Long Eaton Stadium - Stock Cars and Speedway


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David

There is an Image Icon at the top when you post your reply, use that to add the image to your post.

I suggest you add your site address to your signature, this will bring visitors to your site and improve your Google rating.

Regarding the image, what date was it taken? The people it shows probably do not know of this image displayed on your site and here, all these years later.

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Waaaaay back in the mid 60s I used to go to the speedway to watch Long Eaton Archers. I think the managers name was Ron Wilson. They moved to Leicester I think in about 67.Does anyone rememb

!hand! Stock cars! My lifelong favourite spectator sport. If you went to Long Eaton, you will remember seeing the Pavilion Hotel in the background, from the pits. Here's a photo that just shows it:

I got into stock racing from 1964to1966 seasons enjoyed it but very expensive hobby i raced with the best Ellis Ford the intrepid Albert Griffin Nev Hughes who helped me out getting started a few loca

Hi, admin. Thanks for your continuing advice --- I am pretty backward on computers no2 .

The photo of Nev Hughes's car was taken in 1964 by Dave Chapman. My website www.oldstox.com has quite a few Long Eaton photos, and this particular one is on a page headed SENIORS / F1'S IN THE SIXTIES.

Some of you know that Long Eaton was promoting stock cars ahead of almost every other permanent track in the country. Here's a great photo of the first promoter, Don Luck. He opened the gates to a huge crowd on 17th July 1954.

Don%20Luck.jpg

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I got into stock racing from 1964to1966 seasons enjoyed it but very expensive hobby i raced with the best Ellis Ford the intrepid Albert Griffin Nev Hughes who helped me out getting started a few locals,Fred Wallis Ray Watkins Dave Fox Fred Ball Laurie Hooton just to mention a few.l raced at Coventry a couple of times with Trevor Frost Aubrey Leighton Barry Hebborn those were the days.

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On 12/1/2012 at 8:11 PM, david kipling said:

Thank you! Nev Hughes took up promoting at Long Eaton after he retired from racing. He now lives in Canada with his wife Dorothy. Here is a high-res. photo of Nev's car in the LE pits, showing the railway bridge behind. The unusual bonnet and rad grille are from an old French Delahaye saloon.

69.%20May%201964%20LE.JPG

Again, sorry if my copied links don't open without some adjusting.

David do you remember Brian Powles he was Nevs mechanic before he started racing himself 154,ithink he took over the garage on Trent Boulevard i read some where he had passed on so sad

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1 hour ago, IAN FINN said:

David do you remember Brian Powles he was Nevs mechanic before he started racing himself 154,ithink he took over the garage on Trent Boulevard i read some where he had passed on so sad

 

Ian, David Kipling only ever posted for a couple of weeks at the end of 2012 so I doubt you'll get a reply.  It's a problem which crops up a lot on Nottstalgia; people start and then lose interest or forget to come back.

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We used to go to watch the Stock Cars.  Mostly to Long Eaton.. but we also went to Belle vue, Brayfield and Brandon

My favourite was Alf 'Tiger' Griffin.. who had a beautiful car with something like a Chevy 7 litre engine.  Others I recall are Neville Duke and Ellis Ford. I have some old photos somewhere.

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I raced a stock car there in 64-65 great times but very expensive still have lots of magazines and books from the 60s.I use to go to Coventry and Belle Vue its too bad many tracks have closed down.

 

 

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I knew Albert Griffin very well he had a chev 348 cu.in turbo thrust engine with 2 carbs on it no turbo that was what chev called that engine when the pit officiales saw it on the engine they were confused thought it did have a turbo which was not allowed.In 1965 he sold the car to the famous Stu Smith.He retired in 65 due to business commitments and not in the best of health.

