Post by administrator on Mar 27, 2009 21:10:56 GMT 1
FRANK CHISWELL and Walter Mackereth were two British midget car drivers who the Americans were scared to race against. In 1948, they challenged the London-based American touring team to provide opponents for them in a series of match races. The Americans rejected the challenge.
Frank’s son Roy said, “The Americans probably knew they would be beaten. They raced rear wheel drive cars and knew that the four wheel drive cars my father and Mackereth would use would run them off the track!” The British driver Billy Murden did later race against an American and was beaten but he used his own built rear wheel drive car.
Chiswell was also unimpressed with the attitude of the American film star Lana Turner, whose husband Bob Topping was the owner of the American team. “Not a lady in the truest sense,” he said. These were the only contacts made in 1948 between British drivers and the Americans, who raced in London at Stamford Bridge, Walthamstow and Charlton.
Chiswell started racing midget cars in 1938, some 10 years after he embarked on a motorcycle speedway speedway career that involved tracks at High Beech, Preston, Liverpool and Belle Vue. Apart from that, he was a talented footballer and in 1930 was on the books of Everton.
After initial midget car meeetings in 1938 at Lea Bridge in London, Chiswell moved to Coventry, joining a team that was led by Mackereth in the National League. The other teams were Wembley, Stoke (Hanley), Belle Vue and Lea Bridge, the latter team moving on to Crystal Palace midway through the season.
Chiswell bought his car on a hire-purchase arrangement from builder Harry Skirrow. His involvement in midget car racing was sparked while he was in the Coventry area and saw cars being towed to meetings at Brandon Stadium. Besides striking up a close friendship with Mackereth, Johnny Young was another of his close associates during his racing career.
After a slow start in league racing, Chiswell suddenly hit top form and on June 12 made an impression at Lea Bridge where he included the home captain Jimmy Raynes among drivers he defeated. Chiswell also won a prstige individual event at Stoke - the trophy inscription reading ‘Stoke Speedway - Potteries Trophy. Presented by Ron Hewitt - Won by Frank Chiswell - 1st August 1938.’ Roy Chiswell said that Ron Hewitt was the Clerk of the Course at Stoke.
Before that, Chiswell had been scheduled to face the legendary Spike Rhiando in a match race at Coventry on July 24, but it never took place. The local paper reported the following day: “Spike Rhiando could not fulfil his challenge match with Frank Chiswell. Spike has injured his leg while riding a motorcycle at the Dagenham speeday track.’
In his progression up the racing ratings at Coventry, Chiswell had won the Whitsun Scatch Race on June 5, gone unbeaten for Coventry in his races on June 13 in a league match against Lea Bridge, then the following week scored 13 out of 15 against Belle Vue, then went unbeaten for Coventry in a match against Stoke on September 18. He climaxed this by outpacing Mackereth in the final of the Flying Twelve at the Coventry meeting on Septembe 30.
Chiswell also took part in a meeting at the Firs Stadium, Norwich, when he raced for a London team against The Provinces. Mackereth this time took the limelight from his close pal Chiswell and is reported to have set times that were actually faster than those recorded by the speedway bikes - an unusual happening. Mackereth had also been only just one second outside the the bike’s track records at Belle Vue a few weeks previously.
There was a downturn in the nmber of meetings for the 1939 season, which mainly centred again on Coventry. At Stoke, the Hanley track had switched from midget cars to speeway, but a new midget car track opened a couple of miles away at Conridge.
In the first meeting of Coventry’s 1939 season on April 9, Chiswell failed to start when his car’s engine seized while being warmed up in the pits before racing. He was back at his best on April 23 when his four lap time of 80.4 seconds was just a second outside Mackereth’s track record.
On May 21, Chiswell was again on top form, beating superstar Mackereth in a two-lap dash which was raced in a torrential rain storm. On July 10, as the war clouds gathered in Europe, a crowd of 3,000 turned up to see the Australian champion Cecil ‘Gruff’ Garland, who was booked to meet Mackereth and Chiswell in a series of match races. But the Australian had to cancel his visit at the last minute after injuriung himself the previous evening in a speedway crash at Glasgow White City.
