Ann and John Hunt Crystal Trophy
1989
Ernie Wright Memorial Trophy
1990
Richy Ahern Trophy
1984
Wilf Blundell Trophy
1989

This interview with Ian Bennett appeared in the November 2014 Coventry programme.

For any of you out there who went Stock Car Racing back in the "old days", or for those of you who have an interest in the history of the sport, you will know the name of Bobby Burns (329 and 471) who raced in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. After being deemed to be too rough in bangers (which was quite an achievement back in those days), Bobby started a career in Stock Cars that would gain him notoriety and respect in equal amounts.

After an early start in BriSCA, Bobby raced in the south with the SCOTA organising body before coming back to the BriSCA fold for good. He was great friends with the late Richy Ahern (18) who unfortunately lost his life due to complications after an accident in his F1 Stock Car – I’m sure that anybody who remembers Richy and his style of racing still misses him now, I know that I do.

Bobby was a tough driver who certainly knew how to use the bumper – but he was also super friendly to his fans and fellow racers, assuming they’d not upset him of course! Known as ‘The Blonde Bomber’, Bobby was a car trader from his base in deepest Essex. Rather than spend his valuable time messing around with Stock Cars, Bobby tasked several crews over the years to look after his cars. Initially it was Frankie Wainman Snr who looked after his racing, then John Jebson and for the remainder of his career the challenge of keeping ‘Burnsy’ on track fell to Steve Houghton. Way ahead of his time, Bobby was the ultimate ‘arrive and drive’ racer who’d often only appear at the track minutes before his first race was due to take place.

He always had good equipment and with sponsorship from Flockton Plant Hire for much of his career he was able to entertain the crowds with his no nonsense style of racing. Bobby is still seen watching the races and indeed was here at Coventry Stadium for the World Final race in September. He very kindly took time out of his busy day to talk to me recently about his career in the sport.

So, you started out in the Bangers back in the day with the Ahern Rats Team, what was it like?

It was 1970, and it was superb. I was 17. It was spot on. It was enjoyable and we done what we had to do. And then Chick Woodrooffe came down and told me I was banned. I told him that I was always banned but he told me that this time I was banned for life! When I asked why he said the insurance company wouldn’t insure me as I was hurting too many people so I couldn’t race! But he then went on to tell me that he had something that may suit me. He told me about ‘Senior’ Stock Cars and invited me down to Rayleigh the following Wednesday to meet a mate of his and see his car. So I went down there and there was a geezer there, a big old lump a bit like you. He said “Hello are you Bobby Burns? I’m Dave Chisholm!” and asked me what I thought of it. I told him they were horrible, awful – not for me!

He encouraged me to have a go and I went round but still thought they weren’t for me. I left it for about 2 months, but I like oval racing and there was nothing else I could do so I rang up ‘Woodpecker’ and told him that I’d bought a car off Dennis Driscoll, an old Darkie Wright car for £200. So he said alright, come down and he gave me a license, number 329 and said do the first meeting here at Rayleigh. So I got it all ready, and the week it’s ready to go Woodpecker rings me up and tells there ain’t no more Rayleighs, they’ve been cancelled. So I said where am I going to go now then? and he told me there was one at Stoke on Sunday.

I asked him where the hell Stoke was and he told me I’d be alright, it was a Mike Parker track. So I go to Stoke, raced and went straight in the fence. Mike Parker came up to me after the meeting and said “Really pleased you come, thanks for coming, but because you weren’t booked in Bobby, you don’t get no start money!”, so I said nothing has changed then!, and that’s how I started.

I know that there’s a lot of old stories from when you raced down at Baarlo with the SCOTA organisation – a bit lively wasn’t it?

