A Brief History of this World Famous Track

Hawkstone Park History Lesson By Jack Burnicle
January 2004

During the second half of the twentieth century, the history of Hawkstone Park was almost inextricably entwined with the British 500cc Motocross Grand Prix. 21 such contests raged round the rough, tough sandstone circuit, the first during the inaugural year of a European Championship in 1952.

Hawkstone Park also hosted half a dozen dramatic 250 GPs in the 1970s and '80s, two 125 GPs in 1976 and 1989 and, more recently, has concentrated on an outstanding early-season international established in 1999.

But the venue actually started life as a pre-war hill-climb back in 1938, run by the quaintly-named Crewe and Nantwich Light Car Club! The winner was the driver who made it furthest up the awesome hill which remains the single most breathtaking feature of the track to this day.

In 1946 motorcycle scrambling hit Hawkstone Park courtesy of the Salop Motor Club. In those days heats weren't necessary. Riders compted under the same rules as the hill-climbers in their cars. Those who made it furthest up the precipitous incline qualified to race! Remember, the hill once climbed further and more steeply than it does now and bikes ranged from 350lb four-strokes like Matchless and BSA to eight brake-horsepower, Villiers-engined two-stroke flyweights like Dot and Francis Barnett.

Harold Johnson, whose son Tony subsequently took over as secretary of the Salop Club, became clerk-of-the-course, a post he eventually handed on to Tony the year they landed their first 250 GP in 1977. The club netted its first national meeting in 1951, the victors that day Bill Barugh on a 125 Dot and Geoff Ward on his mighty factory AJS.

In 1952 the FIM launched its individual European Motocross Championship. Brian Stonebridge (Matchless) won inaugural British Grands Prix at Nymphsfield, in Gloucestershire, and a year later at Brand Hatch, in Kent. Then, in 1954, came Hawkstone Park's turn. 33000 tickets were sold before they ran out, at an admission price of three shillings and sixpence - that's 17.5 pence in today's shrapnel. The track was longer then. At a mile and a half, it included land beyond the sandpit which is now the West Midlands Shooting Ground. Beefy four-strokes were clocking 70 miles an hour along the relatively smooth straights, only the hill and the sandpit reducing average speeds to a still heady 40 mph!

The single 15-lap race featured 23 riders representing five countries, but didn't include future five-time winner Jeff Smith, who's Dad considered him too young for such a dangerous track. The boy won a 350cc support race instead. A tremendous duel for supremacy between Geoff Ward (Matchless) and the great Belgian Auguste Mingels (FN) ended when Ward crashed while in the lead. Mingels went out with carburation problems, Brian Stonebridge had to quit with a thumb injury and a swift young Swede called Bill Nilsson - destined to become the first ever World Champion five years later - crashed out in the closing stages.

All of which, after 31 minutes and 23 seconds of relentless attrition, left Phil Nex to head home a British clean sweep chased by Dave Curtis (Matchless), David Tye (350 BSA), Les Archer (Norton) and Terry Cheshire (350 BSA).

The occasion was such an overwhelming success that the rocky sandstone course hosted the country's premier motocross happening for the next ten years. Even bigger crowds swarmed into Hawkstone Park in 1955 to witness the first grand prix ever to be decided on the aggregate result of two motos. The also saw a triumphant British GP debut for young Yorkshire-born Brummie Jeff Smith, barely out of his teens. Smith was destined to win a fantastic five times at Hawkstone, adding to his initial success in 1957, 1959, 1963 and, en route to his second World title, in 1965.

In 1955 Jeff was followed home by five fellow Brits, seventh-placed Bill Nilsson the first foreign finisher. And he wasn't the only Englishman to conquer the savage sandstone castle on his way to championship honours. Hampshireman Les Archer (Norton) did likewise in 1956, beating reigning European champ Johnny Draper, who he had deposed by the season's end. A year later Archer placed second to the Gold Star BSA of Smith, but it was only a matter of time before that other great scrambling nation, Sweden, butted in. Lars Gustafsson (Monark) lifted the laurels in 1958, ahead of the man who took the European crown that year, Belgian Rene Baeten (FN), in a particularly crushing contest which saw only six hardy heroes actually qualify as finishers!

Jeff Smith retaliated for the homeland in 1959 before Bill Nilsson (Husqvarna) pulled off another Swedish sensation en route to his second World title in 1960. Throughout the fifties, huge crowds had poured into Shropshire to enjoy these epic events and in 1960, after Brian Stonebridge had been tragically killed in a motoring accident, Hawkstone Park instigated their annual Brian Stonebridge Memorial Trophy race and attracted a staggering 54000 paying spectators! That's right: fifty-four thousand.

Matchless-mounted Dave Curtis won both motos in 1961 and Swedish iron man Rolf Tibblin (Husqvarna) did the business twelve months later, beating his compatriot Gunnar Johansson. Then Smith returned in style in 1963 on his new, lightweight 420 BSA Victor before a Motocross des Nations - won by Great Britain despite the Belgians' late substitute, a Matchless-mounted kid called Sylvain Geboers - ended that glorious decade of grand prix drama.

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