It is interesting to note the prize money paid in 1939, Race winners received £2.50 (six wins earning £15), second place was paid £1.50 and third place was paid 75 pence. Most races featured four car races in a race, with drivers usually competing six times at a meeting. By 1939 standards, the rates of pay were excellent.
An anecdote about Frank concerns the aftermath of a meeting at Coventry when some local medical students bet him that he could not drink a pint upside down. He promptly accepted the challenge and did his party piece - standing on his head, resting against the wall and pouring the beer into his mouth and somehow managing to swallow it. The students were so impressed that they presented him with a brand new pipe which is still in the family’s possession.
In late 1939, Chiswell was slected for an England team to visit Australia for their 1939-40 season, but the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939 caused a cancellation of the visit. Two other drivers named for the tour were Mackereth and the renowned car-builder driver Harry Skirrow.
Chiswell expected midget car racing to resume when World War Two in Europe ended in May 1945. His son Roy recalls his father taking his car along the road in the village where they lived to test it. It was the first time the car had been started since September 1939. It made so much noise many villagers turned out to see what was happening. Roy is of the opinion that had the village policeman been around, they would have been arrested.
Sadly, there was no post-war revival for midget car racing immediately after the war, with the leading pre-war midget car promoter Jimmy Baxter switching his attention to running speedway at Southampton and Plymouth.
By the time Dave Hughes started running midgets at Brafield (Northampton) late in 1949, business interests kept Chiswell out of the sport. Hughes bought Chiswell’s car No.77 in the 1950-51 winter and some years later cut it up to get spares for the other Skirrows in his troupe.
However, Chiswell did get in a few meetings after the war. He went to Holland in 1946 with a team led by Gene Crowley, and the following year raced in a few meetings at the Buffalo Stadium in Paris.
Roy Chiswell had a vivid memory of Crowley’s first visit to their home in Cambridgeshire to discuss the tours with his father. he said, “Gene came to discuss the tours and stayed for lunch. He tipped the sauce bottle over his food too quickly. The sauce ran down the side of the bottle which he promptly licked off before putting the bottle top back. This was a long-standing joke between my brother and myself.”
The meeting in Holland was at a horse trotting track near The Hague on October 13, 1946. The drivers were Vic Patterson, Walter Mackereth, Frank Chiswell, Laurie Maxton, Johnny Young, Billy Murden, Gene Crowley, Bob Breeze, Charles Gardner and Eric Hough from England. There were two Spanish drivers, Don Juan Ameyrich and Ramos Martinez, plus Dutch drivers Piet Van Aartsen, J Binde and W Cremer.
Hough, Gardner and Breeze raced in Elto cars, Murden used his own built cars, and the others competed in Skirrows. There are incomplete records of the meeting, but the race winners included Patterson and Chsiwell twice each. Mackereth was billed as the European champion - a title he won in Rotterdam in 1937, while Patterson was labelled as Champion of England.
The four meetings in France in July, 1947, featured Mackereth, Maxton, Young, Eric Worswick, Doug Wilcox, Chiswell, Cecil Garland (Australia) and Ameyrich (Spain), all driving Skirrows. Hough and Gardner drove Eltos, and Murden raced in his own car.
In pre-meeting practice at the Buffalo Stadium in Paris, Chiswell ran up the banked cycle track surrounding the speedway and stalled his car’s engine. Mackereth, who was following, overturned his car and broke a thumb, an injury which a French sports newspaper wrongly gave to Chiswell. The French press though loved Chiswell’s spectacular style and labelled him as ‘the fool at the wheel!’
A feature of the meetings in Holland and France were races between midget cars and speedway bikes. In Holland, Mackereth went in against Van Artsen - who was also the Dutch speedway champion - while in Paris, the following year, he competed against the French speedway champion Charles Bellisent and Fernand Meynier. There are no results available.
Because of post-war restrictions on transferring money, the drivers left their earnings in French bank accounts. In 1948, Mackereth and his wife, and Young and his wife,, and Chiswell went back to Paris for a holiday. Roy Chiswell said, “My mum did not go on the holiday because she had no one to look after me, my brother and sister.”
