Bernie Ecclestone - stock car driver

Carrying on from a theme that emerged on the Naish Hillclimb thread I wonder if anyone recalls a stock car racer called Bernard Charles Ecclestone during his breif career on the ovals circa 1955?

Stock car racing was introduced to Britain in early 1954 and became massive crowd puller for a couple of years filling many a major inner-city stadium (West Ham, Bradford, Perry Bar etc.) and making the early promotors a LOT of cash..... you can already see why Bernie would be interested , I'm sure !

This created a travelling circus of top drivers who made a very good living racing several nights a week up and down the country and a few of them were full time professionals untill the bubble burst and the crowds dwindled in 1956 (increasing amounts of TV was one of the reasons for this apparently).

According to a privately printed (and very entertaining) book called STOCK CAR RACING - THE THRILL OF THE CENTURY it's author, pioneer professional driver Pete Tucker , says he raced against Bernie at Neath Abbey stadium in about 1955.

The track was built specificly for stock cars right by the ruins of the Abbey itself and surfaced with crushed coal (Neath is right in the heart of South Wales mining country so it made a kind of sense..)
Today the site is an industrial estate but it must be the only purpose built motor racing venue there's ever been in Wales? It was later used for speedway I'm told.

Bernie must surely have raced elsewhere as the majority of big venues (and thus big prize money) were in and around London while Neath was a long long way to go before the M4 and the Severn Bridge were built.


The intriguing thing is the RAC were very anti this new form of motorsport (good grief - they even allowed the cars to have advertising on them- heaven forbid!) and apparently anyone with an RAC licence riosked a lifetime ban if they got mixed up in such 'outlaw' events. As a result very few drivers raced openly in both disiplines and some took on assumed names. Cliff Davis was apparently one who did race under his own name but he somehow escaped with his RAC licence, as did Bernie.
But if they hadn't and Bernie had been banned, how different would motor racing have looked today????

Does anyone know any more?

Simon Lewis

A thread on the subject here:

http://oppositelockf...7564e72a5194cc4

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks
Today the site is an industrial estate but it must be the only purpose built motor racing venue there's ever been in Wales? It was later used for speedway I'm told.

At the risk of sending the thread tottering off track at an early stage, that may not be the case.

You could argue that Llandow, Pembrey and Ty-Croes (Anglesey) are all built on military foundations, although there is little connection between the current layouts at Pembrey or Anglesey and the original airfield or camp roads.

But there is the Wales Activity Centre at Pontrhydfendigaid (close to Strat Florida Abbey, if that helps) where they have recently built some brand new tarmac roads over the local hills as a sort of mini-Eppynt for club rallyiing. It was used as a selectif section on the Lombard Revival Rally the other weekend. AFAIK, there was nothing there before but sheep, so it is definitely purpose built.

And now, back to Bernie, who clearly got his idea of commercialising F1 from 1950s British stock car racing!

In August 1954 the RAC decided that stock car was not motor racing and therefore RAC competition licence holders COULD compete in stock car events without affecting their position with the RAC. Don't know if they stuck with that though.

Around 1971 they must have changed there minds as I recall going to a BRSCC meeting at White City and a West Essex CC one at Walthamstow!

And don't forget that Derek Warwick was a champion in stock cars before graduating to circuit racing, Formula Ford I think.

With the money to be made from stock cars, it's no surprise to see Bernie's name crop up.

I recall seeing a photo of Graham Hill racing stock cars in the early 50s as well. Might have been in an old issue of C&SC. Seems like a few big names tried their hand at this.

-William

I've never heard of this !! Does anyone have any piccies of Graham's stock car expolits ?

Originally posted by BRG
You could argue that Llandow, Pembrey and Ty-Croes (Anglesey) are all built on military foundations, although there is little connection between the current layouts at Pembrey or Anglesey and the original airfield or camp roads.

You rather answered this yourself BRG. In each case the base for most of the layout was already in place so none of them are really purpose built. Pembrey is really one horse-shoe shaped bit of parimeter and an adjoining runway with short new link sestions. Llandow is also mostly existing runway/parimeter road with a short link. I see Anglesey is about to have a major redevelopment programme and most of the new layout seems to be on unbroken ground. Good on 'em, a fine effort to make a success from a fairly unlikely location.

Those newly laid rally stages sound interesting. I shall definately pay them a visit.

Simon Lewis

Originally posted by Gary C
I've never heard of this !! Does anyone have any piccies of Graham's stock car expolits ?

I don't recall this either Gary. Maybe there is some confusion with Grand Prix Midget racing in the late 60s/early 70s which seemed to have some initial PR support from the likes of Hill and Moss even though they didn't race in the series.

Simon Lewis

Originally posted by Geoff E
A thread on the subject here:

http://oppositelockf...7564e72a5194cc4

The gist of this is that yes he did race in 1954 and gave up fairly quickly because didn't like the damage done to his well turned out cars.

One wonders why Bernie, having obviously realised from the very start that it was a full contact sport (he could hardly have imagined otherwise), thought he'd be able to keep his car immaculate ?

Curious.

Sounds like a bit of an excuse to me. Maybe the pickings were just not as rich as he anticipated?

There is a post on that thread that quotes a 2004 MOTOR SPORT article as saying Graham Hill had a go. But then we have had long discussions on TNF about the accuracy of some features in a certain journal ...


Simon Lewis

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks

I don't recall this either Gary. Maybe there is some confusion with Grand Prix Midget racing in the late 60s/early 70s which seemed to have some initial PR support from the likes of Hill and Moss even though they didn't race in the series.

Simon Lewis

Found it! I guess snowy Chicago nights are good for something!

Classic and Sportscar, September '92 issue, page 37. The photo's in the "Past and Present" section (percursor to the current "Lost and Found" section, written by Jon Pressnell at the time). The picture is in reference to a story from the previous issue about Bugattis being banger raced in France in the fifties. The picture-uncredited, but claimed to have been found in the C&SC files by Mike McCarthy-is shown because the car in the foreground is (the squeamish among us may want to brace themselves) a supercharged non-boattail Auburn speedster with the roof from something else welded on top. The picture is claimed to have been taken at West Ham, and the Auburn is being driven by a Michael Taylor.

The roof of another car is clearly visible over the hood of the Auburn. Behind the wheel is obviously a young Graham Hill. You can see part of his helmet-wearing the rowing club colors-and it's pretty obviously Hill's face under said helmet. There's no date for the photo, but it has to be pretty early in the fifties-Hill's mustache is still the bushier RAF style he wore earlier on. And I betcha this is the first time a photograph has been dated by studying facial hair.

I can try and scan this in later in the week (scanner is at my parent's house, and I won't be over there till Tuesday or Wednesday), unless anyone thinks I'll break some copyright rules.

-William

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks

Today the site is an industrial estate but it must be the only purpose built motor racing venue there's ever been in Wales?

There is the Sweet Lamb rally complex in Glanrhyd, owned by the Bennett Evans family. It's the venue of the very popular sweet lamb bowl used on the RAC rally, until the rally was turned into the lap of cardiff rally.

In the mid 90's they laid a new tarmac section for testing tarmac rally cars, lots of the works teams have used this over the years, the gravel sections are used all year round by works and privateer teams, and they also hold single venue rallies entirely within the complex.

http://www.sweetlamb.co.uk/

Only if he (Bernie) had stuck with it...by now his daughter would be dating one of Mike Helton's sons or Dale Jr. or some other husbandry type event like that...