RICK @ the RACES ( 26 Aug to 21 Sept 2015)
29 Aug Brafield Stadium, Northants
5 Sept Coventry Stadium, Warks
6 Sept Harlington, Beds ( Moto Cross)
18 Sept Norfolk Arena, Kings Lynn
Seven weeks after coming out of the Ottawa Civic Hospital, diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, with no significant signs of improvement, and my follow-up appointment with the specialist, not scheduled until the end of October, I decided something had to be done.
There were many questions regarding my treatment, and what prospects I had, of returning to a normal life, needed answering. ‘MG’ is a condition that my father suffered from, later in his life, and like him, I decided, to get some early answers, from a private medical consultation was in order.
My daughter Carla, made an appointment for me with a senior ‘MG’ doctor at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford , England and she arrived in Canada on Sunday 23 August from her home in Austin, Texas, to chaperone me to the UK.
On Tuesday 25 Aug we both left my home in Cornwall, Ontario for the Ottawa Airport, for the night flight to London, Heathrow.
I’d obviously been overdoing things and , as my energy levels were so low, that I needed wheelchair assistance at both Ottawa and Heathrow.
On Wednesday morning, 26 Aug we arrived in the UK, and were soon heading towards family and friends in the Milton Keynes/Bedfordshire area , in our KIA rental car.
The next few days were spent settling in and relaxing with family and friends. On Thursday , mum and I went to her local garden center where we met up with another special lady !
On Friday Carla and I went to Milton Keynes to do some visiting , and meet up with our long time friends, Colin and Kim Herridge.
While in the Central Milton Keynes shopping center, I was re-united with the cities famous ‘Concrete Cows’ , which I hadn’t seen for some time.
Meanwhile, Friday night back in my part of North America, meant race night at the Mohawk International Raceway, and once again my buddy, Andy Watts sent me the Victory Lane pics. I was happy to hear, my good friend Gage Morin, got the win.
Andy also sent me a couple of pics, of my normal photographing spot, and it looked like I escaped a narrow miss from a Sportsman car that veered into our concrete protection barriers.
My ‘MG’ condition means I have to take each day as it comes, I get days when I have energy to do things, and days when I don’t, so I’m not keen on making plans too far in advance.
On Saturday 29 Sept , Colin offered me a ride to Brafield, for some rare Saturday evening racing of , MiniStox , BriSCA F1 and 2 Stock Cars. He knew of my ‘MG’ condition, and had a lawn chair in his car ready for me to use.
Like my previous recent visits, back to Brafield, I was able to sit high up on the Control Tower V.I.P deck, in the comfort of Colin’s lawn chair.
It was great to see the Pursey family were still represented in BriSCA racing, with the off spring of my old friend Glyn # 175 out in the F2’s. Glyn was one of the top BriSCA F1 drivers and started his racing career at the same time as me.
Also in the F2’s, there was someone (I didn’t catch the name) racing with my old F2 number of # 567
The racing was over by the Saturday curfew time and once again ( like my last visit) Lee Fairhurst # 217 showed his track dominance by winning the F1 Final.
Meanwhile back across the pond my interest was , what was going on at the Brockville Ontario Speedway. I heard that Danny O’Brien won the Modified feature, and clinched the track championship.
It was also great to hear that Jeremy Lasalle got his first ever Sportsman Feature win
Photo Courtesy of BOS Media
On Sunday night back in Ontario, Brian McDonald won the Modified Feature at the Cornwall Motor Speedway.
It was the August Bank Holiday Weekend in the UK, and we had no plans until Wednesday.
Wednsaday was the day I was booked in for a private consultation with a top Myasthenia Gravis specialist doctor, in Oxford. The John Radcliffe Hospital in the City of Oxford , is about a one and a half hour driver from Milton Keynes, and Carla and I arrived there in good time for our mid day appointment.
The consultation lasted for over an hour, was very productive and I came away a lot happier man.
From Oxford, we headed to the nearby town of Witney, where my family once lived when I was a small boy. I took some pictures of St Mary’s School which was my first ever school, at the age of 5 years old.
