Jalopy Driver
Jalopy driver details for Geoff Dalley
| Driver: | Geoff Dalley | ||||
| Known as: | |||||
| Active period: | 1965 to 1977 approx. | ||||
| Club: | Severn Valley - Club Members | ||||
| Number: | SV80 | ||||
| Residing (then): | Eastnor, Herefordshire | ||||
| Residing (now): | Eastnor, Herefordshire | ||||
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| Geoff Dalley was born in 1932, Colwall Herefordshire, he married Gwen Dawe in 1958. Shirley was born in 1960, Pam 1961 and Leslie 1965. In fact, Leslie was in the carrycot for the first ever race meeting Geoff took part in. During his racing years, many miles were covered from the Welsh Valley's to the Midlands and many friends were made through the camaraderie of racing. Geoff recalls attending a Western Valley meeting near Pontypool and was unsuccessful with a prize that day, Mr Alan Roberts - Western Valley chairman approached Geoff and said ' here you are, there's ten bob for your trouble for coming to support us'. Each SV80 was built from scratch and always designed by Geoff himself, the 'special' basic design being two lengths of 1 1/2" box steel, he positioned the forward engine to get the most weight to the back wheels, there was never a prop shaft just a connection of a short Volvo gear box attached to the back axle. He did start his racing with solid axles but soon learnt that an independent suspension was the way forward. He had studied the other ground hugging racers and realised that they had more potential than a proud standing vehicle. Several of his cars were sold on to other Severn Valley members and continued their race history on the track - only recently did the last racer leave Hollybush Quarries - on the back of a scrap wagon! As a member of Severn Valley, he was scrutineer, line - up marshall, track layer and racing trophy winner, one of the biggest and best achievements being the Hereford rebore trophy at the infamous Withington track. He also made the post rammers that were used to knock in the posts - a two man operation. There were many favourite tracks too over the years especially Radford, Withington and Park House hotel, Tenby - Geoff recalls one particular race at the Park house track where he was left with no wheels, Johnny 'Plumber' Morris was also in the same situation but he was minus two! A driver had decided to take a short cut between the two of them, sheering off their wheels, despite valiant attempts by some members of the Pembroke Hell drivers, there were two dissapointed drivers out for the rest of the weekend! Geoff well remembers doing battle with Don Jenkins, Norman Evans, Dave Fernihough, Terry Brown and was a fierce contender for points. He has very fond memories of Phil Rogers, Harry Badger, Don Page, Ken Hammond, Val Price, Les Wall, the Sanger brothers, Tony Griffiths all great gentlemen of the sport. Then, there were all the Dinner dances that took place out of season, always an enjoyable night out with several being held at Corse Village Hall, Staunton. Meanwhile, Gwen is now very much into family ancestry but was once very active in the earlier years of racing, helping the club with fundraising, gate duties, programme selling etc - as lots of other wives but most of all she must be honoured for the many hours spent as track widow and for the amount of sandwiches which were put together and taken to race meetings, they must have amounted to hundreds throughout the years! Neither of the Dalley children took up Jalopying but Shirley was involved more recently with caravan duties and they were always there to help with loading the dirty tyres at the end of the Severn Valley race meetings. Les meanwhile has his own 'jalopy' his '53 split screen Morris Minor. |
