Preview of the season
by Dave Cox from Short Circuit May 1986
There has been quite a lot of activity in the close season
with cars changing hands and new drivers signing up. Graham
Sinclair is laying down the spanners and taking over the wheel
of brother Paul's old car. Alan Riley has sold his Arrow outfit
to former Superstox driver Marcus Retcless from Wisbech. Ex
Autocrosser John Doubleday has acquired Dermot McGivern's
De Dion axled chassis and will be slotting in a powerful David
Rowe built engine. John enjoyed a fair amount of success in
Autocrossing and could pull off a few surprises in Midget
racing.
Richard Byrne from Coventry has bought Pat French's ex-London
Championship winning Dastle and Romford based Eddy Ricketts
has purchased Duncan Reed's car. Ivan Skinner who has been
racing a much modified Mamba Midget chassis with a pinto engine
at Peterborough is switching power units and joining the National
Midget formula while Richard Parkin from Rutland has acquired
Geoff Nixon's Dastle Mk 7 - Geoff looking to have moved into
Super Rods. Steve Elliott is busy modifying the ex Brian Harding
car to take a Mini lump. This car was originally fitted with
a Peugeot Samba engine but Brian had problems with the crankshaft
and finding suitable gear ratios.
On the fixture front the 1986 World Championship will be
held at Peterborough on August 17th with the European Championship
a month later at Kaldenkirchen, West Germany. 14 meetings
have been confirmed so far - at Arena Essex, Newtongrange,
Northampton, Peterborough, Ringwood and Swaffham.
