History of the Formula One World Championship

The idea of a World Championship came from pioneer promotor Digger Pugh. It was Pugh who brought the sport to the UK in April 1954 and succeeded in attracting massive crowds and dozens of cars to his events. But he needed to go bigger and better and came up with the idea of a World Championship. The first one was staged over three weeks in June 1955 and consisted of qualifying heats, two semi-finals a week later, followed by the final on June 24th at Harringay, won by 35 Mac Macdonnell. This was in the days before BriSCA (British Stock Car Association) and the BSCDA (British Stock Car Drivers Association), and each promotor was a law unto themselves. Macdonnell's reign lasted only two months. Rival promotor Johnny Hoskins staged his own World Championship at Belle Vue Manchester, in August 1955, won by 99 Jerzy Wojtowicz. (Here is a picture of my models of these cars. See the gallery copy for an enlargement.)

 Hoskins ran similar World events in 1956 and 1957 but in 1958 the organisation of promotors that today is called BriSCA inaugurated qualifying procedures to ensure that the whole of the UK was involved. Towards the end of 1959 agreement was reached between promotors that the World Championship event would go on rotation to all premier venues in the UK.

Semi-finals were introduced for the first time at the end of the qualifying rounds in 1961. For a few years each semi-final meeting comprised two reverse order grids, with the World qualifiers being the top ten aggregate scorers, but in 1965 a sudden death one race format was adopted, which remains to this day.

In the early years there was little regard for an 'international element' and even towards the end of the 60s and 70s, 'overseas entries' tended to be a token gesture. This began to change in 1978 with the establishment of links with NACO in Holland and further ties with New Zealand were introduced in 1981. Since then there has been an ongoing desire to ensure that a genuine and valid element of overseas drivers should feature on the World Final grid. Currently, the thirty-two car grid usually comprises a minimum of twelve overseas drivers, of which, six are from Holland, two from New Zealand, with the balance coming according to availablility from Australia, South Africa, the USA or Canada.

The existing World Championship trophy was first presented to 103 Johnny Brise at Coventry in 1960 and the name that appears on it most frequently is 53 John Lund, who has won it a record eight times. (See photo in gallery of models of his eight winning cars). The next most prolific winners were 1/391 Stuart Smith who won it six times (See photo in gallery), 1/33 Peter Falding four times (See photo in gallery) and 103 Johnny Brise and 252 Dave Chisholm who each won it three times. Only 252 Dave Chisholm and 1/391 Stuart Smith have won the trophy in three consecutive years.

In 2007 on Saturday Sept 22nd the BriSCA F1 Stockcar World Final Championship took place at Norfolk Arena Kings Lynn. The race was won by 390 Stuart Smith Jnr, son of the legendary 1/391 Stuart Smith. This is his first World Title. 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr was 2nd and Stu's brother, 391 Andy Smith, was 3rd after a remarkable drive through the field. The World Final presentation at Kings Lynn was a first for the stadium and was a credit to the promotion. It was a pleasure to be there.