Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
These 70's and 80's shots are from the collection of Geoff Lowe and feature some of the cars and drivers from the North Shropshire club which was well known for its innovative car constructors around this time. Geoff has also provided all the information for the captions. Cheers Geoff!
NS20 Bernie Edgeley in pre Pickup days possibly at Doddington Park Nationals near Bristol in 1976. It's a MK1 Escort running Jag engine and running gear. Note the driving position as far back as possible!
Birth of a grassing icon. These are very early shots of Bernie Edgeley's Class7 Mini Pickup in quite a modest state of tune in comparison to it's final evolution circa 1983 which had a full race supercharged Rover V8 with a Hewland FG Formula 5000 gearbox and Triumph Herald front suspension. This car spawned many lookalikes and few, if any ever matched it's performance.
Chris Smith ex NASA Chairman with his bride Rosemary, posing on their wedding day with Bernie Edgeley's pickup. Rumour has it that the roads to the church were patroled by CB radio as "specials" led the way .
John Grounds who sadly passed away in January 2007. John was a loyal NS club member through the 70's, 80's and early 90's starting with a 100E, then this MK1 escort with which he enjoyed great success. He then moved onto class 8, this car later being sold to Martin Gould. John then sourced a Porsche 911 engine with the intentions of fitting it into a special, but this did not materialize and a Porsche shell was found and the 911 was raced on the grass! The late 80's early 90's saw John with a new special, slightly ahead of time maybe in that in used a "modern" transverse engine in the form of a Golf GTI, the preferred layout of most class 9's of today.
Some great shots of Merv 'the Swerve' Evans. Top left is a paper cutting from 1977 after his Nationals Class10 Championship win at Hanbury. This car was used well into the 80's by Dave Yeardley.
Top right is Merv pictured with a very young Darrel Williams.
Bottom 2 shots are Merv the Swerve at speed.
Bruce Campbell's six wheeler special, perhaps inspired by F1's Tyrrell P34
John Gaffney, Chuck Jones and Chris Huntbach NS 96 line up at Black Park
Some superb publicity shots of the famous Housemaker Team that raced in the 70's and 80's with great success. In these pictures you can see amongst others, Henry Harding, Donna Nicolls, Mal & Lynn Cooper and Edna Owen. The preparation on these cars was impeccable which was reflected in their results.
An early shot of John Lloyd pre Cosworth days
Bruce Campbell with Don Page at the 85 Ludlow Nationals
Thanks to Gareth Jones and Godfrey 'Murphy' Thomas for sending in these shots of Godfrey's ex Terry Brown chassied Class 10 with Rover V8 power from around 1990
Thanks to Dan Barnett for sending in these 2 pictures of his Dad Stan 'the man' Barnett in his V6 Essex powered Class 7 Mini Pickup at the Amen Corner venue back in the 80's. Dan says this car was quite quick in its day and in the second photo is having one of many battles with Dick Wightman's N99 supercharged Rover V8 version
Here are some pictures sent in by Alan Panting (via Len Levics) of some old Cardiff & District Class2 cars circa 1980. Cardiff club folded around 1986 but had some well known racers in it's day like Len Levics and Brian Chamberlain. Their colours were firecracker red with a black roof - a scheme that was to find it's way onto the Chamberlain's Class4 Mini Pickups in recent years
Unknown driver from a Penhow meeting in 1975, but he seems to be enjoying himself...
Alan Panting in his NSU around 1980 which was the car to have in the 2's, as long as they did not go wrong because spares were almost impossible to find, as well as very expensive...
Rhisiart ap Gwilym, or Richard Evans as some will know him as, has sent in some superb shots from the 80's and 90's of Autograss cars. Rhisiart is the son of long time Class 8 racer Arthur Evans NW29 who was a familiar sight at the Nationals for many years. Enjoy.
Henry Harding's 2.0 litre BDG class 9 which was sometimes driven by John Gaffney
Multiple class 8 Nationals winner Gerald Brace
Heres a couple of shots of the business end of Gerald Braces class 8. With it's Cosworth BDH engine and race spec Hewland box it was ahead of the game for many years, especially with Gerald at the helm.
Around 1981 Terry Brown made his Autograss comeback with an Alfa powered class 9. Later he fitted a Wade supercharger to it which was very competitive in Class10.
Some shots of Roger Bown's Wilcox 2 litre BDG powered Class 9.
