F2 British Lookback

Fifty Years of the F2 British

Thirty-three winners in forty-nine years on twenty-two different tracks. That, in short, is the history of the Formula Two Stock Car British Championship which will see its fiftieth staging at King’s Lynn on 25 May. Second only to the World Championship in both stature and longevity – and only by one year at that – this is one title that all of the formula’s top names are keen to win. And having your name in the record books as the fiftieth winner will be something even more special.

Top Dogs

The all-time greats top the list of winners, with ‘The Master’ Bill Batten most successful of all, having taken the title six times between 1975 and 2005, as well being runner-up on a further three occasions. The greatest F2 driver of them all, 218 Rob Speak counts four British Championships against his name – could he make it five this year? While another driver who is still very much active has made the British something of a speciality in recent years – 401 Barry Goldin has taken the title on three occasions, including the last time it was staged on shale, two years ago. Going back a few years, 514 Chalky White claimed the championship three times and also had a further four top-three placings, mostly on the West Country tracks. Two of biggest west country names in Formula Two history, 698 Malc Locke and 800 Roy Goodman, surprisingly never managed to win the British but each was runner-up on three occasions, with the latter also having three third place finishes.

Shale supremos

Of the 49 runnings to date, only nine have been staged on the loose surface. The tenth will be King’s Lynn’s third – taking the Norfolk Arena level with Mildenhall – with the most recent being in 2003 when 324 James Thackra took the title. In those nine shale stagings, no driver has yet taken the title twice; Speak and Goldin will be looking to become the first to do so this weekend, Speak seeking to add to his 1992 success at Crewe and Goldin his Belle Vue victory in 2011.

The early years, 1964-1972

Over its long history, the British Championship might have been held predominantly on the tarmac and concrete tracks, but Swindon’s shale venue hosted the race in two of its first three years. 58 Freddie Funnell and ace engine tuner 5 Doug Wardropper took those, sandwiching 681 Bill Barker’s sole success at London’s Walthamstow track. Northampton’s Brafield raceway saw success in 1967 for 763 Andy Webb, who is still active today, albeit in Heritage F2s rather than their modern-day descendants.

After that foray to the Midlands, the next 11 years would be firmly ensconced in the formula’s West Country heartlands. 553 Eddie Asling won at Ringwood in 1968 before 554 John Holley was successful at the long lamented Newton Abbot track the following year. As the seventies dawned, 751 Brian Smith was victorious at Bristol’s Mendips track while local driver 584 Sylvan Pook scored success at the championship’s first Cornwall staging, at St Austell in 1971. A return to Bristol was on the cards in 1972, when 551 Brian Jones took the glory

Western wizardry, 1973-1985

Between 1968 and 1985, only once would the British Championship be staged outside the south-west, when northerner 641 Ray Tyldesley took the title at Skegness in 1979. Other than that, the period was dominated by the western warriors in a new generation of specially built cars on their home tracks. Three drivers were more successful than any others over that time, with 795 Tom Pitcher the first to win the British twice when he added the 1974 title at St Austell to his win a year earlier at Newton Abbot.

When Pitcher bowed out of the sport as reigning British Champion, a new name came to the fore. 667 Bill Batten claimed the first of his six titles when the race was first held at Taunton’s concrete-surfaced Smeatharpe Stadium in 1975. He then went on to add three more successes, all at Bristol, in 1976, 1980 and 1982, before he too bowed out of the sport – at least temporarily. Meantime, 514 John White had ‘chalked’ up his first success in the British at Taunton in 1978, before adding a second at Ringwood in 1981.

There were also four one-time wins for drivers over this period. 516 Norman Butcher won at a wet Bristol in 1977, while 532 Roy Dyke (1983) and 561 Nick Lawrence in 1985 (both at Taunton) took advantage of the vacuum left by the departing Batten to win their only British crowns either side of 617 Mike James’ success at St Austell in 1984. The race was staged away from its traditional late-summer/autumn slot for the first time that year and has generally been an early/mid-summer event ever since.

F2 spreads its wings, 1986-1993

The greater national stature that F2 had earned itself by this stage was recognised by a wider variety of hosting venues from the mid-1980s. None was more exotic than a trip across the Irish Sea to Portadown in Northern Ireland for the 1986 British Championship. Local star NI32 Ian McKnight took the title, with reigning World Champion Malc Locke having to settle for the first of his runner-up slots. 686 Garry Hooper was successful in the return to Taunton the following year, before Chalky White secured his third British, ‘away’ at Skegness in 1988.

