Post by administrator on Mar 27, 2009 20:12:12 GMT 1
CHARLIE ‘Ginger’ Pashley enjoyed a unique motorsport career in the 1930s. He was signed by the Belle Vue (Manchester) club for both their motorcycle speedway team and their midget car team.
Known to the fans as ‘Ginger’ because of his mop of red hair, between 1936 and the start of WW2 Pashley competed at tracks throughout Britain. He was recognised as being one of midget car racing’s top exponents and was good enough in 1938 to drive for the North of England in a test series against the South of England.
In June, 1927, Pashley was credited with being the first English motorcyclist to win an open experts when dirt track racing (later to be know as speedway) started at Droylesden. Pashley was later to be asociated with the speedway tracks at Belle Vue, White City (Manchester) and Sheffield. He also competed on grass tracks and at road racing but was captivated by the introduction of midget car racing to Belle Vue by the track’s managing director, E O Spence, who in late 1935 had seen the cars in the USA and was convinced they would be a spectacular addition to the British racing scene.
E O Spence backed his confidence to power the cars which were fitted with the Elto 1500cc outboard boat engine. He brought back to England the Elto which had been used by Ronny Householder to win the Mid Western American championship. Similar car chassis were built in Britain but while the Elto engine had been popular in the USA, in Britain it suffered fuel mixture problems and tended to oil up. Initially, six midgets were fitted with Elto engines and at their peak there were bout 12 in competition.
Later, largely thanks to the mechanical expertise of Pashley, the 500cc JAP speedway bike engine was adapted for the cars. Then came the 996cc engine which made the Skirrow so awesome. Belle Vue also briefly tried the Landa car engine in midgets while Australian speedway star Max Grosskreutz even tried to popularise a midget fitted with two engines - front and rear.
An essential difference in the two midgets was that the Elto was rear-wheel drive while the Skirrow was four-wheel and that caused the latter problems when the cars came into close contact or touched a safety fence. The Skirrows just loved to climb over things.
After a season of open meetings in 1936, centred largely on Belle Vue and Lea Bridge, midget car racing followed the successful image of speedway and introduced league team racing.
Because of his undoubted driving skills and mechanical ability, Belle Vue appointed Pashley as their team captain. He was amonbg serveral other Belle Vue second-string speedway riders who boosted their track earnings by racing midgets - these included Eric Worsick. Syd Plevin and Stanley ‘Acorn’ Dobson.
Belle Vue’s initial league match attracted an 8,000 crowd, the highlight of which involved ‘Bronco’ Bill Reynolds in a spectacular crash that brought a hushed silence around the Hyde Road stadium. Reynolds escaped with only two broken fingers on his right hand.
When midget car racing returned after three years to pioneer London track Crystal Palace in September 1938, Pashley led Belle Vue to a 77-25 victory in a 12 heat match.
Pashley’s midget car career nearly came to a premature end in one practice session at Belle Vue. He skidded into the fence and his car caught fire with him trapped by his foot. The driver had the presence of mind to switch off the petrol, but the flames were beginning to lick around him as helpers rushed to his assistance.
They jerked Pashley’s foot clear and dragged him for the blazing car which was badly damaged. Later, when questioned about the experience, he joked, “I began to think how the bacon frizzles in the frying pan at breakfast time.”
In 1937 and the early part of 1938, Pashley was a regular competitor at the old Lea Bridge track in east London. The legendary American Spike Rhiando and England’s Walter Mackereth were the local favourites, but Pashley was able to match them for power and pace.
Pashley also helped in efforts to pioneer midget car racing in Scotland at Glasgow White City and the Marina Gardens Edinburgh, two tracks where the local stars were Andy Dodds and Tommy Forster. Pashley also saw action at Southampton and dominated a few meetings which took place at the Stanley Stadium in Liverpool.
For three seasons - 1937, 1938 and 1939 - Pashley raced regularly in Sunday afternoon meetings at Coventry, but sketchy records of the period do not indicate his usual dashing form at Brandon Stadium. On June 6, 1937, he scored six points for Belle Vue who were beaten 32-20 by Coventry. On April 24, 1938, he was partner to Eric Worswick in a Best Pairs where they shred lastplace on nine points with Southampton’s Les White and Skid Martin. The event was won by Coventry’s Mackereth and George Turvey who scored 20 points.
Pshley was back at Coventry with Belle Vue for a National League match on August 1, 1938. After scoring one point in his first drive, he missed the rest of the meeting because of his car’s engine problems. Coventry won easily by 52-19.