This is Darrell Williams' Cosworth GA engined Class10. The GA engine was a Ford Essex V6 with twin cam heads developed for the 'Cologne' Capri Touring cars. Barry Glendenning also used one for a while. This one looks like it has fuel injection.
Bruce Campbell before he moved to Pembrokeshire, when he raced with the Border Counties Club
A Class9 1800 Cosworth BDA engined car from the Bruce Campbell stable
Bruce's mechanic in those days is a familiar face these days - Class 10 racer Derek Adams BC96 tending to Bruce's fuel injected pushrod motor
TA5 Derek Thomas in another Cosworth engined special
Mal Cooper was a regular at the sharp end of Class9 with this Triumph Dolomite engined special until the mid eighties when the Coopers had a break...
...returning around 1992 almost winning the Nationals down at the Southern League only for a puncture to strike whilst leading the final. Mal is seen here racing at Hednesford
An early shot of Jeff 'Boss' Hogg's Rover V8 engined Imp at the 83 Knutsford Nationals
Grassing and Rallycross legend Roger Newbould racing at a Rallycross invitation event at Oulton Park. Maybe this was what persuaded Roger to switch disciplines...?
Gloucester driver Phil Kent in his old faithful Class4 Imp which must have been the longest serving grass car ever with 20 odd seasons service!
Bala driver Kenny Roberts Vauxhall engined Class 9 at Hednesford
Steve Holmes at Hednesford in his Nationals winning car
Simon Bentley leads Bumble Fenwick, Peter Williams and Mick Holtby at Hednesford. Simon and Mick went on to race National Hot Rods
Dave 'Bumble' Fenwick battles with Rusty Brookes at the 92 Southern League Nationals
Steve Mundy's fearsome 5 litre Rover V8 engined Fiesta
Bumble's Rover V8 engined Class 7 complete with Sprintex supercharger 1992
Bumble's car preperation was superb as you can see from this 92 shot. Rumours of a comeback are currently circulating...
Mick Holtby's supercharged Rover V8 Peugeot 205
Llandarrog's finest Terry Brown proved his versatility by winning the class8 Nationals adding to his many class10 titles
Sturton racer Steve Chase's very tidy bike engined 8
Yorkshireman Andy Handley's bike engined 8. Andy is part of a large grassing dynasty as he is uncle to Nicola Jesse and Mark 'Blobby' Grice, and brother-in-law to Les Grice, brother to Shirley.
Incidentally Andy's nephew Ben is racing in the British Supersport championship this year sponsored by A1 Plant. Also, Ben's Auntie is Sue Nicholls!
This Special TA34 is Kevin Jones - better known as "Kevin Turbo" he still has the car parked up in his workshop according to Simon Hall who saw it a couple of months ago. Thanks for the info Simon!
Z Cars proprietor Chris Allanson built this class 10 Chevy V8 with direct drive. It was sold to Stroud's Martin Anns who won several national titles with it
North Wales racer Johnny Williams has been a prolific chassis constructor and driver over the years
Below are some shots of Rhisiart's dad Arthur Evans in his various 1300 specials. Arthur was always competitive in the 8's and his cars were always very tidy
This is Arthur Evans in a Ford 1300 pushrod class 8 at Greenfield near Holywell, North Wales in the seventies
This is one of Arthur's early front engined specials with a Ford 1300 pushrod and a Mercedes back axle! John Lloyd (1) is in the background along with some great looking specials!
This is perhaps Arthur's best known special. Powered by a highly tuned 1300 Ford pushrod engine driving through a Mk6 Hewland gearbox it was a very competitive car.
Here's Arthur racing against one of the Gallaghers(?) from Leewood
This is Rhisiart racing in a national qualifier at North Wales
Here are some pictures sent in by Carole and Bill Shaw of some of Bill's car's over the last couple of decades. Bill still campaigns a very competitive Chevy Class 10 which has proved the V8's can still win at the highest level.
This early 80's shot is of Bill's Chevette racing at the Blue Bell independant club hence the BB prefix.
Here is Bill racing his Essex V6 powered special, taken at Grantham Club (another independant) in 1989.
Racing at Grantham, 1989, with Bluebell and Spalding Clubs
Racing against Radford's Paul Fackrell at the 1989 Fastest Man on Grass, this time with Sturton Club.
