It came as a massive shock to all in the National Hot Rod community when the news broke of Neil’s sudden death at only age 62 on Tuesday July 7th, though probably none more so than me, as we had been firm friends and colleagues going back nearly 40 years.
Many people were aware, via his daily Facebook posts, that he had tripped and fallen while out walking his beloved little dog Mica a few days earlier, and banged himself up quite badly in the process. But it’s fair to say nobody was expecting the eventual tragic outcome which was to befall Mica’s master as a result of this mishap.
Born in 1963, like so many of us Neil’s introduction to racing came via his dad, his father Denis being a member of the BARC, BRDC and BMRMC - ‘The Orange Army’ of today. Young Neil got taken along to Brands Hatch, where his dad was a flag marshal, and managed to get Neil a job helping operate the giant scoreboard which used to stand atop Paddock Hill Bend.
By age 8 he had seen his first Hot Rod meeting and that obviously sparked the flame of what would become the fire of passion for his chosen formula. But in those formative years he had also discovered a rival passion: football. And again, as a result of going to matches with his dad, became a life-long Chelsea supporter. This gave rise to something of a dichotomy however as his mum Shirley decreed that Neil was being spoilt by going to so many race meetings and matches. So he was forced to choose and Neil chose the footy, meaning that he missed a lot of racing he might otherwise have witnessed in his late childhood and early teens.
But once he reached the age of independence and acquired a car, he was of course able to decide for himself where he was going to devote his time and attention, and racing made a strong comeback.
Happily viewing the racing from the terraces for a few years, when Colin and Sue Warner decided to form the National Hot Rod Supporters Membership in 1990 Neil naturally became a member. And when the membership secretary quit a year later Neil took over the position; it was now that his journey towards running the whole show really commenced. Before too long he was in charge of the club’s PR, going on to become vice-chair to Colin Warner. When Colin and Sue decided to give up running the NHRSM in 1994 Neil took over running the club. It was a mark of the enthusiasm and energy he applied to everything at that time, as he was also giving up being a TV salesman to establish himself in the chauffeur drive hire car business, where he ended up driving a lot of BBC employees and celebs. Having also met co-worker and future wife Angie French while they were both at Multi-Broadcast, she too became involved with the Membership as its secretary.
Subsequently of course, Neil and Angie got married on a never to be forgotten day at the1997 world championship. The ceremony took place on the infield at Foxhall, their union attracting a huge amount of publicity, including in the national daily papers.
The writer had also been a member of the NHRSM since day one, and had been in charge of the NHR points and gradings since 1992. By then the fortunes of the Nationals had reached a real low point with single figure car counts at some meetings. Worryingly, Spedeworth had introduced 1600 Hot Rods (today’s 2-litres) as a cheaper alternative, but there were hard-core followers like us who felt there was still a place for the elite class and Neil, Angie and I wanted to do something to reverse the decline. All of us were determined to stick it out, even if we ended up with only two cars at a meeting!
Though things were still at low ebb Nationals were still in business by the September of ’96 when the promoters appointed us to run the formula. This divesting of the organisation to a dedicated team determined to make it work set the formula on course for a return to the sort of glory days not seen for almost 20 years. Once I’d come up with the idea of making every meeting a world qualifier, and made where you finished in the points part of where you started on the World Final grid, car counts improved and that way of running the World Final remained in place for the next 22 years.
It might have originally been my idea, but nothing would have been achieved at all without loads of other people. Neil and Angie were the true figureheads. As Racing Directors they did all the hard work of running the NHRPA, alongside their day jobs of course, and naturally, the promoters had to be prepared to give us the chance in the first place.
But you can say pretty much with certainty that without the work put in by Neil and the rest of us, National Hot Rods literally wouldn’t still exist today.
The NHRSM had put out a newsletter since dayone, a broadsheet which later morphed into an A5 ‘fanzine’ style publication. With Neil now at the helm this was re-named to World of Nationals, an eagerly awaited monthly ‘bible’ for the dedicated Hot Rod fan. The mag went from strength to strength, moving to a glossy-covered A4 format before finally being handed on to Short Circuit publishers YBA in 2002.
Neil also set up a PR company, Euromedia, part of which involved building the fledgling websites for a number of organisations, utilising the skills he’d learnt building the original nationalhotrod.com site in 2001.That site incorporated a chat room, becoming an established unmissable Tuesday night ritual for a number of years before such things fell out of fashion.
By the late spring of 2002, Neil and Angie’s marriage was over. It’s probably fair to say that Neil went through something of a mid-life crisis in the most literal sense. He left his wife and their home in Theale and packed his whole life - that which he hadn’t given away - and his dog Leo into his car and heading for a whole new start in Ireland. It became his adopted country for the rest of his life.
Although he’d quit his role as Racing Director at the same time, once in Ireland, it wasn’t long before Neil gravitated to the sport over there. He was soon acting as the steward at Tipperary, his services also becoming much in demand in the North, Neil covering many miles to fulfil that role too.
All of that, continuing to run the NHR website, and another new string to his bow of designing and making vinyl stickers, kept him well and truly in touch with the sport.
Eventually he met and fell in love with Eimear, the pair marrying in 2013 with GB acting as best man; we had all remained friends even after Angie and I had become ‘an item’. Sadly, Eimear had already been diagnosed with MND by the time of their wedding day. She passed away five years later after a long battle with the disease, Neil standing staunchly with her every step of the way.
Left alone in their charming coastal property in South East Ireland, and utilising the extension the couple had built to make Eimear’s care easier, Neil took on a new role, that of holiday let owner. This somewhat unlikely transformation seemed to be one which really suited him.
In later years Neil’s visits to the race tracks, whether in Ireland or England, had fallen off to the point of not going at all. While it would not be true to say he’d fallen out of love with the sport it was clearly no longer the passion it had once been. Handing over control of his beloved website to Shane Bland underlined the fact, although he continued to look after the Facebook facet of the website, posting results, updates and news stories as he received them.
In the last couple of years Neil had seemed entirely happy with his lot. Once his much loved dog Frank had passed on he acquired what at first sight appeared to be an entirely unsuitable replacement in little Mica. But the characterful she-dog became his constant companion and the star of his daily FB posts about their walks, their beach and of course, her never ending collection of sticks!
It was in this almost reclusive, contented mode that he was tripped by a fox-chasing Mica and fell while out on one of their regular evening walks. Nobody, including Neil, could have foreseen that one of the injuries sustained in that fall would ultimately lead to his untimely demise.
Neil has left a never-to-be-forgotten mark on National Hot Rod racing. I am sure I speak for all within the oval racing community when I offer my sincere condolences to his sisters Amelia and Laura, his wider family and many many friends both within racing and elsewhere at this sad time.
Goodbye my friend until we meet again.
Graham Brown
