As so very often happens, a passing comment between two people, can have far reaching consequences in life
In making this statement, I refer to a conversation between two friends, some 45 years ago.
One Tony Budgen, a very good friend of my granddad Alan Croxon, began talking about his regular visits to Aldershot Stadium on Thursday nights to watch Stock Car Racing, he went on to say, why don't you take the lad, he was of course referring to my father, Mo, that passing comment really did have far reaching consequences for the Croxon family, this was the start of oval racing involvement that would span three generations.
At the age of 16 my father decided to have a go, he recalls buying, what in those days were called a Formula 2 Stock Car, the "Y" model fords were still running around but things were starting to move on, the car he purchased was said to have a Dell Stickings chassis, now there is a name from the past, front axel was the solid beam Ford E93A type, and the rear end was a Morris Minor MM series. Reading Stadium, in Oxford road, was his first outing, although he persevered with the 138 car, for a number of seasons, enjoying himself immensely, he tells me he could never quite get the hang of turning left, and would be the first to admit, that he was no match at all, for the giants of the time, who many people still refer to on a regular basis even to this day, many others were racing hard and fast, some of the names he recalls, Chris Denham 504, Tony Bell 456, Alan Cox 497, and Brian Stacey 242, all red grade drivers racing week in and week out, Brian, 242 continued to race for many seasons.
In the Midlands a new formula was taking off, Hot Rods, Dad talks of such names as, Martin Morris 00, and Terry Haywood 154, regularly racing at the Hednesford Hills Raceway, this class of racing became very popular, and as a consequence moved south, and hey,guess what, they turned right, clockwise instead of anti clockwise, Dad thought that will do, most racers preferred the Ford 100E, 105E and then in 1970 the MK1 Escort made its debut in the hands of, you guessed it Barry Lee 351, Minis were not so poular, but Dad decided to build one a 1293 Cooper S his number 369, he recalls competing with Midland Mini men such as Brian Vawer and Brian Pedley,and a very quick guy from the west country Brian Parr, Dad had a good many seasons in the mini, which as it happened would turn out to be very useful for me a good many years later, remember I was not even thought of at that time, olden days and all that.
My father had a break from competing, Mum, Sally and Dad Mo, must have had some time on their hands, because, during this break, my sister and I came along, before my sister Sarah and I was born, Mum would travel everywhere with Dad while he was racing, a few years on, although not racing himself, he was still very much involved, helping two very good friends in the Stock Saloon class, Geoff Morris 591, and Steve Tompson (Tompy) 169, travelling extensively not only in this country but Europe to, the bug bit Dad again, and with one of Geoff's old MK1 Escorts he raced a good many seasons, enjoying the cut and thrust of this then brilliant formula, we would all go racing as a family, it was great, I had my sights firmly set on a Mini Stock, no shortage of minis, we were always picking them up and taking them to Dads yard, I was approaching the magic age ten, you could race a Mini Stock at ten in those days, I couldn't wait.
My first mini was a joint venture between Dad and Tompy, Jason, Tompy's son, was older than me and also keen to have a go, it was decided to share a car at first, to see if we would take to it. Take to it, are you serious we loved it, Jason soon had his own car, and I had the old girl, it was a tank built for the inexperienced newcomer I learned a lot with that car, at first hardly able to see over the steering wheel, racing with such names as, Carl Jack Overy, Malcolm Blackman, Roy Fuller, and Mark Wybra, every one of them hard chargers, I recall the demise of that car, fired hard into the wall at Ipswich, it was quite funny really inspecting the car afterwards, the tunnel that ran down the centre of the car ended up running diagonally from corner to corner.
Early Day's, my father in his first car, formula 2 Stock Car.
Dad's 1293 Cooper S Hot Rod
Gaining some useful mini experience.
Dad having fun in the MK1, 2.0 Ltr Escort Saloon, at a wet Aldershot meeting.
Blimey! could hardly see over the steering wheel, first Mini Stock aged 10.
Jumbo Allen, Start Marshal.
Anyhow it was time to build my own car from scratch, I had gained good experience with the new car, so it was time to go racing proper, we raced and maintained that car to a high standard and it paid off, by this time the top names previously mentioned had outgrown the formula, I was getting on in years, twelve, thirteen, a new generation of ministox drivers was evolving and I was one of them, week in and week out we raced, some of the top names of the era, Lee Caroline, (still got a £50 voucher to spend with Caroline Car Spares, must cash that in one day), Rob Newbon another hard racer, and Derry Monk another multi champion good hard competitors each and every one, Dad, poor old bugger unable to earn a living, race, and maintain both our cars decided to sell his car and concentrate on mine, another car was talked about and was duly built, this was to be my last car in the formula.
