Remembering those we have lost from our sport

Added 30/01/2012
A Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Les Eaton
Friday 10th February, 1.30pm
St Lawrence Church
Church Street
Alton, Hampshire GU34 2BW

All Welcome

Wake at Alton Maltings Centre CIC
Maltings Close
Alton, Hampshire GU34 1DT

All Welcome

Floral tributes are welcome and should be delivered to the Funeral Directors, before 11am on 10th February.
Kemp & Stevens Funeral Directors
93 High Street
Alton, Hampshire GU34 1LG
tel: 01420 83177
info@kempandstevens.co.uk
If you prefer to make a charitable donation, the family have nominated the St Elizabeth Hospice, Ipswich. Please make cheques payable to the hospice and forward them to the funeral directors.

Car Parking in Alton
The following information may assist drivers, staff and supporters who are planning on attending the Service of Thanksgiving for Les Eaton on Friday 10th February: 
Bank Car Park, Vicarage Hill, Alton. GU34 1HT (Adjacent to the Community Centre)
Lady Place Car Park, High Street Alton. GU34 1EN
There is plenty of parking at Alton Maltings, which is situated in Maltings Close off Turk Street. GU34 1DT. Walk from Maltings Close into Turk Street and then turn right into High Street. Continue along High Street, Church Street is on the left hand side.

Added 23/01/2012

Les Eaton “Mr Stock Car” 1928-2012

It is with great sadness that we announce that Les Eaton passed away on the morning of Monday 23rd January 2012 at Ipswich Hospital.

Les, along with his late wife Mavis promoted their first meeting on August 18th 1960 at Aldershot Stadium as Paramount Promotions.

Les broke away from the establishment of UK Stock Car racing in 1961 to go it alone with his newly formed Formula Two Stock Car Company which in turn became Spedeworth International. From that day on the company secured its place as the leader in oval racing promotion in the United Kingdom, a place where it proudly sits today.

Deane and Janet Wood along with the rest of the Spedeworth Motorsports team wish to extend their sincere condolences to Les Eaton’s family and friends.

A full tribute from Graham Brown will follow.

Added 23/01/2012
Graham Brown pays tribute to:

Beverley (“Bev”) John Greenhalf
1937 - 2012

Bev Greenhalf, the voice of BriSCA Formula 1 stock car racing, has died.

Bev started following stock car racing as a young man after being taken to see early meetings at Birmingham and Hednesford. Following a break from the racing enforced by a spell of National Service, he soon re-involved himself afterwards and set his heart on becoming a commentator. He made some tapes of himself talking about the racing and began canvassing promoters, becoming a familiar voice at stadiums as far apart as Long Eaton and Prestatyn by the close of the 1960’s. He eventually established himself as the leading and most knowledgeable announcer to have on the microphone at any event for the big stock cars.

Bev was also instrumental in the founding of both the British Stock Car Racing Supporters Association and their long-lived, if sometimes controversial, magazine Stock Car Supporter. In later years, his name became inextricably linked with Brafield Stadium (Northampton International Raceway) after he was appointed stadium manager by then promoter, John La Trobe, and the sound of Bev’s voice over the PA became synonymous with racing there. But Bev continued commentating all over the country, notably at Coventry, and writing programme notes for a large number of circuits and promotions, although his hatred of modern technology meant that typing of these notes was always done on an ancient typewriter. It wasn’t just programme notes either, as what Bev had started with The Supporter, he carried on with many other magazine titles within the sport.

He was also one of the prime movers in forging today’s strong BriSCA racing links between the UK and Holland, acted as unofficial ambassador to NACO and the Dutch stock car world, even teaching himself to speak fluent Dutch in order to provide dual language commentary.

There are not many who would have gone so far in order to provide what he no doubt saw as simply a more complete and inclusive experience for the visiting spectator. But then, Bev was a man of many parts. Having worked in the cutlery and silver industry for many years, he had the right contacts to be able to provide the trophies for Northampton and later, I believe, all the Incarace tracks. He also had a passion for steam railways and delighted in riding trains in Germany and Holland as well as closer to home. And railways weren’t the only form of transport that fascinated Bev either, as he also had quite a collection of die cast model buses.

From a personal standpoint, I long ago decided that, whichever track I was at and whoever was promoting, if it was Formula 1 and it wasn't Bev's voice coming over the PA, it simply didn't sound right. With no disrespect to anyone else, I'm sure I'm still going to feel that way about Northampton for a long time to come.

In later years of course, I had the opportunity to work at meetings with Bev as a colleague, and it was always a privilege. And, despite my being a Hot Rod fan, he always seemed to tolerate me and my strange ways. And I know I’m going to miss the rude remarks and funny asides from him when the mike was off. Well, usually it was off first anyway!

One particular memory that stays with me is of a sunny afternoon at Bristol. At this time Mendips was no longer a regular stop on the BriSCA F1 circuit so I was surprised to see him at this fairly run-of-the-mill F2 event and said so. “I don’t think there’s any Hot Rods here today either!” was Bev’s immediate retort. It turned out we were both feeling somewhat disillusioned with our ‘chosen’ formulas at that point in time and had thus become attracted to ‘other things’. We spent some of the meeting together, standing down by the bottom bend, getting covered in rubber dust and oil, just putting the world to rights between races.

Once he discovered I was a collector of oval racing memorabilia, he seemed to take delight in producing the odd rarity for me, sometimes just as a gift. Still the only programme I own from the Buffalo Stadium in Paris came from Bev.

Later still, we discovered a shared interest in the pre-stox history of Brafield and I learnt a great deal about that from him too.

Despite failing health and a lengthy battle with more serious illness, Bev had carried on his usual racing activities almost to the end and had been determined to be part of the commentary team at last September’s NIR-staged F1 World Final.

