Post by administrator on Sept 8, 2009 11:56:03 GMT 1
David Haunton's acknowledgments....
:::Derek Bridgett, author of Midget Car Speedway (2006), Tempus Publishing Ltd, for much help, for copies of many cuttings he culled from The Light Car and Cyclecar magazine (usually referred to as The Light Car), The Autocar magazine, and other press notices, and for starting this whole enquiry by his letter to the Wimbledon Guardian.
:::John Williams of Brisbane for encouragement, information and long phone calls from Australia. (John is a Welshman whose parents met in Wimbledon, so he is one of us, and therefore a Good Chap.)
:::Merton Library Services for local newspapers, directories, Voters Lists, and finding our first illustration.
:::Volunteers at Epsom and Ewell Local Heritage Centre for memories.
:::My thanks to the enthusiastic and indefatigable volunteers who staff the Epsom and Ewell Local and Family History Centre at Bourne Hall in Ewell, to Derek Bridgett, author of Midget Car Speedway (Tempus, 2006) for yet more information, to Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, to Surrey History Centre, and of course to John Williams, midget-hunter extraordinaire.
::: Brief report in Manchester Guardian 14 May 1934.
::: Published in News Chronicle , Northern edition, 10 or 11 May 1934.
::: Letter from Surrey History Centre to author, 1 May 2009
:::He is mentioned as ‘[one] of our best-known exponents’ in Wimbledon Boro’ News 6 September 1935, but apparently never raced again after the Australian trip.
:::Most of this section is due to John Williams of Brisbane, in talks and e-mails January to April 2009. John Williams supplies the definitions of midget car racing in Australia, where the sport continued strongly. ‘Early midgets’ raced between 1914 and 1918/19. In the 1930s, the English press referred to all small racing cars as midgets, but aficionados distinguish between converted road cars (light cars or cycle-cars, ‘not real midgets’) and ‘modern midgets’, which are purpose-built and conform to a set of size and engine capacity regulations which sound very similar to those Jean Reville claimed to have established with his Speedway Racing Drivers Club. Also, some early 1930s races in England were run clockwise – for purists true midgets have always raced counter-clockwise.
:::When Wandsworth Library’s holding of local directories runs out.
:::Letter to author 5 March 2009
:::News Chronicle 12 May 1934
::: R E P Secretan ‘Midget Racing in England’ National Auto Racing News 24 Feb 1938 (An American weekly; now National Speed Sport News).
::::SPECIAL NOTE::::The chapters previously appeared as a three-part series in the 2009 bulletins 169 (March), 170 (June) and 171 (September) of the MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, secretary: Mrs S Harris, 100 Cannnon Hill Lane, SW20 9ET.
:::Derek Bridgett, author of Midget Car Speedway (2006), Tempus Publishing Ltd, for much help, for copies of many cuttings he culled from The Light Car and Cyclecar magazine (usually referred to as The Light Car), The Autocar magazine, and other press notices, and for starting this whole enquiry by his letter to the Wimbledon Guardian.
:::John Williams of Brisbane for encouragement, information and long phone calls from Australia. (John is a Welshman whose parents met in Wimbledon, so he is one of us, and therefore a Good Chap.)
:::Merton Library Services for local newspapers, directories, Voters Lists, and finding our first illustration.
:::Volunteers at Epsom and Ewell Local Heritage Centre for memories.
:::My thanks to the enthusiastic and indefatigable volunteers who staff the Epsom and Ewell Local and Family History Centre at Bourne Hall in Ewell, to Derek Bridgett, author of Midget Car Speedway (Tempus, 2006) for yet more information, to Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, to Surrey History Centre, and of course to John Williams, midget-hunter extraordinaire.
::: Brief report in Manchester Guardian 14 May 1934.
::: Published in News Chronicle , Northern edition, 10 or 11 May 1934.
::: Letter from Surrey History Centre to author, 1 May 2009
:::He is mentioned as ‘[one] of our best-known exponents’ in Wimbledon Boro’ News 6 September 1935, but apparently never raced again after the Australian trip.
:::Most of this section is due to John Williams of Brisbane, in talks and e-mails January to April 2009. John Williams supplies the definitions of midget car racing in Australia, where the sport continued strongly. ‘Early midgets’ raced between 1914 and 1918/19. In the 1930s, the English press referred to all small racing cars as midgets, but aficionados distinguish between converted road cars (light cars or cycle-cars, ‘not real midgets’) and ‘modern midgets’, which are purpose-built and conform to a set of size and engine capacity regulations which sound very similar to those Jean Reville claimed to have established with his Speedway Racing Drivers Club. Also, some early 1930s races in England were run clockwise – for purists true midgets have always raced counter-clockwise.
:::When Wandsworth Library’s holding of local directories runs out.
:::Letter to author 5 March 2009
:::News Chronicle 12 May 1934
::: R E P Secretan ‘Midget Racing in England’ National Auto Racing News 24 Feb 1938 (An American weekly; now National Speed Sport News).
::::SPECIAL NOTE::::The chapters previously appeared as a three-part series in the 2009 bulletins 169 (March), 170 (June) and 171 (September) of the MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, secretary: Mrs S Harris, 100 Cannnon Hill Lane, SW20 9ET.