There are some pretty impressive statistics surrounding the British Automobile Racing Club North Western Centre’s CNC Heads Sports/Saloons Championship. Over 700 different drivers have competed in the category during its history. It has played host to over 470 individual races. And 1999 champion Chris Maries, victorious in his Mazda RX-7, has contested the highest number of them, starting 222 in around 25 different cars.
Yet it’s no surprise that such big numbers are involved given the championship celebrated its landmark 40th season last year, and one person has been a key part in its success throughout that impressive period: coordinator John Leck.
The numbers have not always been quite so large. Just nine cars competed in the very first race at Oulton Park on 31 March 1984 and the series had very humble beginnings. It was created, alongside a shortlived Formula Ford 2000 single-seater series, as a way of securing the future of the North Western Centre.
“As a centre, we used to organise car meetings and sprints and autotests in the north west and they had all started to fizzle out and we were always dependent on Oulton Park offering us dates,” recalls Leck.
“At the time there were several Special Saloon Car championships and also the start of the Modified Saloon Car Championship. But there were a lot of cars that had been uncompetitive in those championships because they were starting to get dominated by Special GTs – F2/F3 cars with bodywork put on – and a lot of money was being spent on them. We had this view there were a lot of Modsports and Special Saloons cars in people’s garages that weren’t competitive any longer, and maybe there was the potential of getting them out.”
Alongside centre chairman Ken Mitchell and David Simpson, Leck helped launch the category, despite only getting involved with the centre for the first time six months beforehand.
Source: Autosport