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EPISODE # 1
RICK @ the RACES (RETRO)
1958 to 1966
As that famous song from the 'Sound of Music' goes, 'Lets start at the very beginning , it's a very good place to start'
If you turned the clock back to the late 1950's, and were to look high up on the back straight at the Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich (Suffolk.UK) you would have found a young married couple, with their small child and a few close friends enjoying a night at the races. They were all Suffolk people in their early twenties, born or raised in Ipswich. They were followers of the 'Town' football club who played at Portman Road and the 'Witches' Motor Cycle Speedway team who raced on Foxhall Heath. When the new sport of stock car racing arrived in the UK during the mid fifties , those young parents and their pals went along to see them too.
That three year old toddler never realized at the time, that this was the christening of a passion that would last a life time.
That young boy was me, and even now after all those years I still have some feint memories of those noisy and scary old cars that crashed and banged that night, oh so long ago.
In 1959 my dad was offered a better job in Witney, (Oxfordshire) so our family relocated . We were not there long and following another change in my fathers employment we settled in the Dunstable area of Bedfordshire.
In 1965 , Mum and Dad took the family ( by then , I'd got a brother and sister) along to the nearby Brafield Stadium ( Northampton) to see the stock car racing.
Much to their surprise, two of the top drivers in action that day were the Ipswich father and son duo of Doug # 5 and Alan # 245 Wardropper. Dad remembered Doug from the Foxhall Heath days and in fact he bought his first car, (a 1929 Standard Little 9) , from him. The Wardropper's ran the Drift Garage just off the Spring Rd. That Sunday afternoon visit to Brafield rekindled the families interest, and we became regular race goers . As an 11 year old boy , I became hooked.
On our trips back to Suffolk to visit relatives I would be dropped off at Foxhall Heath to watch the racing. At that time, I knew nothing about stock car racing politics and had no idea why the Wardroppers weren't racing at their home track. I later found out why. A split within the promotors back in 1961 had resulted in two separate organizing bodies, the original Board of Control ( BriSCA ) and the independent Spedeworth organization. The Wardroppers raced for the Board of Control and were forbidden to drive on the so called 'pirate' tracks.
The Foxhall Stadium which has remained in Spedeworth hands to this very day, only ran Formula 2 stock cars at that time , which were basically the same as the Board of Control Junior stock cars. Over the course of time the Spedeworth Formula 2's became known as Superstox and the Board of Control Juniors were renamed BriSCA F2.
I enjoyed those early trips back to Ipswich and remember spending my school holidays at my grand parents house in Parliament Rd , (just off Foxhall Rd) . The stadium was in walking distance of their house and on my visits , you'd find me at the races. Skid Parish, 'Boo Boo' Chris Studd and Stan Ingle were names I recall.
My home in Bedfordshire was a lot closer to the more plentiful Board of Control (BriSCA) tracks, so that's where my interest was focused.
In 1966 Brafield hosted the BriSCA F2 World Final and our family were there to see Steve Bateman # 676 take the win. I was a school kid infatuated with the sport and I really appreciate the kindness of my parents for taking me along. My brother and sister came along too, and everyone knows how expensive a family outing can be.
During my school holidays I helped out on a farm at Milton Bryan in Bedfordshire and as I cycled there each day I passed through the small town of Toddington. One day I noticed a stock car parked in a barn and as I stood there awestruck and staring the owner turned up. We got chatting and he asked if I wanted to sit in it. Of course I said yes, and as a result Alan Russell # 621 became my new race track hero.
PIC 1 My Dads first car, bought from Doug Wardropper's Garage in Ipswich
PIC 2 A program scan of one of the Brafield meetings attended in 1965
PIC 3 A program scan of one of the Ipswich meetings attended in 1965
PIC 4 Doug Wardroppers # 5 F1 Stock Car pictured at the Cadwell Park Circuit (PETER HUNTER PHOTO)
PIC 5 Formula 2 action at Brafield in 1965
PIC 6 A scan of the 1966 BriSCA F2 World Final program at Brafield
PIC 7 Steve Bateman # 676 celebrates his BriSCA F2 World Final win at Brafield in 1966.
PIC 8 The F2 Stock Car of Alan Russell # 621
PIC 9 Chick Woodroffe # 1 was one of my school boy hero's.
PIC 10 1965 BriSCA F1 World Champion Ellis Ford. (PETER HUNTER PHOTO)
PIC 11 Alan Wardropper at Brands Hatch in 1965. (PETER HUNTER PHOTO)
PIC 12 Fred Mitchell, the 1966 BriSCA F1 World Champion. (PETER HUNTER PHOTO)
