Post by administrator on Mar 27, 2009 20:42:14 GMT 1
DAVE HUGHES was a real ‘mighty midget.’ He was a towering figure, standing six feet tall and reputed to weight 17 stone. Yet he could jockey himself into the cockpit of a Skirrow midget car and despite his weight disadvantage compete fairly and squarely with the formula’s leading drivers in a career spanning 1949 to 1960.
Hughes first fell in love with midget cars when he was among a 20,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium when colourful Spike Rhiando won the Gold Cup meeting. The cup, donated by Wembley boss Arthur Elvin, was reputed to be worth 50 guineas, a lot of money in those days and probably equivalent to a £1,000 in modern terms.
Hughes joined in the cheering as famed big circuit lady car racer Mrs Kay Petre made the presentation.
For the rest of 1938 and up to the outbreak of war in September 1939 Hughes, who lived in Northampton, was a regular spectator at Coventry watching stars like Rhiando, Walter Mackereth, Frank Chiswell, Les and Lane White exploit the thrill capabilities of the Skirrow and Elto midget cars.
After the war, in 1948 Hughes was among a 50,000 crowd at the original Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsa FC, when the ill-fated American midget car team showed their paces. He was especially interested in the performance of English driver Billy Murden who, racing his own built front-wheel drive car, unsuccessfully challenged Noel Coath in a match race.
Hughes, who was a master baker in Northampton, was convinced that a properly organised form of British midget car racing could be a success and set about buying as many Skirrow cars as he could find.
He also invested £10,000 into leasing land to build a track at Brafield, near Northampton, which is now the site of the Northampton International Raceway.
Hughes was forced into laying his own track because motorcycle speedway bosses banned the cars from appearing as a support formula at their meetings and refused permission for speedway riders to also drive midgets.
It did not stop Hughes from recruiting his own team of drivers of five drivers for five meetings at Brafield, starting from an opening meeting in August 1949, with three more meetings set for September, and another in October. And he promised in the programme notes. “Watch out for announcements of the full programme next year.”
The drivers for the opening meeting included pre-war drivers Spike Rhiando, Jimmy Raynes and Basil de Mattos. In later meetings, Frank Chiswell and Charlie ‘Ginger’ Pashley competed. The new kids on the block were Hughes, former New Cross speedway rider George O’Brien, Vic king, Arch Handscomb, Les Hill, Billy Robinson, Bob Britton and Bob Gooding.
The Brafield promotion failed to attract much support and Hughes decicded to become a circus-type promoter and take his Skirrows on tour. Among tracks they raced at in 1950s were on grass at Brighton greyhound stadium and at Eastbourne. By 1951, Hughes had broken down the barriers from speedway tracks and raced on different nights at various speedways, among them Rayleigh, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. And he also went to a new venue at Ringwood in Hampshire.
The first visit to Ringwood was in May that year when Arch Handscomb won the Matchams Individual Championships. in that meeting, former Eastbourne and Hastings speedway rider Bob Sivyer crashed and broke his nose.
The Hughes’ squad were back at Ringwood on Sunday, August 26, for a team math. This was in the era when, because of the law regarding Sunday sport, admission charges could not be made but programmes were allowed to be sold. It was from this source that Hughes gained much needed revenue to finance his group.
The two teams were - Matchams Park: Wilf Davis, Ted Taylor, Andre Leon, Bob Sivyer, Roy Pulford and Ron Major.
Northampton: Arech Handscomb, Dave Hughes, Walt Perry. Mac MacLean, Geoff Green and Jim Martin.
Bristol’s Knowle Stadium featured a midget car meeting on October 12, 1951. This was a small circuit measuring less than 300 yards and provided some spectacular racing. Besids regular midget drivers like Hughes, Handscomb, Ted Taylor, Davis, Major, Pulford, Viv Worlock and Wally Cuff, local speedway riders Bill and Graham Hole, Jack Mountford, Eric Salmon and Dicky Bradley also got into cars. Raced on speedway lines, the match saw Hughes’ Northampton team beat Bristol 30-28.
