Ford Model 68 Touring on that fateful night.
The
newspaper clippings from 54 years ago, show that sensationalism
reigned.
January 2009: The Ranger STRANGER story:
A big thank-you to the Ranger family who have run Ranger's Garage in
Durrington near Stonehenge for over 50 years, for the following
historic photos. Alan Ranger scanned and sent them, and his
father Michael, ex-autocrosser, karter, and rally man, supplied the
facts. It was grandfather Sylvan "Dub" Ranger had built the #100 "The Stranger" stock car raced by Cliff Tindall, shown here in 1958 at Matchams Park. Cliff and their mechanic Stan Cottrell were expert army-trained lorry mechanics. [Here I must point out that I've seen three different spellings of Cliff's last name.] The car in these photos looks a lot like a Pilot, but is identifiable [thanks to Ford V-8 ace Mick Gamble] as a Ford V-8 Model 62, with a side-valve of about 2.6L, smaller than the later Pilots .
No matter, as the Rangers were in it for fun, not for
championships, and were on that wonderful Southern "circus circuit" of
tracks with wild men like Pete Tucker and
Gerry Dommet, racing at Southampton, Aldershot, Matchams Park, Weymouth,
Staines (Michael remembers the hour-long traffic jam on Staines Bridge whenever there was a race), and West Ham with occasional expeditions to Brafield, Brandon, and even Long
Eaton --- a major trek in the fifties. Other
regulars who "Dub" and Michael knew were Don Mason from
Chichester, Reg May, Frank Harris from Southampton, Harry Foot who
drove from the back seat of his car; 'crossover' kart pioneers like
Chick Woodroffe and Johnny Brise, and early autocrossers who would
later dominate hot-rods, George Polley and Barry Lee. The
Rangers still have some early cine footage of races, including the
terrifying stunt antics of Exeter's Ellis Dore and his sister, and Pete
Tucker racing at Matchams, and of a demonstration race at Pewsey
Carnival in Wiltshire. Here The Stranger is
in the pits, and here up on the lorry. Here is the Stranger coming out of a turn, and here in a night race against 122 Tom Ryder of Stepney, perhaps the same night as this 1958 West Ham photo showing "Dub" Ranger and Cliff. Next, Sylvan's proud son Michael holding up the Tongham Trophy
that Cliff had just won at Aldershot. Before we move on to some "other
folk's cars", also from the Ranger album, a fascinating photo of a BSCDA dinner held in '58 or '59
in the Tottenham Court Road, with everyone in their best suits. I
am waiting for more definite information, but I believe that Sylvan and
young Michael are on the far left, and the rather elegant lady is the
wife of Gil Cox (#91) from Bournemouth, who was a 'gent' with money who
raced a powerful (and expensive) Railton car on stock car tracks.
The early days of the sport saw a number of what we'd call
upper-class people having fun with unusual motors like Bentleys; were
they slumming? Not really -- more likely looking for some
adventure in plain old post-war England.
Now for "the others", from the Ranger album: Sprog Bennet #32 from Wembley, jumps barrels between Freddie Mitchell and 104 Ted Pankhurst. Fred and Ted neck-and-neck on track. Possibly (?) Southampton, with #23 leading the pack out of the corner. Finally, two photos of a stunt driver (same car in both) doing ramp jumps, one of them into a pantechnicon. (I threw that word in to see how many old 'uns remember the name officially used for furniture lorries: "pantechnicons").