In 1939, Pashley was back at Coventry to team with Mackereth for the North who lost 42-30 to the South, But in a supporting match race, Pashley redeemed his reputation by beating Frank Marsh.
The 1937 season and in the early part of 1938, Pashley was also a regular starter in the Wednesday evening meetings at Lea Bridge, then also home to the Clapton Orient football club before they moved elsewhere to become Leyton Orient.
In the main event for the 1937 season, the Coronation Cup, Pashley finished second to Mackereth with Les White third. Subsequently, he was in a Manchester team beaten 34-20 by Lea Bridge and saw his hopes of being unbeaten ended by Spike Rhiando in his third race. Also at Lea Bridge, Pashley was joint fourth on 11 points each with Vic Patterson in the South of England Championship, won by Rhiando 15 from Mackereth and Burton with 13 each.
The overall league points scoring chart for 1937 placed Pashley third with 64 poijts behind Worswick 90 and Burton 68 in a 27 driver table. Pashley also competed in the two meeting British Individual Championship run over meetings at Coventry and Lea bridge, which were easily won by Mackereth.
Only a handful of meetings were held at lea Bridge in 1938, but Pashley along with stars like Rhiando, Mackereth and Syd Plevin competed regularly until lack of spectator interest took the group to Crystal Palace where it also failed. As a result, mainstream midget car racing died in the London area, although they were infrequently staged as second-half events at Wembley and West Ham until World War Two started in 1939.
Pashley made a brief post-war come-back in 1949 when Dave Hughes started promoting at Brafield. Before that, Pashley and Dobson also took part in demonstrations at Belle Vue. The old Eltos stood derelict in the Belle Vue pits until 1970 when they were sold to a scrap metal dealer.
Post-war, besides working in the Belle Vue pits at speedway meetings, Pashley also competed in car rallies and big circuit car racing, mainly at Oulton Park.
When Pashly died aged 70 years on March 12, 1973, among those who attended to pay tribute to him was old-time speedway star ‘Red Devil’ Frank Varey, who had also raced midgets at Belle Vue in 1936. That was a fitting testimony to the high esteem in which Pashley was held because Varey was one of speedway’s legends.
The Pashley name has lived on midget car racing, his son Rod and grandson Ben both racing in Grand Prix Midget events. In a postscript to his father’s career, Rod said, “He was consistently among midget car racing’s top performers. Sadly, he always missed out on the big titles, hence his name does not appear in any of the formula’s records.”
Known to the fans as ‘Ginger’ because of his mop of red hair, between 1936 and the start of WW2 Pashley competed at tracks throughout Britain. He was recognised as being one of midget car racing’s top exponents and was good enough in 1938 to drive for the North of England in a test series against the South of England.
In June, 1927, Pashley was credited with being the first English motorcyclist to win an open experts when dirt track racing (later to be know as speedway) started at Droylesden. Pashley was later to be asociated with the speedway tracks at Belle Vue, White City (Manchester) and Sheffield. He also competed on grass tracks and at road racing but was captivated by the introduction of midget car racing to Belle Vue by the track’s managing director, E O Spence, who in late 1935 had seen the cars in the USA and was convinced they would be a spectacular addition to the British racing scene.
E O Spence backed his confidence to power the cars which were fitted with the Elto 1500cc outboard boat engine. He brought back to England the Elto which had been used by Ronny Householder to win the Mid Western American championship. Similar car chassis were built in Britain but while the Elto engine had been popular in the USA, in Britain it suffered fuel mixture problems and tended to oil up. Initially, six midgets were fitted with Elto engines and at their peak there were bout 12 in competition.
Later, largely thanks to the mechanical expertise of Pashley, the 500cc JAP speedway bike engine was adapted for the cars. Then came the 996cc engine which made the Skirrow so awesome. Belle Vue also briefly tried the Landa car engine in midgets while Australian speedway star Max Grosskreutz even tried to popularise a midget fitted with two engines - front and rear.
An essential difference in the two midgets was that the Elto was rear-wheel drive while the Skirrow was four-wheel and that caused the latter problems when the cars came into close contact or touched a safety fence. The Skirrows just loved to climb over things.
After a season of open meetings in 1936, centred largely on Belle Vue and Lea Bridge, midget car racing followed the successful image of speedway and introduced league team racing.
Because of his undoubted driving skills and mechanical ability, Belle Vue appointed Pashley as their team captain. He was amonbg serveral other Belle Vue second-string speedway riders who boosted their track earnings by racing midgets - these included Eric Worsick. Syd Plevin and Stanley ‘Acorn’ Dobson.
