Carl H

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?

Random trivia question..... There was something slightly unusual about this meeting (Long Eaton, 2nd January 1993), and the same was true of Ringwood on 26th May 1958. What?

Wednesday 20th April 1955 The sport had been in the UK for a year when a team of American racers came over to the UK for a couple of months, bringing their car with them. With racing experience and technical know-how far in excess of that of the novice Brits, it was a successful visit, with the Americans winning a total of 8 Finals. Taking heat and final at Belle Vue in a grid made up mainly of local drivers was 122 Curtis "Crawfish" Crider, all the way from Abbeville, South Carolina, USA. Saturday 20th April 1957 One of the pioneer drivers of the inaugural 1954 season, Essex man 138 Allan Briggs raced until 1974 and mainly in the south east. He won 21 finals, including this heat and final double at Ipswich. Sunday 20th April 1958 The King Of The Midlands Trophy was held at Brafield, nowadays known as Northampton International Raceway, with the trophy being won by 61 Ken Freeman, who also won a heat. Winning the other races were 38 Fred Mitchell and 2 Willie Harrison. Thursday 20th April 1961 Aldershot was the setting for the 23rd of Ken Freeman's 43 career finals. Although an accomplished racer, Freeman's biggest claim to fame is that he pioneered the use of Morris LD axles in stock cars. Strong, cheap, and readily available from scrapyards, the Morris LD rear axle would be used in virtually every F1 stock car for the next 40 years. It was eventually eclipsed by the Ford Transit axle around the turn of the millenium. Friday 20th April 1962 One of the greatest drivers of the early days, National Points Champion 68 Trevor Frost won at West Ham. He won the World Championship in 1964, and a total of 56 Finals, making him the 18th highest all-time Final winner. Saturday 20th April 1963 At Brafield, two of the sport's top drivers, 5 Doug Wardropper and his son 245 Alan Wardropped were beaten to the line in the Final by 304 Willie Wanklyn from Stevenage. This was Willie's first ever final, and he went on to win 6 in total. Sunday 20th April 1969 George Ansell was known as The King Of Tar, and the vast majority of his 54 Finals came on the hard tracks, including this one at Cadwell Park. Up in the north east the same afternoon, 141 Arthur Gibson from Darlington won at his local Aycliffe. Gibson raced F1 from 1966 to 1972 and won 9 finals, all of them at Aycliffe. Friday 20th April 1973 His son is known as Mr Box Office, but Mick (probably) wasn't born when 150 Dick Sworder won the Final at Rayleigh. The Rayleigh-Weir Greyhound & Speedway Stadium ran a dozen F1 meetings between 1957 and 1959. Spedeworth had a brief tenure before BriSCA returned in 1968 with a solitary F1 meeting that was abandoned due to weather and the track conditions, and the F2 World Final, which included Dutch, French, and South African entrants. There were a further 4 meetings from 1972-1973. The stadium was demolished shortly after. Saturday 20th April 1974 He did most of his racing on tarmac, so a heat and final double on the shale at Leicester was rather out of character for 8 Pete Webb. This was his sixth and last final. Up north in Rochdale the same night, 293 Gordon Smith took his third final, going on to win 22 in total. He raced from 1970 to 1980 and had a reputation for being a fearsome driver. Sunday 20th April 1975 396 Doug Cronshaw won the final at Aycliffe. World Champion 1971, British Champion 1970 and 1976, and one of only ten drivers to ever win 100 or more finals, Doug's most recent claim to fame is a brief appearance on Channel 4's "Hunted" in 2018. Thursday 20th April 1978 A huge crowd for the opening meeting at Blackburn. The 7 race format saw a win for 41 Pat Byrne in the White/Yellow Top Race, heat wins for 212 Frankie Wainman, 391 Stu Smith, who also won the GN, and 154 Brian Powles, and a Consolation and Final double for 272 Dave Hodgson. The tight and tricky tarmac oval proved popular with fans and 72 meetings were staged before the stadium abruptly closed in June 1984. Like many other perfectly viable venues of the period, the stadium had been sold off so a supermarket could be built. Sunday 20th April 1980 The other race winners at Hartlepool were 260 Dave Berresford and 29 Alex McDade (Heats), 391 Stu Smith (Consolation), and 250 Gerald Taylor (Grand National). The main event went to 175 Glyn Pursey. Known as "The Welsh Dragon", he raced from 1974 to 1984 and won the 1979 European, the 1980 British, and 33 Finals. Monday 20th April 1981 Two meetings on Easter Monday, with Ringwood in the afternoon and Belle Vue in the evening. A Whorton 1-2 in the Ringwood Final, with Nigel winning with dad Brian runner up. A massive entry at Belle Vue meant a 3 heats + 2 consolations format, and taking the main event was 471 Bobby Burns. While his no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners style of racing won him many fans, it sometimes overshadows the fact that apart from being a hard hitting bumper merchant, he was an accomplished racer. Although he did not win any titles, he won 36 finals, making him the 32nd highest final winner of all time. Friday 20th April 1984 Starting to show signs of the domination that was to follow in later years, 53 John Lund won Consolation and Final at Bradford, and then placed fourth in the GN from the lap handicap. To date, Lundy has won 222 Finals - this was his 23rd. Sunday 20th April 1986 107 Pete Bashford from Dagenham won the Final at Northampton. Basher's career ran from 1979 to 1989, during which he won 3 Finals. This was the third, the others coming at Coventy in 1979 and Northampton in 1981. Monday 20th April 1987 One of the sport's underrated drivers, 175 Rob Pearce won the Final at Belle Vue on Easter Monday. He won 20 Finals during his 1979-1999 career plus the Trust Fund trophy, Saturday 20th April 1991 One of the few drivers to fully come to terms with the big, bumpy, and very fast Crewe track was 260 Dave Berresford, and this was a Bezz masterclass. He won Heat and Final, and then placed fourth in the GN from the handicap. Monday 20th April 1992 This meeting at Bradford was the one that catapulted 97 Murray Harrison from yellow grade to superstar. He'd been racing for 11 years at this point and had won a couple of finals, but a new lightweight car fitted with an imported Gaerte small block engine allowed Murray to show what he could do with decent machinery. He won heat and final and placed 6th in the GN, but there was more to come. Before the decade was out, he had won the World, European, and UK Open titles, plus a dozen or so finals. Saturday 20th April 1996 He's now very much in the closing stages of his time as a stock car driver, but when John Lund does eventually hang up his helmet for good, he can reflect upon a racing career that is nothing short of outstanding. This meeting at Stoke was Lund at his spectacular best - second to Andy Smith in the heat, then he turned it up a notch to win the Final and then the GN from the lap handicap. Sunday 20th April 1997 Mick Harris, that's Tom's dad, moved up from F2 to F1 in 1996, and was clearly undergraded at white, as he raced off unchallenged to win both heats and the Final at Sheffield. Saturday 20th April 2002 This was the period when 515 Frankie Wainman was near enough unbeatable on tarmac most weeks, and this meeting at Northampton saw the 515 car win both of his heats and the Final. Sunday 20th April 2008 A rare return to Bristol, with the heats going to 172 Micky Randell, 1 Stuart Smith (the younger!), and 212 Danny Wainman. The Final was 391 Andy Smith and 2 Paul Harrison won the GN. Saturday 20th April 2013 The Final at Birmingham was the 18th to date for 16 Mat Newson. Since he started F1 in 2001, Mat has won 29 so far, the last one at the Shoot Out Final at Belle Vue last November.

