Archive

update - 6th February, 2008

DES CHANDLER WITHOUT A CAR FOR THE START OF THE 2008 SEASON!
story by Peggyann Lilley.

The recent sale of Des's car to Harry Nicklin (Lightning Rods, Grand Prix Midgets and Super Rods) has left the oval Legends star without a car until such time as a new one can be shipped in from the States.

Des assures me that he immediately ordered a replacement with Derek Hales but the car will not be on these shores in time for the first meeting at Birmingham Wheels on 15th March. By the time it is delivered, the car possibly wont be ready
until 5th May at Hednesford.

"I'm having a change of colour this year and then it'll need stickering but I'm not going to rush it! There's
a chance though that i could be racing at Hednesford on 25th March in the No.2 Burbage Boys stable
car belonging to Bob Clayfield."

This year marks the start of Des's 40th consecutive year of racing on the short ovals, quite an
accomplishment by anyone's standards and to launch a delayed attack on the 2008 season in a
brand new car, which will need setting up and shaking down, means there's plenty of life left in the
old dog yet!

It will also be a delayed debut for Harry in the ex #1 car as he doesn't see himself starting the season
until
13th April at Hednesford.

MORE PHOTOS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE 'GOLD ALBUM'. This time they're from Chris Pye, former
Legends driver from the early days. Chris has kindly sent them to the website for which I and a lot of
others will want to thank him.
Go to the PHOTOS page now, click on the GOLD ALBUM link and take a look!

update - 16th January, 2008

The Official Press Release from Incarace concerning their purchase by Spedeworth has been added to the FEATURES page.

By request from the UK Oval Track Legends Steering Committee, the Car Purchasing Rule has been added to the FOR SALE page (and is also quoted below) for you all to read. The long awaited UK Oval Track Legends Rule Book is near completion and will be sent to the drivers soon. In the mean time, with the new season approaching and the possibility that race drivers are looking to buy Legends cars, Committee Members have asked to stress the following from the Rule Book:-

"CAR PURCHASING
The rules are that new cars can only be supplied by Derek Hales as the Official
European Racing Dealer for UK Oval Track Legends.
You cannot import a car or purchase a Long Track car and transfer it to a short oval -
remember that every chassis is denoted as either a Short Track or Long Track car on
its Log Book.
In terms of second hand cars, from 1st July, 2004, it was implemented that only Short Track
second hand cars can be purchased, you cannot purchase a car from the Long Circuits.
There is one exception to this where a current Long Track Legends driver wishes to transfer
and race on Short Ovals with his current Long Track car. In this instance the driver must
apply to the Committee who will consider his application for transfer of the chassis.
THIS IS TO ENSURE THAT THE RESIDUAL PRICE OF LEGENDS CARS IS KEPT HIGH, WHICH
EVERYONE WHO OWNS A LEGENDS CAR WOULD LIKE TO SEE."

update - 23rd July, 2007

THE IVECO RACE TRANSPORTER AND LEGENDS CAR #7 BELONGING TO TREVOR JAMES WERE BOTH STOLEN FROM HIS WORKSHOP IN BLANDFORD FORUM AND HAPPILY FOUND BY THE POLICE TWO DAYS LATER ABANDONED IN POOLE, DORSET. LUCKILY NO DAMAGE WAS DONE TO EITHER VEHICLE.

THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT KEPT A LOOK OUT FOR IT!

NEWS, New Driver Announcement
A new driver has been added to the 2006 line-up. The one time F2 racer, Darren Smith from Tamworth in Staffordshire, recently bought the #97 1937 Chevy Coupe from John Drury.
It's been a 10 year long ambition of Smith's to own a Legends Car, since the day the cars debuted at Hednesford, in fact. Finally his dream came to fruition at Birmingham Wheels last week - see photo on the right taken by PETE THOMPSON.
Good Luck to Darren and a huge Welcome to his team from everyone at Oval Track Legends.

MESSAGE FROM KEITH & JANE WHALLEY

12th September 2006

''I am sure by now that you are all aware of my accident.over in Belgium. Jane and I just wanted to say a big thank you to everybody for helping us out and for all the support and kind thoughts given to us since our return.''
''The heroic effort by everybody in recovering our coach and trailer along with all our kit back to Tamworth involved
so many, who I'm sure could really have done without that extra burden, you know who you are and a huge thank you
to you!!''
''As for my injuries, the good news is that it is a relatively simple break to a single vertebra in my lower back, no
surgery or traction required just flat rest for 2 - 3 months and with a total heal-time of 8 - 12 months. The downside
is no more Legends racing, something that is taking a lot of getting used to! However I do intend to continue with
my lease car activities so hopefully we should still be ever-present at the meetings for next year.''
''Once again thanks to everyone.''

