1969

Part of 'The Evolution of Midgets' by Rod Tanswell from the book 'Living With Spede'

In January 1969 Spedeworth again had a stand at the "Racing Car Show". Pete Smith was invited to put his car on the Spedeworth stand at the invitation of Les Eaton and proved to be quite a public draw along with the other car on show. I think the show helped Midgets to get even more established in 1969 with a lot more interest from the public. Several drivers, by now well known in the Midget formula, helped out at the show and answered the various questions put to them by the public.

The racing season opened for Midgets on 9th March at Ipswich with only seven cars. This was a bitter disappointment to us all and a step back to where we were the previous year. The reason for this I think was that a lot of people had sat back and waited to see if Midgets would continue or not in 1969 despite the fact we had every intention of doing so. However even with the small number of cars we put on a show. Mick Miller won the first race from John Houghton in fine style. Unfortunately there was a bit of needle between those two drivers in this heat after John Houghton had cut across the bows of Mick Miller. This carried on into heat 2 of the day culminating with both cars crashing which resulted in a win for myself (who said lucky devil?). Heat 3 was again won by John Houghton who had managed to repair his car. He won easily by half a lap which made the rest of us think somewhat.

During the early part of 1969 things were stirring in the Dastle workshop. Geoff had a secret weapon! A new type of Midget completely, which would be a winner or so we were told. The car was very much lower than the established Mk3 with the driver sitting alongside the prop shaft instead of over it. The car made its debut at the Wimbledon raceway on May 17th but was unfinished. After teething troubles the car was given a body and called the "Wedge" after the style of current grand prix cars that were using that body design at the time. The car was quite competitive but not exactly a ball of fire and as far as I know only one was made. Malcolm Brockhurst (M40) currently racing under No M4 bough the car and somewhat redesigned it at a later stage. The car you see racing today is still basically the wedge with a much nicer designed body and modified. However Geoff Rumble used the car most of the 1969 season and it was a welcome change in design which was needed at the time.

Cars were still few and far between. We had quite a number of registered drivers on the book but could never seem to get everybody out together.

Drivers who started to make their presence felt in 1969 were John Smith (M5), Tony Stubbs (M6), who along with Tony Bostock formed the Whiting Electrical team. Peter Ellis (M7), who had a very fast Dastle but unfortunately had quite a prang at Walthamstow and after that we saw less and less of him. John Holloway (M14), still racing today and is shortly to come out with a new design of Midget which I am told will be very quick. Roland Parker (M18), Mick Southern (M19) in his Dell Stickings designed Midget car (Flower Power), Malcolm White (M20), Joe Fernando also in a quite different type Midget, Ben Davies and Richard White who purchased the only "Indy Dastle" ever built in kit form and was built in my workshop at home. This was a beam axle Midget front and rear and when tried out by Richard was not too successful. We eventually altered the front to Herald suspension and it made all the difference to the handling.

It is interesting to note that in May 1969 some times were taken of the formula racing at Aldershot, the fastest of which are as follows:-

Superstox, 20 laps, time 5-31.1, A Freebody
Midgets, 20 laps, time 5-16.6, R Tanswell
Hot Rods, 20 laps, time 6-23.1, G Coaker
Stock Cars, 20 laps, time 6-47.0, A Dance

Frank Boyles was also getting stuck in as the saying goes and starting to show the right idea on how a rear engined car should be driven. The car was still a little Unstable at the rear but he was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

I mentioned the fact that Tony Bostock was driving the ex-Dell Stickings Midget in a previous paragraph. Dell unfortunately at this time went out of competitive racing and we lost another fine driver which we could ill afford to do. Dell wanted to devote more time to his business and so went out of the sport. However I think the dedication to the sport by Dell helped it to where it is today and I for one would like to thank him for the effort he put in.

1969 was the first year to have a National Championship for Midgets. This was a step in the right direction and some seventeen cars lined up for the big event of the year at Wimbledon. The race was run over 30 laps which was quite unheard of in those days. It was a good race with its usual share of accidents and breakdowns which ended up for a win to me, 2nd place going to Peter Smith (M4) and 3rd place to Mick Bonner (M24), a driver who had come a long way in 1969 and as it happened was destined to go even further in later years.

We had always claimed that we would be the fastest formula on Spedeworth raceways although perhaps to the public eye it did not seem so. Still the proof lies in the stop watch and as stated this was quite a feather in our caps at that time because we were not so advanced then as we are now.

The year continued with its by now usual ups and downs. We had various attendances of cars ranging from four one night at Wimbledon to the dizzy heights of 11 cars at some of the other tracks. In the August points chart Pete Smith took over from me for a month as top of the points which I considered a good thing. I followed up 2nd, Mick Miller (M22) 3rd, Frank (M34) 4th, John Houghton (M8) 5th and Geoff Rumble (M3) 6th.

Tony Stubbs (M6) along with Tony Bostock were making their presence felt by this time, although not in the top six points wise they were steadily pushing up the points chart. Their immaculate cars did quite a lot for Midget racing at this time and I think put new fire into the Midgets. Tony, an ex-circuit racer, had the skill and experience behind him to win and did just that on many occasions, making quite a name for himself. Tony Bostock who had by this time ironed out the snags in the car which was bought from Les Eaton, and incidentally was the car Dell Stickings drove with success, was driving extremely well. His flamboyant style of driving was quite unnerving to watch as he flung the car round some of the raceways.

I had a good year in particular, winning the first ever National Championship and topping the points chart was perhaps not a great achievement in itself but it represented the fact that Midgets had so far had a long hard struggle and now they really had some meaning. The effort put in by all that took part had made it all worth while. I think also it was a feather in their caps for Spedeworth and Les Eaton in particular who had the faith to keep them going and you the paying public for putting up with us.