Well the first time I went to Baarlo, they told me it was shale and I got there and it was tarmac! They’d changed it! When I first went there with the Rodeo cars it was shale but they’d changed it. The second time I went, there was this German guy in the bar with his face all mangled and he pointed at it and told me that tomorrow, it would be my turn! So I was like oh really – I turned to Les Suckling and Ian Ireland and asked them what it was all about. They didn’t know but I told my mate Ronnie who had been with me since bangers that if I got near him he was having it. Sure enough I found him, stuck him in and they needed to use two cars to fill the gap where I’d put him through the fence. Jac Claes came up to me after the race and said “You can’t do that”! Afterwards the German came walking by and I asked him how he was and he just shook his head and kept walking!

Me and Chisholm went there when Ian Ireland won, and we were sitting in the bar. I’d gone on the back of Chisholm’s coach, and we raced on the Saturday and they were quick. I didn’t call him Chisholm I called him Hot Rod. Anyway, he turned to me and said “We ain’t gonna beat these, are we Burns?” but I said we can beat them and he told me that we needed to stop them. So I said if you like, and we stopped every one of them! We put them out, they went for a gap we closed it. I wrecked my car, I had a John Hillam car, absolutely wrecked it.

Ian Ireland won it, and I said to Hot Rod that if I knew he was leading it I’d have taken him out too as I didn’t like him either, so we had a good laugh about that.

Anyway, when we was on our way home, Chisholm has a mechanic called Dennis, and Chisholm went to me “I think you’re ready for an upgrade Burns” which Dennis agreed to, so he went “I’ll tell you what you’re going to do Burns. When you get home dump that thing at my yard and take my World Final car, you can have that for a year”. And I got in it at Wimbledon and done about 3 laps and thought no wonder he wins everything, this is easy! Anyway, I was racing for the European title there and I’m miles in front and I come up onto that 258 Guinchard and I’ve buried him, but went to deep and dropped back to about 5th or 6th with 7 laps to go. As I went across the line I’ve hit Chisholm who was in the lead and he said “My head nearly hit the bloody steering wheel Burns!” and I told him I was in a hurry. We had a good laugh about that.

In the 1970s, who would you say was your biggest rival back then?

Everyone! I was hopeless! I was a white top and spent more time digging it out of the fence and going home with my shoulders all cut up. I didn’t really step up until the late 70s when I got in with the Wainmans. Our problem down here in the south was that we didn’t know how to maintain the cars. I had a Dennis Irvine car which was a good car but I couldn’t get it around the corners, it kept going straight on. Darkie Wright came up to me and said to me “If you can get that going around the corners you’ll be fine, as down the straights it goes like a rocket!”.

Chisholm asked me if he wanted him to sort the car and one night I took it to Chisholm’s and he told me that he could fix it. He cut this and cut that and put the engine further back. After that I went out and won everything in it! Anyway, I went back to BriSCA from SCOTA. I was 329 originally, then 22 in SCOTA... 22 because Alan England’s car was 24 so I only had to alter one number when I had his car. A lot of people ask me why I chose 471 in BriSCA. When me and Roy Wilson were partners, we had a car site in the east end and the phone number started with 471, so when they offered me that number I took it so I’d never forget it!

Do you think Richie Ahern would have gone onto better things if his life hadn’t been cut short?

It’s easy to say he would, but he really would have gone on to be a Superstar. At the time of his accident he’d just started to lose the clown image. He had a good car, a proper car, and he was doing well and was pushing all the red tops around and on tarmac he was really quick. Without a shadow of doubt he’d have been a superstar.

You raced his car for a little while didn’t you?

When he got hurt, not before. Me and him started out in bangers together and I went to West Ham one night. My mum and dad came and watched me and my dad said to me that I was quick, but he asked me who that number 100 was, that young kid. I told him it was Richard and he told me that he was mustard, really quick.

He was a good lad wasn’t he, it was such a shame what happened.

It changed me, because when I came back I was a lot more serious and I decided I wasn’t going to mess about any more. He always said to me “I don’t know why you mess about the way you do”, but I said that I only did it for a laugh, but he said “I ain’t being funny, you can beat that Smith and that Wainman because I may have the speed, but you’re one wicked driver”. And when he got killed I thought of that, and I went and bought the Close car and the rest of it is history. Wainman's guys were always good to me, a lot of people moan about Wainman but he treated me fair.