Just after this, Hughes confidence in the development of midget car racing in Britain seemed to be on course when, supported by Coventry and Leicester promoter Charles Ochiltree, a Winter West Midlands Midget Car League was introduced. The other tracks in the competition were Birmingham and Cradley Heath. The competition ran for just over a month and was abandoned because an exceptionally wet winter made it virtually impossible to continue using saturated shale tracks for racing.
Besides Hughes and his regular midget car drivers being included in teams, various speedway riders were given team places - and these proved to be the better drivers, with Johnnie Reason, Derrick Tailby, Len Williams and Lionel Watling being among the front-runners.
The collapse of the league was a bitter disappointment to Hughes, but he continued to take his drivers to various speedways during 1952. He reaclled one particular meeting at Middlesbrough where Frankie Johnson - “The most spectacular midget car driver I ever saw” - ran up a rival’s car and jumped it across the safety fence to finish upright on the terraces. A small boy was slightly shocked at the incident while Johnson walked away uninjured.
Hughes looked to be back on course for a major midget car revival in 1953 when he based his squad in Scotland at Glasgow Ashfield, Stepps Stadium, Motherwell and Edinburgh. But again the Northampton baker was to have a major setback when, in 1954, stock car racing arrived in Britain. Its mushrooming popularity not only hit Hughes’ promotions but also nearly killed off speedway which was then already in a downward attendances spiral.
The decline in midget car racing attraction at that time hit Hughes badly on the financial side and it meant that his plans to take a team to South Africa was also abandoned.
Hughes bounced back again from 1955 onwards. He took teams to Holland and Italy and the cars also raced in Britain at Oxford, Newcstle, Middlesbrough, Exeter, Southampton and Eastbourne.
He then also faced a major problem. His cars had all been built before 1939, they were getting older all the time. Spare parts became difficult to find and ‘cannibalisation’ of c ars to get replacements meant fewer cars were available to race. More so, the engines also became more unreliable. “They were clapped out,” Hughes admitted later.
For the cars last track appearance at a Coventry meeting at the end of the 1950s, just five were race worthy.
Another midget car historian, Roy Chiswell the son of pre-war driver Frank, told me, “Hughes eventully ran out of 996cc engines and spares for the Skirrows. He tried bolting 500cc JAP speedway bike engines into them. This was a disaster.”
By the end of the 1950s, Hughes’ dream of making his version of midget car racing into a major formula on British tracks was over. It had cost him some £60,000 in 12 years.
Hughes had a brief flirtation with 500cc midget car racing as a driver in the early 1960s.
Years later, at the start of the 1980s, he was an adviser to the ill-fated Namicsa group when it tried to put front-engine midget cars on to speedway tracks.
In his heart, though, Hughes was resigned to the fact that midget car racing would never be a major attraction in Britain. He summed up his feelings once by saying, “Trying to popularise midget car racing in this country is a dead loss. I doubt that it will ever be a maisntream formula on British tracks.”
It was a sad assessment from a man who deserved more for his undoubted dedication to a form of small track racing which is much-loved by its few adherents but fails to make the essential major breakthrough it needs - often because of its own failings.
I first met chain-smoke Hughes in 1956 and last saw him in 1984, four years before his death. The last time we met he again spoke of his disillusionment about establishing midget car racing on British tracks.
He did not like rear-engine cars or the links of the formula to stock car promotions and tarmac tracks. He insisted, “Midget cars have to have spectator appeal. They must look attractive and are essentially a speedway track sport. They need to race on dirt or shale to be effective and spectacular.”
As a driver, Hughes will not rank among the stars of midget car racing, but he was a sound journeyman as a driver and able to acquit himself well against those who won the formula’s limelight.
He was a dedicated administrator and organiser for the sport. His death was also contributory to the failure of Namicsa in its bid to establish the formula as a speedway sport.
