PIC 1 The Les Mitchell # 238 F80 at a pre season Brafield Practice day
PIC 2 The faithful old Austin 3 Litre in the Netherlands in February 1980
PIC 3 The ex Finnikin Alan Young # 393 built car of Willy Neiling # 48 at Baarlo Feb 1980
PIC 4 The 455 cu Buick powered F1 of Baarlo final winner Friedhelm Welters # 8 at Baarlo.
PIC 5 A smart # 50 Superstox ( the name esapes me) in the Ipswich pits Feb 1980
PIC 6 The ex JohnCayzer # 495 BriSCA F1 of Pete Mayhew # 94 in the Brafield pits
PIC 7 The ex Bryan Warner # 90 BriSCA F1 of Stan Cole # 432 in the Brafield pits
PIC 8 Stan Cole Snr # 506 on the pre-meeting Grand Parade at Brafield mid 60's ( Stan Jnr driving) UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPER
PIC 9 Stu Ralls # 379 in the loaned Ray Scriven # 110 Ford Capri bodied car at Brafield
PIC 10 Bob Hall # 380 in the ex Barry Bye # SCOTA/FISCA # 41, Ray Scriven # 110 car at Brafield
PIC 11 Ian Hall # 381 in the loaned Ray scriven # 110 Ford Capri bodied car at Brafield
PIC 12 Colin Casserley # 176 in his ex Glyn Pursey # 175 car at Brafield
PIC 13 "Big Abe " Dave Abraham # 93 in my old car at Brafield
PIC 14 Bill West # 39 in trouble at Brafield
PIC 15 My Ford Capri 2 Litre ( Wish I was still that slim ! )
PIC 16 Pat in her Fiat X19
PIC 17 Pete Doran lines up on the grid at that fateful Baarlo meeting in May
RICK @ the RACES 'RETRO' is an ongoing story of my life and times at the races. My first taste of stock car racing was at the Foxhall Stadium (Ipswich UK) when I was taken there by my parents as a 'toddler' in the late 1950's. I became a regular race fan during my school days in the 60's and raced my first BriSCA F1 Stock Car at the age of 20. Since then I've moved to Ontario, Canada where, at present, I'm heavily involved in the media side of the DIRT Modified scene. RICK YOUNG
The last installment ( # 16) took us to the end of 1979
First Half of 1980
The winter of 79/80 turned out to be one of the shortest off-season's ever for me. There was enough racing going on right up to the end of 1979 to keep me happy and on January 26 , I attended my first event of 1980. I went along to the Wimbledon Stadium in South London to get my first look at the new Formula 80 stock cars that Spedeworth had introduced to replace the FISCA/SCOTA variety of Formula 1's . Like I said in my last report these were similar to the northern Hot Stox, and a less powerful scaled down version of the 'real thing'. I could never see the point of Hot Stox and the F80's didn't impress me either. I felt at the time , there were far too many different divisions/classes in UK oval racing and this just served to confuse the general public even more. There was already a good alternative in place as a smaller stock car division, with BriSCA F2, the Spedeworth Superstox, or PRI F3 ( which were all basically the same thing) A few of the original FISCA/SCOTA drivers had built cars to conform, but others had moved over to BriSCA F1.
On February 10 , I set off on another of my trips across the North Sea to the Baarlo AutoSpeedway in the Netherlands. Once again I went by my preferred crossing of Dover to Ostende (Belgium) where it was only about a three hour drive to the track via Gent, Antwerp and Eindhoven. Sealink , the ferry operators did a special 60 hour return fare which worked out well. It was easy to leave home on a Friday , see two days of racing , then catch a Sunday night boat back to the UK. On my previous trip in December , I'd applied for a truck driving job at RAF Bruggen but nothing ever came of it. I'm pretty sure that when position's came available, they were offered to locals, in preference to someone like myself , who wasn't even living in the country. So I didn't pursue it any further.
By now word had got around that I did the 'Baarlo' trip quite regularly and it wasn't difficult to fill my car with friends, who wanted to sample the Dutch style of racing, which of course made the traveling costs cheaper for me. This turned out to be one of the last trips 'across the water' for my Austin 3 Litre. Not long after the trip I sold it and bought a Ford Capri V4 2 Litre. It was still not an ideal time of the year to be camping , so for the first time I stayed in small Hotel/Bed & Breakfast in Roermond.
I remember it well, because this is where I picked up my first ( and only) parking ticket. There was very little parking available at the Hotel and I woke up too late in the morning to feed the meter. Rather than 'make a run for it' back to the UK with out paying , I figured because of the high frequency of my visits I should be a 'good boy'. The very same day, I 'payed up' at the relevant office and was able to keep a clear conscience.
One of the surprises in the Baarlo pits was the former Bert Finnikin # 55 , Alan Young # 393 built car, still with the distinctive BMC Mini body and the long bonnet/hood. It was now in the hands of Dutchman, Willy Neiling # 48 .
Alan Young , not related, lived near to me in Bedfordshire , and was a former BriSCA F2 driver. He had a brief spell in F1 before he became a noted car builder. I got to know him quite well when he became a key member of the Glyn Pursey # 175 crew, and later, in the early 90's when he worked next to where I did in Milton Keynes.
The winner of the Baarlo Final was Friedhelm Welters # 8 in a 455 cu in Buick powered UK style car. . He was always one of the best NACO drivers and this was the first time I'd seen him get a big win.