Belle Vue’s initial league match attracted an 8,000 crowd, the highlight of which involved ‘Bronco’ Bill Reynolds in a spectacular crash that brought a hushed silence around the Hyde Road stadium. Reynolds escaped with only two broken fingers on his right hand.
When midget car racing returned after three years to pioneer London track Crystal Palace in September 1938, Pashley led Belle Vue to a 77-25 victory in a 12 heat match.
Pashley’s midget car career nearly came to a premature end in one practice session at Belle Vue. He skidded into the fence and his car caught fire with him trapped by his foot. The driver had the presence of mind to switch off the petrol, but the flames were beginning to lick around him as helpers rushed to his assistance.
They jerked Pashley’s foot clear and dragged him for the blazing car which was badly damaged. Later, when questioned about the experience, he joked, “I began to think how the bacon frizzles in the frying pan at breakfast time.”
In 1937 and the early part of 1938, Pashley was a regular competitor at the old Lea Bridge track in east London. The legendary American Spike Rhiando and England’s Walter Mackereth were the local favourites, but Pashley was able to match them for power and pace.
Pashley also helped in efforts to pioneer midget car racing in Scotland at Glasgow White City and the Marina Gardens Edinburgh, two tracks where the local stars were Andy Dodds and Tommy Forster. Pashley also saw action at Southampton and dominated a few meetings which took place at the Stanley Stadium in Liverpool.
For three seasons - 1937, 1938 and 1939 - Pashley raced regularly in Sunday afternoon meetings at Coventry, but sketchy records of the period do not indicate his usual dashing form at Brandon Stadium. On June 6, 1937, he scored six points for Belle Vue who were beaten 32-20 by Coventry. On April 24, 1938, he was partner to Eric Worswick in a Best Pairs where they shred lastplace on nine points with Southampton’s Les White and Skid Martin. The event was won by Coventry’s Mackereth and George Turvey who scored 20 points.
Pshley was back at Coventry with Belle Vue for a National League match on August 1, 1938. After scoring one point in his first drive, he missed the rest of the meeting because of his car’s engine problems. Coventry won easily by 52-19.
In 1939, Pashley was back at Coventry to team with Mackereth for the North who lost 42-30 to the South, But in a supporting match race, Pashley redeemed his reputation by beating Frank Marsh.
The 1937 season and in the early part of 1938, Pashley was also a regular starter in the Wednesday evening meetings at Lea Bridge, then also home to the Clapton Orient football club before they moved elsewhere to become Leyton Orient.
In the main event for the 1937 season, the Coronation Cup, Pashley finished second to Mackereth with Les White third. Subsequently, he was in a Manchester team beaten 34-20 by Lea Bridge and saw his hopes of being unbeaten ended by Spike Rhiando in his third race. Also at Lea Bridge, Pashley was joint fourth on 11 points each with Vic Patterson in the South of England Championship, won by Rhiando 15 from Mackereth and Burton with 13 each.
The overall league points scoring chart for 1937 placed Pashley third with 64 poijts behind Worswick 90 and Burton 68 in a 27 driver table. Pashley also competed in the two meeting British Individual Championship run over meetings at Coventry and Lea bridge, which were easily won by Mackereth.
Only a handful of meetings were held at lea Bridge in 1938, but Pashley along with stars like Rhiando, Mackereth and Syd Plevin competed regularly until lack of spectator interest took the group to Crystal Palace where it also failed. As a result, mainstream midget car racing died in the London area, although they were infrequently staged as second-half events at Wembley and West Ham until World War Two started in 1939.
Pashley made a brief post-war come-back in 1949 when Dave Hughes started promoting at Brafield. Before that, Pashley and Dobson also took part in demonstrations at Belle Vue. The old Eltos stood derelict in the Belle Vue pits until 1970 when they were sold to a scrap metal dealer.
Post-war, besides working in the Belle Vue pits at speedway meetings, Pashley also competed in car rallies and big circuit car racing, mainly at Oulton Park.
When Pashly died aged 70 years on March 12, 1973, among those who attended to pay tribute to him was old-time speedway star ‘Red Devil’ Frank Varey, who had also raced midgets at Belle Vue in 1936. That was a fitting testimony to the high esteem in which Pashley was held because Varey was one of speedway’s legends.
The Pashley name has lived on midget car racing, his son Rod and grandson Ben both racing in Grand Prix Midget events. In a postscript to his father’s career, Rod said, “He was consistently among midget car racing’s top performers. Sadly, he always missed out on the big titles, hence his name does not appear in any of the formula’s records.”
(c) John Hyam 2009