Why call their car THE STRANGER? If you look closely at the side of the car you see a diagram outline of Stonehenge. Cliff Tindall was from Salisbury ( Stonehenge country), and the name came from ST (Stonehenge) + RANGER! Thanks
to Stan and Diane Hollingdale for identifying Cliff as the driver
in my earlier older photograph on this site. Stan
and brother Ken raced in the golden era, Ken in Seniors/F1's from
1958, and Stan in Spedeworth from 1963. More
early history, a big thanks to Charlotte Batchelor. The year is
"sometime in the fifties", and the scene is Birmingham's Perry Bar
track. From left to right the racers and fans, are
"Mad" Mason with his famous smirk, an unnamed man, then Charlotte's white-overalled grandfather
Reg White. The14-year-old Brian White (Charlotte's father) peers
from the background, then Georgie Chiswell and Len Curtis. Next,
to time-travel forward 10+ years, that same Brian White (76) is
racing a hot rod at Hednesford, a track that he and his father
tarmac'd; and just coming into the photo is Hednesford boss Bill's son
Martin Morris (# 00).
February 2010: A unique slice of history: thanks to Conrad Roe,
whose father Claude Roe (with partner Les Marshall) was the first
pioneer to develop the old Hednesford reservoir into a stock car track.
Below is a photo of their work in the early 1950's.
Conrad
remembers visiting the disused site with his father, and later putting
up posters and selling programmes when the racing first started.
Here is an early panoramic photo of
the huge crowds that filled Hednesford in the 1950's. A dramatic
crash scene, undated, that also shows the amazing crowd size at
Hednesford. Here is the then infamous "Mad" Mason lining up.
Thank
heavens Conrad Roe preserved the following programme from the summer of
1954, clear enough to read the promoter's comments and the names of the
drivers [NOTE: if you click on the images once they appear, they will enlarge enough for easy viewing]:
Cover; pages 2 and 3; pages 8 and 9; pages 10 and 11; centre spread with drivers' names.
Claude Roe was an indefatigable promoter and businessman, and put on a variety of events and entertainment at Hednesford, as shown by this playbill from
1955; the 'Bob Hope' listed there is not the one you're thinking of,
but Ruby Murray was indeed top of the pops in the UK, with seven
top-ten records in 1955 ("Let Me Go, Lover") http://www.rubymurray.org/ .
When
you think that folks in the fifties did NOT have a ton of money to
spend, but nonetheless they still walked, biked, bussed, or drove in
massive numbers to speedway and stock-car races; no cursed TV at home
to drug them! Elsewhere on the site I have cited facts such as
Wembley Lions speedway team having a supporters' club with 66,000
paid-up members at the end of the 1940's, and nights when 80,000 packed
the stadium with another 20,000 locked out in the surrounding streets.
Cars 22 and 19 get involved; look at the size of that crowd. Graham
Brown suggests this photo was not Southampton as originally labelled --
more likely Hednesford's early days under promoter Claude Roe. More Hednesford history: November / December 2008: Thanks to Graham Brown for the print text of this eloquent interview with Bill Morris.
And, below, the grand old man himself, Bill Morris with his son
Martin Morris, sitting in front of the Doug Warner hot rod (before its total restoration by Gordon Bland, who sent this photo):
November 2008: More
1950's programme scans from Trevor Richings. Mid-fifties driver
numbers are sometimes a mystery. As Mike Greenwood explains in
his superb and indispensible reference book "STOCK CAR DRIVERS", 3rd ed.,
regional and local promoters issued their own numbers until about 1957
when a national system was instituted. Anyway, here we go: Staines was the scene
as Jock Lloyd (for the Staines team) mixes it with Ken Freeman # 61,
with Aubrey Leighton 42 of the Brafield team in the background.
The programme identifies Jock as # 13, whose bonnet says "Bull
Terrier", and underneath you can see the flathead Ford V-8 motor.
