The first one-make championships?

[TimD]

Wandering around the Autosport show this January, it struck me just how many dedicated championships there are which are designed for purpose-built racers from one manufacturer.

The reasoning is obvious - if your race series is a hit, then hundreds of people will want to buy your expensive, purpose built racing car. So we have LM3000s, Radicals, Caterham Superlights, the list goes on and on.

And more and more, these cars have very little relationship with other classes, let alone street cars that the spectator can aspire to.

I don't know about anyone else, but I rather prefer seeing a variety of cars pouring through the first corner, rather than a stream of machines only distinguished by their paint jobs and sponsor logos.


Anyone got any ideas who was first with this trend? There have been individual one-make races as far back as the Sizaire Naudin challenge at Brooklands in 1909. But a championship? That one has me stumped.

And of all the championships in the past, are there any which really stood out, and made for interesting following in spite of the uniformity of the cars?

[Sparky]

How about the Escort Mexico Challenge cars?

Celebrity and professional race drivers filled the grids, way back in 1973.

I can't think of anything earlier than that, and I'm surprised nobody did anything with Minis until the Mid seventies!

[SL]

Thanks for that Sparky, there was one series that was in a deep recess in the back of my little brain. Of course the escorts

Maybe, just maybe, the MG car club had something going before then. One other possible would be Bentley but as TD asked the question, one would think in the negative !

Other possibles would be Lotus 7's (Caterham) Aston's or something Stateside.

Simon

[Sparky]

This what you're thinking of Simon?

[SL]

Something like that, but I thought they only needed 2 wheels to get around a corner. Three if they were slowing down

Did they not also have a 'celeb' in a guest car ? Seem to recall Noel Edmonds denting, sorry racing an Escort round Brands. Probably started his love for racing, unfortunatly.

Simon

[Sparky]

Ever-So-Slightly off topic, but do you remember Noel 'Tidy-Beard' Edmunds' Mk3 Cortina 2-door race car?
Can't remember the championship, but it was pretty quick...

Red, white and Blue. I still have a copy of Triple C with the feature somewhere... Must have been around... 1974?

[SL]

Sparky,

Cricky, that is pushing the grey cells around

I recall Noel having a major, and I mean MAJOR, prang at Brands, must have been around that time, he was in the paddock looking rather sheepish. I think he had his own team then. He was racing aginst Alfasuds (Jon Dooley) and Alfa 2.5's that managed to thrash him. Do not think it was a Mk3 though. I have a few photo's but the are deep in the attic, or ex girlie might have them.

I remember as Dad had an Alfa at the time. Guess who we supported. It was not Noel

Simon

[Sparky]

I'll have to dig the issue out and scan/post the image.
Definately a Mk3, mind!

I don't have many memories of actual race meetings, unfortunately...

[TimD]

Oo, happy memories of those Mexicos. Yes, I remember the series well. And there were a lot of DJs at the time had a go in them. Dave Lee Travis - although he was more interested in his Escort drag strip car, Rosko, Johnnie Walker, Ed Stewart, Kid Jensen....

And they all brought back variously bent cars at the end of it.

I seem to recall Noel Edmonds being into racing before that series, though. I think the Cortina was running in the Special Saloons against Gerry Marshall's Big Bertha Vauxhall.

But I do have some footage of Noel Edmonds talking us round Brands in his Radio 1 Opel Commodore GS/E. Remind me to dig it out for you, Sparky. Also on the tape is a chat with Tony Lanfranchi about his Opel Commodore, which was sponsored in those days by Penthouse.

The press packs they released were... well, they wouldn't be allowed these days!

Hey, look on the bright side - every minute that Noel Edmonds spent behind the wheel was a minute he couldn't devote to putting Mister Blobby on our televisions.

[Sparky]

I agree about the Blobby reference, but I think Noel's a bloomin' saint. Did I tell you about the time he took me and Sparky Junior out for a flight over the coast in his helicopter? What a genuinely nice guy. (Taller than you'd think, too!! )

I remember seeing the Commadore 'round Brands on one of the Granada 'Men and Motors' Sunday night Motorsport Nostalgia shows. (Wouldn't mind seeing it again though, Tim! )

AND I've got a 1970's Custom Car book (by Richard Nichols) with a feature on DLT's Police-blue Mk1 Escort drag racer, complete with white fibreglass bonnet and huge polished Wolfrace Slot mags!

