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Part
of 'The Evolution of Midgets' by Rod Tanswell from the book
'Living With Spede'
At the New Year's Eve
party that always happens at Aldershot I was presented by
Jack Holt with the Stewards Award for, in Jack's words, "Services
to Midgets". I was naturally thrilled to receive the
award but I felt there was a little more to it than meets
the eye. To me it showed that Midgets were at last recognised
by everyone and that we were here to stay. To me this felt
like a gesture to the whole Midget Scene as it were,
and as such was very welcome.
The 1971 season opened at Walthamstow on February
26th with a field of 11 cars which was a good turn out considering
the loss of drivers that left. Frank Boyles won the first
and third races with Barry Martin winning, the second. Ben
Davies who had been improving all through last season, drove
the race of a lifetime into second place in the second race.
Colin Byrne was taken to hospital when he landed in the fence
at a fair pace. After an overnight stay he was released the
following day bruised and shaken but otherwise unhurt. Malcolm
Brockhurst also drove well, with his karting experience he
makes an ideal Midget driver. Incidentally at this time there
was a change in racing numbers. Colin Byrne took over number
2 and Malcolm Brockhurst took over number 4. Seeing as how
these numbers were vacant they took them on. Quite apart from
the ease of putting a single number on our cars it is easier
for the lap scorer, We Midget drivers are like that.
(Race one: 34, 1, 4, 50, 37, 11)
Frank Boyles had a tremendous bang in the
fence, the end result being a Fireball in three parts. Fortunately
for Frank the design of his car is such that he was still
strapped in the car quite safe but looking somewhat bewildered
which was understandable under the circumstances. It does
show that these Midgets are a lot safer than they look.
21st May 1971 - White City - London Championship
We had 23 cars in all line up for this Championship
which at that time was a record. In actual fact the number
would have been 24 for Colin Byrne was there with a brand
new engine complete with eight port head and all the goodies.
Unfortunately he had troubles in getting it to run and therefore
never made the first race. The result was a win for me, the
only Championship I was to race in that year due to my going
to South Africa later in the year. Frank Boyles was second
and Dick Waldock third.
In the July points chart Frank Boyles was
still top of the points with 155 against my 146 so I was still
having my work cut out chasing points. Bob Elson was up to
third with 109 points, quite an achievement in his first season
in Midgets. At the (Superstox) European weekend at Ipswich,
Midgets established themselves even more. We had some tremendous
racing. I was fortunate in getting fastest overall time with
33.6 seconds for two laps; this was just two seconds faster
than other cars out on the lap trials, once again the Midgets
proved their superior speed.
Frank Boyles did not sit back and take all
this, on our first outing at Lydden in July he took all three
Midget races in fine style, putting up fastest time of the
day. Well done Frank, you had it all buttoned up at Lydden,
for on August 22nd he did it again, all three races. From
this time on our fields of Midgets were never less than 15
cars. We had made a considerable amount of progress to get
this far, in fact the number of cars racing, regularly was
nearer 18-20 at most meetings.
(August Lydden Final: 1st Frank Boyles, 2nd
Mick Bonner, 3rd Colin Byrne, 4th Malcolm Brockhurst, 5th
6, 6th Bob Elson.)
The National Championship was held on October
23rd at Wimbledon with the greatest number of cars of the
year, 27 in all lined up for the big race. The race had its
ups and downs with Frank Boyles going out in the early stages
and various other stars. Eventually the race was won by Bob
Elson in fine style. A well deserved win indeed, Bob had
the luck that we all need at times and made the most of it.
What with finishing up third in the points chart and National
Champion, he must have felt very satisfied with his first
full year racing in Midgets.
The year of 1971 must go down as the year
the Midgets grew up to coin a phrase. We had a good attendance
of cars and drivers. In all we had 43 drivers who raced Midgets
in 1971, a vast increase over the previous year. Our meeting
average of cars went up to 16 per meeting. I think our meetings
were cut somewhat, we had 33 all told, but I think this was
due to the increased programme of Auto Speedway having its
first year.
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