Rick Young's 'Rick @ the Races' ... Retro #21 (1983)

PIC # 1    The new rollcage in place on the Spitfire/Jaguar BriSCA F1

PIC # 2     Most of the Spitfire body has now been discarded.

PIC # 3   The rebuilding work is completed and the Jaguar powered BriSCA F1 is ready to race.

PIC # 4   The Seddon Atkinson truck I drove for a living.

PIC # 5    The 'beat up' Morris Marina run-about I was driving.

PIC # 6    Pat and Carla pose beside the current gold top BriSCA F1 of Willie Harrison # 2

PIC # 7   Stuart Smith # 391 winner of the 1983 BriSCA F1 World Championship

PIC # 8   Dick Wolstenhume # 99 of Maine, was a USA rep at the 1983 BriSCA F1 World Final

PIC # 9   Larry Tanguay # 61 of Maine,was a USA rep at the 1983 BriSCA F1 World Final

PIC # 10  Anthony V/D Oetelaar # 4 ( Tilburg. NL) was the 1983 SUPERSTOX World Champion.

PIC # 11  Some of the advertizing posters for the racing at the Gonne Circuit (Gruitrode,Belgium)

PIC # 12  Carla at her first Mainland Europe stock car meeting (17 Sep 1983, Gruitrode, Belgium)

PIC # 13  The # 7 F1 Stock car of John V/D Coot at the Gonne Circuit , Gruitrode , Belgium.

PIC # 14  Rien Rutgens # 15 in Victory Lane at Baarlo following his 1983 Long Track W/F win.

PIC # 15 Me and Carla at Brafield (2 October 1983).

PIC # 16  Brian Bedford # 209 at Brafield ( 2 Oct 1983)

From Rick Young....

Intro.... RICK @ the RACES 'RETRO' is an ongoing story of my life and times at the races. My first taste of stock car racing was at the Foxhall Stadium (Ipswich UK) when I was taken there by my parents as a 'toddler' in the late 1950's. When our family moved to Bedfordshire in the 1960's , I became a regular race fan, as a school kid , at the Brafield Stadium ( Northants) . After leaving school, I raced my first BriSCA F1 Stock Car in 1974 at the age of 20. Since then and after several moves, I now live in Ontario, Canada (since 1994) where I've become heavily involved in the DIRT Modified scene. RICK YOUNG.

RICK @ the RACES (RETRO # 21)

First, to recap from 1982 (RETRO # 20) . I was living in Maidford , Northamptonshire and working as a truck/lorry driver on contract to the UK's leading Freezer Food retailer ( I was either driving a Leyland Marathon or a Seddon-Atkinson) On December 8, Pat and I became the proud parents of a baby daughter we named Carla. Later that month I once again became the owner of a BriSCA F1 stock car. Pat had bought the E Type Jaguar powered Triumph GT6 Spitfire bodied car from my old buddy Chris Pickup # 50. We had an Austin A60 as our regular 'road car' and I acquired a 'beat up' old Morris Marina as a runabout.

1983

Every winter , the BSCDA ( British Stock Car Drivers Association) held it's AGM and as usual I was in attendance. One of the rule changes made that year in relation to construction, was for cars to have a mandatory 'six post' roll cage. In the past it was OK to have just four. As well as this, cages were to be steel plated above the drivers head and down the sides. This was aimed at giving added protection from impact in the event of a rollover or a 'heavy' side swipe.

This meant that my newly acquired race car needed 'major surgery' to comply. A new roll-cage had to be built, so it turned out longer than expected before I got back out on the track. I had no bending equipment to make one out of round tubular steel, so chose to make it from 2 X 2 box section similar to that used on my first car. My original idea was to keep the Spitfire body but the larger roll cage made it impractical. I did try fitting the 'battered' Fiat Toppolino body that I'd saved from my BriSCA F2, but that didn't work either. In the end I decided to use just the roof section from the Spitfire combined with sheet metal. As for a radiator grill, I used one from a Van Den Plas Princess 1100.

I guess you could say the early 1980's were the 'thin end of the wedge'.

The new rules brought in for roll cages and the 'doing away' of mandatory stock bodies really set the trend for the modern day �cookie cutter� stock cars.

Also, there were many cars now appearing with sprint car style wings. I'm not afraid to say that at the time ( just my opinion ! ) , I felt, they made the cars look 'silly' . I still dont like them,  but have now excepted the fact they are here to stay. I thought it was a bad thing for the sport because the cars began to lose their individuality. If I had wanted to see sleek speed machines with wings, I would have spent my Sunday afternoons watching the air planes take off at Luton Airport ! The cars were turning in to something far apart from what I learned to love in the 1960/70's.

This was also the end of the era for Jaguar powered BriSCA F1 Stock Cars. In the past, your average working guy, with a modest budget and a little bit of mechanical knowledge could be out on the track with a Jag, having a bit of fun and picking up the occasional placings. These days were now over, technology had advanced and more and more drivers were using imported big block Chevy's from the States. I realized this before starting out on the project , so my intentions were to concentrate only on my 'local' Brafield track and to 'have a bit of fun'.

The re-construction took place gradually throughout the year while we attended our nearby tracks of Coventry, Brafield and Leicester as a spectators.

