Photos:
PIC 1 Grass Track racing at the circuit at Bleak Hall , Milton Keknes in 1980
PIC 2 Pat about to take a photo of racing at Rochdale in June 1980
PIC 3 A Ford Escort Hot Rod spins out at the Gannita Circuit, Gendt, Netherland in July 1980
PIC 4 The start of the Hot Rod Feature/Final at the Gannita Circuit, Gendt, Netherlands July 1980
PIC 5 Richie Ahern # 18 on the Grand Parade lap at Ringwood track in August 1980
PIC 6 My old Buddy Chris Pickup # 50 debuts his Austin Allegro bodied F1 at Brafield 1980
PIC 7 Jamie Pfeifer # USA 99 in the loaned Bob Tanser car at Brafield 1980
PIC 8 Jim McLure # USA 3 in his loaned Frankie Wainman car at the Coventry World Final 1980
PIC 9 Phil Libby # USA 81 in his loaned Frankie Wainman car at the Coventry World Final 1980
PIC 10 That's Phil Libby and me at the Beech Ridge Speedway, Scarborough, Maine 2005
PIC 11 Stuart Smith # 391 winner of the 1980 BriSCA F1 World Final, picured at Brafield 1980
PIC 12 COLIN HERRIDGE PHOTO of Start Smith Jnr # 390, 2007 BriSCA F1 World Final winner
PIC 13 DAVE PIERCE # 320 the 1980 SUPERSTOX World Final winner ( photo at Ipswich 1980)
PIC 14 The Friedhelm Welters # 8 car has it's roof sprayed gold on the Baarlo start line Sept 1980
PIC 15 A happy looking Friedhelm Welters # 8 after winning the 1980 Long Track W/F at Baarlo
PIC 16 From left to Right, Miss NACO, UK promotor Warren Taylor, 1980 Long Track winner , Friedhelm Welters, UK promotor Stu Bamforth, and NACO boss Jac Van Claes.
Intro.... 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 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 DIRT Modified scene. RICK YOUNG.
Quite often I'm asked, how I remember all this stuff, which happened all those years ago, so let me explain. From the earliest times as a school kid, I 'ticked off' my yearly fixture/schedule cards and kept them as keepsakes. I also wrote down in my diaries where I'd been, as well keeping my race day programs which were meticulously filled out with results. Most of these I still have to this day, and have used them for research. Alas, over the years some of my records have gone missing and I have to rely on old magazines to jog my memory. Every now and then after sending out my "RETRO' reports I come across somewhere I've been, but forgot to mention. With this in mind, I have two places to add, that should have been included in my previous reports. In the late 1970's during the height of the SCOTA/FISCA F1 days , I visited the Wisbech Stadium in Cambridgeshire. I went there at least twice. The second track I failed to mention was the Grass Track course at Bleak Hall in Milton Keynes which should have been included in my last report ( RETRO # 17) . I went there in the first part of 1980. It was a small temporary circuit for grass-racers located just outside of Bletchley in the new city of Milton Keynes, a short distance from my home in Totternhoe, near Dunstable.
Before returning to the story, here's a short recap...
In May 1980 I met Pat, who would later become my wife, then at the end of the month I re-visited the Baarlo Auto Speedway in the Netherlands for racing weekend which got tragically shortened.
It was also at this time that I became know as 'Rick' for the first time. I was christened with the name of Richard, but during my school days it was shortened to 'Dick'. Pat preferred to call me 'Rick' , so from then on, that was the name I answered to... although I must add, to save confusion when I renewed my racing career in 1983, I still used the name 'Dick Young # 67'
The Second Half of 1980.
On June 21, Pat accompanied me to the races for the first time, when we visited the Leicester Stadium on Blackbird Rd . It didn't take much to persuade her to come along, as she'd watched stock-car racing and motor-cycle speedway in the past , at her local Poole and Ringwood tracks near to her south-coast hometown of Bournemouth. I could not have chosen a better night for her first baptism of up-country racing. Leicester was always noted as one of the best action tracks in the UK and this particular night was probably the most memorable of all time. The great Richie Ahern # 18 was involved in a spectacular crash with Steve Bateman # 427 where both cars rolled-over , with Richie's car flying so high , it cleared the safety fence and landed on the greyhound track. Sadly, Leicester became another of those great tracks lost to the housing developer.
