Austin Jonathan Wilkinson was the second of four Austins within the family, the name probably went back further but family records are not complete. His father was called Austin, and so is his son and his grandson. The family are the founders of Austin Wilkinson and Sons Haulage, which had premises in Weast, Salford, near the old bus depot. The firm has since moved.

He was more commonly known by his middle name Johnathan, or simply John or "Wilky". John was one of four children, Dorothy, James, Austin and Peter (the latter being his Stock Car mechanic), all of whom were involved within the family business. However, John created his own business in the early 1980s and built it up into the 1990s which took him away from the racetrack.

He ran his business out of Bowden House Farm in Irlam, Manchester, not far from Salford, and became very well-known for his expertise with agricultural machinery. He maintained a successful business up until his death. His son today carries on the tradition with Austin Wilkinson Demolition (AWD) and both Austin Wilkinson Haulage and Demolition firm vehicles can be seen moving around the North West in their classic blue and white design, exactly as John’s Stock Car was (so please think of him when you see one of these trucks on the road).

He married Judith in the early 1980s, who at this time had a son Antony Cummins. Antony joined John at his races in the early 1980s as a young boy of five, and to this day loves Stock Cars.

John had a daughter named Crystal and then a son, who of course was named Austin. Austin Jr attended some races with his dad later on.

John’s interest in the noble art of Stock Car Racing was as a result of his friendship with Chris Marshall (254) who popped in and out briefly in '79. His first car came from Bob Forrest (464) and came with a 454 Chev motor which proved to be sound despite smoking a bit due to the valve guide seals.

John Nolan helped him with his set up at Belle Vue, and looked after his tyre needs for a short while. There was a fashion of sidewall protectors at the time; this called for mounting the tyre on the rim in the conventional manner, and then fitting the sidewall of a scrap casing on top before inflation. The idea being that bumpers would rub this rather than the expensive bit. John had splashed out on a few Dunlop RS5s and even the fabled CW44 Weathermaster covers and took to this practice enthusiastically. These he referred to in the vernacular as "lady parts" to put forth a more polite term. John Nolan states that he enjoyed his time with John Wilkinson helping him out. So a big thank you to John Nolan for his comments and car specifics which are given here.

Also, thank you to Steve Botham for his pictures of John in his racing days. A close up of one of the images sees his car named "Judy II" which would be a dedication to his wife. However, she does not remember this, nor "Judy I". But it must have been so.

John was direct as a man, a hard worker and hated all tax men and the government in general, and was the type of man who used bailing string as a belt instead of an actual belt. He was always full of oil, was always at work and enjoyed travel to America, a "blue word" was always near his lips and the sound of spanners and curses never far away.

He would work in all weathers no matter what and would often be seen driving around the North in his van of tools.

John contracted a brain tumour in 2019 and started to decline. He was looked after by Judy, Crystal and Austin in the end, and he died in 2020 and was cremated. The family would welcome all anecdotes, images or information about John’s racing days. Please contact his step son at antonyjcummins@yahoo.co.uk