He was admitted to hospital not too many weeks after that race and was unfortunately never able to leave, finally losing his fight for life on January 10th.

There are no adequate words to describe the loss to the sport that Bev's passing represents but it is, of course, a far greater loss for his family. Bev is survived by his wife Dot and stepdaughter Nicky.

RIP Bev, it was an honour to have known you.

Bev's funeral will take place on Wednesday 1st February at 12 o'clock at Lodge Hill Crematorium, Weoley Park Road, Weoley Castle, Birmingham B29 5AA. The wake will be at the Cadbury Club, Bournville Lane, Bournville B30 2LU. Parking is available at Cadbury World, a short walk from the club.

Family flowers only please, but donations may be made to the BSCDA Trust Fund in memory of Bev (The Voice of BriSCA) at The BSCDA, P.O. Box 662, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX3 0WZ

Graham Brown

Added 23/02/11
Graham Brown pays tribute to:

Denys Jones 1922 – 2011

Respected oval racing writer Denys Jones has died. He was 88. Better known to followers of the sport as ‘Man on the Terrace’, beginning in the early 1960’s, he was one of the few pioneer journalists that specialised in stock car racing.

Born into a religious background (his father was Dean of Manchester at one time) in Small Heath, Birmingham in 1922, Denys lived in a number of places when he was growing up, including Carshalton, Birmingham and Worcester, the family moving wherever his father’s work demanded. Denys also once told his son that he had only just missed seeing any racing at Leicester Super Speedway and, as the track there closed in 1936, Denys’ interest in speedway clearly went back a long way.

Denys had not long left school when World War 2 broke out and, as he clearly had some aptitude in the sciences, he was sent to Aberdaron in Wales for war work. Although he always shrugged off enquiries about his activities there as being ‘covered by the Official Secrets Act’, it is known that he was working on radio research of some description. His work was not confined to Wales and at one point saw him posted to Portpatrick near Stranraer. A lifelong sports fan, Denys was already a keen tennis player by then and it was during his time at Stranraer that he met his future wife Kathie on the tennis courts, the couple marrying after the war in 1948.

Among Denys’ many and varied interests were film and the theatre and, following war’s end, he worked as stage manager at the Theatre Royal in Leicester. It was at this time that he first joined the BBC, acting as a studio manager during the 1948 Olympic Games. Although he had only got the job on a short-term contract as the BBC was suffering a serious staff shortage at the time, he managed to take and pass the relevant exams that were to keep him in a job when ‘Aunty’ divested herself of all the other temporary staff.

Denys went on to work for the old Light Programme (what would ultimately become Radio 1) and became involved with a magazine-style programme called Roundabout, through which he met Peter Arnold. Arnold was another all-round sports enthusiast who had already been writing about motor cycling and speedway and persuaded Denys to put his knowledge of speedway to use by writing some articles for Peter’s Five Star Annual on the subject.

Peter (who had been involved in the launch of British stock car racing with Digger Pugh) invited Denys to go with him to the 1959 British Drivers Championship at West Ham, the pair also paying a visit to Staines the following week.

Arnold had been the stock car correspondent for Speedway & Stock Car World up to 1959. When the paper reverted to covering purely speedway the following year, he set up his own magazine, Stock Car Racing News, the first ever all-stox UK publication. Denys was asked to contribute a monthly column written from the point of view of being just an ordinary spectator but, as the BBC took a very dim view of any sort of moonlighting, it had to be done under a pseudonym and “Our Man on the Terrace” was born.

Not long after the birth of SCRN came the infamous Split, when Les Eaton formed the organisation which was to become Spedeworth. Although initially critical of The Split, Denys had already seen early Paramount Promotions meetings at Aldershot and enjoyed watching the cars “bunny hopping” down the back straight. He soon came to the conclusion that Les Eaton had in fact been hard done by and, after watching the early Wimbledon meetings, decided that Spedeworth were quite capable of putting on decent meetings too. No doubt the fact that Denys, Kathie and son Chris were now living in nearby Southfields also made regular visits to Plough Lane an attractive proposition.

He soon became a familiar figure at Spedeworth tracks and in fact spent a lot of time trying to get the two sides of the dispute together. Denys went on to write a regular weekly page in the Spedeworth programme ‘Spedeweek’ (by now just as Man on the Terrace) and also featured regularly in the 1960’s and ’70’s Spedeworth publication Stock Car & Hot Rod Journal. He contributed much of the copy in the book Living with Spede and later appeared in Rods & Stocks magazine. He was however, widely published right across the sport and, of course, in many speedway publications too.

Meanwhile, back at the BBC, Denys had gone on to work on many well known BBC radio programmes, probably the most familiar of which will be Pick of the Pops with Alan Freeman. Denys was the man at the helm from 1961 to 1972, winning several awards and various accolades for his work within the music industry.

Although he was well known as an authority on speedway and stock cars, many people simply didn’t know that he was actually interested in just about all forms of sport and that his house was more like a library than any normal form of living accommodation. He was an accomplished tennis and badminton player, and an avid follower of cricket, football and rugby.

Towards the end of his career with the BBC, Denys was sent on a trip to the USA and immediately fell in love with America. Following his retirement, he just kept right on going and flew the Atlantic more than forty times in order to watch ice hockey, basketball, baseball and some NFL games. In his latter years, increasing infirmity led his doctors to advise against these trips (he ignored them) and everybody to forbid his final planned excursion! He simply sneaked off, leaving a note that he wouldn‘t be long but wasn’t going to miss the chance to see the new Yankees Stadium and Mets ballpark in New York!

In point of fact, infirmity or not, he wasn’t that keen on staying home even when in England and, despite having to make the trip in a wheelchair, even got to a final meeting at Wimbledon on New Year’s Day this year. Apparently, failing eyesight made it all but impossible for him to follow the racing, although the frustration of that was tempered by the joy of getting to chat with old friends like Charlotte Moore and Rod Birley.

