9th June, Tilburg
From Midget Memoirs by Frank Boyles, Oval News magazine
It was 1969 at the Racing Car Show in January when Spedeworth
issued a red and white sticker saying 'Watch out - Midget
Cars are coming'. Do you remember it? Well this was in the
early days and the sticker was perhaps a little premature,
but now I think after a long uphill struggle and one or two
major setbacks, Les Eaton's dream is beginning to come true
and Midgets are at last coming. It just needs a small shot
in the arm of one sort or another and Midgets will be amongst
the most popular - just wait and see. It could be that the
influx of MARC drivers to our ranks will do it. The first
has already joined who happens to be the ex Secretary, John
Holtham, and my guess is that others will follow. How else
can they race at first class promotions such as the British
Championship meeting this weekend?
The 9th-11th of June saw the trip to Holland, Belgium
and Germany - over a month
ago now, doesn't time fly? Anyway six Midgets went along with
the Supers and Hot Rods, those being Derek Johnson (Fireball
3), Bill Boarer (Sidewinder), HMS Keith Fransella (Fireball
2), Malcolm Brokhurst (Dastle 7), Rod Tanswell (Fireball 3)
and myself (Fireball 4). So you can see my own marque was
well represented.
The Townsend Thoresen ferry left at 3.30 Saturday morning
and after a long drive through Holland we arrived at Tilburg.
I personally followed Tony May since he had been there several
times before and he led us straight to the circuit where we
had the benefit of three laps in the transporter, very sedately
I might add.
Once the complete Spedeworth entourage had arrived in Tilburg
their numbers totalled about two hundred, which just happens
to be the number of beds available in the hotels, so as you
can imagine this is where the trouble (for some) really started.
In the end I think everyone did get a bed but only just!
That evening, the Saturday, we raced in Tilburg on what is
really a temporary track. It is simply a section of abandoned
motorway with links making a circuit very similar to White
City, but with tighter bends. Shortly before the start of
the meeting we had our first view of what we were going to
have to race against over the weekend. One or two amongst
our ranks did not like it, and said so, although I think everyone's
fears were overcome when the racing actually started. You
see these cars were originally sort of Supers, but the lads
decided to split away with Barry van den Oetelaar at the helm
and race them as Midgets. They are at present 1,600cc, mainly
rear engined (sensible these Europeans) with Volswagen gearboxes
and front suspension, and have roofs and bumpers although
they do not use the latter and have in fact been asked to
remove them. We got to know some of them very well over the
weekend and I for one enjoyed their company and their beer
a lot and there could have been some good sing songs with
the help of my banjo if we had had a little more time - still
here's to the next time.
