2011 YES! Roary will be back!
And as much fun as ever.
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Click here for a short history of Crystal Palace Motor sport.
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Memories of the Palace…
It’s been three decades since the last wheel turned in anger at Crystal Palace, but the scream of racing engines lives on in the memories of those party to the action. In the following interviews, ex-racers offer a rare insight into the challenges posed by this tricky, undulating course, and spectators recall the excitement of having a race track in the heart of south London.
If you raced or spectated at Crystal Palace why not put your memories down in an email and send them to memories@motorsportatthepalace.co.uk. We'll add them to this archive to remind people what a significant track the Palace really was.
Martin Colyer…
Martin Colyer attended numerous races with his parents at Crystal Palace back in the 60s. Here he recalls the relaxed, informal atmosphere of the venue, and the spine-tingling roar of the GT40s!
“We used to come down to Crystal Palace from Charing Cross Road where we lived at the time, and I remember seeing many big names race there. I think a lot of the established F1 drivers of the time would come and treat the F2 races as practise events between Grand Prix, so we got to see many famous drivers competing at the Palace.”
Martin paints a picture of an event unrecognisable from the formalised F1 races of today; where spectators peer through catch-fencing hundreds of yards away to sneak a peek at a favourite driver.
“We’d go down with a picnic as close to the track as possible and then wander over the footbridge into the pits, which were just a concrete area with all the cars sitting around and people working on them. Anyone you asked would sign your autograph book. I recall Mario Andretti signing mine, and have memories of seeing Jochen Rindt and Graham Hill dicing it out on the track. There was a real carnival atmosphere.”
Even today, Martin says that evocative smell of petrol and tyre rubber takes him back to those hot afternoons in the park, watching his heroes roar past. Not unsurprisingly to a small boy of the time, the big American cars impressed him most; in particular the GT40s.
“They’d come whizzing past about three yards from where we were sitting with our picnic,” he says. “Beautiful blue and orange paint jobs, and really low to the ground; and the noise unleashed by those American engines — it was almost unholy. There’s nothing like being close to a really powerful engine, and I'm hoping to get to Crystal Palace at the end of May to hear that kind of sound once again.”
Mrs Frances Evans…
In the late 1960s/early 1970s I was in the fifth form at school. My friend Leslie-Anne, who had left school to attend secretarial college, and who ended up working for John Surtees, introduced me to motorsport. We regularly borrowed her mother’s Hillman Imp to attend events at Crystal Palace, seeing the likes of Silvio Moser, Francois Cevert, Yogi Muir, David Brodie, Dieter Quester etc. racing in F2, Formula Ford, saloons and so forth.
Watching all of this amid the ruins of the Crystal Palace (and there was more to be seen then – most of the elegant statues and urns that used to grace the place now seem to have been taken away) was rather surreal and very exciting for a schoolgirl. The only fly in the ointment was the ghastly corrugated iron huts which served as loos… but we were willing to put up with that for the exhilaration of seeing the racing.
On one occasion we saw the late lamented Francois Cevert crash two cars (Technos, I think) in Formula 2 practice; we then saw him sprinting round the track on foot – we wondered whether he’d run out of cars and was trying to set a time by himself… I was able to meet him later in the paddock and have him sign my programme (I still have it).
On another occasion, Leslie Anne picked me up straight after my history A-level exam, in bright sunshine, but by the time we reached the circuit the weather had changed completely and was pouring down. However we stood out in the rain like true British motorsport fans, and got drenched (travelling home in the Imp afterwards wrapped in travelling rugs and minus our soggy jeans).
I was away at university in Wales when I heard the sad news about the circuit’s closure but have since very happily and nostalgically attended the Crystal Palace events arranged by the Sevenoaks & District Motor Club and look forward very much to the May 2010 extravaganza!
Mike Quaife…
Mike Quaife now runs a highly successful engineering business, but back in 1971, he sat on the grid at Crystal Palace, nervously awaiting his first ever motorbike race.
“I was riding a Matchless/AJS 350 7R which I’d just bought,” says Mike. “I was used to places like Brands Hatch and Snetterton and I couldn’t believe how close the railway sleepers were.”
Unsurprisingly, Mike found the whole experience something of an eye opener and admits he was secretly quite pleased not to have raced there again; the proximity of those unforgiving sleepers proving more than a match for a newcomer to the sport. However, barriers aside, Mike found the actual circuit a joy to ride. “The track was brilliant; it was quite quick down the back and along the start there and it was a good flowing circuit; a couple of tight corners here and there but all good fun.”