I first got to know Denys, Kathie and Chris when a whole bunch of us used to sit huddled up in the back row of the "grandstand" at Aldershot (Tongham) stock car meetings. As I became interested in the history of the sport I came to realise that there wasn't anyone around who knew half as much about it as Denys. I would never have completed the historical section of the small book I wrote about Hot Rod racing back in the 1970's without his considerable help. If Denys didn't know the answer to a historical question about stock cars or stadiums (and he usually did) he always knew just where to look, and nothing was ever too much trouble.

I know that Denys' contribution to both speedway and stock cars is something we can all be thankful for. He was also a gentleman in the truest sense of the word, who rarely had a bad word for anybody, and I am proud to have had him as a friend.

RIP Denys.

Denys’ funeral will take place on Thursday 24th of February at 11.30am at St. Barnabus Church, 146 Lavenham Road, Southfields SW18 5EP. There will be a private committal at Lambeth Crematorium afterwards. Family flowers only please, but donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Society.

Graham Brown

Added 18/08/09
A message from Les Eaton

Mavis Eaton

A Thanksgiving Service for the life of Mavis Eaton has been held at St. Lawrence Church in Alton, Hampshire. Held on a lovely summer’s day, the service was attended by family and friends, along with drivers and officials spanning five decades of oval racing.

Dear Friends

I would like to thank all who attended the funeral service for the late Mavis at Alton on Monday.

I am sure that Mavis has acknowledged the fact that many of you travelled a long distance to pay your respects, and she would be overwhelmed at the many thoughtful floral tributes.

I would also like to thank all of you who have sent kind words of condolence.

My sincere best wishes to you all.

Les Eaton

Added 04/08/09
Nick Thomas pays tribute to

Mavis Eaton
1927 – 2009

The news of Mavis’ passing came through to us just as we were about to start the meeting at Great Yarmouth at 6.30 on 2nd August.  Understandably there was a sombre mood among the staff as the word spread and the meeting got underway, but very soon everyone seemed to go up a gear.  It was almost as if we could all hear Mavis saying to us “come on boys, get on with it then, what are you all hanging about looking so miserable for!” So in true Mavis and Spedeworth fashion the show went on.

“Young” Mavis Anne Gay was born into a large family in Cornwall on October 26th 1927 where she lived until leaving home to become a trainee nurse at The Treloar Hospital in Alton, Hampshire.  It was during this time while relaxing in a park on a day off with colleagues that she caught the eye of a young dashing Les Eaton. They got together and were married in 1949. Les and Mavis had three children, Sue, Roy and Mark, and she was also Grandmother to eleven grandchildren.

Mavis continued with her nursing career until she joined Les with his newly formed Formula Two Stockcar Company - which of course went on to become the mighty Spedeworth empire that we all know today. Mavis took on just about every mantle in the new venture, along with Les and her brother, the late Dave Gay. Together they shaped Spedeworth, opening new tracks, running existing ones, and travelling thousands of miles often running meetings seven days or nights a week in the peak of the season.

They ventured into Europe, and who will ever forget those great tours to South Africa, with Mavis the ever present hostess.

Among the hundreds of memories we have of Mavis we will all remember her for her generosity and fairness, but one thing that was for sure, Mavis left no doubt in anyone’s mind that SHE was behind the wheel. Les Eaton may have been known as “Mr Stockcar” but for sure Mavis was “The First Lady of Oval Racing.”

Mavis and Les worked tirelessly as Spedeworth grew, and her organisational skills left time for then both to enjoy the fruits of their work as they enjoyed some wonderful holidays all over the world until their decision to retire in the mid 1990’s.  Both Les and Mavis, despite retiring, still took a keen interest in Spedeworth and remained an excellent source of advice and assistance when required, living within earshot and still hearing the racing from Foxhall Stadium on the outskirts of Ipswich.

Despite failing health over the past couple of years, Mavis remained Mavis, always positive, always cheerful, and still the glamorous Mavis we had all come to know.

Hundred of memories then and no doubt thousands of stories, many of them probably very amusing and funny will be told over the coming weeks as we all share our own memories of the Mavis and Les years at Spedeworth.  Next time you are at a Spedeworth race meeting just pause for thirty seconds and remember the efforts of Mavis. Along with Les, they started it all off and kept the wheels oiled for over forty years.  Remember the Foxhall Spedeweekends, the Wimbledon Galas, the BP Nights? And the nights at Wisbech and Aldershot….the list just goes on.

Rest in peace Mavis Eaton, and from generations of Oval Racing fans everywhere…….Thank you.
Nick Thomas



Graham Brown’s tribute to the man who founded Hednesford Hills Raceway, and National Hot Rod racing.

William John (Bill) Morris Remembered

1914 – 2008

There can be no argument. We have just lost the most important figure, quite literally the father figure, in the history of Hot Rod racing. No Bill Morris, no National Hot Rods. By extension, that means no 2.0 Hot Rods, no Stock Rods, no Lightning Rods, no anything rods. What’s more, no Bill Morris, no Hednesford.

Having battled for the last few years with pneumonia and diabetes, Bill passed away peacefully in his sleep at Lake View Care Home, in Great Wyrley, on October 9, aged 94, leaving daughter June, son Martin (the first ever hot rod driver, and later Hednesford co-promoter), grandchildren Lawrence, Yvette, Hayley and Heidi and great-grandchildren Max, Harley and Milla.

Although the mortality of ourselves and others is something none of us can exactly ignore forever, there are some people who one comes to assume will be around forever. Bill was one of those. Nevertheless, a few years back I decided that an interview with Bill was not only long overdue, but that I didn’t actually have forever to get around to doing it.