Heading North again (I think it's Brafield), we see Vic Muggeridge passing the "un-axled" car of Harry Bosworth. At Southampton Another fifties programme scan, unknown location, probably Brafield, 46 and 35 in action; 46 is Arthur Hake from Dunstable. This
photo is famous and has appeared in Keith Barber's publications; taken
at West Ham in the fifties, and reproduced in one of their early
sixties' programmes, it shows 12 and 60 coming to blows. # 60 was registered to Pat Frost (Ipswich) in 1957, and to Eric Wilkinson (Southport)
in 1958. London's Fred Burness and Sheffield's "Stubby" Bell had
# 12 in 1957 and 1958 respectively. Someone will tell me, I bet!
Thanks to Tony Jones for the following four early photos. Two show Tony's father, Wal Jones, clambering through the wreckage of the "Wrecker Meadway" car at Brandon. The next one is also Brandon, and is a track photograph that also appears on the cover of Keith Barber's excellent History of UK Big League Stock Car Racing. Depending on the year,
#16 could be Vic Plioppa of Hornchurch, or Fred Zagni from Ipswich; and
there were too many # 9 registered drivers in the 50's to guess.
Wal Jones was a close friend of the
late great Bill Morris (who lived to be 94 years old, passing away in the autumn of 2008), and as well as mechanic'ing for the Meadway cars, also crewed for Bill's son Martin in Juniors and hot-rods. Tony explained the mystery behind the frequent programme listings of the two drivers "Wrecker Meadway" and "Tatter Meadway".
There were no such real names; Bill Morris drove one car briefly, but handed both over to a mechanic and to his
brother Derek. Their cars were named for the
Meadway Motor Spares company that Bill owned and that his son Martin
later took over. It was named for "The Meadway" area of
East Birmingham where it first operated before moving west to Bordesley Green, closer to the centre.
Lastly from Tony, a Hednesford photo showing # 35 heading out of the picture; November 2009: The 35 car above has been recognized by Derek Bridgett --- it is that of his late brother Bill Bridgett. Derek says: "In
the fifties Bill built three cars; the 35 car in the picture was
his second. The first one had been painted with red and white
stripes (Stoke City's colours!) the second and third cars were white
with red stars, those being the colours worn by the Stoke Potters
Speedway team in the late 40's early 50's; Bill rode for them a
few times. The third car Bill built was also white with red stars but
he only raced it a few times as his "fling" with stock cars died out.
If you look on the top of the car you just might make out a Jolly Roger flag --- I haven't a clue why he put
that on!"  [That
snapshot is 1955 as they set of for Hednesford, with Bill in the white
overalls and, of course wearing a tie; younger readers may not realize
that many tradesmen, lorry drivers for instance, always wore a proper shirt
and tie to work. The
stocker was towed behind Bridgett Snr's 1937 Morris 14, with a simple
iron bar, so all wheels on the road, which meant that they had to have a
driver, with goggles, to steer the thing! On long steep hills, the "driver" would fire up the stock car and P U S H the Morris ---. Those were the days.] "After his stock car episode he began to concentrate
on his motor cycle grass track racing career, which he was very
successful at, eventually winning the National 350cc championship in
1968 at the age of 40! [Photo taken at Ledbury in '54 or '55 as Bill was starting to move from speedway to grass.] Bill did return to stock cars in the late
60's and 70's when he was in partnership with Mike Parker." The Stoke Potters still race, 60 years later, a Newcastle-under-Lyme premier league team. I'd like to thank Derek Bridgett for those historic memories, and for appreciating his late brother Bill's adventures. The Beginning: an historic news clipping, with a big thanks to John Payne, who searched his attic to find and send me a 54-year-old newspaper clipping that reported the VERY FIRST STOCK CAR RACE at Brafield Stadium. John also sent some other newspaper 'treasures', one of which is a photo from an early Brandon meet: Car 135F, with its driver exiting through the windscreen space. Famous among the mid-fifties pioneers was Mac McDonnell,
written up here. As I've commented elsewhere on this site, many
or most of the first racers had seen active service in WW2 or National
Service. Mac had served in a 'Commando' unit --- suitable
training for our sport, eh?! [More of John Payn'es items will appear here soon.] One of the crazy men at Brandon was Bill "Mad Mason", faintly photographed here with his car mascot, a stuffed badger. (note:
for all their antics, most racers were about as 'crazy' as General
Motors -- they knew how to build, organize, and put on a successful
show, and genuinely 'loony' guys did not last long.) Note on viewing old scans: if your cursor shows a + plus sign or -
minus sign on a photo, give it a click. The old half-tone
newspaper photos look odd when digitally scanned at high resolution,
but computers seem to recognize high-res images and give you a chance
to improve viewing. Do
me a favour --- if you spot a name that's familiar and may know
the driver or their family, chase it up for me. Bill Mason's
("Mad Mason") grandson contacted me a few years back and I have lost
his e-mail. More from John: Look at this crowd! Below, from an early Hednesford Hills programme, identified
by eagle-eyed Trevor Chater, who attended Brum's Perry Bar track in
1955 as a babe in arms and after half-a-century of country-wide
spectating, still faithfully attends Coventry. 