Frank Chiswell did not race again after the trips to Holland and France, but concentrated on being a farmer, then bought a riverside pub at Ely in Cambridgeshire. He later converted a house into a village shop where he lived until his death from lung cancer in 1971.
Frank’s son Roy said, “The Americans probably knew they would be beaten. They raced rear wheel drive cars and knew that the four wheel drive cars my father and Mackereth would use would run them off the track!” The British driver Billy Murden did later race against an American and was beaten but he used his own built rear wheel drive car.
Chiswell was also unimpressed with the attitude of the American film star Lana Turner, whose husband Bob Topping was the owner of the American team. “Not a lady in the truest sense,” he said. These were the only contacts made in 1948 between British drivers and the Americans, who raced in London at Stamford Bridge, Walthamstow and Charlton.
Chiswell started racing midget cars in 1938, some 10 years after he embarked on a motorcycle speedway speedway career that involved tracks at High Beech, Preston, Liverpool and Belle Vue. Apart from that, he was a talented footballer and in 1930 was on the books of Everton.
After initial midget car meeetings in 1938 at Lea Bridge in London, Chiswell moved to Coventry, joining a team that was led by Mackereth in the National League. The other teams were Wembley, Stoke (Hanley), Belle Vue and Lea Bridge, the latter team moving on to Crystal Palace midway through the season.
Chiswell bought his car on a hire-purchase arrangement from builder Harry Skirrow. His involvement in midget car racing was sparked while he was in the Coventry area and saw cars being towed to meetings at Brandon Stadium. Besides striking up a close friendship with Mackereth, Johnny Young was another of his close associates during his racing career.
After a slow start in league racing, Chiswell suddenly hit top form and on June 12 made an impression at Lea Bridge where he included the home captain Jimmy Raynes among drivers he defeated. Chiswell also won a prstige individual event at Stoke - the trophy inscription reading ‘Stoke Speedway - Potteries Trophy. Presented by Ron Hewitt - Won by Frank Chiswell - 1st August 1938.’ Roy Chiswell said that Ron Hewitt was the Clerk of the Course at Stoke.
Before that, Chiswell had been scheduled to face the legendary Spike Rhiando in a match race at Coventry on July 24, but it never took place. The local paper reported the following day: “Spike Rhiando could not fulfil his challenge match with Frank Chiswell. Spike has injured his leg while riding a motorcycle at the Dagenham speeday track.’
In his progression up the racing ratings at Coventry, Chiswell had won the Whitsun Scatch Race on June 5, gone unbeaten for Coventry in his races on June 13 in a league match against Lea Bridge, then the following week scored 13 out of 15 against Belle Vue, then went unbeaten for Coventry in a match against Stoke on September 18. He climaxed this by outpacing Mackereth in the final of the Flying Twelve at the Coventry meeting on Septembe 30.
Chiswell also took part in a meeting at the Firs Stadium, Norwich, when he raced for a London team against The Provinces. Mackereth this time took the limelight from his close pal Chiswell and is reported to have set times that were actually faster than those recorded by the speedway bikes - an unusual happening. Mackereth had also been only just one second outside the the bike’s track records at Belle Vue a few weeks previously.
There was a downturn in the nmber of meetings for the 1939 season, which mainly centred again on Coventry. At Stoke, the Hanley track had switched from midget cars to speeway, but a new midget car track opened a couple of miles away at Conridge.
In the first meeting of Coventry’s 1939 season on April 9, Chiswell failed to start when his car’s engine seized while being warmed up in the pits before racing. He was back at his best on April 23 when his four lap time of 80.4 seconds was just a second outside Mackereth’s track record.
On May 21, Chiswell was again on top form, beating superstar Mackereth in a two-lap dash which was raced in a torrential rain storm. On July 10, as the war clouds gathered in Europe, a crowd of 3,000 turned up to see the Australian champion Cecil ‘Gruff’ Garland, who was booked to meet Mackereth and Chiswell in a series of match races. But the Australian had to cancel his visit at the last minute after injuriung himself the previous evening in a speedway crash at Glasgow White City.
It is interesting to note the prize money paid in 1939, Race winners received £2.50 (six wins earning £15), second place was paid £1.50 and third place was paid 75 pence. Most races featured four car races in a race, with drivers usually competing six times at a meeting. By 1939 standards, the rates of pay were excellent.
