Member Inducted 2006
John Ledster
History
John Ledster was a big man in every sense of the word. He was of
course physically a big man, he was a big family man, he was big
hearted and a big friend to many of us, especially in the world of
motor sport, and particularly in the sport of drag racing.
John first saw a drag race at Santa Pod some 45 years ago at a
time when his main interest was rallying and in fact the first time
he drove on the ΒΌ mile was in an Austin A40 rally car. Later of
course he competed in the "Big John" Mustang pro stock car that he
drove in the early 1970's. Incidentally it was a drive in this car
that gave radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis a taste for drag racing. It
was at this time that John joined the executive committee of the
British Drag Racing and Hot Rod association under the chairmanship
of "Gentleman" Jim Read. It was John who invited me to join that
committee in 1972 and it was then that I really got to know him. He
was a great committee man, always thoughtful and analytical, able
to gather all the various points of view of the club members and
eventually sort out a compromise that usually suited everybody.
Then drag racing was relatively new in this country and with little
money racers would make do and mend with a bewildering variety of
engine and vehicle combinations from supercharged 4 cylinder BMC
engine powered dragsters to a whole fleet of Jaguar powered
altereds, and a lot more in between. British drag racing had a
whole style of its own which sometimes made rule making difficult,
there were pressures to make rules that suited vested interests and
John played an immensely important role as a steadying force in the
process of regulation writing.
In 1977 John became the Race Director at Santa Pod, a post he
held until 1987. Running a race meeting to time can be a trial in
the present day but then Santa Pod was quite a different place to
the venue we know today. Paved pit space was limited and access to
the track was down the fire up road (today's return road). Most
competition cars were push started so it was important to know that
the previous pair of cars had cleared the track before the order to
push down was given by use of a traffic light and so keeping to
schedule could be a nightmare, add to that communication by field
telephone, limited track clean up equipment and no track driers and
it can be appreciated that the job of the race director needed a
big man to overcome the difficulties. John also worked tirelessly
at the venue between meetings and could often be found painting
fences, filling in pot holes and generally helping Bob and Roy
Phelps (and their tireless car builder and general handy man Alan
Bootsie Herridge) to keep drag racing alive in the UK.
After he relinquished his role at Santa Pod John continued to be
an executive committee member of the BDRA but increasingly his
people skills were employed by the RACMSA and ACU. John was
employed to steward a variety of race meetings not just drag racing
but also many circuit events. He stewarded at rounds of the British
Touring Car championship and became resident steward to the
Champions of the Future Kart championship, a series that got the
likes of Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton started on the road to F1
stardom. If you think that dealing with Junior Dragster parents can
be challenging then that pales into insignificance compared to
Karting parents but here the big man would employ his personality
to calm flustered brows, soothe bruised egos and settle on track
disputes before they developed into visits to the tribunal room or
worse.
In the late nineties John became instrumental in founding the
SPRC after the BNDRA moved away from the Pod. He helped found a new
committee (including me, and Carlo Gandolphi) and with the help of
the Pennine Club ensured that racing could continue uninterrupted.
By now John was the chairman of the MSA dragster subcommittee and
he became the UK delegate to the newly founded FIA Drag Racing
Commission, helping to develop European Drag Racing into the
success it is today.
I have talked about John as a race official but his biggest
success was a family man, raising his 2 sons Brian and Shawn with
his wife Liz and eventually becoming a Granddad. His family have
always supported John in his endeavours and in fact Liz raced bikes
and cars at the pod. He supported her through a period of serious
illness and later as John's own health deteriorated she was his
rock, always at his side to help him keep going in business and
home for as long as possible. John continued to attend MSA speed
events meetings for as long as possible, I would collect him and
his mobility scooter and he would drive himself into the various
meeting rooms. He was awarded Official D'Honeur by the MSA in
recognition of his work for British Motor Sport and John was
inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
So to sum up, Big John Ledster was a diamond geezer served his
family and friends for all his life. He was a strong, compassionate
and a true family man and I have been honoured to call him friend
for the past 40 years. However if you had tried to remind John
about his accomplishments and what a good guy he was I am sure he
would have simply said "Leave it out Guv'nor!"
Phil Evans