Keith and Jane.

update - 17th December, 2006

Now that the Legends season has closed, RUSS BULL and DARRON LEWIS have obviously started to miss the racing already! They both took to racing 2litre Bangers in support of Children In Need at Birmingham Wheels on 17th November. Russ in the number 100 car and Darron in the 285 car both enjoyed joining in the fun and helped raise over £8000 on the night.

news flash - 7th January, 2007

Coventry Stadium and Incarace Limited have agreed to jointly promote seven Friday night fixtures and Mark Bond from Incarace has secured one of those meetings for Oval Track Legends.
Incarace already promote a huge amount of tarmac fixtures at Birmingham, Hednesford and Northampton for their registered driver base in all formulas but realised that many of the drivers would also like to race some shale meetings and Legends are included for one meeting on 20th July.
Legends have only ever raced one meeting on shale and that was back in 2005 at King's Lynn.

news snippet added 16th January, 2007
NATIONAL HOT RODS GO RACECEIVER LIVE TOO!
story by Peggyann Lilley

The National Hot Rods are to follow in the foot steps of Oval Track Legends and will use Raceceivers in 2007. Legends became the first short oval formula to use the technology in May 2006 at Northampton and, despite the initial problems with frequency allocation, have never looked back.
Colin Gomm tested the system in his NHR last October with the use of UK Raceceiver Dealer, Des Chandler's own device and was suitably impressed.

update - 19th February, 2007
ROBIE JUKES #22, recruited by Team Cordec boss Jeff Marshall, has taken delivery of the car and is looking forward to getting back to racing and working with Jeff, Adam and John Marshall in 2007. Robie raced last year in a lease hire car from Race Car Direct and is very appreciative of the company's Director - Keith Whalley for all his work.
"I would like to thank Keith for introducing me to Legends and for his support in 2006. Robie adds "Good luck to all for the new season."
The arrangement with Team Cordec is that if Robie bends it - he mends it but Jeff hopes his new driver does well and wishes Robie all the very best for a successfull year.

news snippet - 3rd February, 2007

BORN IN THE USA!
It's the time of year when the drivers are burning the midnight oil in order to get their race cars ready for the coming season which starts in only 5 weeks time!
Des Chandler has been no exception to the rule as you can see from the photos on the right. Featured in the photos is the freshly painted, ready to race, 1934 Ford Coupe Legends car alongside his road car - a Chevrolet Corvette C5, both built in the States of course.
The Corvette may look like a handfull with it's 5700cc injected V8 engine which will do 0 to 60mph in less than 5 seconds but, rest assured, the Legends is the real 'mean machine' with a 1250cc Yamaha engine that will do 0 to 60mph in less than 3 seconds!

update - 15th March, 2007

LEGENDS CAR #600 was seen for the first time at the season opener in Birmingham, aka the LEGENDS PACE CAR.

It's not in race trim but has been specially adapted by Keith Whalley to accompany OVAL TRACK LEGENDS throughout 2007. Keith's son, Stuart drove it on the night with great flare!
The flashing light sequence in the headlights and on top of the car caught your attention at the start of the races. Stuart was equipped with a RACEceiver and during stoppages was sent out to assist stranded cars with the use of the modified, partially foamed front bumper.

THANKS AND APPRECIATION FROM ALL THE DRIVERS GO OUT TO KEITH & EVERYONE AT RACE CAR DIRECT FOR SUPPLYING THE CAR - It's Great Mate!

update 23rd March, 2007

DEREK HALES received the following information from 600 Racing a couple of days ago, it reads as follows:-

RULEBOOK UPDATE #L-31607-1

"600 Racing, Inc. has received a shipment of new Legends Car bumpers from our supplier that now have bumper tabs that are thicker than the previous stock bumper. These new bumper tabs will have a maximum thickness of .140" and will be stamped "INEX". Only these tabs delivered by 600 Racing, Inc. and marked "INEX" will be allowed to be .140" thick. All other bumper tabs must remain .125" maximum thickness.

These new .140" thick bumper tabs (marked "INEX") will be available through 600 Racing, Inc for use in "bumper repair" on Legends Cars bumpers."

from 600 Racing 21st March, 2007

added - 3rd May, 2007

ROOKIES 'R US!

