Member Inducted 2009
The Murty Family
History
Stephen Murty was one of a band of keen motorcycle sprinters
from the Calder Valley area of Yorkshire. Early drag racing
ventures saw Steve progress to a crazy Hillman Imp engined
two-wheeler contesting Competition Bike at Santa Pod in the very
early seventies. The drag racing bug had bitten deep, but that
brought about a realisation that drag racing was a Southern based
sport, and Northerners had far to travel to compete.
Steve and several associates formed the Pennine Drag Racing Club,
to promote and bring drag racing to Yorkshire. Negotiations with
the landowner followed by much hard work from the new club, brought
eighth-mile drag racing to Crosland Moor Airfield near
Huddersfield, the former private aerodrome of Sir David Brown of
tractor fame. In 1974 the club held two race meetings at this
venue, featuring Clive Skilton, Dennis Priddle, Roz Prior and Ed
Shaver in a great show of support for this new drag racing venue,
until complaints from distant householders forced the venue closed
by the ruling of Kirklees Council. The closure saw Steve embark on
a long legal battle with Kirklees, which he was to win eleven years
down the road.
Undaunted, drag racing was promoted and staged at Liverpool's
Aintree Racecourse by Steve and the PDRC during 1975, though
Yorkshire still beckoned. Steve had long been in negotiation to
find a permanent venue, which in 1977 was finally unveiled as the
main runway at Melbourne near York, on farming land which had been
a World War 2 RAF Halifax Bomber base, the home of Number 10
Squadron. Those inaugural meetings had seen the emphasis on bracket
racing, and were contested enthusiastically by American motor sport
starved locals, with guest appearances by some of the most famous
racers in the UK on two and four wheels. Big crowds and television
company visits were the order of the day.
It soon became apparent that Steve's organisation was very much
family-oriented, with wife Leone running things in Race Control,
and Leone's mum Iris and dad Amos attending to the gate. Leone's
sister Liz and her hubby Steve were willing workers too, whilst
Michael was just a small boy.
Stunt driving arrived at York with the purchase of the wheelie
Vauxhall, campaigned by Steve initially, but latterly by Leone, to
the delight of the lady racers and spectators. Truck racing was a
Steve Murty innovation at Melbourne and the early eighties saw the
familiar Grand Prix racing trucks of the day racing in brackets at
York. Trucking led to drag racing's first purpose built drag racing
truck, the Bandag Bullet, built and raced by Steve and his
team, inevitably giving rise to another Murt first. The Rolls Royce
Avon jet-powered Pirelli Pro Jet, a record-breaking truck
built by Fred Whittle and demonstrated by Steve all over
Europe.
Steve attended to PDRC business with a passion, and quickly
established himself as a keen negotiator when involved with
inter-club meetings, and the forming of a National Drag Racing
Championship, and often locked horns with the ruling RAC MSA. Steve
was heavily involved in the inter-club meetings with the BDRA and
NDRC to ensure that safety aspects of drag racing were being
overhauled and improved through the combined efforts of the
promoters and clubs in the UK. Of course the racers were still
getting full attention, along with upgrades to the Raceway, which
was the subject of an ambitious campaign to re-surface the runway
under the banner of Mac the Track. No-one can have worked
harder than Steve during that period in the late eighties. The
track re-opened as the New York Raceway in an era when National
Drag Racing was at all venues in the UK, and the number of racers
who were cutting their teeth at Melbourne was booming.
Promotional vehicles continued to accumulate, and the Leyland
Skytrain was unveiled as another top quality exhibition vehicle
added to the Murty fleet - sixteen tons of wheelie Leyland
Landtrain truck. The exhibition vehicles were kept busy helping
provide the funds to keep drag racing alive at Melbourne as well as
providing the perfect promotional opportunity for drag racing at
the track. A return to Aintree with big promotional events in 1988
and 1989 was a forerunner to the huge 1991 National Power Sports
Festival which lasted a week at Blackpool and featured drag racing
demonstrations along the Golden Mile, in the biggest showcase ever
organised for the sport.
In 1992 Steve founded the International Organisation of
Professional Drivers, the IOPD, when new legislation threatened the
existence of motor sport on private land through the rulings of the
Road Traffic Act. In effect many events were saved from extinction,
or indeed prosecution, by the new authorising body which ensured
that properly organised and permitted events were not under threat.
Steve remains passionate that all such events should continue
without fear of falling foul of the law.
Today the Murty Family are still actively running events at York
Raceway; Steve as the promoter and champion of the grass roots
racers whilst Leone continues to be the steadying influence keeping
the Race Control staff contented and keeping Steve in line, whilst
Michael has established himself as a superstar in Monster Trucks
amongst the other machines that are part of the Murty stable.
Latest addition to the team, younger brother Christopher at twenty
one, has taken the reins of track preparation, and the general race
events organisation, ensuring that York Raceway is in safe hands
for the foreseeable future. This means of course, that PDRC will
continue to generate the enthusiasm that has led to some of
Europe's fastest and best racers having a local track to learn
their trade, thanks to the dedication of the Murty family.