Not having seen him for many years I was quite surprised, upon ‘phoning him, that he not only remembered who I was but enthusiastically agreed to my going to his house armed with a tape recorder. Thus did some of the questions I always wanted to ask get answered over cups of tea in Bill’s kitchen. Even then, at the age of 86, Bill’s mind was as sharp as a tack, despite that kitchen looking like somebody was stockpiling pharmaceutical supplies against the outbreak of a third world war!

For various reasons, that interview never got written. But it did enable us to hear now about some oval racing history in the words of the man who made it.

Born just a few months before the outbreak of World War I, he would certainly have seen a lot of changes in his 94 years on the planet. It is perhaps fitting, Bill having been born in Duddeston, not a million miles from Bordesley Green, that today there is an oval which is pretty much in his birthplace - Birmingham Wheels. That said, it is almost certainly no kind of coincidence that the track is where it is, one of the circuit’s boundaries being a fence that used to be shared with part of Meadway Spares.

The story of Bill’s early life is fairly well known. Leaving school at the grand old age of 13, he became a driver’s mate on lorries before going on to start his own garage business in Birmingham before the onset of WWII. At about that time - the mid-1930’s - he also met and married his wife Edna. Of course, by the outbreak of the second major conflict of the twentieth century, he was old enough to be involved and joined the RAF. Having qualified as a pilot, he later went to Canada to work as an instructor.

Following his return to the UK, he started the garage business - Meadway Motor Company - that would eventually become Meadway Spares. I believe he once told me he was originally dealing in Army surplus vehicles and parts, but Meadway’s soon became known for specialising in breaking scrap cars. This was no common or garden scrap yard however, with the dismantling, labeling and storage of the parts being organized in a methodical manner that might have been the model for all decently run modern salvage yards.

Then came the event that would ultimately change Bill’s life. Not long after its inception in the UK, the new sport of stock car racing arrived in the midlands in 1954. Bill attended a few meetings at Coventry, he and a couple of his employees, one of whom was his brother Derek, quickly becoming hooked on the idea of driving themselves.

“Way back in 1954 I was running a garage and petrol station in Birmingham”, Bill explained. “And I’d got three or four people working for me. They were of the same sort of age and enthusiasm for racing as I was, because we had previously been to a stock car meeting, one of the very early ones, at Brandon, Coventry. Anyway, we liked what we saw and laughed our way to the bank, if you like! We laughed our way into deciding to build some racing cars ourselves. We decided on two cars, and there was three of us, myself and two very good mechanics. We got what rules and regulations there were at that time, from the powers-that-be, to build them with.

“One of the first cars was an American Chrysler Airflow. The other was a Ford V8, maybe a Model 40 or a Model A, one of those. We decided to try to boost the Meadway Motor Company, so we called them ‘Tatter Meadway’ and ‘Wrecker Meadway’. But with only two cars and three drivers, and them enjoying it so much, I thought I’d let them have their own cars and had another one built for me. We didn’t get anywhere for months, because we were novices at it, although we made a name for ourselves, and we did it to advertise Meadway’s as much as anything. I didn’t win any medals, or many races!”

With the others racing the cars under their nicknames Bill drove a Ford Coupe, called ‘The Shark’ and entered under his own name at Coventry, Perry Barr and Leicester. And very soon the team all switched to using Ford’s as a result of American influence.

The whole business of oval racing obviously had a profound effect on Mr Morris, and it wasn’t long before he decided to go to America and see ‘the real thing’. Like many people even today, it may be that Bill had no idea that the bastardised version of stock cars that we got in ’54 – with contact permitted and encouraged – had come not out of the USA, but actually from France.

However, when he saw the American team that raced here in 1955, he realised there must be more to oval racing than just wrecking cars deliberately.

“After we saw that American tour at Perry Barr and Brandon, we said we must involve ourselves with this type of racing, because we were outclassed by the type of vehicles they’d brought over here. They’d run rings round us. They were based up at Great Barr somewhere, and I can remember going to see them up there in a hotel car park. I marvelled at their cars and the way they’d been built, with all these different gadgets on them to produce speed. We decided we must do something to compete with them, but of course we were way behind because they’d had so many years start.”

Not so long after that, Bill went to Daytona, met and befriended NASCAR’s Bill France, and came back with a whole different viewpoint on what oval track racing should be about.

But his first involvement on the organisational side came when Tamworth Stadium re-opened in 1960, Bill stepping forward to provide the start car until the track was forced to close by re-development in ‘61. I started this piece by saying “No Bill Morris, no National Hot Rods”, but I have even heard it said that without Bill, there would have been no BriSCA F2!

Although I had never seen it mentioned (in print) anywhere else that Bill might have been involved in the formation of F2, or Junior Stock cars, he was unequivocal on the subject.

“I didn’t race at Tamworth, but I used to provide and drive the pace car. And I put my son Martin into the racing, because I was one of the instigators of starting Junior Stock Car racing and I wanted him to make a name for himself and enjoy the racing.”

It is obvious that during Bill’s involvement at Fazeley, even by then, he’d effectively ‘outgrown’ the 1950’s stock car bash ‘n’ crash and was looking for alternatives. Given the way in which he went on to put his unique stamp on everything he touched, pushing through the creation of Hednesford against the odds and the development of non-contact oval racing against maybe even bigger odds, how likely is it that he would not have had a hand in what went on at Tamworth? Particularly with regard to such a revolutionary change as introducing an alternative to the only stock car formula the UK had ever known.  I believe the case is pretty much proved. Tamworth promoter Sid Farndon may be the man who is in the history books forever as the inventor of F2 (perhaps with a nudge from Ron Amas) but I bet WJM had more to do with it than we’ll ever know.

And speaking of ‘alternatives’, in 1960 many of the stock car fraternity became, for some strange reason, interested in the new craze of go-karting that was sweeping the country. Bill was one such, becoming a dealer for Aero Karts and racing them himself. On at least one occasion at Shenington he even managed to persuade his wife Edna to have a go!