Of the nine new drivers that registered to race Oval Track Legends at the begining of 2007, it's David Holden (61) that leads the Rookie of the Year title as we approach Round 5 this weekend.
Simon Edwards (12) and Dave Baker (105), both from the Race Car Direct stable, have shared the 'ups and downs' of racing a Legends car in their first few meetings. Hednesford on Monday will be their second meeting in the white grade on the 'grid proper' and Terry Pullen (77) will compete in his last rookie round at the back of the grid.
Simon, from the Coventry area originally, now living in Southen on Sea in Essex,
raced Mini's as a youngster and has followed various forms of oval racing ever since.
Dave, on the other hand, raced Stock Rods for 10 years with Spedeworth in Fiat's which
he built and maintained himself, one of which can be seen in the photos (right).
More info later on Terry Pullen PLUS the debut in Legends this weekend of former Spedeworth V8 Stock Car driver, Steve Stretton (15).

update - 27th May, 2007

THE IAN HALES BAN takes effect from Northampton 28th May for three meetings and was enforced due to forceful driving in Heat 4 at the European Championships over in Warneton, Belgium. The full decision (from the Stewards inquiry) came that Hales Jnr. would have two of these meetings suspended until the end of the current racing year, which means if he is involved in similar incidents during the remainder of 2007, then the two meetings will automatically be added to any disiplinary action invoked from a futher incident. And what of the other driver, Micky Preston, taken out in the incident? He has been reminded officially that any occurrence of retaliation will automatically mean a standard TEN meeting ban from racing with the possibility of a portion of the ban to be suspended.

update - 9th November, 2007

DRIVERS LIST for Saturday night at BIRMINGHAM WHEELS
32 drivers have booked in to race in the final fling for 2007 at the Wheels Raceway. There's a new name on the list - #37 ROB
PREECE from Hull. Normally, Rob assists with the Raceceiver transmissions in the pits but Saturday night he'll be on the grid as
a rookie.

update - 26th November, 2007

PHOTOS from the Annual Awards Presentation & Christmas Party Saturday night at the Lea Marston Hotel, Birmingham, have
been uploaded to Gallery 19 on the PHOTOS page! There was so much to celebrate! Trophies and awards were presented
by Guests of Honour - Paul & Stella Huggett. About one hundred and fourty people attended the party Saturday night and it
was fun and laughter all the way!
'' I'm sorry if I took your photo on the night and it doesn't appear. I seem to have cut a lot of peoples heads
off or just took photos of the floor :-( BUT I did capture most of you that were still standing! The problem is
down to me being drunk in charge of a camera I'm afraid!!!''
Peggyann Lilley

new snippet added 15th January, 2007

AUTOSPORT SHOW on 13th January - story by Peggyann Lilley. Oval Track Legends were well received by visitors to the show at the RACE CAR DIRECT stand and the RICHARD STAGG car on static display. The driver representation was good too - I spotted no less than 18 drivers! Keith & Stuart Whalley from RACE CAR DIRECT had the #19 and #285 Championship winning car complete with trophies on display plus a 'skeletal' car for all to ponder over. Darron Lewis, Dean Thompson, Robie Jukes and former Legends driver, Martin Price were also present at the stand giving a lending hand to Keith.
Richard Stagg's car stood alone next to the stage and stood out a mile in its new bright red livery.
Pete Amas, Stu Blyth, Des Chandler, Bob Clayfield, Mark Dews, Derek & Ian Hales, Daniel & Lee Holden, Pete Jenkins, Jeff Pritchard and Damian Wright were the registered drivers amongst the visitors that I managed to spot, there may have been more! All in all, it was a good atmosphere and well worth a visit

update - 29th November, 2007

Awards at the party last Saturday night also went to Mark Dews for Best Presented Car of the Year and Des Chandler for The Drivers Driver of the Year. Both were voted for in a secret ballot on the night by all the drivers at the party.

Congratulations to them both from everyone at Oval Track Legends

update - 23rd December, 2007

WHO'S THIS? Can you guess which Legends driver the boy holding the chequered flag is?
The photo was taken in 1978 and was his first ever taste of victory. Nearly thirty years on, he has become a top name in Oval Legends having won most of the major championships on more than one occasion.

Look in the GOLD ALBUM on the PHOTOS page to find out who it is plus two more photos have been added from the same stable.