I also took a picture of the parkland , known as ‘The Leys’ opposite the school , and the frontage to St Mary’s Church where I remember watching the May Pole dancing as a kid.
From Witney we traveled a bit further into Oxfordshire to Milton Under Wychwood where we would meet up with my sister Anne. She and her husband Pete have recently bought a house there, and are in the process of relocating from Hockliffe , in Bedfordshire.
Mum is also relocating there too , and has bought a sheltered flat/appartment, a short distance from Anne’s place.
This was a chance for Carla and me to get an updated insight to where the family would be living shortly. They would be back in Oxfordshire after a gap of about 55 years !
On Thursday Carla had to make a visit to Staines, in Middlesex, to the UK offices of her Texas based employer .
I also had stuff to do in that area, so joined her for the trip.
My Doctors consultation was paid for privately, and to help finance it, I was selling some of my racing collectables. One of the leading collectors of UK oval track memorabilia is Graham Brown who lives near to Staines, and we’d arranged to meet that day.
Carla dropped me off at his place at 9-30 in the morning, where we wheeled and dealed until lunchtime. When we were done Graham and I went to eat at The Riverside Transport Cafe on the A4 at Colnbrook, a place that I hadn’t visited for about 25 years. I was surprised it was still there, and still served good food.
From here Graham drove me to my next port of call, at nearby Egham.
Just over a year ago, my long time friend , Bob Hall (former stock car writer and BriSCA F1 driver # 380 ) suffered a stroke and had recently moved to sheltered accommodation. I spent the afternoon chatting with him, and brother Ian (ex BriSCA F1 # 381) until Carla arrived to pick me up around 4-30 pm.
Friday was a lazy day of rest and relaxation , taking advantage of this convalescent break I was having.
On Saturday, Colin drove me to the Coventry Stadium in Warwickshire, for the traditional ‘first Saturday in the month’ BriSCA F1 stock car races.
Apart from an excellent night of racing, the good thing about Coventry is the luxury inside bar on the home straight where you can sit and watch the show. We were there early enough to grab a good front row seat that had been saved for me, by fellow Veteran Stock Car Association member, Ted Hird. I’d chatted with Ted, from Nottingham earlier in the year at the Brafield ‘Vets’ reunion and he’d traveled to Coventry with my old buddy, Phill ‘Bootsie’ Chance.
It was great to see my old friend from my teen age years, Tim Warwick # 307 still out there on the track having fun.
Final winner was # 2 Paul Harrison,

As has been the case for many years, the Coventry bar is a great place of socializing where I met up with many of my old racing buddies from years gone by. I chatted with for quite a while with former drivers, Andy Webb and Mick Stecko.
On Sunday I would be taking in event, just a couple of miles from my Mothers House in Toddington , Bedforshire. There was a motor bike ‘Scramble’ at nearby Harlington ( or as I was told by the lady at the gate, a Moto Cross as they now call them.
I hadn’t been to one of these events for over 50 years !
I spent about 20 minutes there snapping some pictures before heading back to Mums for supper.
The next couple of weeks were spent relaxing in between some more visits to a Milton Keynes medical center, while Carla took off to Italy for a pre-arranged business trip.
The plan was for her to return to the UK on 20 Sept to chaperone me back to Canada.
On the weekend of 12/13 September the BriSCA F2 World Final was taking place at the Hednesford Hills Raceway, near Birmingham which I followed on-line, The winner was Kelvyn Marshall 2nd Graham Fegan, 3rd George MacMillan
During my childhood, our family had to relocate from Oxfordshire to Bedfordshire because of my fathers job, and we first place we settled , was in Evelyn Rd , Dunstable , close to Luton Rd.
As kids we would play up on hills of the ‘Blows Downs’ that ran between the two towns. As traffic has built up between the two places over the years, a relief bus route using both the regular road and some guide rails along a disused rail track has been built. I wanted to try this out, so during the week Mum and I took the bus to Luton.
