Stock Car Racing - Brandon and beyond

herberts lad, would I be right in saying Jimmy Potter lost his mother when he was very young, the younger of his sisters ran the house and brought young Jimmy up, depriving herself of some of her life to look after Jimmy. A warm kind of story if so. Certainly she saw the Brandon track before he did, but only to stand and watch. Every time this topic is mentioned, I think of her more than Jimmy.

So much has happened since this thread was started. Jim Potter passed away in 2014 and just a couple of years later the city was deprived of our beloved Brandon Stadium by greedy owners who wanted to build houses. Those ambitions seem to have failed quite spectacularly and no doubt at great cost to the new owners, but they still own the site which becomes more and more derelict as time passes by. The other local driver mentioned in this thread was Leo McDermott who unfortunately has also passed away. Leo started his own business in King William Street, he then moved to Stoney Stanton Rd for many years, and then had to move again because the council put a compulsory purchase order on his garage. He moved to a body shop in Broad Street and then he was able to purchase Ace Garage which he ran up to his retirement. Leo did drink in the Devon when I first knew him and Mary and Bill Martin were the gaffers. He also used the Kings Head in Blackberry Lane, as did his mate and later employee Tony Packham. Jim Potter always purchased ready built stock cars from well known builders so must have spent a few bob. Leo was one of a bunch of Coventry based drivers who built their own cars and maintained them on a shoestring using parts sourced from the nearest scrapyard. Their favourite engine was an old Jaguar because not only was it powerful, but the scrapyards were full of them at very low prices. Modern stock cars are extremely expensive so it is no longer the sport of the average working man. There were always people who spent a lot of money but the attraction was that there were many more just like Leo and his mates. The nearest stock car track to Coventry is now at Brafield near to Northampton but while it used to boast a clean tarmac surface it now has a clay based surface. The only other track anywhere near is Hednesford Hills Raceway near Cannock, but that is a quarter mile banked tarmac oval so different to the Brandon shale. Like many others, I look forward to returning to Brandon one day.