The location of the venue also came as a bit of a surprise: “A lot of people did the TT and things like that, but to go to a race meeting in the centre of London was a bit of a novelty! But there was a nice open theme at the Palace; I always found the spectators were very involved; they were always round the paddock and there was always a good atmosphere up there.”
Although he only raced at the Palace on that one occasion, Mike was familiar with the circuit as his father ran a sidecar team which raced there regularly in the 1960s.
“I have a lot of memories of my father’s sidecar outfit and of the people who raced for him. He used to sponsor Allen Samson, Rex Butcher, Pat Mahoney, so I grew up with it all. Even when I was 11 I was up there cleaning the bikes; I wasn’t a mechanic then but you just used to help out and it was just great fun; we were all going round in transit vans or a car and trailer - not the big arctic trucks they have today – it was hard-core racing.”
And as for that first and only outing at Crystal Palace? Mike recalls coming somewhere near the back of the field, but adds wryly, “I don’t think I got lapped!”. Note to readers: during this interview Mike mentioned that he didn’t have any photographs of his one and only race at Crystal Palace – if anyone has any pictures of Mike on the Matchless, please send them to the address above.
Johnny Mowlem…
Johnny Mowlem is a highly acclaimed sports car racer with wins across multiple formulas. He is currently racing the first ever hybrid prototype in the American Le Mans Series and while that may seem a long way from Crystal Palace, Johnny cites the old South London circuit as an early influence.
“I was born in Crystal Palace and my mother said that where we lived we could hear the engines on a Sunday from the race track. Even though I was only a year old at the time, I do remember hearing engines! I attribute that to my obsession with racing cars and my eventual good fortune in earning a living from the sport. So that’s all thanks to Crystal Palace race course!”.
Paul Parker…
Paul Parker is the current Championship Co-ordinator of the British Sprint Championship, the pinnacle of Sprinting in the UK. Here he recalls the cars and drivers he witnessed at Crystal Palace back in the 70s, and explains what made the park such an unusual and exciting location for a motor race.
"I used to travel down from Gloucester, along the A4 - long before the M4 or even the M25 existed - and the whole experience of attending a race at Crystal Palace was a real joy, something that I used to greatly look forward to. As a track it was quite unlike any other race circuit, which to this day are largely based on World War Two airfields. At Crystal Palace you had a race circuit in the heart of a city, surrounded by flower beds! In fact, the only track I can compare it to is Pau in the South of France, which is also in a city and shares many of the characteristics of the old circuit at Crystal Palace.
It’s fair to say that the nature of the track and its location had a pronounced effect on the racing, which was very close and exciting. The proximity of the sleepers forced the drivers to think a lot harder than they would have done on the wide expanses of Silverstone or somewhere similar.
I remember going down to Thruxton for the Easter meeting and watching the Formula Two cars and the difference between Thruxton and Crystal Palace was very marked; the cars were much more closely packed at the Palace and the drivers had to work harder to make progress. It’s great that the council are enthusiastic about bringing motor sport back to Crystal Palace after all this time and that Motorsport at the Palace is going ahead."
Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams…
“The circuit itself was quite smooth,” says Whizzo, “and, coupled with it being very narrow, this led to real door-handle racing. You had to have big balls to make a lunging overtaking manoeuvre there and it didn’t suit the big cars much at all.”
Despite the great wheel-to-wheel racing that went on amongst the big saloons and little Minis, Barrie feels Crystal Palace actually suited the smaller single-seaters better: “They take up a lot less space [on track] and there were some very good F2 races there.”
Barrie recalls the peculiarities of a circuit located in the heart of the capital ensured a special kind of atmosphere. “It was always fun, and it had a real garden party type feel to it. But it was always a difficult circuit to race at because, if I remember rightly, there was only really one real entrance. There was a back entrance, that was supposed to be a paddock entrance, but everybody got it mixed up, so once you were inside you were stuck there!”
This May, Whizzo will be returning to Crystal Palace driving a Mini, last campaigned by Richard Longman at Goodwood in 2009. Barrie will be demonstrating the car on the Sunday and racing it on the Monday (this time without fear of the infamous railway sleepers!).
“I don’t know how good the car is,” admits Barrie, “in fact I’ve not driven it yet. All I know is it’s red, which has got to be worth a few bhp in itself!”
Rob Hazell…
Rob Hazell spent much of his formative years watching racing at the Palace in the company of his father, ex-racer Eddie Hazell. As a keen go-cart racer, Rob now competes to raise money for charity; check out his website at: http://jnrkarting.moonfruit.com
My memories of the circuit began with the 1960 Whit Monday meeting (I was aged seven), when, if I recall correctly, Trevor Taylor was the F2 winner, whilst a certain Ken Tyrell was peddling his Cooper Climax a little way further down the field!
