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THE DUKE OF CORNWALL Rex began noticing drag racing in the early ‘60s, he lived in the extremes of the British West Country on a farm in Bridgerule, Cornwall. His first introduction to the sport came in the form of the American publication HOT ROD Magazine. In 1964 Rex was just 18 and working in a paint shop near Bude when he met Tim Lyle, now Nicolas Cole, a garage mechanic at an Austin BMC Dealer in Holsworthy about 10 miles east of Bude. They were both interested in this American form of “Sprinting”. Soon they hatched a plan to build a dragster around an old 283 Chevy V8 they had located in a nearby scrap yard. Rex started looking at more exotic combinations and soon found another enthusiast Chris McQuaid a butcher from Launceston, Cornwall. Between them it all came together over the winter months. Rex wanted a big supercharger sitting on top of this V8 just like he had seen in “Hot Rod”, and kept reading all the magazines he could get his hands on. Then another chap from Exeter appeared by the name of Jeff Theobold who had built a 6 cylinder Jag rail and Rex soon learned that the Allard Motor Company in Putney, London could import a supercharger from Moon Speed Equipment, in California. After finding a 331 Hemi Chrysler V8 in an old ‘55 Dodge in someone’s back yard, the boys made provision for a bigger and better drag racing engine that would take a big GMC 671 type blower, the engine was treated with two port Hilborn fuel injection, TRW Powerforged pistons and rings, a Crower flat tappet cam and lifters. The Chevrolet became a redundant lump in the corner of the workshop. Maybe Jeff absconded with it. Rex made a mad dash to London and soon re appeared with what he thought would be the Dogs B*!!*^ks. Then he realised that the blower was a Potven type 671 that was originally designed for the Utah Salt Flats and thus fitted low in front of the engine between the frame rails and fed the engine intake via big ducting pipes. This was not what Rex had in mind but as he was stuck with the kit, he persevered and finished this beauty. In 1965 they rolled the “Duke Of Cornwall” out into the Spring sun and fired it into life. It was “WILD”. “Now what” was the cry from Rex and said racing, and looked to enter the Duke in the next drag race to be held by the new British Club. The first public display came at the Cann & Medland Austin BMC dealership in Bude Cornwall. This attracted much attention and was promoted as “Cornwall’s First Dragster”. Indeed it was. It was one of only a handful of supercharged V-8 dragsters in the UK at the time. There was little cash left to actually build a trailer and kit up for taking “The Duke” to a race hundreds of miles away, so Rex and the boys decided that they would find a local venue and put on a demonstration, they also invited Jeff Theobold to bring along his new Jag rail so they had someone to race against. Jeff was all for it and Rex contacted the North Devon Motor Club for advice. Rex found that RAF Winkleigh, about 15 miles east of Exeter, was being used for Motor Cross and Motor Cycle Sprinting and approached the farmer with the proposal of holding a “Demonstration of Drag Racing”. As this event would take the form a promotion, Rex didn’t need RAC sanctioning. He chose a weekend in early October and ran a two line ad in the “Western Morning News” the week before the event. The simple unobtrusive classified read: “Drag Racing Demonstration at Winkleigh Aerodrome, next Sunday” Rex soon found that he was heading for trouble. He was expecting about 500 visitors until the Westward TV Sports editor picked up the ad and contacted Rex for an interview questioning him as to what the drag racing would be like. As much publicity had recently been in the national papers and on the BBC with the American Dragfests being held around the country only weeks earlier. The Westward Sports Editor ran some Drag Fest footage on the Friday evening “What’s on this Weekend” slot announcing that there would be a drag racing demonstration on Sunday at Winkleigh. Rex panicked and called the North Devon Motor Club for assistance. On Friday afternoon Rex also contacted the local Constabulary and advised of the event and asked if he could recruit a couple of off-duty PC’s to help at the entrance of the Aerodrome. On the Sunday the weather was perfect and by 9:00 a.m. queues started forming along the country roads leading to Winkleigh. The surge of traffic caused the local police to shut off roads and to declare an emergency as thousands of cars descended on the rural airfield. Rex and his helpers were swamped with people thrusting pound notes into their hands and driving in. After about an hour there were four lanes all taking cash and there were no provisions to handle the money and all the helpers had their pockets, shirts and pants full of cash. They were so scared that they just gave up and let everyone in for free. A miniature stampede was the description used by some. Then there was the crowd control. One thing led to another and Both Rex and Jeff made a run but mechanical problems plagued both cars. The North Devon Motor Club ran a few saloon cars down the course but this didn’t appease the huge crowd for long and all felt threatened by the thought that at any moment everyone would flood the track. As it turned out the crowd held off while Rex and Jeff push started their cars again. Jeff’s Jaguar threw a rod and The Duke of Cornwall developed clutch troubles. They did manage to run the Duke down the track on one occasion but at the end of day it was disappointing. The crowd expected a race not a demonstration. Click here to read a 1965 newspaper cutting about the Winkleigh meeting, this is a large file and may take some time to download. |
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