After a short spell in Formula 2's Bill returned to grassing with the ex Terry Brown Chevy powered Class 10 with Sturton and Concord before joining Spalding again.
Here we have some excellent shots sent in by Gareth Jones who is probably best known for the work he does for NASA scrutineering. Gareth has promised some more pictures in the future
Great shot of the Jeff 'Boss' Hogg in his V8 Seat Ibiza which replaced his multiple Nationals winning Imp.
Ceri Rees' Imp was powered by a Ford Pinto for many years and was amazingly competitive against the big V8 motors that were dominating in the 80's and early 90's. You can just see the distinctive exhaust sticking out the back window.
After Terry Brown sold his all conquering Alfa Montreal V8 engine on one of his trips to Belgium, he replaced it with big-block Yankie V8 power. Although not as nimble round the corners, it was amazingly fast in a straight line adding to Terry's Nationals win tally.
Father of well known Carmarthen racers Viv and Darrell, this is Haydn Cole's familiar class9 special with Lotus twin cam power.
Thanks to Marty Woollas for sending in this picture of him in his Civic in the late eighties at Sturton.
Well known Stroud racer Steve Smith has kindly sent in some pictures featuring a few of his cars from the last 20 odd years.
Steve is a second generation grasser and is son of the late Syd Smith who was a leading light in Stroud club in the 70's. Steve is best known as a very quick class 7 racer and has been National Champion twice.
Look out for Steve's new car for 07...
This is Steve's Class 5 Arden 8 port Mini from the mid 80's which sounded great and took Steve to a third at the 85 Nationals at Ludlow
This Mk4 Escort bodyshell replaced the Stiletto and with it's 3.9 Rover V8 took Steve to a famous Nationals victory on the Isle of Wight in 1991.
This Stiletto was Steve's first Class 7 with Rover V8 power. Seen here in one of his many battles with Bob Talboys' V8 Allegro at Stroud's Gossington Bridge venue.
The Fiesta was replaced in 99 by this Peugeot 205 seen at a Nottingham BAS round
Steve's second Class 7 National title came in 1998 in Yorkshire with this Chevy V8 powered Fiesta
Neil 'Nellie' Lewis from Magor has been racing Autograss Mini's since 1985 and has sent in these 3 pictures.
Nellie started off with the Penhow club but has now been with PAC for 10 years.
Nellie's familiar PAC222 class 4 clubman will be carrying the Retrograsser name in 2007
Back in the Penhow days Nellie fends off the attentions of the late Alan 'The Admiral' Smith in a Class 5 dice
Nellie moved up to Class 6 when he aquired the ex Dave 'Turkey' Williams 1450 powerplant.
When the class 5 rules changed to 1420cc Nellie destroked the 1450 and moved back down from class 6 and is seen here fending off Kirk Dean.
These are a few pictures sent in by Stuart Bowes. Stuart's family were involved with autograss when it first started in the Scarborough area in 1972. They ran two garages and sponsored one of their mechanics Geg Harris (S19Y) who years later was twice National C of C’s. They also sponsored Tony Proctor S2Y (father of current BTCC driver Mark) who raced a 1420 Mini in class 6.
Stuart himself started racing in Class 1 then class 4 and Class 6, culminating in a 4th place at the nationals. Stuart's brother David Bowes ran in Class 3 with a Pinto-engined Mk 2 escort (S193Y) with some success and also claimed a nationals trophy.
This pic shows Geg Harris (2 times National C of C’s) early in his career racing at the Gristhorpe track just before the formation of the East Coast Grass Track racing Organisation (Scarborough club). The car he is racing was a Mini pickup known as ‘Old Betsy’. Betsy had various engines fitted over the years from 998 to 1275cc
This mini replaced ‘Old Betsy’ and was driven by George Brown and later Tony Proctor, shown in the good old days when the kids could scrounge a ride on the car whilst in the pits! Stuart and his sister are on the back and the rest of the kids are Tony Proctor's with BTCC racer Mark having one of his first ‘driving’ experiences on his dad’s lap! The car shown was built from a brand new shell which had been left in a ‘dip tank’ at Longbridge during one of the many strikes being held at that time. Thanks red Robbo!
This is the third car to be sponsored by Geoff Bowes Ltd and was driven by Tony Proctor (later to drive class 10 and then Rallycross) at the 1976 nationals where it came 2nd in class 6. This car was Later destroyed in a big roll at Scarborough’s Cloughton track. Tony broke his sternum in that one and spent the night in hospital.