Younger
viewers may find it hard to grasp that right into the 1950's a
speedway or stock-car meet often packed in 50,000 to 90,000 fans.
Wembley speedway supporters club had over 60,000 paid-up members.
Many of the first stock-car meets had to lock the gates with
thousands outside.
Here are some driver photographs from the 1950's -- remember to look up any family names:
Jimmy Wright and Max Huiss.
Ted Holt
"Tatter" Meadway.
This happy man is either Bill Morris or his brother Derek Morris,
who appeared in many races under the aliases Wrecker Meadway
and Tatter Meadway.
Brian Kavanagh
Fred Strecker
"Bozzy"!
"The Bandit" has truck at Brandon. Allen Briggs 138 does the deed.
An unknown roll-over.
MARCH 2009 INFO:
Steve Storm sits on a barrel. Nigel Harradine recalls
that "Steve Storm" was a fake name used by a speedway rider whose own
organization did not allow riders to race stock cars. Nigel jokes
that he too has run up against that kind of rule back in 1972.
"Wrecker" Meadway [is it Bill or is it Derek behind the goggles; they must have had a laugh] wears tiger stripes.
From Trevor Riching's archive, a typical "snag" into the unforgiving Brafield steel cable fence for Dick Beaumont #177.
Years
ago Keith Barber kindly gave me a 1959 Brafield programme, which I have
finally scanned. A word about my scanning (usually at 300-400
high resolution): if the image you see is blurry, click the mouse on it
and it may re-size more clearly; the computer seems to know when the
image is too big. Here is the cover: notice that Brafield had already run 9 meetings that year. Then an enlargement showing Sid Farndon's rollover in
front of that venerable Brafield landmark, "Fred's Hot Dog Stand".
April 2009: Thanks to Keith Green for pointing out that Sid Farndon's older brother was Tom Farndon, a Coventry speedway rider and one of the greatest British speedway stars.
The crowded Heat One has 34 cars entered! Here are Heats Two and Three. I see famous names in all three races. Graham Guthrie's report of the August 23 meeting,
which sounds like it was a lot of fun (imagine Dirty Dennis staying in
one piece and on four wheels, to finish in first place ---!). Ken Mason sent me this scan of a 1958 Long Eaton programme,
which matches some info received from Trevor Tennant, the son of Ralph
Tennant # 188, profiled here. The LE rules/regs are shown here.
Ralph raced at LE under "Bozzy" Bosworth's management, and at
Brafield where Geoff Barnet ran the show. Ralph's car was a
typical 3.6 litre side-valve Pilot. In the 1960's Ralph raced a
Junior F2, #584, at a time when the Wesley brothers wreaked havoc on
the track in their Rover 10's (Trevor has an old 8mm film of the
action). Later Ralph raced hot rods at Hednesford,
#45, a Ford 100E with a 1500cc BMC motor, AND a 'customized' Ford 10
van with a saloon top welded on, and a Hillman Minx engine.
Trevor Tennant and his own son Stuart are big in stock-car model making
and racing (Stuart was the 2000 champ).