It's 'show time' this weekend for Oval Track Legends at the
AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL SHOW.
Legends car leasing company RACE CAR DIRECT will be representing Oval Track Legends in Hall 18 again this year at stand number 18060. They will have on display the 2007 Championship winning car belonging to Russ Bull along with the 1934 Ford Sedan, race hired in 2007 by Dave Baker #105.
Dave has since gone on to acquire Pete Jenkins old car for 2008. There will also be a 'skeleton' car to muse over and the Legends Pace Car, prepared and run by Keith and Stuart Whalley from RACE CAR DIRECT, will also be on the stand.

SIMON GIBSON HAS LAUNCHED HIS UK OVAL TRACK LEGENDS 2007 DVD ON
YOU TUBE.
The superb piece of work from Simon was launched at the Oval Legends Awards Party back in November and had several replays on the large screen in Hall 18 at the Autosport Show earlier this month. If you've not seen it yet - you can now, by simply going to the You Tube section on the PHOTOS page and clicking on the thumbnail.

More photos have been added to the Gold Album on the PHOTOS page. They're from Lee Holden #266, from not too long back, when he raced Ministox.

update - 29th January, 2008

GOODBYE - EE TO FOUR POPULAR DRIVERS. Oval Track Legends bid farewell to four of its drivers in 2007 with all of them now having sold their cars on. Pete Jenkins #5 has sold his coupe to Dave Baker #105 and Garry Harradine #10, missing from the grid in 2007 due to business commitments, has decided to quit, selling his car to Darron Lewis #285. Also leaving the gang is Dave Langridge #55 who is joining the Rookie Rods alongside his father, Kim, after selling his car onto Dave Watkiss #4. Keith Whalley from Race Car Direct has been busy following the numerous leads and enquiries since the Autosport Show to organise replacement drives in the hire cars as Dave Baker, Darron Lewis and Dave Wakiss were all from his stable. Driver representative and Rockingham Champion, Micky Preston #36 also leaves this year. His car was soon snapped up by new intake, Superstox driver Michael Walmsley.
MORE NEW DRIVERS ON TRACK. Also, completely new for 2008 will be Paul Smith and Peter Oakley from long circuit Super Karts, sharing the white coupe spare car from Derek Hales. Derek's #8 blue race car has been acquired by Terry Pullen #77. He sampled Legends last year with Race Car Direct and a brand new car is on order for Derek.
IT'S ALL CHANGE FOR THE MARSHALL'S. Birmingham's Dean Thompson #19 also had to bid a fond farewell to Race Car Direct and has agreed to buy the Chevy Sedan of Jeff Marshall #74. Jeff is to race his son Adam's car, the #677 1934 Ford Sedan and Adam will be out in a brand new Chevy Coupe in 2008.

update - 25th January, 2007
NEW DRIVERS FOR 2007 - story by Peggyann Lilley. Five more drivers have joined Oval Track Legends this year. The 39 car line up in the coming season will feature the return of Paul Fiore. He went into retirement back in 2004 having sold his car to Tim Hudson but has got the bug again and brought the ex-Scott Downie car.
David Holden, father to Dan and Lee, first took to racing a Legends car at Warneton in 2004 and is expected to return in 2007 driving their spare car.
Steve Dakin has sold his '34 Ford Sedan to Martin Lamb from Hoosier Tyres. Martin, from F2 fame in the 1980's has raced Grand Prix Midgets for the last two years but only as and when he could fit it round his work schedule. Having now switched to Legends, he hopes to compete in 2007 using the same principle.
Nineteen year old Nathan Nicholls, from the Trevor James stable, will take to the wheel of Trevor's car from last year and twenty two year old Adam Charnley from Stoke on Trent had raced a Dragster for one year and is now in the process of buying Phil Woodhull's car.

update - 8th March, 2008

IT'S A FIRST FOR RACHEL
Rachel Dawson will debut at Birmingham Wheels on saturday night as the first Oval Legends lady racer in a 1937 Ford Coupe leased from Race Car Direct. More news and pictures will come later but she says ''I'm almost ready to go. I have hired the ex#242 car of Martin Heath and I'm looking forward to Saturday now!''

WELCOME TO OVAL TRACK LEGENDS RACHEL - GO GIRL!!!

update - 10th March, 2008

AN EXTRA TECHNICAL INSPECTOR APPOINTED

Oval Track Legends have enrolled an extra Technical Inspector to work alongside Barry Evans at the race tracks. The high turnout of race cars last year created a heavy work load for Barry in ensuring that all the cars were safe and legal. The extra pair of hands are those of Rob Preece, having completed a training course at Derek Hales' last month. Rob was involved with organising the cars onto the grid with the Raceceiver system last year and raced at the last meeting of the season in a car from Race Car Direct.