1970

Whiting Electrical Team

Tony Stubbs takes a win

The season opened at Wimbledon on February 21st for Midgets with 11 cars turning up to race on a bitter cold wet night. This was an all sponsored meeting, with a sponsor giving a trophy on every race. Tony Stubbs won the first heat for Midgets in grand style. Quote from the March Journal says - "Surely he must wear a red helmet soon" - how true that was. I was fortunate in winning the second race of the night sponsored by Shinners, the large departmental store in Sutton. Tony Stubbs had put his Midget on display for a week prior to the meeting and had got a lot of enthusiasm for Midgets from the public and Shinners. I also had the third race of the evening, winning the Phoenix Motor Co. award. It was a good start to the season.

Other drivers who came in to the sport at this time were Colin Byrne, John Shepperd and John Brighty who both had a hand in the Forge Garage sponsored Dastle. It was whispered that Colin Byrne (M39) and ex-Superstock and Stock Car driver who had bought the ex-John Houghton "Black Lawnmower" and that John was again back at the drawing, board designing another Midget. You can't hold a good man down.

It's interesting to note that the first grading period in 1970 was headed by Tony Stubbs (M6). I was second and Frank Boyles was third. Tony Bostock was fourth. This must have been quite something for the Whiting Electrical team, their two cars in the top four of the National Points chart. Pete Smith had a lot of trouble at this time with engines, and dropped to blue grade along with his brother John (M5) who had now had enough of mechanic-ing, for Pete and had built his own Midget. He was going extremely well and had done well to get to blue.

Midgets must have made history when they appeared on the front cover of the May journal. Colin Harper (M50), another driver to come on the scene appeared along with Daz White (M37) in a spectacular shunt at Eastbourne. This photograph must have captured the imagination of quite a magazines, etc., because on a well known annual that I bought my son the following Christmas, what was on the front cover? - yes, you guessed it, that very same photo.

Frank Boyles, by now someone in Midget racing, got married in May 1970 and started production of his very successful Fireball Midget in kit form or as a complete car. 1 don't know how he found the time, I mean getting married and everything, still he had to have something, else to occupy his mind!

Another driver worth a mention at this time is Anthony Horsley (M28) who incidentally bought the ex-John Houghton "Black Caramba". Anthony was quite a lad and really enjoyed his stay with the Midgets. I will say this now as he didn't stay very long, only staying with the Midgets about six months in all, but nevertheless a good driver and one who made history at Cross In Hand by getting out of control and smacking into the side of the control car doing roughly £200 worth of damage to it. I shall always remember his word to me as I was also on the centre green with damage. He got out of his car which was somewhat bent, had a look at the control car and said "Well Rod, I reckon that will take at least three years' prize and start money to pay for that lot". He was genuinely upset at the damage and went home, I am sure, a worried man. 1 am pleased to say that Anthony has now gone into motor racing in quite a big way complete with a sponsor, racing mainly on the continent, being based in Paris, good luck to him.

During May at Eastbourne we had a light-hearted team event for Midgets. The team consisted of Royal Tunbridge Wells, captained by Tony Stubbs and Brighton and Lewes captained by myself. We were each allowed to pick our drivers for the event. It ended in a draw and was then subject to a run-off between Tony and myself. Tony spun off after a couple of laps and I continued for a further lap only to lose a wheel. By this time Tony had joined the race again only to be penalised for having a push start so of course we won the match by a small margin, much to the amusement of the crowd. We were unable to have a return match later at Wisbech due to a bit of needle creeping in.

We were to see our first meeting at Lydden Hill on June 14th. In all we had 13 cars turn up which was a little disappointing. On the other hand some cars were just not suitable for this type of circuit at higher speeds which were to follow. Tony Stubbs stormed away in the first heat and put up some very creditable times. Frank Boyles got sorted and won the other two in great style. The little Fireball just went round on rails, a car that was really designed for that type of circuit. All in all a very satisfactory day's racing with the prospect of more to come at Lydden we were very enthusiastic about racing there, our thoughts went back to Brands and the lessons we had learnt there.

Frank Boyles also broke the track record at Ipswich with a time of 17.1, some going considering the size of the car and engine.