Winner
of the 1957 World Championship. Here are some snapshots
taken at Aubrey's garage in Earls Barton, courtesy of ex-racer
Steve Gateley, whose father Alan Gateley also raced and knew
Aubrey. First, that
famous grin and moustache. (2) and (3) show
the Leighton Chrysler. Next is Aubrey's
family: wife 'Effie', daughter Carol and son Keith. Next,
perched proudly on dad's car is Aubrey's
son Keith, who went on to a stellar international career in
race engineering. Caution: the
reference to "bomb trailer wheels" may be an error by
the original reporter. Bomb-trailer wheels were 13" items that happened to fit the
bolt pattern on Ford axles, and so nicely replaced the more fragile
15" Ford wheel; Steve Gateley gave me this info. Aubrey
also adapted a Ford
fire engine that could hit 70mph, as his 'ambulance'. Here
is his Auburn based 42 ready
for the first ITV televised race at Brafield in Feb 1959.
Priceless
family photos showing Aubrey Leighton's legendary and infamous
1950's Packard V-12 engined
"destroyer": One shows the
car by itself in the weeds beside Aubrey's garage (Wellingborough road
A45 in Earls Barton), and the second shows young Steve
Gateley [left] sitting with Aubrey's son Keith on its roof. Steve
estimates the date at 1960, but says the car sat there for years even after
it was banned; Aubrey always refused offers for it. Thanks
a lot to Steve for this treasure. I recall Aubrey's final 42 "pink
un" also rusting by
the garage until it went on to other drivers and eventually to Keith Barber. Keith
Leighton went on to a stellar career, from Cosworth engines to Formula 2 and F1 GP
teams [eg World Champ Ronnie Peterson's engineer], to
Indy cars and more — see what a good background does for you.
This
is a notorious photo, originally
printed in Stock Car Racing News in Feb 1965, and reprinted
in Keith Barber's Stock Car Magazine in the last three
or four years but the
crash happened in September 29th 1956 at Brandon (Coventry). Car
#35 is Wilf Davis, Aubrey Leighton's "team-mate" —
officially no teams were allowed — in one of Leighton's big
Packards. A Wilf DAVIES (with
the 'e') ran breakdown services for the Brafield track in the
1950's, along with Aubrey, and Wanklyn Auto Repairs. Was
it the same Wilf? Did the Brafield programme misspell him? Steve
Gateley points out that the numbers visible here were assigned
only for this meeting: #37 is Vic Ferriday, and #12 is "Killer"
Sayers. March 1010 update: the
Brandon crash featured a chap who was easily annoyed: "Sprog" Bennett
from Wembley was Pete Tucker's mechanic (and a racer in his own right),
and at Brandon had attempted to start cutting up Wilf Davis's car!
Here's the famous photo of the Ferriday car 'folded'
nearly in half, with Sprog visible starting to climb the front of the
wreck -----. And 4 years later at Harringay in 1960, when Pete Tucker
and Rod
Dore got into a "fencing" incident, Sprog Bennet got into a fist fight
and the BSCDA banned him from all tracks until further notice! AUBREY and kart racing: Aubrey was one of the first people in
Britain to build a kart (UK kart history is a real hotbed of competing "firsts"), and his design
was, I believe adopted, by nearby AERO KARTS for production. Here is a high-res photo of that
first kart (may look fuzzy but you can download and see better). Another kart pioneer was Ralph Tennant
#188, a skilled engineer from Leamington Spa who not only built
Britain's second-ever kart, but raced stock cars (Seniors, Juniors, and
hot rods), and was a winner in grass-track racing with his home-built
Panther and BSA specials, and who bought extremely hard-to-find kart
wheels and tyres from Aubrey in 1960. Thanks for this info to Trevor Tennant, Ralph's son, who himself, and his champion son, race model stock cars. Important Update, September 2009: One
of the top three sensational-historic events most stock-car fans
know about was the 1956 "Leighton-against-the-World" scuffle at
Brafield Stadium, which resulted in Brafield banning-for-life of eight
BSCDA drivers, including Leighton and Danny Bassett. Here,
courtesy of ex-racer Barry Redman, is a large high-resolution image of
the Pete Arnold BSCDA newsletter
responding to that incident and explaining the lead-up to it.