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Hi DJ360 here are few local drivers who were racing in the mid 60s Laurie Hooton from Long Eaton Ian Barker from Toton,Fred Wallis from Netherfield,Martin Ball from Oxton area who was the shop foreman at Cripps on Triumph rd.Dave Fox from Bleasby,Nev Hughes from West Bridgeford who had a garage on Trent Lane i brought a trailer off him to tow my stock car on,and Brian Powles who was Nevs mechanic also raced a stock car

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went to Long Eaton Stock Cars in the late 60s with my dad. I remember quite a few of those names, as well as others.

 

Looking back at it now, it never registered with me how many of the cars were based on old American models from the 40s and 50s. I could've identified anything British but they only seemed to use Jags, big Fords, and perhaps a few other odds and sods.

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Don’t know if it was stocks or bombers dad won the trophies for, but my dad won the Long Eaton cinders trophy in 1963 and 1964, dad was Ralph fisher, I also have another trophy he won with no details and think there’s others in the loft too I know he did stocks local rallies in clumber Park and bomber racing but can’t remember his racing number, As he stopped racing by time I was born due to his business growing left little time for hobbies like racing, but we often still went to watch at the track thus was family time it won’t let me load a picture of the trophies at the moment 

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Hi jjbob i dont remember your dads name but seem to remember the cinders trophy i thought it was for stock car racing but could be wrong i will dig through the archives to see if i can find anything was your dad from Nottm?

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Ian Barker was one of my big mates,he died about 3 years ago,we always reckoned that our generations late 40 s to the late 60s had the best times of any other s in the history of the world ,never enslaved ,reasonably out of wars and pretty much free not like the kids of today with cameras watching every move and having to have an adult around all the while

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yes you are spot on Ian,Ian and Richard ,john Finn ,Eric Smith  and myself used to pal around we went to Le Mans  for 29 years on the trot All except me passed on , I can,t remember Cherrys surname for the life of me  though ,

 

 

 

 

 

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On 12/8/2019 at 11:03 PM, Cliff Ton said:

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went to Long Eaton Stock Cars in the late 60s with my dad. I remember quite a few of those names, as well as others.

 

Looking back at it now, it never registered with me how many of the cars were based on old American models from the 40s and 50s. I could've identified anything British but they only seemed to use Jags, big Fords, and perhaps a few other odds and sods.

 

I do seem to recall one car which had a Mini body.  Can't imagine that much else of it was mini though.

 

I also recall that Long Eaton had a sort of 'Fastest Lap' competition which ran before the Stocks began.  As I recall it was open to anyone daft enough to risk their car against the brutal fencing they'd hit if they got it wrong. The only car I recall was, I think, an 'Allard'.. similar to this..

 

1950_Allard_P1_Saloon.arp.jpg

 

It seemed totally unsuited to the track.. with the driver spending most of his time trying to keep the rear end from overtaking the front..  But it was entertaining, and though I don't think he ever won.. I'm, sure he had fun.

 

I should say we used to cycle from Bestwood Est. to Long Eaton as we were only around 13/14 or so at the time.  We'd whizz down the boulevards and often arrived before the gates opened. We'd sit outside and eat our butties before the gates opened.

 

Nigel Marlow and I went to the World Championships once.  We got two seats in the back of a van full of older lads basically for petrol money. I think that was Brandon which was Coventry way?  We also cycled to Brafield, for a championship.  That was a longish ride considering we had pretty crappy bikes.  The whole event finished later than we expected and Nigel was in a flat panic because we'd get home so late he'd be in big trouble.  I don't recall how.. but we discovered there was a train from Kettering to Nottm which would get us in a bit less late.  So, we had to ride lie a pair of lunatics to get from Brafield to Kettering in time.  We made it.. exhausted.. and chucked our bikes in the van. We were still late home.. but not quite so much.

 

Happy days!

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I used to go to the Long Eaton track in the 60’s. As I remember there was a hierarchy of proficiency designated by the roof colour of the car. Gold was the top driver followed by silver. I can’t recollect the sequence of the others. Someone will remember.

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