Despite its short revival then, Tamworth left it’s mark forever on the UK oval scene before becoming a housing estate. At that point Bill was approached by many of the drivers, who saw him as an entrepreneur with a big interest in racing, begging him to find them somewhere else to race. Having seen and driven in the earlier chaotic meetings in a disused reservoir bowl at Hednesford Hills on Cannock Chase, he already knew that the right location existed. The Scott House Reservoir, to give it its proper title, was dug out in the late 1800’s but, by a happy accident for the racing fraternity, subsidence due to mine workings had caused it to spring a catastrophic leak. By 1912 it had been declared a dead duck and abandoned.

“I had previously raced a couple of times at Hednesford Hills – it wasn’t called a raceway then. That was run by Claude Roe, he started it off, but although he had the money, he hadn’t got the experience to do the job properly.

“We raced on a makeshift shale track in the bottom of the reservoir that was rather circular in shape with very little in the way of safety fences, and the crowds just stood around the sides. That meant it had commanding views, and it went on for a few meetings. It caused a lot of press publicity and what have you. But I’m afraid that, because of the type of cars and his organisation, the thrill and excitement of this type of racing wore off. The cars weren’t very fast and the novelty of seeing cars spun and turned over seemed to wane. Once people had seen it once or twice, they didn’t bother to come again.

“I’d realised what a shambles Claude Roe was making of it, and thought, I can do a better job than that I’m sure. Eventually, the crowds waned that much that he shut it down.”

So, with Tamworth gone and Bill looking for a handy replacement, all he had to do was convince Cannock Council, who had by then acquired the land from the Water Board, to let him have it.

“I started to negotiate with the council. And because I’d already produced Meadway Spares, I managed to impress one or two people at the council meeting that I could do a better job than Mr Roe. And they gave me an opportunity to prove my point. I basically conned my way in with the council that I could do it differently and better! So, with a lot of enthusiasm, I got stuck into re-modelling Hednesford Raceway along the lines of what I’d previously seen at Daytona and places like that.”

Building work started in the winter of 1961/62, and was completed sufficiently to allow use of the track by the summer of ’62. Although it is often said that the present day Hednesford opened in 1963, it isn’t so. Such was Bill’s drive for perfection he actually held two full scale ‘rehearsal’ meetings, initially using such things as karts and motorcycles, sometimes with sidecar racing. The first such event took place on Whit Monday June 11th ’62. The second – utilising F1 stock cars – took place less than a week later on June 16th, with the official opening on Saturday July 21st, which featured Karts, Junior (F2) Stock cars and a form of motorcycle scrambling which today we’d probably call stadium-cross.

However, it was to be Easter Monday April 15th 1963 that the modern day story of Hednesford got underway properly. Although this event comprised Junior stock cars and motorcycle outfits, Bill was already plotting the formula he’d really envisaged when building his track – hot rods. It was for this vision, his vision of NASCAR for Britain, that he constructed a circuit – certainly once it had an asphalt surface – which even today is pretty much unrivalled in the UK for speed on a small oval.

“Well, everyone else had speedway tracks, whereas ours was purpose built for the type of sport that I wanted to do, and that was hot rod racing. I wanted to follow the Americans with stock looking cars. But in addition to the slab-sided cars like the 100E’s and Morris Minors, we did allow some of what we called Modified Hot Rods. Doug Warner was the number one example of these. Doug had previously been with me to the ‘States and we both had the same sort of ideas, except that I was for the slab-sided cars and he was more for the modifieds.

“I decided that I couldn’t use the words “stock cars”, because people were already using that name, and I had to come up with some other ideas. So I decided that for saloon cars that have been ‘hotted up’ purely for racing, we could use the words ‘Hot Rod Racing’. Although the hot rods in America were dragsters, the term seemed to fit the bill here.”

Bill then had to set about convincing the oval racing establishment that cars which didn’t deliberately make contact would make for better entertainment.

It was an uphill struggle, with Meadway’s having to build many of the early cars themselves, and then entice people to buy them. But, once Spedeworth boss Les Eaton saw the new formula and was taken with it, the Hot Rods – barring a few more false starts - were truly on their way. Not that the forward thinking of both Morris and Eaton set them on a smooth course, far from it.

“We invited him (Les Eaton) up to our NAHRC (National Association of Hot Rod Clubs - an early version of the NHRPA) meetings – not to the Raceway – but to the meetings we were having at Meadway Spares. This was because we were looking for other places to race these cars in addition to our own track. And we eventually agreed with Les that we would put a couple of meetings on at Wimbledon. But of course, he wanted to steer the boat, and it got to the point where he wanted to take over the whole idea. I was being a bit stubborn at the time, and we came to a parting, that’s what it amounted to. So, we missed out on racing at Wimbledon and he went his own way, and the meetings (around a table) that we had, ceased.

“But I kept it going with the National Association. When I first thought of the Association, it was set up so that each area would have its own club, and the NAHRC would govern the whole lot of them. But Les wouldn’t have anything to do with the National Association and wanted to go his own way.”

Eventually a working relationship was established, with Spedeworth’s and Hednesford’s cars mixing at various events. Most notably of course, this meant the National championship in the late 1960’s. By the onset of the 1970’s, and with the huge upsurge in interest in the formula that was being generated by the large numbers of new drivers registering with Spedeworth, there was talk of a world championship to go with those already established for the various major stock car classes.

By 1971, rumour had turned to certainty, with Spedeworth programmes, and their house magazine Wheelspin, proclaiming that there would be a world championship next year (’72) and that it would be held at Hednesford. So…why wasn’t it?