It’s unlikely midget car racing will again have a strong character like Dave Hughes who would be prepared to spend so many years trying to develop a type of racing which sadly has only enjoyed Cinderella status since its British debut at London’s Crystal Palace in 1934.
Hughes first fell in love with midget cars when he was among a 20,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium when colourful Spike Rhiando won the Gold Cup meeting. The cup, donated by Wembley boss Arthur Elvin, was reputed to be worth 50 guineas, a lot of money in those days and probably equivalent to a £1,000 in modern terms.
Hughes joined in the cheering as famed big circuit lady car racer Mrs Kay Petre made the presentation.
For the rest of 1938 and up to the outbreak of war in September 1939 Hughes, who lived in Northampton, was a regular spectator at Coventry watching stars like Rhiando, Walter Mackereth, Frank Chiswell, Les and Lane White exploit the thrill capabilities of the Skirrow and Elto midget cars.
After the war, in 1948 Hughes was among a 50,000 crowd at the original Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsa FC, when the ill-fated American midget car team showed their paces. He was especially interested in the performance of English driver Billy Murden who, racing his own built front-wheel drive car, unsuccessfully challenged Noel Coath in a match race.
Hughes, who was a master baker in Northampton, was convinced that a properly organised form of British midget car racing could be a success and set about buying as many Skirrow cars as he could find.
He also invested £10,000 into leasing land to build a track at Brafield, near Northampton, which is now the site of the Northampton International Raceway.
Hughes was forced into laying his own track because motorcycle speedway bosses banned the cars from appearing as a support formula at their meetings and refused permission for speedway riders to also drive midgets.
It did not stop Hughes from recruiting his own team of drivers of five drivers for five meetings at Brafield, starting from an opening meeting in August 1949, with three more meetings set for September, and another in October. And he promised in the programme notes. “Watch out for announcements of the full programme next year.”
The drivers for the opening meeting included pre-war drivers Spike Rhiando, Jimmy Raynes and Basil de Mattos. In later meetings, Frank Chiswell and Charlie ‘Ginger’ Pashley competed. The new kids on the block were Hughes, former New Cross speedway rider George O’Brien, Vic king, Arch Handscomb, Les Hill, Billy Robinson, Bob Britton and Bob Gooding.
The Brafield promotion failed to attract much support and Hughes decicded to become a circus-type promoter and take his Skirrows on tour. Among tracks they raced at in 1950s were on grass at Brighton greyhound stadium and at Eastbourne. By 1951, Hughes had broken down the barriers from speedway tracks and raced on different nights at various speedways, among them Rayleigh, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. And he also went to a new venue at Ringwood in Hampshire.
The first visit to Ringwood was in May that year when Arch Handscomb won the Matchams Individual Championships. in that meeting, former Eastbourne and Hastings speedway rider Bob Sivyer crashed and broke his nose.
The Hughes’ squad were back at Ringwood on Sunday, August 26, for a team math. This was in the era when, because of the law regarding Sunday sport, admission charges could not be made but programmes were allowed to be sold. It was from this source that Hughes gained much needed revenue to finance his group.
The two teams were - Matchams Park: Wilf Davis, Ted Taylor, Andre Leon, Bob Sivyer, Roy Pulford and Ron Major.
Northampton: Arech Handscomb, Dave Hughes, Walt Perry. Mac MacLean, Geoff Green and Jim Martin.
Bristol’s Knowle Stadium featured a midget car meeting on October 12, 1951. This was a small circuit measuring less than 300 yards and provided some spectacular racing. Besids regular midget drivers like Hughes, Handscomb, Ted Taylor, Davis, Major, Pulford, Viv Worlock and Wally Cuff, local speedway riders Bill and Graham Hole, Jack Mountford, Eric Salmon and Dicky Bradley also got into cars. Raced on speedway lines, the match saw Hughes’ Northampton team beat Bristol 30-28.
