 In 1956, some of the finest stock car drivers in this country got to talking about special races for lightweight cars, having seen the phenomenal success of the American NASCAR Team when they visited these shores in 1955 along with their modified Ford coupes. They thrilled huge crowds with door handle racing instead of thumping and crashing as a lot of our drivers were doing. Some of us were already racing lightweight cars and we felt that with a new formula of racers, we could entertain the crowds with fast racing, resulting in thrills and spills galore thro' sheer speed. With this in mind, I decided to build a new car, even lighter than my trusty Ford 1934 coupes..
In a scrap yard in Epping, I found on the top of the heap, a 1932 Ford Model 'B' Victoria coupe which I paid the guy £16 for and trailered it home. Along with my mechanics, I went to work on it. We gutted everything we could on the car and fitted extra thin roll bars with no side irons or rear ironwork. The only iron on the coupe, was a short piece on the front for pushing. The original rear axle was retained with a locked diff. The engine I used was in a 24 stud flathead Ford V8 taken from a Bren gun carrier. We used to buy these brand new engines from a yard in Hayes, Middlesex for the princely sum of £3 each. They were slightly bigger h.p. than the old 30 horse V8 but the reason that they flew was the fact that they had a relieved cylinder block. When new, the curb weight of the 32 Ford Victoria was 23cwt and this coupe tipped the scales at only 16 cwt when completed. I raced this car thru' the remainder of the 56 seasons with considerable success despite the fact that I was racing against some monsters getting on for 3 ton.
In the winter of 56/57 some of us met with promoters in London to discuss this new formula of light cars. It was decided we try to break away from the 'bang-and-crash' events and adopt the American style of light, fast cars. It wasn't proposed to stage a meeting made up solely of these cars but to make them a special feature in an ordinary night's racing. The specifications of these cars were:
- They must have a body of recognisable manufactures design.
- The chassis, running gear and engine must all be Ford flatheads with no supercharges allowed, armouring limited to front bumper only and not to exceed the width between the inside edges of the front tyres and the weight to be under one ton.
This new formula was to race under the banner of Hot Rods. The rumour I had heard back in 1956 had now come true. The car I had built at the time turned out to be the first Hot Rod in the country of oval racing. The only problem concerning the new type of Hot Rod was could we find enough Ford B8 cars? Dozens of them had already been wrecked in three years of stock car racing but we found them alright! I never fully realised until then, just how many Ford V8's there were in this country. Three and five window coupes, slant backs, two door/four door sedans- they were all here and you could pick them up for about £20. The boys who had already been racing light cars were overjoyed with this new Hot Rod style of racing and it also brought some new drivers into the sport.
Many of us thought that maybe at last we were going over to the American style of racing. Of course, the speed equipment for the flathead was available in abundance- Offenhauser /Edelbrock /Navarro/Evans/ Edmonds cylinder heads, three carb Edelbrock manifolds,Isky cams, Halibrand quick change rear ends- the list was endless including boring and stocking; but all of this equipment had to come over from the USA, so most of thee cars ran with the standard old flat-head of 85 hp, some used Allard Heads.
The 1957 season opened at West Ham Stadium on Good Friday 19 April. It was to be the debut of the American style Hot Rods. The stock cars had two heats and event three was billed as the 'Holiday Hurricane for Hot Rods'. With twenty five cars competing over 25 laps, the drivers for this first ever Hot Rod race were; Johnny Allen, Alan Beaumont, Sprog Bennett, Harold Bosworth, Johnny Brise, Ches Chesson, Gil Cox, Gerry Dommett, Vic Ferriday, Harry Foot, Pat Frost, Trevor Frost, Jankers Jones, Mac Mclean, Pete Malyon, Rex May, Vic Morrow, Vic Muggerridge, Den Oliver, Jumbo Tustin, Monty Warren, Gerry Weir, Jack Wilson Doug Wardropper and myself.
There were probably 60,000 fans in that vast stadium to witness this first Hot Rod race to be staged here and it proved to be one of the fastest races ever to have taken place on this ¼ mile shale raceway. Those old flatheads were positively singing as they tore round the dirt track turning more revs than old Henry ever planned then to do. Johnny Brise won the race driving a Ford coupe and this type of racing with no bumping or boring had the crowd on their toes from the start to finish. The next outing for the Hot Rod was on Saturday 18 May, again at West Ham Stadium. This time, two sprint races were run with 7 cars in each race. The racing was competitive enough although tending to be less exciting due to the small number of cars on the track but event 6 on the programme- The Hot Rod handicap had 16 runners and did they put on a show? At the end of the race there were about 6 cars bunched up as they crossed the finish line. It proved a point with the cars all being the same with identical running gear so it was left to the individual driver's ability.
The next meeting for Hot Rods was at Brandon Stadium, Coventry on 6 July '57 where they were well received. The fans were thrilled by the sheer speed of these Ford V8's, so much so that other promoters booked us to drive at their stadiums, giving us plenty of racing at Wessex Stadium, Weymouth, Matchams Park and Lydden Hill. Bozzy, under the banner of Anglo Continental, staged them at Ipswich, East Dereham and Norwich. On 4 May Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland, invited me to race for the Scottish Match Race Championship of Hot Rods which I won and I was convinced we were now racing in true American style but alas it was not to be. 1957 saw the Suez crisis and the introduction of petrol rationing and whilst we had good crowds, there was a shortage of cars, so much so that Brandon ran only three meetings. Owing to this deficit of cars, promoters had to make up the numbers in the stock car section by mixing the two classes of Hot Rods and stockers but it never really worked. A lot of fans came to see the Hot Rods but them being in amongst the stock cars, it detracted from the out and out racing so the demise of the Hot Rod racing was imminent and sadly, it just faded away from its individuality to become just stock car racing.
To some of us 'rodders' it wasn't the end of the world anyway because we had always raced light cars. I continued to race my 32 Ford Victoria coupe as did many other star drivers. It may have been a short reign for the Hot Rods but while it lasted, the fans poured in to see this thrilling spectacle of wheel-to-wheel dicing from these instantly recognisable cars which were almost production models, making it even more interesting for the fans who followed their own particular favourite race car, some of whom even travelled to the tracks in identical models.
Check out past articles in our Pete Tucker archives
American Cars in Britain
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