Blimey... Funny what you remember, innit! Thanks for the thread, Tim!

[SL]

Tim, Sparky

Probably was a bent Opel that I saw, not a common car on the road at the time.

The celb races were a bit of a laugh, several DJ's rock stars etc hurling the poor old Escorts into barriers, pit wall, trees & whatever. Some page 3 models also had a go at pranging a Mexico.

At the time good 'ol Noel was hosting the Beeb AM slot and had a creature called 'Tiddles' no doubt a forerunner of the blobby thing, but he was THE breakfast cat;.

Simon

[TimD]

Now how's this for off-topic!

Sparky, I'm delighted to hear of someone else with the same opinion of ol' Noel. He gets a bit of a pasting these days, but I've seen the efforts he used to put in to help my uncle with some Lions Club charity events in the early eighties.

Top fellow in my book - but why did he have to come up with Mr Blobby...

The last Escort Celebrity race I ever saw (to bring it back to one-make races!) was very nearly the last race I ever saw at all. The morning of the British GP at Brands in '85 had a Rally vs Rallycross drivers race, in XR3i's - the early shape ones with the pastrycutter wheels.

Very definitely one of those "life flashing before your eyes" moments. I was standing on the outside of Clearways opposite the pit lane entrance, when Per Eklund and Trevor Reeves gave Mark Rennison (I think) a nudge while they were on full power for the exit.

It was on the second swing of the tank-slapper that it dawned on me and the rest of the morning crowd that the Escort was now on slippery, dewy grass and heading - fishtailing - straight for us at about 90mph.

Crowd barriers weren't what they are nowadays. There wasn't a lot of armco between us and the track in 1985.

Typical bloomin' rallycross driver. He was more in control on the slippy stuff than he was on tarmac. Missed the barrier by about 10 inches, and went on his way to go do some damage to Eklund's car.

[Crash Test]

I know here in Australia the longest running single make class are the Geminis. They started in 1975, and there has been a Qld championship in place for the last 22 years.

The class has brought many champion drivers into the sport, and to this dates is still one of the cheapest forms of motorsport going around..

[DAVID PATERSON]

Crash, I think the Qld Gemini series started in 1981. In the late '70s there was a national Gemini series, but that was for Production Touring Cars.

[Crash Test]

Last year they had their offical 21st anniversary meeting here in QLD (they were supposed to have a big celebrity race, but nobody could be bothered organising it...). I turned 19 last year, and i was born in 81, so I'd imagine that the championship started in 79

The first race was at Surfers with the 1975 Autralian GP, which Maz Stewart won. Victoria had a series there at one stage (which John Harvey won a few of them), and NSW had them too, but they became fairly radical, and away from the production roots. The QLDer visited Oran Park and other tracks down south over the years...i know Phil Crompton was telling me a while agao about how he raced his car in a race at OP... in the opposite direction to normal racing...

[TimD]

Sparky and SL, next time you're in WH Smiths, look at this month's Classic & Sportscar - the one with the yellow E-Type on the cover.

If you turn to Simon Taylor's page, there's an extraordinary sequence of photos of the Escort Mexico race which gave Taylor his back problems.

First time I ever heard of a rollcage punching through a floorpan...

[Sparky]

Thanks for that Tim. I'll look out for that.

Actually, I'm in the process of replacing my Mk1 floorpan with something a little more... substantial!

Just as well!

[JP]

The Mini 7 Formula's been running since 1966, of course, and the Miglias since 1969 - the mid-70s reference above is presumably intended to refer to when they first received manufacturer backing. Perhaps the secret of their success is that they were the only one make series originally created to fulfil a racing need, rather than a marketing need.

There seems to be some confusion between the original Escort Mexico Challenge, which started in '71 (I remember watching Keith Holland, Scheckter, Marshall et al at Crystal Palace) and the Brands Hatch fleet of Shellsport cars that appeared in 1973.

The best racing for the Shellsport celebrity cars was in their first year when, at the end of every Brands meeting, all the day's winners were turned loose in them. A lot were wrecked, of course, but I believe the main reason that practice was stopped was because Mini racers such as Terry Attoe and Phil Spurling had a habit of making the Formula Ford heroes of the day look silly!

[Hans.ca]

In Canada we have had the Honda Civic one make races since the late 1960 and I think they ended about 1980. They used to be a blast and had some very good drivers in it. JV uncle used to race in it. I can't remeber the exact year they started and ended and I have no records that I could look up.