One long distance track I did visit early in the season was the Smeatharpe Stadium near Taunton . Pat's sister lived on a farm at West Lydford in Somerset which was not far away from Smeatharpe. We took a drive down there for a visit on the May Day holiday weekend ( April 30- May 1 / 2 ) so the relatives could see Carla for the first time.

While the two sisters spent time together, nephew Peter and myself went along to Smeatharpe to see the BriSCA F2's in action. This was my second, and only other time I visited the track. The first time was in 1976 when I accompanied Brian Holmes # 542 who was racing there. Back then, it poured with rain all day , and it did the same thing on this occasion too. Heat and Final winner was long distance traveler Andy Horton # 574 from Cheshire.

The Spedeworth Superstox were first to hold their World Final this year, with the event once again taking place at Cleethorpes (13/14 Aug). I missed this one, where Anthony V/D Oetelaar # 4 from Tilburg in the Netherlands took the victory. He was the son of Barry , 1960's BriSCA F1 driver # 386, who had moved from his base in Reading, Berkshire, back to his native land where he become a promotor.

Actually Cleethorpes is on my �wish I'd done it� list of UK tracks , which consists of places I regret never visiting. ( others on that exclusive list include New Cross, West Ham, Prestatyn, Newcastle, and Bolton )

The BriSCA F1 World Final was held at the the Coventry Stadium on September 3 and was won by Stuart Smith # 391. Defending champion Willie Harrison # 2 came home third with my old buddy Danny Clarke # 203 taking the runner up spot. The Netherlands representatives were Friedhelm Welters # 8, Leon Cox # 17, George Kroonder # 217 and Piet Keyzer # 10. Once again the reps for the USA came from the Beech Ridge Speedway in Maine, and were Larry Tanguay # 61 and Dick Wolstenhume # 61. Wolstenhume was the best placed overseas driver with a twelth place finish.

A week later ( Sept 11) it was Carla's christening, which came between the next big race on the agenda. The F1 Long Track World Final ( Sept 17/18) was a little different this year. Instead of being an exclusive weekend event at the Baarlo Autospeedway, for the first ( and only) time it was run as two legs at two different venues. On the Saturday it was at the Gonne Circuit at Gruitrode , near to Bree in Belgium and on Sunday it was at Baarlo in the Netherlands.

A few days after Carla's christening we set off from Maidford en-route to my birth town of Ipswich in Suffolk. We stayed overnight at some of my relatives to make it handy for an early morning ferry crossing from the Port of Felixstowe. With Carla being so young this was the best way to do it. Once landed in mainland Europe I drove the Austin A60 up the Dutch coastline to the sea-side town of Noordwijk an Zee . This was close to the world famous Zandvoort Circuit which used to host the F1 Dutch Grand Prix ( unfortunately there was nothing going on at the track while we were there) . For this years vacation we chose Bed and Breakfast establishments ( or pensions as they are called over there) in preference to camping.

After a day by the coast we drove to Roermond (where I'd camped many times in the past) and  based ourself at a small hostelry in the center of town. Roermond was a good central point for both the Gruitrode and Baarlo tracks.

What made this two day event interesting was the fact that Gruitrode was a dirt track of approx 1/3 mile and Baarlo was a 1 kilometer paved track. This meant that some drivers used two different cars. A pre-race rainstorm made the going tough at Gruitrode, where Rien Rutjens took the two heat races and Friedhelm Welters won the Final.

The next day the 'traveling road show' moved to Baarlo which was about an hours drive across the border from Gruitrode. Again the day started out wet, and it was local hero , Rutjens who took both races including the prestigious Long Track World Championship. One of the Dutch drivers competing that weekend was John V/D Coot # 7 who in the coming years we got to know as well as his family.

Instead of dashing to catch the ferry straight after the races , we traveled towards Chaam near Breda and stopped overnight. Pat, who's mother was Dutch, had an uncle who lived there so we payed him a visit. The next day we traveled to Rotterdam for the sea crossing back to the UK.

While we were in Belgium and the Netherlands the BriSCA F2 World Final was taking place at Newton Abbott in Devon where David Bunt # 595 of Plymouth clinched his second gold roof.

I mentioned before, that my old friend Brian Bedford from the 'Beds and Herts' club days was now living in Weedon close to our place at Maidford. He'd quit racing after moving up country, but had been watching with interest the progress of my rebuild. I think the temptation was too much for him, and by the time I was ready to get back on the track, he'd aquired another race car too. He bought a former, Geoff Weston # 96, Bob Boddington # 196, Jim Wilde # 90 car from John Plant # 390. John , who I knew quite well, was also a former Hertfordshire racer who'd moved north to Long Buckby in Northamptonshire.

During the year while I was at work , I stopped at the Watford Gap Services on the M1 for a 'cuppa tea ' where I happened to bump into Al Henderson . Al was well known in the sport as 'Mr Starter' but he'd filled many other positions over the years. At this time he was secretary of the VSCA ( Veteran Stock Car Association) which is a group of people dedicated to keeping the sports long time drivers, fans and officials in touch. He invited me to become a member, I joined up and I'm still a member to this day. Many VSCA special events and 'get togethers' are organized through out the year and one was scheduled for Brafield on October 2 . With the rebuild completed it was this day that I chose to make my racing come-back. I was joined by Brian Bedford as we towed our cars in convoy through the lanes of Northamptonshire on our way to the track.  As for the racing that day ...... Oh, how things had changed in nearly three years !

1984 to follow...