“That was another time we came to disagree. Because he (Les Eaton) had got a lot of drivers under his banner, a lot more than I had in actual fact, he decided he would go it alone as the instigator (of the world championship), and drown Bill Morris in the background.” (Bill chuckles at this point, as if to show that any rancour he might have felt about this has long since evaporated). “That’s how it appeared to me at that time.”

In due course the world championship came to be the event which every driver aspires to winning. But it will never usurp the position of being the original championship that Bill established at Hednesford, the oldest title in hot rodding, the granddaddy of ‘em all. The National.

For over 20 years, Bill steered his Raceway through good times and bad, and maintained a guiding hand on his more wayward child, the formula of hot rod racing. In the late 1970’s and with their working relationship once more on an even keel, he got together with Les Eaton to co-promote meetings at Northampton, events which led almost directly to the founding of the NHRPA.

One of the new Association’s first acts was to inaugurate the highly successful - if relatively short-lived - Grand Prix Series, and there seems to be little doubt whose brainchild that was. Much of the promotional paperwork and posters were produced by Hednesford’s offices and the series winner was even presented with the magnificent Bill Morris Trophy. I had often wondered if Bill had any preferences about who ought to win it, which set me thinking; who did Bill reckon was the greatest ‘rod driver he ever saw?

“It’s got to be Barry Lee. Or Mick Collard. But Barry Lee, he was the man that stood out in my mind. He was the kingpin.”

It seems strange, after so much enthusiasm and effort had been directed at every detail of racing for so long that, in 1983, Bill suddenly took the decision to walk away from it all. I asked him why this was. There followed a very long pause, stretching out to nearly a full minute before Bill responded.

“To tell you the truth, I can’t remember. I know I eased down from my prominence. Do you know, I can’t put a clean cut line there about when the interest waned for me? I think I’d realised that I wasn’t getting the publicity that I wanted for the whole thing. Then there was the other company that I had started building up, Cannock Auto Spares. That was becoming more important and I was putting my efforts into that rather than the hot rod racing. I think I gradually backed out of it that way.”

Philip Bond, the man who’d worked so closely with Bill for so many years and would ultimately take on the mantle of co-promoter (with Martin Morris as Incarace) had a slightly different take on the question.

“At that time, there was no actual lease on Hednesford, and he couldn’t come to terms on one with the council”, Philip explained.

“So I think Bill really walked away because of the council’s interference. Previously, they’d seemed to be all for him and the raceway, but they suddenly seemed to have a change of heart, and I don’t think Bill could understand their altered attitude, and felt quite let down by them.

“To begin with, he didn’t want to cut all ties. We’d almost reached an agreement where he would sell one third of the promotion to me, one third to Martin, and retain one third. But Martin and his dad were both firey people and didn’t get on awfully well. We all disagreed about what direction the racing should go in, so this deal never got done and Martin and I ended up taking over the whole thing, half and half.”

Certainly, Bill seemed to suddenly vanish off the scene and the unthinkable had happened. The man who founded hot rods and the original track to race them on, was no longer promoting the formula or the Raceway. Indeed, was no longer even going to watch.

“I haven’t been to the stadium”, Bill stated, flatly.

“Oh, I’ve been in the stadium when it’s been empty, doing business with Philip Bond, supplying him materials for the safety fence and what have you, and for the new building that he built over the pit area – which I thought was very very good, the way that’s been done. But I haven’t been to any meetings. Of course, I got all enthusiastic about building Cannock Motor Village – I’ve sold all that now – and then there was the houses, building Meadway Close and so on. And then there was the reclaimed building materials business at Cannock, I’ve sold that lot now too. So I’ve still been wheeling and dealing, but I’m 86 now and that’s the end of it.

“The last race I saw……I’m sure it was up at Hednesford. But I don’t bother to go up there now because for some reason or other things have altered and I just don’t want to know. The interest has gone now I’m afraid, all gone.”

It was rather a sad comment with which to conclude the taped portion of our discussion, but for sure, people do go through phases in life, some lasting longer than others. Bill’s racing phase certainly lasted a very long time and left an indelible mark on the oval racing scene.

There were so many facets to Bill Morris’s character, and here, we have mainly concentrated on the racing one of course. But there were his beloved dogs, who went everywhere with him, and his famous ‘survival kit’, which ensured that he could always make a cup of tea wherever he ended up.

There are a couple of little personal stories that I’d like to share with you concerning Bill. Years ago, the public weren’t admitted to the pits at Hednesford, and you needed a pass to get in there. These were not handed out willy-nilly and, if you were a journalist, you might get a season pass, but the holy grail was a pass with the red over-typed words “& PITS” added to the bottom. I was lucky enough to get one of these, and they used to arrive like clockwork before the start of every season.

One day, the pass turned up without the ‘and pits’ bit on it. Wondering if something had changed, I rang the Hednesford office to enquire. Usually, you would get a secretary answer any calls, as Bill was rarely there and didn’t answer the phones when he was. For some odd reason, that day, it was he who came on the line. I explained my reason for calling, and boy, was he angry! He raved on about his staff for a bit, before apologising profusely and promising to send the correct pass, which he - or someone he hadn’t fired - duly did.

When I asked him later why he’d been so annoyed about what was, after all, merely a minor clerical oversight, he said: “We can hardly ever get anyone from the press interested in coming to the meetings to write much about us, even the local papers. You’ve been giving us free publicity for years. How are you going to carry on doing that if we don’t give you the tools for the job?”

I tell this tale only because it was typical of Bill’s way of doing things at that time. Interested in everything, passionate about everything to do with running a meeting, and no detail too small to be worried about.

Some years later, at a world final meeting, I’d been doing ‘the job’ as usual, and had somehow managed to spend too long in the pits gassing to people. Suddenly, the roar of ‘rod engines alerted me to the fact that the meeting final had started, and me nowhere near being able to see the track. I was sprinting across the car park towards the nearest (turnstile) entrance, when I heard a shout, coming from somewhere up in the air. It was Bill, sat on top of a giant American motor home (long before such things were common in the UK), calling to me.