The following weekend we made a road trip to the North of England in Pat's Fiat X19 two-seater sports car, where we attended the BriSCA F1 races at Belle Vue, Manchester and the Rochdale Stadium. Lancs. ( 28/29 June)
During the previous winter I'd bought a Ford Capri 2 litre V4 , which turned out to be the biggest piece of junk I ever owned ! We made plans for a caravaning/racing vacation in July, where it would make it's 'maiden voyage' across the English Channel. The engine had a bit of a 'smoke' coming from it, so in preparation, I decided to put in a new set of piston rings. It was no big deal, and a job I'd done on plenty of engines in the past. On Friday night (July 18) , we set off from Dunstable with my Mum and Dads borrowed caravan on-tow heading for the ferry port of Dover. We had just past the Lydden Hill exit on the M2 when there was a big bang and the Capri came to a halt. After a quick inspection it was obvious a serious engine failure had occurred, with a hole in the engine block and a con-rod poking through the side. After walking across the fields to a nearby farm house I used their phone ( we had no mobile/cel phone in those days) to get help. Luckily I had taken out AA (Automobile Association) Five Star Travel Insurance which covered eventualities like this. The Car and Caravan were towed to a local garage while a taxi took us to a hotel in Dover. The next day, while arrangements were being made for the return of the car and caravan to Dunstable we crossed the Channel as foot passengers to Calais in France. From Calais we rented a Talbot Horizon so we could continue with our vacation plans. Without a caravan, it meant the extra cost of staying in hotels, so we decided to make it a one week trip instead of two. We spent a few days touring the Rhine Valley of Germany before heading for the Gannita Circuit, at Gendt in the Netherlands. The track which was part of the Jac Van Claes NACO organization was located between Nigmegan and Arnhem. All the NACO divisions were present, although there was only a hand full of F1 Stock Cars. Hot Rods were the headline division that day.
Let me Digress... For my readers around the world not familiar with "Hot Rods', let me explain . They are a 4 cylinder non-contact full-fendered division that started in the UK in the mid-sixties. I've witnessed them in action many times over the years from 1965 onwards, but they never really 'did much' for me. My best recollections of them were from the late 70's on the rare occasions when they performed on shale ( dirt) at Wimbledon where the George Polley # 306 and Barry Lee # 351 duels were awesome !
On our return to the UK , I had my Ford Capri to get back on the road, so another engine was bought from a wreckers yard, and installed.
I later found out from a mechanic at my local Ford dealership why the original engine 'let go' . Like I said , I'd done plenty of 'piston-ring jobs' in the past and had never had the need to replace the con-rod bolts. Apparently with this type of engine new ones should always be used once they've been removed. ...Well, you live and learn !
The Superstox World Final was held at the Cowdenbeath Raceway in Scotland on Sunday Aug 17 and was won by Dave Pierce # 320 of Dorking , Surrey. I missed this one, but did attend the F3 Stock Car World Final at Crayford in Kent ( Aug 22). My old friend Brian Holmes was competing in the race that was won by Simon Peters # 60 from Leyton ( North London). The BriSCA F2 World Final was held later in the year ( Sept 28) , at the Hartlepool Stadium ( which I didn't attend) and won by David Bunt # 595 of Plymouth, Devon. So in 1980 there were three events labeled as "World Finals" for a similar type of stock car.
On August 25 the BriSCA F1's returned to the Matchams Park Stadium at Ringwood after a more than a decade and I was there to see one of my old friends , Danny Clarke from Kettering, Northants get the big win.
The 1980 BriSCA F1 World Final was held at the Coventry Stadium and Stuart Smith # 391 of Rochdale, Lancs won his second title. (Incidentally, this year, his youngest son Stuart Jnr # 390 won the 2007 BriSCA F1 World Championship at the Kings Lynn Speedway.) At Coventry as well as the usual Netherlands representatives there were three drivers from the USA in loaned cars . They were Jamie Pfeifer # USA 99 a Late Model driver from California, and New England Modified pilots, Phil Libby # USA 81 and Jim Mclure # USA 3 from the Beech Ridge Speedway in Maine. The Beech Ridge connection was a new affiliation with BriSCA and continued for the next couple of years. Mclure returned the following year for the 1981 event at Bradford and Libby was back for the Belle Vue race in 1982. I chatted to Phil Libby following the Belle Vue event and met up with him again in 2005. I recently reconnected with both Jim and Phil for an article I was doing for SHORT CIRCUIT MAGAZINE. I traveled up to the Beech Ridge Speedway where I was introduced to many of the people involved in those early 1980's exchange visits.
Another visitor to Coventry was a race fan named Rieks Delicaat who my buddy Colin Herridge and I , had befriended on our Baarlo trip in May. It was his first taste of UK racing and he was staying at Colin's place in Dunstable . He offered to return the favor the following weekend.
Just one week after the Coventry World Final, the BriSCA entourage, me included were back in mainland Europe for the Long Track World Final at Baarlo in the Netherlands ( 13/14 Sept) . I still had little faith in my Ford Capri so Pat and I joined Colin and his girlfriend Kim in their Toyota for the trip. This was just a quick 'whistle stop' visit and we all stayed at Rieks place in nearby Heerlen. Popular winner of the 1980 event was Friedhelm Welters # 8 who I'd seen in victory lane earlier in the year.
For the rest of the 1980 season all my regular tracks were visited including Coventry, Leicester, Brafield and Long Eaton as well as a late season excursion to Skegness on the east coast. Making a late start to the season was my old friend Chris Pickup # 50 who I'd known since teenage days and shared my first stock car with. He had been busy building a new car with what must have been the only stock car to use an Austin Allegro body. It had a 425 Buick engine covered by long hood and a Mercedes radiator grille . In later years I would be the owner of this car .
Towards the end of the year Pat and I had become engaged, and with the winter months ahead, had our wedding planned for March 1981.
1981 to follow...
