Brandon Stadium Coventry

Brandon Stadium was located on the A428 Rugby Road in Brandon, to the east of Coventry. A multi-use venue, it held speedway, stock car, and greyhound racing.  For BriSCA F1 fans, the first Saturday of the month meant a pilgrimage to one of the sport’s major stadia.

Key Historical Points:

• Opened:  29 September 1928
• Speedway Racing: Speedway racing was first introduced at the stadium in 1928.  After World War II, the newly formed Coventry Bees Speedway Team reopened the arena on 1 May 1948.
• Midget Car Racing: Debuting on 2 May 1937 Midget Car Racing took place at Brandon Stadium until 1939.
• Stock Car Racing: BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars premiered on 30 June 1954.  Some 500+ meetings later, their final outing was on 5 November 2016.
• Greyhound Racing: Greyhound racing first took place at the stadium on 19 September 1978 and lasted until Brandon’s closure.

Brandon Stadium’s closure in 2016 marked the end of an era for the Coventry Bees and local motorsport enthusiasts.

Memoir

Saturday 7th September 1968 was my first visit to Coventry.  After what seemed like an interminable drive from the north-east down the A1 and a bit cross-country, we arrived at the 1968 running of the BriSCA world final. 

Apart from the journey, the main recollection of the race is Tony Neal 100 chasing first placeman Ron Rogers 152 for 29 laps.  On lap 29 of 30 a stationary car on the town bend/ turn 4 was instrumental to the outcome of the title.  Then Tony took the inside line and got in front of the 152 car that had taken to the outside.  As a result, the gold roof came back with our local star driver to Richmond.

Visit number 2 was the 1971 world championship on 4th September.  Once again a race long battle featured.  This time the combatants were Jim Esau 244 and Willie Harrison 2.  However, with the race in its final stages, the two came together.  Thanks to that collision, my favourite Doug Cronshaw 396 who’d been tussling with Ian Durham 311 snook through to take the lead and the 1971 world championship.  

A secondary point of note was a wheel bouncing the turn one fence and the packed crowd around us on the pits bend terracing parting like the Red Sea.  Amazingly, there were no injuries. As such, there were no health and safety concerns as the fans were completely aware of their surroundings.

Overtime, I’ve attended 20 of the 22 world finals held at Brandon. 

Other highlights

Loads of individual incidents stay on the memory:

• Rugby’s Jim Sanders 268 being dazzled by Stu Smith’s silver overalls in a heat and planting him in the turn 1 fence and removing the 391 back axle.
• Another visit to the turn 1 fence for Stuart Smith in the 1980 race for the gold roof.  Sufficient time before the restart allowed the 391 car to have a new radiator fitted.  Thanks to the repairs, the maestro made it back to the grid.  Subsequently, he raced on to the third of his 6 world titles.
• John Lund running third, giving a heavy heave-ho to rivals Junior Wainman and Andy Smith.  Once again, the site of the action was turn 1.  Due to the visit to the fence, Murray Harrison was gifted the lead and took the chequered flag.
• A lap down, Len Wolfenden brake testing the lead cars, much to the annoyance of the back straight crowd.
• After the 2010 BBC TV series Tears and Gears boosted interest, we arrived at the stadium to find the all car parks full and having to park on the road. In view of this, a route march between the car and track was necessary.