There were rumours that Stu Bamforth used to pay you extra start money to come and race for him?

He used to say to me I’ll pay you extra money to put on a show. But I said you paying me any money won’t make me put on a show, what I do out there I do for me, not for you – but if you want to contribute, crack on! I asked him how much he paid Stuart and he wouldn’t tell me, so I asked for the same as Leonard but he simply said he’d give me a bit of money.

I told him to give me a chunk not a bit so he told me that I had to do Belle Vue and Bradford and I couldn’t miss any. I know he paid a few of us and of course he paid Stuart because he was what he was, but you also wouldn’t get a better driver than Leonard. He was superb, quick and knew what to do and how to do it – he took no prisoners.

There were several hard hitters through the years – did any of them trouble you much?

Truthfully? No-one. You got hit hard, I’ve had no problem with that as you’re in a contact formula! The art of it was you’re in a contact formula, and if you wanted to be good at it you had to make more contact than anyone else. If I’m going quicker than you then you’re going to go – if you’re quicker than me I’ll go. When people used to put me in the fence, you not happy about it but that’s not a problem, but trust me next time around you’re going to get it!

I put Leonard in one day and he told me up in the bar at Belle Vue “My teeth rattled when you hit me!” and then went on to tell me mine would fall out when he hit me back and that’s how it was. All that going up and rowing isn’t for me. It was a different world back then – they were men. The difference now is that these boys love their cars. I used to look at mine, and I know Stuart was the same and I saw two lumps of iron – it don’t bleed and it don’t cry. If you bent it you’d cut it out and put another bit in, that’s all it is.

One of your most infamous moments was when you chased Nigel Whorton around the centre green around here at Coventry – what was that all about?

He was a good driver, no two ways about it, but he was never in the Smith and Wolfenden league when it came to mixing and I’d put him in the fence and thought no more of it. As I’m going around, he’s waiting at the top corner facing me and as I’ve gone by he’s pulled out to hit me but he never did but made it look like he wanted to hit me. As I’m going down the back straight I’ve decided that I wasn’t having that and the rest is history! We tore the flag poles over and everything. At the next meeting we had to before the board and I got fined for it and I said that I wasn’t going to pay. Keith Barber wanted to ban me. So, Charlie Ochiltree said that he agreed with that and asked me if I raced at Christmas? I said no so he suggested that I was banned from December to February! He said “One thing for sure Keith is that he’ll be racing at my track tonight because half of these people come to see him”.

Charles was a good guy wasn’t he.

He was a good man, a man of honour and a man you respected. He’d never let you get away with anything outrageous but he was a fair man. I got to know him pretty well when Richard got hurt as he’d often ring up to see how he was. He was a proper geezer.

Ray Tyldesley at Hartlepool – you hit him coming off the centre green at a Semi Final meeting. What happened there?

I had enough. I’d been in the semi and he’d put me upside down. He was pushing and pushing and I ended up on my roof. Then someone knocked me back on my wheels but I’d broke an oil pipe. I tried to hold it on but I burnt my hand and had to pull off.

I went out in the consolation with no aerofoil on, the car was alright but wasn’t proper but I won it after having put him in, but he waited for me and put me in after the flag. As I was going in towards the fence I decided that this ain’t working and that was that. It was serious, I really meant that. I just watched him, that’s the art of the old banger days. When you want to stop someone you just watch them then whack, that’s it. I done all of his engine, took the head off and the carb, the lot.

These days lots of people try and bury each other but the end up going in themselves.

It’s just like snooker. It’s potting. Hit and go. If you watch the old days there was loads of us doing it. Stuart was always superb at it, Berresford was good at it. Close was very good. Brian Powles did three engines, mine, Close and Smith's. We always used to say to him, he didn’t do the same engine for us as Smith and he swore blind they were the same! They say it’s dear now but it was dear in my day. I was giving £15 grand for an engine back then and used to spend £120 on an inside back tyre back in the eighties.