Keith Barber's book has a dramatic photo of the scuffle. The Leighton Packard
#42 on its lorry in the Brafield pits in 1956. [Steve
Gateley source for photo] [Next photos all courtesy
of Aubrey's daughter Carol:] As
always, Aubrey is
grinning broadly, even though his 42 car has a major "bend" in
it. The mechanic's last name was Anderson — any memories? [Photo
from Carol Cockings]. Here
is the tidy
looking #42, fresh
before any damage, a lovely car.
— and here's the same
#42 getting into some bumper-busting action in 1960. [Programme
from Andy Lively]
The 1957
Champ and his son; notice
"free air" being advertised; also, that's an old Armstrong-Siddeley
hood mascot.
Next, Aubrey outside Earls Barton Motors with his towing
ambulance; notice the sign for "Chassis and body straightening" —
very appropriate for Aubrey! THE CHAMP admires his 1957
World Championship trophy. The
garage front has hardly changed as of 2003. Frank Williams [Williams
Grand Prix, right?] had his very
first formula car fabricated there. From ex-racing mechanic Trevor Richings, a scan of Aubrey on a victory lap with his long-wheelbase Auburn special.
From Ian Melton --- the late great 1957 Aubrey Leighton World Championship Chrysler at Brafield.
Bill
Morris's Meadway
Atom, in 1954, with a young Steve Gateley in charge.
From
time to time people have told me about 1950's movies in which stock-car
racing featured. One that is available in videotape and DVD
is an early Benny Hill comedy-cops-spies-farce called Who
Done It? Filmed in 1956, it has a short scene in which
Benny somehow accidentally gets into a stock-car race at West Ham's stadium (identified thanks to Graham Brown.) I
have not seen the film, but its cast includes substantial actors
like David Kossof, Charles Hawtrey ('Carry-On'
films veteran), Arthur
Lowe, "Fabian" the crooner, early-career policemen Stratford
Johns (Softly
Softly) and
Arthur Rigby, the Dagenham Girl Pipers (I'd
always thought that name was a made-up joke —), and
Ernest Thesiger, brother of explorer Wilfred Thesiger,
from an aristocratic family.
A
UNIQUE BOOK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED RECENTLY in France, by pioneer racer Guy
Curval, on the history of stock-car racing in France 1953-1970.
Guy Curval regularly raced in England, in Senior F1's and in Junior
F2's, including several World Finals. Guy was a close buddy of
Jock Lloyd, who often helped arrange Guy's trips. French
stock-car racing never developed the oval-dedicated "specials" that
appeared in the UK in the mid-sixties onwards. French cars were
always large American and French saloons, and the tracks were mostly
larger dirt ovals on temporary sites. Guy Curval last raced in
1969, and his medical advisors told him never to race again after years
of injuries. Guy is still to be seen around the sport in
France, and has a classically-restored stock-car in his garage. The
book is a high quality hard-back,
"coffee-table" size, over 140 pages, with scores of fascinating photos,
including some of English tracks, and of Fred Mitchell's
union-jack-wearing car on a French visit. It is expensive, and
you have to read French. You can ask about it or buy it from a
specialist car book shop in Paris: "PASSION AUTOMOBILE", and
their e-mail address is passionautomobile@etai.fr
Unknown
cars, track and newspaper, but here is a 1954
photo of early stock car racing, showing one car with a soft
canvas top — health and safety? Alan Humphrey sent
the photo. Tanya Crouch at one of the first stock-car races to be held in England. Pathe
Newsreel film of Tanya
Crouch racing at Harringay in the 1950's:
Pathe
Newsreel film of the tiny "Atom" single-seater
racer for dirt tracks.