“You’re going to miss the race! Come on up here!”

I clambered up the ladder at the back and sat down next to Bill, who’d managed to get the camper parked in such a way as to be able to see over the stadium fence and straight down onto the track. It seemed strange to be sat on a deck chair on the roof of a camper next to the man who’d thought up the formula we were watching, while thousands of people milled about below us. They were totally oblivious to the hot rod inventor, quietly sipping his drink, and just enjoying the racing like everyone else.

Thankfully, Bill did end up going to at least a couple more meetings at ‘his track’ prior to his death. He was there to cut the ribbon and declare the Hednesford track officially re-opened following its re-surfacing some years back, and also for the 40th Anniversary event on August 10th 2003. This was probably the last meeting Bill attended.

Bill’s funeral was held on Monday 20 October 2008 at Streetly Crematorium. Not all that far, as the crow flies, from where he’d been born and bred, run his businesses, and the Raceway itself. As well as the many, many people who’ve been involved with Hednesford, Bill, and the racing down the years, the hot rod drivers were fittingly represented by, among others, former National champions Gordon Bland and Tom Laffey, the latter having made the trip from Ireland specially to attend.

RIP Bill, and thanks for everything.

Graham Brown
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Added 08/07/08
Graham Brown pays tribute to

Dave Bozzard

We learnt recently – via a late night ‘phone call from George Polley – that 1970’s Spedeworth Hot Rod ace Dave Bozzard had died.

Although never a prolific championship winner, ‘Bonky’, as he was affectionately known, was a permanent fixture on the scene and regular race winner throughout the early 1970’s.

Starting with the ubiquitous Ford Anglia of the day, former 10-pin bowling champion Bozzard progressed through a series of Escorts, mainly bearing the sign writing of his own Bylands Service Station, based in Redbourn, Herts. There were many racing people who had reason to be thankful for their easy-to-remember ‘phone number (Redbourn 2320) and 24-hour breakdown service when using the M1, including the writer and Mr Polley himself.

Later, Dave would carry sponsorship from another local firm, the Markyate Plant Hire Company, and later still, from Yateley Commercial Motors.

“Bonky” always had something of a flamboyant streak (this was in the days when racing had some real characters, remember), and I was always struck by the fact that, no matter how disgusting the conditions in the pits might have been, his shoes or boots were always immaculately polished. George also reminded me, that Dave was one of those happy band of drivers who often had a silk or chiffon scarf fluttering in the cockpit, fighter pilot style. Sometimes these were tied to the roll cage, more rarely, they were actually worn. I seem to recall Dave was a pink chiffon scarf wearer. He certainly once showed up at Wimbledon with the most outrageous set of overalls, that looked as though they might have been made out of someone’s old curtains. He also took the ribbing that this entailed in good heart, enjoying a good laugh at his own expense.

Although championship tags always seemed to elude him (but a pair of British championship third places in ’73 and ’75 were hardly to be sniffed at), Bozzard was always competitive, always in the hunt.

To prove the point, at that period of time, unless your name was Lee or Polley, you simply didn’t get to run around with the silver roof of Spedeworth points leader on your car. In mid-1976, the driver of the # 99 car finally achieved this accolade. And, almost as though Dave had decided that was as far as he needed to get to prove his credentials, he vanished from the scene forever very soon afterwards.

Although afflicted by Bell’s Palsy, Dave was no more slowed down by his condition than fellow sufferer Ayrton Senna. Reportedly, it was a massive stroke which finally took his life, Dave apparently ending his days living somewhere in the Florida Keys. It would seem that this fairly remote location is why it has taken a while for the bad news of his death to penetrate back to UK oval racing circles.

So long after the event, this piece is not so much an obituary, more a small appreciation of a driver who gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people back in the golden era, myself included.

RIP, Bonky.                    GB
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Added 23/10/06
Graham Brown pays tribute to

Ken Salter

One of the star names of the West Country hot rod scene from the 1970s and ‘80s, Ken Salter, has died.

He was one of the pioneers of National Hot Rod racing, representing the South West region in the inaugural National Grand Prix series in 1978, as well as numerous national and international championship events.

His number 774 Ford Escort became a familiar sight around the UK’s raceways and was invariably among the best presented cars on the short ovals.

Regarded as one of the true gentlemen of oval racing, he will be sadly missed by his family and many friends in his home town of Cullompton, Devon, and much further afield.

After early sporting success on the soccer field – he was a schoolboy international and played professionally with Exeter City – Ken’s racing career began in the late 1960s with bangers, initially in the South West, and later in the South East with PRI and Spedeworth.

Returning to the West Country, he continued to race bangers (with considerable success) before switching to Autospeed’s lightweight saloon stock car class, Auto Rods in 1977.

The following year saw his move to hot rods with a Mk 1 Escort, and although a novice in the class, he entered the new Grand Prix series, a nationwide competition which marked the beginning of National Hot Rod racing.

He placed fifth in the Autospeed points chart and represented the South West at the National Championship at Hednesford and the NHRPA ‘picnic’ at Ringwood.

The following year, he campaigned a Murtune-engined Mk 2 Escort, achieving fifth place in the Newton Abbot GP round, 12th in the World Championship and runner-up spot in the Autospeed table.

In 1980 – just his third season in hot rods – he lifted the South West points title for the first time, and placed well in the two South West rounds of the newly-named NHRPA Championship series.

He remained among the top hot rodders in the region through the 1980s, winning the South of England title in 1981 and further points championships. He also enjoyed success in Super Rods.

Despite his illness in recent years, Ken was still a regular race-goer, and in his final months enjoyed chatting about the old days with his long-time friend and travelling partner, Ralph Sanders, who is still a familiar face on the National Hot Rod scene.

