Midget Car Racing - Softcover

It was by chance that the author stumbled across a long lost programme for the opening meeting of Hanley Car Speedway for 21 July 1938. The programme had been hidden away in family papers for almost sixty years and it sparked an enduring interest in Midget Car Speedway. Motor sport had been the preserve of the rich and glamorous, but now the ordinary man could build a car and race it on a shoestring budget. It was the start of motor racing as we know it today and without the development of midget car racing, we perhaps would not have seen the Formula Three, Formula Ford and other series that we take for granted today. Although a short-lived craze that hit the UK during the 1930s, midget car racing was an incredible motor phenomenon with some races and events attracting over 60,000 people from all over the country. Derek Bridgett's Midget Car Racing chronicles this bizarre but immersive little-known motorsport. Focusing specifically on the Belle Vue Speedway, this incredible book is profusely illustrated with photographs from the period.

Derek Bridgett has a degree in history and had life-long career industry. He lives in the Potteries. Since the 1940s Derek Bridgett's family has been connected with oval track racing and it was natural that he would get involved. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he was part of a management team that promoted speedway and stock-car racing at various venues in the UK. Following his retirement from industry he returned to the oval track scene; this time as a spectator. Because of his interest in the subject he decided to research the history of Midget Car Speedway in the UK.