In
1959 the Brafield track had only just been concreted. Here
is Cliff Tindall (shown
elsewhere on this site) in
# 100 on the pits bend. Car 23 is George Tufnell from Colchester,
and #383 chasing them is Kettering's "Rush" Tyrell. Rick Thomas, who
sent this, points out the famous tree that appears in just about
everyone's Brafield photographs [and
nearly always bare of leaves!].
Who
sent me this historic Aycliffe programme
cover? I can't remember, but will gladly give you credit if it was you!
Pioneer
Doug Warner from Birmingham, in 1960. Doug raced under "The
Saint", and his
car ran a big straight-8 Buick motor. [Photo
from Steve Gateley]. Tough
old engines: I remember drag-racer Alan "Bootsie" Herridge's
first slingshot in about 1963/4, used a Buick straight-8 with deafening stub exhausts.
Marty Page
#333,
but this photo was printed
in an Ipswich newspaper in 2004, to celebrate stock-car
racing's 50th anniversary.
Jimmy
Wright from
Oxford was a pal of Fred Mitchell's and also raced speedway. He
raced under #236 (here, I think) from 1958 to 1962. Thanks
to Pete Schafer, Fred's mechanic, for the photo. Classic
'flathead' engine and upright armour, and see those 'agricultural'
tyres on the back.
Reg Walker today
is, I'm told, a leading
"Pig Roast" man. Over 40 years ago Reg, from Cheltenham, was
racing # 320. First snapshot also shows "the
usual suspects" who were the vital ingredient for any racer — I
wonder where they are today? Here's Reg nose-on-barrel and about
to roll. Third, here's Reg's car posing
in a field. Thanks
to Reg Walker for the photos, which Andy Lively scanned for me.
I forget
who sent me this old programme photograph of Ron
Rogers, car #152 at Long Eaton, but it's a great shot.
Darkie's
first car? Photo taken
in 1955 or 1956 at Brafield; can this number
7 be an early appearance of the late great Darkie Wright
from London? [Steve Gateley
photo]
The
illustrious, notorious, all-out good-times racer Pete Tucker, American
car fanatic and author of his privately-published "Thrill-of-the-Century", has dated this photo as 1956, at Brafield, car
#85. [Gateley, one more time, ta.] Pete's
immaculate # 85 car. Another
shot shows a very early Tucker
car:— 1954 at New Cross. [Gateley
photo]
Many fans will
already have spotted this press
photograph in the wonderful Hulton Archive; Pete Tucker
at the first (or one of the first) New Cross races: the very
beginning of British stock-car racing.
On
the wrecker at Hednesford Hills raceway back in 1955 [Steve
Gateley photo]. Here's
an unidentified racer #49 being
towed at Hednesford; anyone have a file on this one?
Two famous
names tangle: probably at the Eastbourne track, probably
1954, it's Allen Briggs 138 and Johnny
Brise 103 getting down to business; thanks
to Pete Schafer for passing on this photo.
The tidy
kid here, Steve Gateley, would grow up to race F2 and F1 cars,
but here in 1956 he is showing us the car of "Lofty"
West, racer and one-time BSCDA treasurer, from Finchley. Here
is Lofty West in the midst of some
dusty action at Brafield in 1956 [Steve
G. photos] .
Naughty,
naughty -- in 1955 this car caused
fits among the authorities at Brafield when it appeared decorated with saucy pinups
pasted on -- the driver (Chippie Weston #62) had to remove them before being allowed
on the track. [Steve Gateley photo] Billy Barber came
from Hayes, Middlesex, to race this
#23 car at Brafield; it's the then-popular 1935 Ford Pilot. What
WAS it about Hayes?
Scores of hot-rodders, drag-racers, and stock-car nuts came from there. A big thank-you to Russ "Rick" Thomas, the Brafield deejay
for these: by photographer
Rowland Holloway: first,
on an August Bank Holiday 1956, is Royce
Garton # 63, from Lutterworth, hopping out of his overturned
car. Second is a 1958 photo of "The Cisco Kid", Johnny
Fry # 94,
from Barking, Essex. Russ recalls that The Kid would cheerfully stand
around the pits in full cowboy regalia --- maybe something from the
"props" department, as Fry was also a stunt man in the movies, and here he is in 1960. The
TV series from 1950-1956, was filmed in colour, no good for me,
who saw his first ever colour TV in a Liverpool shop window in 1966.