On June 26th we saw the first London Championship for Midgets being staged, 14 cars made it for this meeting. The first race of the night was the Championship and was won by Mick Miller (M22). The second race of the night went down to me and the third race went to Colin Byrne (M39) who drove well to get his win. Unfortunately Mick Miller was banned for competing for three months at this time for ungentlemanly behaviour while racing, in Holland. Earlier in the year Jac Glaes, the Dutch promoter, invited six of our Midget lads over the water to Holland to race against his drivers. The drivers chosen were Mick Miller, Tony Stubbs, Anthony Horsley, Pete Smith, Graham North (driving the Whiting Electrical car of Tony Bostock) and myself. We had a great time over there, the Dutch lads making us very welcome. As 1 said earlier, there was a bit of needle between Mick Miller and Tony Stubbs which got a bit out of hand and at a board of control meeting on our return Mick got banned for three months. This was unfortunate but justice is justice as they say.

Tony Stubbs also got banned for three months at around the same time, also for reasons I am not going into. This was quite a blow to us, really we couldn't afford to lose two top-line drivers at that time. It must have also hit Tony hard because he at that time was still top of the points. Still that's life and racing went on.

I made a contribution in the August 1970 Journal called "Food for thought - Midgets 1970" in which I rather pulled the drivers apart, but I do consider that some good came out of it as we did have much better turn-outs after-wards and more enthusiasm came back which was sadly lacking, especially after Mick Miller and Tony Stubbs were out of racing.

A new face to come on the scene about this time was a man who was no novice to motor racing. I mean of course Paul Emery (M59). Paul came out first with yet another new Dastle called the Mk7. This was a further improvement on the earlier wedge design as far as I could see. His first meeting was at Lydden on July 12th. From that date he hardly missed a meeting and after teething troubles with the car became virtually unbeatable with his superior approach to the road-holding. of the car. It is interesting to note that at Walthamstow on August 7th he, only on his fifth meeting with us, won all three races. Admittedly he was on the front of the grid but this gave us all food for thought because here was a man of 58 or 59 years of age showing us how it was supposed to be done. Unfortunately for us, he was only to stay for the 1970 season because, due to a rift that was growing even at that time between certain drivers and Spedeworth, we were to lose a few drivers at the end of the year who had decided that to further the interest of Midget races it was better to launch a new club and branch out on to other promoters' raceways.

However, we continued until the National Championship at Wimbledon which was held on October 24th when 18 cars turned out for the championship title. This turned out to be a fine race with the title going to anybody really in the opening stages. However Frank Boyles had his sights on the National tag and took the chequered flag, a fine, well-deserved win for a man who had, since his first steps into Midget racing, put his heart into the sport.

With the end of the 1970 season for Midgets I again topped the points chart for the third year running with total points of 347. New National Champion Frank Boyles was in second place with 322 and Paul Emery in third place with 257. This was no mean achievement when you consider how late Paul came into the sport. I have no doubt that had he come in at the start of the season we would not have touched him for a points lead. Another point to consider is that had Tony Stubbs not been banned from racing, he could well have been at the top, as it was he ended up fourth.

One thing I would like to mention is that I spoke Peter Baldwin, sponsor to Mick Miller. Well he put up some money at the start of the 1970 racing season to be equally divided between the top four points scorers at the end of the season. We four at the top were the lucky ones to receive our cheques at the end of the year. Thank you Peter on behalf of myself and the other three. It was ironic really because Mick Miller went out of racing after he had been banned. We still see Mick on occasion but unfortunately can't persuade him to get behind the wheel of a Midget. The love of his life is his Lotus 7 which 1 might add is immaculate, not forgetting his wife Sue.

A few facts and figures about the 1970 season for Midgets. We had in all 44 meetings during 1970 which was a record as far as we were concerned. This was spread over 37 racing weeks so we had our fair share of racing in 1970. We had a vast increase in Midgets and drivers ff rt. registered. In all we had 38 drivers who raced through the 1970 season, a first class c o

The meeting average for cars was 12 and the highest number of cars to any one meeting was 18 on Championship night at Wimbledon. All told 1970 was a good year of growth in the formula despite as I said earlier the loss of several drivers who did not renew contracts for 1971. Among the drivers that left were Tony Stubbs, Paul Emery, Tony Bostock, Pete and John Smith, Derek Harris and quite honestly the sport looked grim to start the 1971 season.