The following year I watched Roy Salvadori (who many forget was third in the 1958 World Championship) winning all four of his races. He drove John Coombes’ "E" Type and his 3.8 Mark 2 Jaguars, a Cooper Monaco Sports Car - beating the UDT Laystall Lotus 19’s who’d had worries about their wheels falling off as a consequence of the newly fitted “knock-off” hubs - surely not on a Lotus! - and finally, the main non-Championship F1 race in a Yeoman Credit Cooper.
1962 and 63 were also great meetings but of course to be there in 1964 and see Jochen Rindt beat the establishment was absolutely riveting! The racing continued in the same vein throughout the 1960’s as my father and I always made a point of attending the Whit Monday meeting and occasionally some of the others. In addition, I watched the London to Sydney Marathon being flagged off from Crystal Palace in 1968 - particularly remembering the extra cheers the lads gave Rosemary Smith in her Lotus-Cortina, and Keith Schellenberg in his 8 litre Bentley.
We were back there in 1969 to see Gordon Spice’s win - I remember the Britax colours in particular - and the following year when Jackie Stewart spun his John Coombes Brabham BT30 right in front of us at South Tower during morning practice (it appeared he just ran out of opposite lock). He made amends in the afternoon by winning though!
I finally broke the sequence by not attending the 1972 race - although I was there on the Saturday for practice - reasoning that there would always be another year, but of course, that wasn’t to be.
My other regret is that my father didn’t get the chance to race there when he returned to racing at the age of 60 with a Special Saloon Mini - he was just one year too late having begun again in August 1973.
Can’t wait to get back to The Palace again next month and recapture the essence of those wonderful racing days, Photo caption: Eddie Hazell at the age of 25, probably taken at Stoke where he was racing in his Skirrow JAP Midget Car for the Crystal Palace Team.
Caroline Rogers…
Caroline Rogers has particularly fond memories of Crystal Palace; her first date - in May 1970 - was to attend a race there!
Says Caroline: “My now husband went to the circuit regularly with his family and thought it might be a lovely venue for our first date! I had never been racing before and wanted to make a good impression so I invested in a “trouser suit” for the occasion. We stood up on a bend and watched the race and never looked back; we are still happily together and as keen on motorsport as ever!
“I’m now planning on bringing the family to Motorsport at the Palace in May - forty years after we first met - so that our little grandson Lewis (his parents are car mad too) can see where it all began for his Grandpa Keith and Granma Caroline. Best wishes for this new era of motor sport at Crystal Palace racing circuit!”
Gordon Spice…
Gordon Spice has a long and extremely successful history in international motorsport, racing all manner of vehicles, from Minis to sports cars. He’s raced to victory all over the world but it was at Crystal Palace in 1969 that, as a relative newcomer to the sport, Gordon won his first race. Driving a Britax-Cooper-Downton Mini, Gordon was able to exploit the nimble car’s terrific handling to clinch a memorable victory, made all the more satisfying as it was one of few motor racing events of the time to be televised (commentated on by a young Murray Walker no less!).
“I hold Crystal Palace in great affection,” says Gordon. “It was a very technical track, very narrow and you had to be very precise. But it was ideal for the Minis. We’d get blown away by the likes of the Escorts on some other tracks, but Crystal Palace really suited them. They [the Minis] used to understeer quite badly and the only way you could get them round the corners was to really chuck them in; we could do that at the Palace and it was very satisfying.”
While Gordon has gone on to achieve tremendous success in various formulas, he retains a clear respect for those legendary names he raced against in his early years at the Palace. “Just being in the same race as Jim Clark, Jack Brabham and Peter Arunel for example was a real privilege,” he says. “I didn’t know them that well but they were legends; competing against them was an honour.”
John Payne…
“I remember sitting on the parapets of the terraces, feet hanging over the edge, watching the cars and motorcycles tearing round the South Tower corner,” says John Payne, a local resident and Chair of the Crystal Palace Community Association. As a small boy, John and his grandfather never missed a race at the Palace, and like many fans of the sport, he’s overjoyed that motor racing is returning to the Park. “We used to watch from the main straight, opposite the pits, and I remember seeing a lot of marvelous racers: Moss, Hill, even Fangio. Watching them sliding those immensely powerful front-engined Ferraris and Alfas on those skinny tyres was something to behold.”
Owing to its unique layout, Crystal Palace favoured small, nimble cars above the larger machines that could dominate at faster tracks, and as John explains, that resulted in some epic David and Goliath battles:
“Crystal Palace was a very charismatic track; there really was nowhere else like it. It was extremely tight and that resulted in some of the most exiting racing you can imagine. It was very amusing to watch the big Thunderbirds and Mustangs, with their monstrous V8s, charging round and being usurped by the minis; it made for a great spectacle, particularly for the Brits in the crowd!”