Hey, Pancho! Hey, Cisco!
Four
more 1950's treasures from Steve Gateley, of his father Alan
Gateley's stock car. Alan G. knew Bill Morris (the
legend of Hednesford), and in 1954 got this ex-Canadian Embassy Ford
Mercury from Bill's local Medway Spares yard. Here's
the car in full body armour. Here
in action pushing two
more into the fence. Here's another of
Alan's car, with its proud mechanics grinning. Post-race
picnic for the Gateley family and their
cars, outside Hednesford in 1955. "On the
hook", Alan Gateley's car needed
a tow here in 1955, again at Hednesford. [Thanks
again to Steve for these great photos.]
Not
sure of the track or year, but here is Fred
Mitchell # 38 roaring past an overturned Tanya Crouch. Photo
from Pete Schafer.
Here's
a 1960 photo from a Brafield programme thanks
to Ken Mason, showing Doug Wardropper
#5, Ellis Ford as # 183 (before he switched to 3, and number 29
is American George
Foulger.
Some
faint half-tone photos that I scanned from 1959 Brafield programmes:
Dennis is there as #303 and 304 is
Willie Wanklyn):
Willie W.
Dennis
Dennis (tipping Jack Smith 178 from Northampton)
Here 143 Tony Godfrey from Whitney, Oxon, tangles with 331 Ron Pears of Wisbech.
Dennis
#301: Thanks
to Rick Young for this and the next scan from a 1950's programme: Beardy
grin!
Another
50s shot, the elegant Alan
England
Brafield crash, a 1958 photo of car # 475
in the fence by Clayton Sampson, USAF vet; any historian
tell me name of the driver? Ian
Snoad, the ex- 331 and 509 banger
racer e-mailed to identify this as George
Ansell. I should have recognized
the number, as George still had 475 in 1964 (see the "More 60's Seniors"
section). Thanks, Ian. In the background is 412, probably Johnny Radford from Stanley. Here's
an early shot of Doug Wardropper in approx 1956, at Brafield, with
wire-spoked wheels and a flathead engine: Wardropper
# 5. This
photo is copied from the original copyright print owned by Simon
Lewis of "Transport Bookshop" in England.
A
Keith Barber photo, from his super STOCK CAR MAGAZINE: a 1958 shot
of Doug Wardropper and Fred Mitchell
38 side by side.
Here
is Harry Prigmore in action in cars #4 and #70, both built
with the help of and sponsored by Aubrey Leighton, in the days
even before Aubrey himself started racing. Harry was apprentice at Aubrey's, and
it was thanks to a trial race in Harry's car that Aubrey Leighton "got
the bug" and went on to fame. Harry Harry 2 Harry 3 ; Harry 4 (with possibly 61 Ken Freman in the background); Harry 5
Below: an
early photo of Willie Harrison, that determined man who fought
for 20 years to win the World Championship.
Tony
Allen leaps over some barrels: #145. Tony, a teenager when this photo was taken, hailed from Luton (Beds.),
and enjoyed a long long career. In
the 1960's he earned a red top in Juniors as # 766, then moved
up to Seniors, moving through blue to another red top in # 348,
around 1972. He toured New Zealand, and eventually emigrated
there, taking a super-lightweight Jaguar special, and STILL went
on racing stock-cars. Tony's son Mike also raced sprints
there. In the 1950's, Tony's mother too raced stock-cars
(pioneer Tanya Crouch inspired a lot of people). (Programmes
courtesy of Keith Barber)
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![Steve Gateley [left] sitting with Aubrey's son](images/LeightonOldKids.jpg){kind=link}