Once in down town Luton we found my favorite UK bakery and tea shop , Greggs before taking the bus back.
On Thursday night, I met up with my old buddy Chris Pickup for a pint in The Bell. Chris and I first met in our teenage years when we were chasing around looking for girls, on our motor-cycles. We both had the interest in stock car racing, and when we reached the end of our teens decided to build one. They were great times !

On Friday, it was the start of the BriSCA F1 World Final weekend at Kings Lynn.
Friday was the pre-show for the overseas drivers and a World of Shale Championship for BriSCA F2’s, while the big event was taking place on Saturday.
With my MG condition (large crowds and very little seating) and the increased admission prices, Colin and I decided to miss the big day and go to the ‘pre-show’ event only.
LET ME DIGRESS,
After being involved in oval racing for oval 50 years, and having close contact with the organizing bodies both sides of the Atlantic, I can now see why the UK version of the sport has never reached the media attention and potential that it’s North American counterparts have. As a ‘media person’ in Canada and the U.S.A for over ten years , I have seen the big difference how ‘media people’ are treated on opposite sides of the pond . I won’t say any more, but it’s not surprising, why UK oval racing still gets very little recognition with ‘Joe Public’ . As for the admission charges at UK racing, most tracks seem to be far too high, and a lot more expensive than North American oval racing. END OF RANT
Colin and I got there early enough on Friday , to get some seats high in the front straight grandstand, where I could base myself for the night and not have to stray too far. I never packed my long camera lens for this trip, so had to make do with my regular one. Therefore my pics are not up to the standard, that I would like.
As you can see, temperatures were a bit different to Canada this time of year, and was a bit chilly so coats were required.
F2’s in action, followed by the overseas F1 stock cars.
It was good to see Martin Verhoef was still racing and took the checkers in one of the heat races. He was one was one of the top Dutch drivers over twenty years ago, before I emigrated.
After the races we had a quick visit to the bar, where it was great to meet up and chat with friends from the past. There are too many names to mention, but a few that spring to mind are former drivers Rien Rutjens, Frankie Wainman, and Neil Pokory
On Saturday, the day of the big World Final race, I chose to follow the outcome on line, from Face Book friends. As it turned out, it seems like our decision to miss this, was a good one. There were a number of ‘red flag’ stoppages for various incidents and a serious injury, with the big race taking a long time to complete. The eventual winner was Rob Speak, in a race that many of my friends classed as ‘nothing special’

Thanks to my photographer buddy , Colin Casserley for the pics
2015 BriSCA F1 World Champion, Rob Speak, with runner up Frankie Wainman JR and third placed Matt Newson.
I missed the traditional ‘day after’ event at Brafield, where both BriSCA ‘Gold Tops’ were in action.

I had another week of convalescence before Carla returned from Italy to accompany me home.
She arrived at back at Heathrow, on Sunday 20 Sept, and booked into a hotel close to the airport.
On Monday 21 Sept, Colin drove me to Terminal # 2 where I met her for the final leg of this trip. Our Air Canada flight left London at 12-35 am GMT and was landing back in Ottawa at 3-40 pm ET.
We were met at the airport by my buddy Don Simpson who drove us both back to my place in Cornwall Ont.
On Tuesday 22 Sept, I had a local doctors appointment before driving Carla back to the Ottawa Airport for her return journey to Texas.
The story does not end here !
After returning home to Cornwall, I received a phone call from Carla. Her plane had engine problems and could not leave, so an overnight stop was needed. There were no available hotel rooms in Ottawa, so she had to rent a car and return to my place.
At 4-00 am on Wednesday 23 Sept, she left Cornwall in the rental , and finally was heading back to Texas on the 7-30 am plane.
I hope to be back over in the UK to continue my recovery plans within the next couple of months.
R.I.P Leon Gonyo
The weekend of my return, Leon Gonyo ,who was one of my local race drivers from Chazy NY , sadly passed away , shortly after taking the checkers at the Devils Bowl Speedway in Vermont. My sympathies to all the family and friends.