Just after this, Hughes confidence in the development of midget car racing in Britain seemed to be on course when, supported by Coventry and Leicester promoter Charles Ochiltree, a Winter West Midlands Midget Car League was introduced. The other tracks in the competition were Birmingham and Cradley Heath. The competition ran for just over a month and was abandoned because an exceptionally wet winter made it virtually impossible to continue using saturated shale tracks for racing.
Besides Hughes and his regular midget car drivers being included in teams, various speedway riders were given team places - and these proved to be the better drivers, with Johnnie Reason, Derrick Tailby, Len Williams and Lionel Watling being among the front-runners.
The collapse of the league was a bitter disappointment to Hughes, but he continued to take his drivers to various speedways during 1952. He reaclled one particular meeting at Middlesbrough where Frankie Johnson - “The most spectacular midget car driver I ever saw” - ran up a rival’s car and jumped it across the safety fence to finish upright on the terraces. A small boy was slightly shocked at the incident while Johnson walked away uninjured.
Hughes looked to be back on course for a major midget car revival in 1953 when he based his squad in Scotland at Glasgow Ashfield, Stepps Stadium, Motherwell and Edinburgh. But again the Northampton baker was to have a major setback when, in 1954, stock car racing arrived in Britain. Its mushrooming popularity not only hit Hughes’ promotions but also nearly killed off speedway which was then already in a downward attendances spiral.
The decline in midget car racing attraction at that time hit Hughes badly on the financial side and it meant that his plans to take a team to South Africa was also abandoned.
Hughes bounced back again from 1955 onwards. He took teams to Holland and Italy and the cars also raced in Britain at Oxford, Newcstle, Middlesbrough, Exeter, Southampton and Eastbourne.
He then also faced a major problem. His cars had all been built before 1939, they were getting older all the time. Spare parts became difficult to find and ‘cannibalisation’ of c ars to get replacements meant fewer cars were available to race. More so, the engines also became more unreliable. “They were clapped out,” Hughes admitted later.
For the cars last track appearance at a Coventry meeting at the end of the 1950s, just five were race worthy.
Another midget car historian, Roy Chiswell the son of pre-war driver Frank, told me, “Hughes eventully ran out of 996cc engines and spares for the Skirrows. He tried bolting 500cc JAP speedway bike engines into them. This was a disaster.”
By the end of the 1950s, Hughes’ dream of making his version of midget car racing into a major formula on British tracks was over. It had cost him some £60,000 in 12 years.
Hughes had a brief flirtation with 500cc midget car racing as a driver in the early 1960s.
Years later, at the start of the 1980s, he was an adviser to the ill-fated Namicsa group when it tried to put front-engine midget cars on to speedway tracks.
In his heart, though, Hughes was resigned to the fact that midget car racing would never be a major attraction in Britain. He summed up his feelings once by saying, “Trying to popularise midget car racing in this country is a dead loss. I doubt that it will ever be a maisntream formula on British tracks.”
It was a sad assessment from a man who deserved more for his undoubted dedication to a form of small track racing which is much-loved by its few adherents but fails to make the essential major breakthrough it needs - often because of its own failings.
I first met chain-smoke Hughes in 1956 and last saw him in 1984, four years before his death. The last time we met he again spoke of his disillusionment about establishing midget car racing on British tracks.
He did not like rear-engine cars or the links of the formula to stock car promotions and tarmac tracks. He insisted, “Midget cars have to have spectator appeal. They must look attractive and are essentially a speedway track sport. They need to race on dirt or shale to be effective and spectacular.”
As a driver, Hughes will not rank among the stars of midget car racing, but he was a sound journeyman as a driver and able to acquit himself well against those who won the formula’s limelight.
He was a dedicated administrator and organiser for the sport. His death was also contributory to the failure of Namicsa in its bid to establish the formula as a speedway sport.
It’s unlikely midget car racing will again have a strong character like Dave Hughes who would be prepared to spend so many years trying to develop a type of racing which sadly has only enjoyed Cinderella status since its British debut at London’s Crystal Palace in 1934.
(c) John Hyam 2009