Back in the 50s and 60s, drivers were far more accessible than today’s superstars, and John recalls how, on one occasion, he asked Graham Hill to ‘smile for the camera’; “Graham turned around with a rather bemused expression,” says John, who later recalls Hill’s car came crashing to a halt after a wheel fell off. Was Hill distracted in his preparation by an over-zealous photographer?
John was among the thousands of fans who turned out to support the sprint events held at the Park in the late 90s, and recalls being especially impressed with one particular driver: “I watched an Escort being driven in a very unique, very exciting manner - front wheel in the air around corners - and I instantly recognised it as the driving style of Gerry Marshall, who I used to watch driving the Vauxhall Firenzas at Brands years ago. I met him in the paddock later that day and it was wonderful to say hello and have a chat.”
Like many who’ve enjoyed motorsport at the Palace over the decades, John will be back in May to watch the vehicles of yesteryear (and tomorrow) compete at a truly unique venue: “It’s great to see the Park being put to active use again. Motor racing is very much welcomed back to Crystal Palace as it provides such a unique experience. It’s like a mini-Goodwood but with more ability for public involvement.”
Clive Cooke…
“I remember when the Mini’s first raced at Crystal Palace – these funny little cars that everyone laughed at. Then they started everything!” Clive Cooke attended many events at Crystal Palace through the 50s, 60, and 70s, but it’s the arrival of the little Mini’s that stand out in particular. “No one had ever seen them race before,” says Clive “and watching the drivers trying to man-handle these cars around on their skinny tyres was quite sensational.”
Of course, as time went on, those skinny tyres became fatter, and in combination with some impressive engineering developments, the Mini’s soon became everyone’s favourite giant-slaying track-tool.
But the Palace didn’t only host saloon car races, motorbikes and sidecars also made regular appearances, with the likes of John Surtees cutting his teeth at the tricky little course in south London. “One of my abiding memories was watching the sidecars, because back then, they were uprights, not like today’s machines where the passenger kneels down; they were just like the motorbikes and sidecars on the road,” says Clive.
And that made for some incredibly exciting, and pretty dangerous racing. “Watching them trying to muscle those machines into South Tower bend, with them juddering across the track, was extraordinary.”
It’s a sign of the popularity of Crystal Palace as a venue that so many different categories of racing took place there. Indeed, Clive was present in 1959 when the final leg of the Rally of Great Britain was held at the Palace.
“My dad and I used to go down to Crystal palace on the Good Friday, then over to Brands Hatch on Easter Monday, it was a great long weekend of racing. Crystal Palace was so different to anywhere else because once you left the venue, you were right back in suburbia again.”
It was an extremely sad day therefore when the last race – won by Gerry Marshall – was held at the Palace in 1972. A Motoring News article of the time captured the sombre mood well: “After the last champagne cork had settled on the grid, it was sad to look into the fading light and reflect that never again would these white washed sleepers and golden trees echo to the roar of un-channelled exhausts”.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, as the Honourable Gerald Lascelles, president of BRDC at the time sounded a more upbeat note: “Within the next decade….the public may be clamouring for a new motor racing circuit within the conurbation of London. The sport is not dead and if we fail to find a new site, it’s certainly conceivable that the Palace will resound once more to the sound of race-tuned engines.”
It may be slightly more than a decade on, but that prophetic statement is about to become reality.
Adrian Barnard…
The smell of oil and the noise of racing engines filled the air. I was meant to be at ballet lessons at Cobb's Corner, but the distant drone of engines at full revs drew me like a magnet to the park that day. From that moment on, there would be no more ballet. That was the day I officially became a 'petrol head'.
I was eight years old when I discovered my new love - my first love - would be motorsport. I was shaking with excitement and fuelled with adrenalin as these beautiful machines appeared from around the bend and shot down the hill past the banking behind the new swimming pool. I could just see over the heads of the spectators from a vantage point I had found by climbing a fence (my uncle would later make me a wooden box to stand on!). The fact that I’d left my bicycle unattended never even entered my head; this was magical and mesmerizing.
Since that first day I've not missed a motorsport event in the Park. Every time I return and hear the sound of engines firing up it sends goose bumps down my spine and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I'm now in my late forties and still a petrol head. I still go to see and photograph motorsport all over the country, and even did a bit of kart racing, but when I come back to watch the cars at the Palace, that's special.
For me the Park seemed to become a place for ghosts when racing stopped in 1972, with the spirits being laid to rest when the old timing boxes and pit buildings were demolished several years later. Now the race cars are coming back again!