Before the BriSCA F1 season got into full swing ( March) , I went along to see the Spedeworth Superstox in action at Wimbledon, Ipswich and Aldershot. If my records are correct, February 24 was the last time I saw racing at the Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich.
History is tentatively scheduled to take place on Saturday , 20 September, 2008, when the World Final for BriSCA F1 Stock Cars, which are Europe's premier oval racing division, take place for the first time ever at Ipswich. I plan to be there !
Once, the 1980 BriSCA F1 season did get underway, I found myself on many long distance trips to the North of England, regularly attending such places as Bradford, BelleVue, Long Eaton, Hartlepool and Sheffield. These were in addition to my local tracks of Brafield, Coventry and Leicester.
1980, was a year when a few of my 'race fan' buddies decided to try their hand at F1 racing for the first time. These included, Pete Mayhew # 94 (Barking , Essex) , Stan Cole # 432 ( Flitton, Beds) , Stu Ralls # 379 ( Southampton, Hants), Bob Hall #380 and Ian Hall # 381 ( Billericay Essex). Pete made his debut in an ex John Cayzer car and Stan , in an ex Bryan Warner car , where as Stu, Bob and Ian used loaned cars from Ray Scriven . The latter trio who are brothers and long time friends, were known around the raceways as "Halls & Ralls". All five of the guys mentioned above , are still good friends of mine and are on my "RICK @ the RACES" mailing list. Pete, after living for a few years in Hamburg, New Jersey ( close to the Orange County Fair Speedway NY ) now lives back in the UK in Cheshire. Stan is in Northamptonshire, Bob in South Yorkshire, Ian in West London (Middlesex), and Stu is still in Southampton. Stan was a second-generation driver, his Dad, Stan Cole (Snr) # 506 who I also knew well, was an F2 racer at Brafield in the mid sixties when I first started going racing .
Two other old friends, who were back racing with BriSCA, and are recipients of my RICK @ the RACES reports , were Bob Boddington # 196 of Haddenham , Buckinghamshire, and Colin Casserley # 176 of Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Colin had started his racing career with the FISCA/SCOTA F1's and was one of the first to switch over to BriSCA. In 1980 he was driving a potent ex Glyn Pursey # 175 Chevy. These days. like me he's heavily involved in the media side racing and in 2007 is one of the sports leading photographers. He and I are also members of the TRACKCHASERS group. As I prepare this report in November 2007 he is currently Europe's # 3 rated TRACKCHASER behind Roland Vanden Eynde of Belgium and Steve 'Spike' Rixon of Watford in the UK.
The Abraham brothers were also out on the track with the '390' cu in Ford Thunderbird powered car I sold to them in late 1979. They took it in turns to drive , Dave was issued with # 93 and Paul had # 393.
For quite a while, on most of my Monday night excursions to Sheffield I would travel up, with the two 'Micks' that I'd known for many years. Mick 'the beard' Lovett who I first met on the 'Bed Pan Line' gong to Harringay in the 60's and Mick 'Blacky' Black who was crew man/mechanic to Chris Pickup and myself when we first started racing.
While mentioning Chris, ... he was absent for the first part of 1980 as he was building something 'special' and it wasn't finished yet .. More about this in RICK @ the RACES (RETRO # 18)
In 1979 a Daily Mirror Grand Prix Series had been set up and was running again in 1980. Someone had the 'bright idea' ( I say that sarcastically ! ) to run the races in an unconventional way. The general concept of UK stock car racing was ( and still is) to make the top drivers start at the back of the pack. This makes the racing more interesting as they have to work ( or push) their way to the front. The format for the Grand Prix Series did away with this, and often the top drivers would start at the front, making for some pretty boring races.
Because of this, we chose to miss the Sheffield Grand Prix round that was scheduled for May 19, a decision which was to change the direction of my life...
I was still truck driving for a living , engaged on the same paper company contract in the Dunstable area and in the course of my travels I often spotted a good looking blonde driving a green Fiat X19 two seater ( similar looking to the Pontiac Fierro) . When ever we saw each other we'd usually smile and wave ... I was 26 years old and still single !
One the buddies I knew from my engineering ( apprenticeship) days had changed careers and was now a local police officer. Quite often , when I wasn't at the races , we'd both go out to the pubs and night spots in our area, where I'd check out the 'talent'. On the night of the Sheffield Grand Prix round , (which I'd decided to miss) , my 'cop buddy' phoned me to see if I fancied going out for 'a jar'. Well, we were standing at the bar in one of the local 'watering holes' when in walked the girl in the green Fiat X19.... To cut a long story short, her name was Pat, we got along very well, and within the space of about four weeks, we were seriously dating. She later become my wife who I was married to for sixteen years.
Luton's Bill West # 39 was a regular racer at my local tracks, and along with my old buddy ( another fellow TRACKCHASER) ,Colin Herridge we started helping him out at the meetings. At about the same time, Colin started dating Kim, who he married and this year ( 2007) they celebrated their Silver Wedding.
Colin, who I've known since the mid 70's when our 'stock car gang' was based at the Plume of Feathers in Markyate ( Herts) , joined me on my second Baarlo (May 24/25) trip of the year.
This two day event ended prematurely when one of our friends, Pete Doran # 428 , a UK driver competing was involved in a serious accident. His car rolled several times, then went over the safety fence and into the spectator area. Pete luckily escaped injury, but sadly there was one fatality in the crowd . The meeting was brought to a close, as the investigations took place. It was bleak and sad ending to this trip.
The Remainder of 1980 to follow...
- Rick Young