An anecdote about Frank concerns the aftermath of a meeting at Coventry when some local medical students bet him that he could not drink a pint upside down. He promptly accepted the challenge and did his party piece - standing on his head, resting against the wall and pouring the beer into his mouth and somehow managing to swallow it. The students were so impressed that they presented him with a brand new pipe which is still in the family’s possession.
In late 1939, Chiswell was slected for an England team to visit Australia for their 1939-40 season, but the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939 caused a cancellation of the visit. Two other drivers named for the tour were Mackereth and the renowned car-builder driver Harry Skirrow.
Chiswell expected midget car racing to resume when World War Two in Europe ended in May 1945. His son Roy recalls his father taking his car along the road in the village where they lived to test it. It was the first time the car had been started since September 1939. It made so much noise many villagers turned out to see what was happening. Roy is of the opinion that had the village policeman been around, they would have been arrested.
Sadly, there was no post-war revival for midget car racing immediately after the war, with the leading pre-war midget car promoter Jimmy Baxter switching his attention to running speedway at Southampton and Plymouth.
By the time Dave Hughes started running midgets at Brafield (Northampton) late in 1949, business interests kept Chiswell out of the sport. Hughes bought Chiswell’s car No.77 in the 1950-51 winter and some years later cut it up to get spares for the other Skirrows in his troupe.
However, Chiswell did get in a few meetings after the war. He went to Holland in 1946 with a team led by Gene Crowley, and the following year raced in a few meetings at the Buffalo Stadium in Paris.
Roy Chiswell had a vivid memory of Crowley’s first visit to their home in Cambridgeshire to discuss the tours with his father. he said, “Gene came to discuss the tours and stayed for lunch. He tipped the sauce bottle over his food too quickly. The sauce ran down the side of the bottle which he promptly licked off before putting the bottle top back. This was a long-standing joke between my brother and myself.”
The meeting in Holland was at a horse trotting track near The Hague on October 13, 1946. The drivers were Vic Patterson, Walter Mackereth, Frank Chiswell, Laurie Maxton, Johnny Young, Billy Murden, Gene Crowley, Bob Breeze, Charles Gardner and Eric Hough from England. There were two Spanish drivers, Don Juan Ameyrich and Ramos Martinez, plus Dutch drivers Piet Van Aartsen, J Binde and W Cremer.
Hough, Gardner and Breeze raced in Elto cars, Murden used his own built cars, and the others competed in Skirrows. There are incomplete records of the meeting, but the race winners included Patterson and Chsiwell twice each. Mackereth was billed as the European champion - a title he won in Rotterdam in 1937, while Patterson was labelled as Champion of England.
The four meetings in France in July, 1947, featured Mackereth, Maxton, Young, Eric Worswick, Doug Wilcox, Chiswell, Cecil Garland (Australia) and Ameyrich (Spain), all driving Skirrows. Hough and Gardner drove Eltos, and Murden raced in his own car.
In pre-meeting practice at the Buffalo Stadium in Paris, Chiswell ran up the banked cycle track surrounding the speedway and stalled his car’s engine. Mackereth, who was following, overturned his car and broke a thumb, an injury which a French sports newspaper wrongly gave to Chiswell. The French press though loved Chiswell’s spectacular style and labelled him as ‘the fool at the wheel!’
A feature of the meetings in Holland and France were races between midget cars and speedway bikes. In Holland, Mackereth went in against Van Artsen - who was also the Dutch speedway champion - while in Paris, the following year, he competed against the French speedway champion Charles Bellisent and Fernand Meynier. There are no results available.
Because of post-war restrictions on transferring money, the drivers left their earnings in French bank accounts. In 1948, Mackereth and his wife, and Young and his wife,, and Chiswell went back to Paris for a holiday. Roy Chiswell said, “My mum did not go on the holiday because she had no one to look after me, my brother and sister.”
Frank Chiswell did not race again after the trips to Holland and France, but concentrated on being a farmer, then bought a riverside pub at Ely in Cambridgeshire. He later converted a house into a village shop where he lived until his death from lung cancer in 1971.
(c) John Hyam 2009