Carl H

Very sad to read this. Although we talked it about it several times, I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person. I can't say for certain that Roger's Oval Racing Pages was the very first stock car website when it appeared in 1997, but it was definitely the first one to gain any kind of traction. Roger also organised a group chat system via email (this was before even before chat boards and forums had been invented), and it was through this that I had many an interesting discussion with Roger and others. Truly one of the pioneers of getting stock car racing on the internet. My thoughts are with all those that he leaves behind.

Amended following a steward's inquiry into the result of the final at King's Lynn. Second place was H229, not H29, as originally reported.

Points chart after last night. http://stoxnet.com/points/e_points.htm

Was it "This is Chevy country. On a quiet night you can hear Fords going rusty" ?

Great stuff, very interesting and informative. 👍 Just one comment, and it was the same for the Andy Smith one - any chance of a, how can I put this, "less unflattering" camera angle for the interviewees? Maybe put their iPad / laptop / whatever on top of something so they're looking straight at, or slightly upwards at the camera, instead of looking down.

I think it's the first historical one, I don't remember any others. There has been one fairly recently by Chequered Flag, which was a driver based one.

66 years later, there have been 5,825* meetings, and 5,967* drivers have raced. * at least.

A bit of "rebranding" so it looks more or less the same as the rest of Stoxnet. It's near enough for now. if there's anyone more artistic than me, knows about CSS etc, and fancies tweaking the design, then drop me a line. Please. 😀

I think this is the first time ever that a Dutch driver has been at the top of the UK points charts. 😃 http://stoxnet.com/points/e_points.htm Do we have a name for H316 please?

It's very realistic - I've just been contacted by a driver querying his points. 😆

No substitute for the real thing, obviously, but I thought it was very good. Nice bit of light hearted fun, although it looked like some of the drivers were taking it seriously! I didn't watch it continuously, I dipped in and out, but the stream seemed perfectly fine for me (I watched it from here, not via Face Book). Is driving from the pits and lining up on track part of the game? The general faffing about between races was incredibly realistic... Did Nige really get banned, or was that just banter? If so, what did he do? Anyway, I knocked a points table up.... http://stoxnet.com/points/e_points.htm

http://stoxnet.com/points/e_points.htm

Yes, it would have been. 😞

The final from Bolton, filmed and commentated by FWJ's chief mechanic Binnsy's dad

Sunday 29th March 1970 Despite beginning in 1954, the first meeting on 29th March wasn't until 1970. It was at Brands Hatch, with George Ansell living up to his "King Of Tar" title with a heat and final double. Saturday 29th March 1975 Finals wins for two of the sport's all-time legends. 391 Stu Smith won at Nelson, whilst at Long Eaton the main event went to 2 Willie Harrison. Willie's first final win came here at Sheffield on Friday 8th April 1955. He retired in 1990, having won 1 World Championship, 2 British Championships, and 120 finals. Thursday 29th March 1979 The Northern Open Championship was staged Blackburn, with 199 Mike Close taking the title. Widely regarded as one of the sport's all-time greatest drivers, Mike Close is one of only six drivers ever to have won over 100 meeting finals as well as all three major titles. Saturday 29th March 1980 The Daily Mirror Grand Prix round White City saw 391 Stu Smith dominate, winning won both his heats and the final. Heat 5 went to 154 Brian Powles, with the other two won by 131 Pete Hodgson. He only raced for five years but in that time he won 42 races, including 6 Finals. Sunday 29th March 1981 The heats at Aycliffe were won by 199 Mike Close and 1 Stu Smith, with 190 Len Wolfenden winning the Consolation, and these were the top three in the Final. Close won, from Wolfenden and Smith. Wolfy then won the GN, with Close second from the lap handicap, and Smith third. Northampton the same day produced a heat and final double for 304 Dave Mellor. Saturday 29th March 1986 In the later stages of his career he was known as a tarmac specialist, but 422 Nigel Whorton was more than capable of winning on shale, as shown with a Consolation and Final double on the rough shale of Crewe. This was Nigel's 17th Final. He would go on to win a total of 59, plus the 1986 British, the 1991 UK Open, and the Supreme in 1985 and 1992. Sunday 29th March 1987 Long distance traveller 354 Richard Ainsworth, from Ulverston, Cumbria, made the trek to Northampton worthwhile by winning heat and final. This was the 11th of his 13 final victories in a career that spanned 1978-1988. He won 27 races at Northampton, including 7 finals. Friday 29th March 1991 Friday night at Scunthorpe saw 3 different winners from 5 races. Heat and GN wins for 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr, a Consolation victory for 64 Kev Smith, and heat and final for 53 John Lund. Sunday 29th March 1992 The opening meeting at Bolton, and in front of a massive crowd, the honour of first ever race win at the North West's newest track went to 172 Steve Hodgson. Heat 2 winner was 422 Nigel Whorton, the Consolation was 33 Peter Falding's, 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr took the first ever Bolton final, and the GN was an impressive flag to flag win for up and coming white top 221 Steve Cooper, who went on to win 3 finals at the track. Sadly, Bolton lasted only 3 seasons. Stringent restrictions on noise and time, coupled with a less than robust fence, led to some meetings being curtailed early, and the 3rd July 1994 turned out to be the last one. Saturday 29th March 1997 Heat and Final at Northampton for 41 Gaz Bott, with only 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr able to match his pace. He first appeared in F1 in 1976 and raced intermittently for a few years, but it was on his return in 1988 that he really started to make an impression. A regular race winner on both surfaces at first, although he concenrated on tarmac in the later years, he was joint top final winner (with FWJ) in 1996, with 8 finals. Friday 29th March 2013 Good Friday was a good day at Skegness for the J Davidson team. Heat 1 was won by 464 Luke Davidson, from 84 Tom Harris and 318 Rob Speak. Tom won the second heat, with Rob third. The final was Luke's, with Rob runner-up and Tom fifth. The GN went to 372 Colin Goodswen. Saturday 29th March 2014 King's Lynn was the venue for a massive points haul for the sport's fastest double-glazing salesman. Heat third, final win, and fourth in the GN for 259 Paul Hines. The meeting opened with the standard Whites & Yellows Race, with 496 Neil Holcroft taking his first ever win.