There doesn’t seem to be the depth of quality in drivers now along with the characters back then?

For me personally, when Stuart and Leonard pulled out which was around the time I did, I think that you were no longer racing against the best. I always rated Leonard, he was an entertainer but a hard Stock Car driver. I remember Falding putting him in at Belle Vue just after he’d won the World Final and Leonard has come back on the crane and we’re winding him up saying how can you let a little boy do that to you? His mum still does his sandwiches and we’re winding him up all night.

In the national Leonard’s caught him and Peter has taken two posts out of the ground! To be out in a BriSCA F1, people say you want to be respected, I say no, you want to be feared. You can respect the pope or the milkman but you’re not frightened of them are you! When you saw me or Stuart coming you’d think twice and give a bit of room. I was racing at Belle Vue and it was a big meeting, a lot of money and I had Bert Finnikin behind me on a restart. I thought you couldn’t have a better geezer behind you because you know Bert would make the move but he wouldn’t pass you as he knew he’d be getting it back. It’s not about respect, it’s about fear. If you’re a boxer, it’s the fear. You’re going in against Tyson, Larry Holmes, it’s just the same.

I heard once you were on holiday in Spain and had some bother with some of the locals on a kart track?

Haha no they gave me boy some bother, it was either Richard or Darren that got hit and hard. Brian Evans was also there. Anyway, I’m behind them and I chased this geezer and I’ve done him BriSCA style and he’s gone up and over and ended up going down the track with the car on top of him. As I’ve walked off these locals wanted a fight and I said whatever, but it didn’t happen. Brian Evans said to me that what I did out there was for real wasn’t it, you’re like that not just in BriSCA and that’s right, it’s just how I am.

In 1990 you got second in the points championship behind Lundy. Was it ever your intention to get the silver?

No I could never do it. I always wanted to stay in the top 5 but the silver was away from me as they would do a 100 meetings but I could only do 80 odd meetings. I’d had a good run considering where I was from.

Second in the World Final to John Lund in 1992, did you ever wish you got the gold?

I feel that talk is cheap. I used to enjoy my racing and my boys used to enjoy it. But I think that I should have took it a little bit more serious. The gold was obviously something you wanted but it didn’t really mean much. It’s like the football, winning the cup was good but where did you end up in the league? To be fair to them boys I thought I was leading that race, but then the 3 lap board came out and I wondered who was leading! In the meeting final Lundy was next to me and I told him he wouldn’t win this one trust me. I took him straight out!

Do you have any fond memories of Coventry Stadium?

Yeah the money was good, you used to get good money from here and I won a few track championships. The beauty of Coventry was the facilities. The track wasn’t the best thing in the world or the quickest. If you’re talking about tracks, I think Crewe, Belle Vue and Rochdale were proper stock car tracks. Sheffield was superb.

I remember at Crewe you rolling the down the home straight and landed up by the pit gate?

What happened there was my shale car had the engine out of it, and it was the European title the next day at Skeggy. So I’d said to Steven, let’s take the tarmac car. He told me not to break it and I was like, don’t worry it’ll be fine. Anyway, in the race there was a yellow flag so I was on the rolling lap and there was there these two birds in the crowd that caught my eye. As the race started I don’t know what happened, but I tried to look at them and as I’ve turned back I look up and old man Wainman has stopped. I’ve gone up the back of him and I’ve gone over and over. As I got to the pit gate I’ve landed back on my wheels pulled the clutch in and fired it up which was a touch but I had a puncture. It had also bent all the chassis legs at the front.

When I’ve come off and the race is over, Steven has come over and looked at it and declared it wrecked. He weren’t happy as he didn’t want to take it in the first place. He said to get it into the bus and we pulled out of the meeting straight away. Nobody was talking on the bus and I’m with Irvine who was one of the fitters and me and him are laughing about it all. Anyway, we get back to Flockton’s and I get told to push off and buy fish and chips for around 6 of them and then push off back to my hotel. I said that’ll do! Next morning I go down there and they’ve put a complete new front on it. So I said to them it was lovely but are you going to paint it! We had some great times. My boys, it was our sport and we treated it like a football game. It was what we loved doing. From the minute we got there we enjoyed it. If we lost, so what? If we won, great. But the main thing was that we enjoyed it, they don’t do that now.