More drivers added, and the programme and results from Swindon 25th September 1954.

Loads more drivers from 1954 added, plus programmes and results from Perry Barr 22nd September 1954, Harringay 24th September 1954, and Norwich 25th September 1954.

I've listed Steve Storm and Charlie New as two drivers on my Since 1954 website as it seemed the easiest thing to do. Same with Jack Stewart and Bill Bendix. I currently have 5,826 drivers' names, but taking the above into account means there's actually 5,824 individual drivers. And there's 5,823 meetings. So almost the exact same number of drivers as meetings.

I recently read that this year there has been no oval meetings at all on Boxing Day.

Great work.

Yes, I think that's correct. I'll run a query on multiple meetings the same day.

Yes, that's what I meant. Probably could have been clearer. I did think that some of the London tracks must have clashed at some point but a quick scan this morning didn't find any. Staines was usually Friday nights and West Ham was usually Saturdays, but it seems both ran on Friday 15th April 1960, which was Good Friday. And Ken Freeman won both finals, so they can't have clashed. West Ham was on Prince Regent Lane, London E16, which is actually quite a way from Staines.

Press release from Startrax It's a DOUBLE GOLD WORLD WEEKENDER at the NORFOLK ARENA! Lots of planning done, support programme guaranteed 'to be a show' - it's getting exciting! We are delighted to confirm that FRIDAY NIGHT will be another 'GOLD NIGHT' as we are delighted to host the V8 Stock Car - Hot Stox WORLD FINAL on the 11th - BIG GRID and overseas entries - Startrax will be working closely with V8 Boc / BSCDA on making this a showstopper, any potential sponsors should contact Sharon Harris at V8's BoC for more info! This alongside the manic Mainland Europe F1 thunder combines into an unmissable FRIDAY NIGHT - Get your tickets NOW! Lot's more announcement to come through!

I think King's Lynn / Swaffham and Skegness / Boston are closer. Same days but not at the same time. The closest tracks to have run meetings the same day are Elburton Park and Plymouth on 30th March 1956.

Possibly Long Eaton and Perry Barr.