This is Stuart Bowes at the 1983 Knutsford Nationals being followed by C236E Joe Willis. Stuart got 5th in class 6 that year.
This is Stuart Bowes racing at the 1984 York nationals in class 6 with a 1420 ‘S’ Mini clubman. Stuart had a race-long battle with C244E Mike Jennings in his BDA Fiesta. It was a Mini grip versus Fiesta horsepower battle which the Mini won and came 4th in class.
Here are some pictures from the collection of long time Stroud racer Nick Aldridge who has been at the very top of Autograss for over 25 years racing class 2,4,5,7,8,9 and 10 cars with plenty of Nationals trophies to his credit.
This shot of the Daf was taken by Dave Williams at the 2nd Invitation Rallycross meeting at Oulton Park in 1984. Nick used slicks at the first event but didn't like the handling, so at the second event chose to race on 155/13 Unibands and won the Final. In this picture Mike Jennings is just in front with Russ Tyler just behind
This is Nick's very competitive class 5 DAF 66 with the full race 1300 Ford Pushrod engine from his Stiletto that he built in 1984 doing a wheelbender at a Hereford meeting at Withington
Like several other contributors to this site Nick was a big fan of Meurig Davis whose car inspired him to build a mid-mounted saloon.
The following pictures have been sent in by Dave and Nora Cox. Dave has been racing with the Radford club since the sixties and still campaigns his class 5 Mini. These shots show what the early days of grassing were like when clubs all round the country were springing up. It certainly looks like fun!
Great shot of R3D Dave Cox upside down in 1969. The chappie leaping to his rescue is Brian Calladine.
S13D - Unknown driver but the car was called 'The Lizard' - because of its long shape. July 1969.
Group photo at a presentation dinner night - top row - Dave Cox, Harry Badger, ?? , Sally Ferniough, Dave Ferniough, ?? , Dave Spiers, Martin 'Hoss' Ferniough Bottom row - Anthony Ferniough, Terry Bodley, 'Brer Rabbit' (Nora can't remember his real name!)
Group with car R3 - Dave Kennedy, Dave Cox, Michael Ferniough, possibly Jim Spencer, Martin Ferniough and Bodger
SV77 was George Thorpe. Nora says he was the chap with a land rover and an arc welder - he was popular !! A lovely fella too.
Specials in the pits at the 79 Wetherby Nationals
Here are a few pictures sent in by Sturton & Stow Club racer Ian Waby from Lincolnshire.
Ian raced the ST42 Class 10 Special from 1988 onwards and moved to Class 3 in 1991.
Ian does not race at the moment but is still involved helping his son race in the Juniors - still carrying the ST42 number.
These last 4 pictures have been sent in by Matt Ellis who's dad Phillip Ellis & mum Marie Ellis both raced car no 29. Phillip's bedstead was one of the first to use a motorbike engine, which was a Triumph Bonneville running on methanol.
Yorkshire racer Gary Wrigglesworth has sent in a selection of pictures from his collection going back 30 years. Cheers Gary!
Gary's Dad Steven Wrigglesworth Y39 at York's Strensall track 1978
Y28 circa 1978. Unknown 875 Imp racer.
1977. All ready to go racing with young Gary (aged 5) in the back of the 'tina
Gary's class 3 BMW with 2.1 litre Pinto power 1990
Gary's Class 2 Opel Kadett 1200 bought from Joe Rieblin for £25! 1992
Caroline Bingham (now Wrigglesworth) at the 94 North of England
Gary's class 1 mini at the 95 Nationals at Yedingham, Scarborough
Gary at Hednesford 94 battling with Pete Mattison in car number 12
Gary racing at Yorkshire Dales Kiplin track in 94 followed by Jonny Brown in Y308
Team shots of YD265 Chris Bingham, YD266 Gary Wrigglesworth and Christine Bingham and YD268 Joe Rieblin at the beginning of the 94 season
1996 Class1 on its way to its new home after being sold, never to be seen again...
Alan Parkers class 4 mini and Paul Watsons class 7 Corsa at the Sheffield Motorsports Show
Y16 Chris Bingham's class 2 Escort ready to go
Gary's new class 2 Nova1200 which was destroyed in an Open race at York 2000