Kelly Jane Wells, now of Pick Up Truck fame purchased the old car and had a good run of results with it, I was more than happy with the replacement, holding the silver roof for a long time, and winning many races, although major titles not coming my way for one reason or another, never the less I had a good time and enjoyed every minute of it. I was given the opportunity, by Spedeworth to race a Superstox before my sixteeth birthday, this I decided to do, and sold my Ministox to a lad by the name of Paul Paxton, who incidentally, went on to win the world championship with it, good on him.
I purchased a Superstox belonging to Gary Chisholm, Gary had decided to race for BRISCA at that time, so his Spedeworth car was up for grabs, I should like to take this opportunity to thank Gary and his father Dave, for the advise given to me in my early days in the Supers, the car was not that old, one of the last cars built by Howard Cole himself I believe, a National Spec Superstox, ( they were proper then ) a Scholar engine provided the power from the word go, and still does today, many thanks to Alan and his team at Scholar Engines from then till now some seventeen years on for providing good reliable engines, a good number of wins followed, and a number of memorable races with the likes of Gary Sparks, Gary Lambert, Geoff Bridges, Terry George, to name just a few.
Very pleased with this my second Ministox.
This was all well and good but, the need to get a foot on the property ladder then the arrival of a new member of the family my son Callum, ment the Superstox had to be parked up.
My First Superstox aged 15, As purchased from Gary.
A few years on and things were falling into place, I could see myself racing again, all be it on a limited budget. Unfortunately Spedeworth had abandoned the National Superstox, for the then, named SX2000, my old car sat in the corner of the workshop covered in dust, a good clean, a couple of new batteries and away it went, speaking to Geoff Bridges, I think it was at the Racing Car Show in Birmingham, why not come down to Ringwood he said, the car would be eligible, racing on a Saturday night every other week, I gave it some thought for a number of weeks, then decided to check a meeting out, I was pleasantly surprised, a good number of cars racing fiercely, the presentation of the meeting was slick a good turn out of supporters and importantly to me affordable, I had the car and once a fortnight easy on the pocket, unfortunantly, by the time I had decided to race at Ringwood Geoff had moved on, so I didn't get the chance to race him again, but who knows what may happen, he may decide to return to Spedeworth some day, just prior to me racing at Ringwood the top three drivers were referred to as the three Bs, Geoff Bridges, Andy Bartlet, and Kevin Brown, there was another young gun on the block, very fast at the time Stuart Dunn, I enjoyed my racing there very much, other good drivers racing at that time were Duncan Panton, now racing Sprint Cars, Tony Freebody son of the late Alan Freebody good wheel to wheel stuff, racing at the one track enabled me to set the car up perfectly, what a joy it was to drive, by this time I had pretty much made my mind up to move on, looking at BRISCA F2s but the travelling would be crippling, so Spedeworth Superstox it was.
Detune the engine, throw away the Tran X gearbox, weigh in the big wing, kiss goodbye to the sticky Avon's and bolt on the nasty Hoosiers, basically start all over again, it was fun trying to adapt the old car but having owned it for fifteen years loosing count of the amount of times I have rebuilt the front and back of the car, incidentally the only original bits of the car left were the hoops of the roll cage, it seemed time for a replacement, so during 2007 I decided to purchase a new HCD, and that's where I am today, plenty of work still to do to adapt the car to my own style of driving, lots of pace still to be found, I hope you will find this site of interest in the comming seasons, following the progress and development of not only my racing, but that of my son, Callum who is about to make his debut in the Sprint Karts, June 2008.
I should like to wind up this article with some special credits, firstly thank you to my parents for their support over the years, thanks to my Sister Sarah for her overwhelming support, had it not been for a very nasty accident in the early part of her Ministox career that put her in hospital, she too could have gone on to race, to my two children who I adore, Callum and his sister Hollie, and finally, Simon who in the early days never missed a meeting mechanicing for me in the Ministox, and still assists to this day whenever his commitments allow. Thank You.
My old car, in the hands of Kelly, and me in my last car.
I was fortunate enough to hold the Silver roof for a long period of time in this formula.
One of many race wins in the Ministox Class, good starting point for any youngster.
A few alterations, a new paint job and my first Superstox almost ready to do battle, I had no idea then, that I would own and race this car over the next seventeen years.
Having left Spedeworth in the Red grade due to financial commitments, I made a return a few years later to Ringwood, where I must say I enjoyed my racing immensely.
Race win at Ringwood, good track good atmosphere, from supporters and competitors alike.
Well, this is where we are at today, back at Spedeworth, with a new car, won't look like this for long though, im sure with the help of other competitors the new look will soon disappear.
Well when I started writing this page I entitled it Brief History, gone on a bit ain't I, still I won't apologise for that, because that is the story so far, I hope you find this site interesting, the intension is to update as often as possible time permitting, always interested in your views, from Supporters and Drivers alike.
Enjoy your racing, Regards, Kevin.