I remember it well... The opening race of the season saw a lot of drivers either out of practice, or with large reserves of pent up aggression, but either way, it turned into a bumper fest. Andy Smith (1) had methodically worked his way through the 18 car field, and had looked a likely winner until he was out-manoeuvred by James Morris (463). Smith had edged up the inside of Morris out of turn four, and the two were almost side by side as they went past the starter. But as they came upon a slow moving backmarker, Morris held his line and Smith had nowhere to go but into the the back of the white top. The resulting tangle let Danny Wainman (212) past, only for Smith to launch Wainman and Phil Whittaker (88) hard into the turn 3 fence. This snapped a fence post and brought out the first yellows of the season. On the restart, it was Garry Townsend (223) still leading, with Smith and the now lap down Wainman behind him. Townsend got it a bit too sideways around the first turn, and got hooked up with Smith and Wainman. Matt Newson (16) then sailed past all three of them down the outside, but his lead was short-lived as the first four or five cars all piled into the turn three fence. This left James Neachell (322) leading, and he went on to win. The turn three fence took a further battering in the closing laps, with first Morris putting Newson and himself in, and then Smith putting Townsend in hard, and bouncing off the wires himself in the process. The second heat saw white tops John Weldon (235) and Neil Holcroft (496) engage in a great battle for the lead, changing places every few laps, before Neachell (322) caught them. The 322 car bumpered both out of the way as they entered turn three, but in the process nudged novice driver Dave Campbell (388) off line. Campbell lost control and put his car through the home straight wires, bringing out the yellows. The rest of the race passed without incident, with Dan Johnson (4) taking a maiden victory in his new car. The third heat had Mike Heywood (424) at the front after early leader Rich Bryan (238) span himself out. Heywood exited the race in dramatic style when he was picked up by Tony Smith (91) and driven side on into the turn three fence. This gave Mark Poole (276) the lead, but Smith (1) was rapidly closing. Poole did well to avoid the spinning Nigel Harrhy (45) car, but he couldn't keep Smith at bay for long, and the number 1 car was in the lead by the halfway, after which the result was a foregone conclusion. The track was bone dry for the Final, which produced some very fast racing. Holcroft, Heywood, and Morris all took turns at leading before Neachell (322) barged his way to the front, with Smith not far behind. As the race reached half distance, Neachell was ahead by about four car lengths, and as the laps passed Smith wasn't getting any closer. But as the lap boards came out, Smith lunged at Neachell and hit the 322 car just wide enough to get past. Neachell then appeared to be biding his time before striking, as for the next few laps he was right behind Smith but didn't make a challenge. Perhaps sensing that Neachell was building up to a big last bend hit, Smith turned it up a bit and edged away, such that by the last bend Neachell wasn't really close enough to put the bumper in. Every credit to him for going for it anyway, but he missed Smith and instead collided with backmarker Heywood, which let Newson through for second. Smith took the win, his 100th Final, which he celebrated with the obligatory donuts. The Grand National was a tribute to Stu Smith Senior, and was billed as The Old Boy’s “Show Us The Money” Race. With £1000 to the winner and a closed grid start, a lively race was expected, and it did not disappoint. Bryan got away first, but the inevitable big push on the first bend caught out Joe Booth (446) and Ed Neachell (321), who were shoved straight into the fence on the first bend, with most of the back half of the grid piling into each other. Smith (1) reversed out and then set off like a man possessed, firing cars in on almost every lap, but by halfway he was still some way behind leader Newson. Bryan made the mistake of getting in Smith’s way, and was smacked out of the way, but try as he might, Smith couldn’t get any closer, and ended up as runner up, with Newson taking the win and the money.

Great stuff

Updated info regarding the USA drivers in 1955, plus results and photos etc from the first 3 meetings at Oxford.

More drivers plus programmes and new/updated results from Staines 1959 and 1960.

More drivers from 1954 and 1955 added, plus results, reports, etc, from: Swindon 25th September 1954Norwich 25th September 1954West Ham 25th September 1954Weymouth 26th September 1954Southampton 28th September 1954Yeovil 11th August 1955Yeovil 17th September 1955Big thanks to Derek

I've got no record of any meeting at Ringwood in August 1968. Either it wasn't an F1 meeting that you went to, or you've highlighted a 'missing' meeting.

The "Summer Bank Holiday" (which is the proper name for it, apparently) in 1968 was Monday 2nd September. I don't have the programme for that meeting (and briscaf1stox.uk doesn't either), so can't help at the moment. But 'new' stuff comes to light every so often, so you never know...

Correct. I know this is the wrong date because:- 26th April 1958 was a Saturday. Whit Monday is 7 weeks after Easter Monday so cannot be in April. The 1958 calendar says Whit Monday 1958 was 26th May. Earlier Ringwood 1958 programmes don't list 26th April as a fixture, but do list 26th May.

That's 11 years. Driver Of The Day on here isn't based on wins or points (we wouldn't need to vote if it was), it's the subjective opinion of the fans on the day. That's why we sometimes get a plucky white top with a first ever win getting the vote ahead of an established superstar that cleaned up with heat, final, and GN wins. Is Driver Of The Decade the same criteria? As in, who made the biggest impact? Not necessarily whoever won the most?