It all seems to be egos and people falling out these days doesn’t it.

Listen, when you race against people like Dave Mellor, Stuart Smith, Wolfenden, Close and Berresford now they’re the best of the best. You don’t have egos. You just do what you do. I mean Stuart Smith was the best, we knew that and we all strived to beat him. The only man that could handle him week in and week out was Chisholm.

Did you ever get any hassle away from the track back when you were racing?

I had a red top one night at Leicester come and threaten me. He said you keep putting me in the fence I’m going to take you out and beat you. Stuart Smith looked at me and he laughed. The next week I made a few enquiries where this driver lived. I raced on the next Saturday night then on the Sunday morning I paid him a visit at home. He said he’d a drink and that but I told him to wind his neck in, and reminded him that I could do a lot worse to him with my fists than I could with my bumper! When I raced after that every time I saw him I buried him. Every time. The art of it was, Stuart, Leonard, all of us was that if you were put away then you went and put him away. Then you put him away again. Then you put him away again. They’ll come up to you and complain but they’ve got a choice. If you’re going to bury me that’s fine I’m not bothered. Especially for me as I didn’t have to repair the car during the week so whatever you did to me was immaterial which was a great asset I can tell you! Stuart used to say to me – “you go home and relax and I’ve got to spend all week repairing mine!” so I used to say back it was his fault and he should be a good driver like me!

Is there anyone that you watch these days that you like?

I don’t really go all that much. Obviously I like to watch young Stuart in the World Final because of his dad and he done very well. Finnikin was very quick. I like that number 4, he’s a good Stock Car driver.

Mick Sworder is good to watch?

We call him Dick Dastardly as he’s like a wacky racer! He’s very entertaining but he falls off. He drove well at the World Final and in the meeting final he won it.

How do you think the current sport could improve?

It has never progressed has it. It’s a shame because it’s a lovely spectator sport but it’s easy for everyone like me to sit and say do this and do that. The best promoter was Bamforth as he always put a show on. Vince Moody used to try hard too.

If you could have a match race with a bunch of drivers from any era who would you choose?

All the white tops haha. Obviously Stuart. People have said to me who do I think the best was? Well it’s Stuart or Chisholm whoever you fancy, then Cronshaw. I never knew him or met him. He raced with me but that was when he was at the end of his game. I always used to enjoy racing with Leonard because you’d battle each other about then after he’d make one of his stupid jokes. I never got on with Dave Mellor but I get on with him now. People say to me who did you respect the most? I said nobody, I didn’t respect anyone. I was out racing doing my thing. I respect them now but not at the time. I raced loads of times with Chisholm. I used to like Close. Brian Powles was hard. Berresford and I suppose as he’s still doing it now I’d choose Lunge just so that I could put him in one last time! Mellor was a good driver.

He used to run some good kit and that old Ford V8 didn’t he?

It wasn’t just a Ford, that was a proper Holman and Moody, a 429 Cobra Jet. The thing was a rocket. You used to be going down the straight and you’d be in your all singing and dancing 454 and he’d pull away.

You’ve always had a good crew around you haven’t you?

When I first went to BriSCA I was okay, but when Jebson took it over and then Steven took it over that’s when things got better. You’d just turn up and the car was mint. You come back after the meeting and I’d be having a wash in the coach and the tractor would be bringing the car back in bits and I’d say righto then, let’s go to the bar and we’ll see you next week!

I know that was one of the things that you were legendary for in that you’d often be sat in the car while your boys ran around fixing it for you!

Yep! If there was a lot of damage and it was heat 2 I’d go to the bar and tell the boys if they get it done for the consolation don’t come and get me, just pull it out with my hat and I’ll come out! We all had great times.