Ken was 72 and had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for several years and later contracted cancer. He died at a care home in Taunton on October 13.

A minute’s silence was held at Smeatharpe’s race meeting on Sunday (22^nd October), the day before his funeral at Exeter crematorium.

With thanks to Andrew Weltch & Graham Brown.
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Added 22/02/04
Graham Brown pays tribute to

Trevor Shaw   1947 – 2004

We were saddened to learn of the death of former National Hot Rod driver Trevor Shaw, who lost his battle with cancer last week.  He was 56.

Trevor was a member of the close-knit midlands “1970’s set” and a star driver throughout most of that decade and the early 1980’s.  Initially a Mini racer, as the little cars became increasingly uncompetitive, Trevor switched to the ubiquitous Ford Escort, apparently making the transition with ease.

He was a regular in the midlands side back in the days of “Midlands v Spedeworth” team events, and also distinguished himself as a member of British Lions touring teams in South Africa during the mid 1970’s.  It was at one of those midlands v the south events – unusually for such meetings, this one was held at Aldershot – that the writer well remembers Trevor spinning his black Mini down the back straight before clouting the post by the pit gate backwards.  At this point, his crash helmet flew out the back window and landed on the dog track! Clearly, they didn’t do them up quite so tight in those days!

It was 1979/80 that Trevor’s star shone brightest in the hot rodding firmament.  He began to make a habit of winning the fiercely competitive Grand Prix rounds, notably at tight tarmac tracks like Newton Abbot and Skegness, taking the honours two years running at the East coast oval.

However, it was the ’79 World Final which really brought Trevor to the fore, as Gordon Bland led the “Midlands Rout” by winning, Shaw raced Mick Collard for second, just snatching the place in their side-by-side race for the line.  Blandy had gone past some time previously, but clearly, Trevor bore him no malice, and made this typically modest statement after the race:

“I spent too much time trying to hug that inside and I just never seem to learn that the outside is the quickest way round here (Ipswich).  There was just too much oil round the inside, so it was my own fault I didn’t win really, but Gordon deserves it, he drove really well”.

1980 was undoubtedly Shaw’s finest hour though, as he first took the British title and then four months later, the most prized trophy after the world title itself, the National Championship.

Both these events were at Hednesford that year, obviously a track Trevor knew like the back of his hand, but this should not be allowed to detract from either victory, and certainly not the British. This was one of the toughest races of the entire decade and Shaw had to beat off serious opposition from a field which read like a true who’s who of racing at that time. Six cars fought it out for the lead from the word go, so there could be no question of taking things easy on the tyres or the cars.  Going into the closing stages, there were still four cars engaged in the dice, including Barry Lee and Pete Stevens, but Trev outlasted or out-ran them all.

Even his National title was not without its drama. Having again seen off Leo and Stevens, his car broke a breather pipe a handful of laps from the finish, leaving Trevor to nurse the silver RS Escort home with a cockpit filled with smoke.

It was not long after this that Trevor drifted away from the short ovals but continued driving racecars on the road circuits for some years in partnership with fellow rodder and long-time friend John Edwards.  Trevor was also interested in shooting, and was still enjoying that sport (as well as a few drinks afterwards no doubt!) in the company of Gordon Bland among others, until quite recently.

The funeral will be at the Holy Cross Church, Daventry on Thursday, February 26th at 2.30 pm and we extend our condolences to Trevor’s family and many friends. GB

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Added 01/11/03
Nick Thomas pays tribute to

John Earrey

John Earrey…….. Where do you start writing a tribute to John? Where ever you look around Foxhall Stadium there are the things that remind us of the man who was “Mr Foxhall”.

John first became involved with Foxhall back in the early 1960’s, whilst working at Ipswich engineering firm Ransomes Sims and Jeffries, he was involved with the Kesgrave Cycle Speedway Club both as a rider and as their announcer, like many people in the cycle speedway world John was a keen speedway fan, one day when the commentator failed to appear the microphone was thrust into Johns hands with the words “here we go John, you can do this!”

Les Eaton persuaded John to commentate for Spedeworth in 1964 and his first meeting was at the Firs Stadium in Norwich.  At this point John had never seen Stock Car racing, and, in his own words “had no interest in it either!” But, from that day on he was hooked and commentated here at Ipswich the following day. By the early 70’s John had given up his job with Ransomes and was now commentating full time at Stock Car and Speedway meetings all over the UK as well as voicing quite a few commercials for the newly formed local radio station in Ipswich, Radio Orwell. John took over as Stadium Manager at Foxhall in 1982 where he remained until retiring in 1998.

But it’s for his commentating skills, his wit, his humour, and the fact that he was just a superb chap that all of us in oval racing and indeed the speedway world will remember him. Just look back to the seventies at Foxhall…  Uncle Bulgaria - Johns stooge and the stick he took, remember John’s jibes at the “monkeys” in the trees watching the racing for free, and the night at speedway when John ribbed a lady in the grandstand who was eating a Mars Bar; she took him one up to the box for every meeting after that - it must have been for five years - and John never had the heart to tell her that he hated Mars Bars!  Finally the music, remember it? A Walk in the Black Forest, and it had to be the Horst Jankowski version: wherever he went his signature tune went with him.

John was still a regular visitor to both Stock Car and Speedway meetings at Foxhall, in fact he was here at the Banger and Stock Car English Championship meeting only two days before he died.  He came to Spedeweekend this year and loved every minute of it, I am really pleased that we managed to persuade him to get up on the stage to have a few words with Jim.

Hundreds of memories then, but I think it was for his famous Ipswich Speedway war-cry from the centre green at Foxhall that he will be most remembered for...  Rest in peace John Earrey. So long as we know!  NT

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