His first major title of any kind went the way of the now legendary 218 Rob Speak, in the north-east at Aycliffe in 1989, before the returning Batten scooped his fifth British as the event was staged at Newton Abbot for the last time in 1990. Ulsterman NI26 Will McGaffin took advantage of a late-race pile-up to come home first at Buxton in 1991.

In 1992, the championship was back on the shale for the first time in over 25 years, with Earle Street, Crewe the venue. Speak claimed his second British in his robust shale special car on that occasion, before 100 George MacMillan Sr was a home winner at the first Scottish staging of the race in 1993.

Eastern promise, 1994-2003

Thereafter came a period when the East Anglian tracks played host to the sport’s second biggest title on a number of occasions – six out the next ten years (or seven if you count Arena-Essex) to be precise. Dutchman H30 Toon Schut became the first foreign winner of the title when it was staged at King’s Lynn for the first time in 1994, while there was another surprise in 1995. On the championship’s second visit to Northern Ireland, this time at Nutts Corner, shale specialist 559 Bert Finnikin secured a big win on the sealed surface. Much more at home on the loose, he repeated his success at Mildenhall the following year, making him the first man to win British titles on tar and shale. 152 Mick Sworder won when Trackstar’s Swaffham circuit played host to the title for the first time in 1997 before Speak added third and fourth British titles to his name at Taunton and Swaffham in the last two years of the 1990s, the latter as part of the UK Speedweekend, held for the only time in its history at the Breckland venue.

A new millennium dawned with a surprise win for 756 Phil Kaye at Mildenhall after Finnikin, who had dominated most of the race, dropped back with mechanical troubles. The bespectacled Goldin’s first success came from the outside of the front row at Arena in 2001 after a good battle with 667 Tim Farrell, having been runner-up two years earlier. Finishing in that position on this occasion was Batten, still going strong 26 years after his first British win.

13 years after its only staging at Aycliffe, the big race returned to the north-east, this time at Barford, in 2002. 324 James Thackra won from pole position in what was a thin entry at the rustic venue. Defending champion Goldin recovered from an early spin to finish third, a placing he has since repeated twice in recent years.

It was anything but a thin entry as the championship returned to East Anglia in 2003. This was the second time that the Norfolk Arena had staged the title, and the last before this weekend. A fantastic race was served up as Thackra belied his status as a tarmac specialist to retain his crown, only the fifth man ever to do so.

Recent times, 2004-2012

Goldin’s second British title came at a very wet Cowdenbeath in 2004, as he raced from pole position to beat the home challenge, headed by 647 Chris Burgoyne in second. It was back to the West Country for the following two years, and on both occasions a home driver took the title. In 2005, defending champion Goldin started from pole but it was the veteran Batten who took advantage of a high casualty rate and two restarts to progress from row nine to take his sixth and final title. Goldin was again on pole in 2006, but it was second row starter Farrell who came out on top to claim his first major title.

The British Championship’s one and only West Midlands staging occurred in 2007 when Birmingham Wheels Raceway hosted the event. 7 Gordon Moodie put in a dominant performance to take the championship meaning that he simultaneously held four of the sport’s biggest titles. Current Brisca F1 star driver 152 Mick Sworder claimed the British in 2008, overcoming the heavy track conditions at Midlenhall, while in 2009 886 Chris Bradbury took the spoils at a track that has been good to him over the years, Arena-Essex. ‘Bradderz’ dominated the race from the outside of the front row, having dispatched pole-sitter 700 Adam Rubery early on. The Berkshire man will start as one of the favourites at Lynn this weekend, given his supreme shale form.

Buxton in Derbyshire was the scene of 38 Dave Polley’s triumph from pole position in 2010, while Goldin’s third title came on the shale at Belle Vue a year later. Last year, the race returned to Scotland for the first time in eight years and threw up a bruising encounter and a relatively surprise winner. 795 Alan Kirkaldy ultimately was victorious from pole position, but not before he had survived three red flags and a further three caution periods in race which was only survived by eight cars.

Records

Most wins

Most stagings

Roll of Honour