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Demons HistoryA brief light hearted look into the history of The DEMONS BANGER TEAM (known more commonly as (THE DEMONS). It started back in 1975, with four individuals racing at Hednesford Raceway. These were Gerald Fiddler, Paul Watkins, Kelvin Jowett and John Till.
Being new to the game, they soon found out is was nice to have friends on the track who could give a helping hand, having already being at the mercy of big teams such as the legendry NUNEATON NUTTERS, SWADLINCOTE YELLOW DEVILS, the local BIRMINGHAM BARONS and COVENTRY AVENGERS, to name but a few. Later that year, some of us were asked to join a local team called The Sheldon Stars. It wasn't a very strong or big team, but at least you knew someone was on your side when you got out on the track. In 1976 the Sheldon Stars sort of faded away.
So in 1977 Fid (Gerald Fiddler) myself (Paul Watkins) decided to try and make our own team, which was then called the Darlaston Demons, this name was ok for a while, but with more new members (that didn't come from Darlaston) and aching arms (sign writing...THE DARLASTON DEMONS) it was decided to drop Darlaston from the team name.......resulting in considerable paint savings and arm ache. Plus there would always be one of us that would be interupted half-way through sign writing the car, to be told by another friendly member that they had just written Darlatsan instead of Darlaston.Team colours have changed a few times over the years, originally it was (brown and silver), then (red and silver), but finally in 1981 (blue and yellow) was the colour that was chosen and this remains today.
Over the years the team grew until in 1985 they had 15 drivers they could call on. It became one of their best years having won the National Banger Team Championship after years of trying. 1986 was the last time that welded Bangers raced at Incarace and the DEMONS were the last team to have won the National Banger Team Championship under those rules. 1987 onwards saw big rule changes….no welding of cars, engine size limited to 1622cc and instead of two or three teams per heat, it was changed to as many as twenty teams per heat. In my view team races really need to be one on one, say 12 cars from each team. Now that's team racing.
Below are some of the teams that have represented the DEMONS over the years. My apologies to those not mentioned who have raced for the DEMONS, the list is endless.
1981
Demons Banger Team
Gerald Fiddler
Paul Watkins
Martin Adams (Capt.)
John Webb
John Titley
Jack Woodcock
Pete Garner
Terry Whittaker
1985
Demons Banger Team
John Webb (Capt.)
Jack Woodcock
Paul Watkins
Barry Cooper
Bob Gamble
Pete Garner
John Titley
Chris Hill
Glynn Badger
Kevin Street
Ian Webb
1999
Demons Banger Team
Ian Webb
Marc Watkins
Steve McEvoy
Andy Robinson
Mark Summerhayes (res)
Matt Fiddler
Brett Fiddler
Nigel Beardsmore (res)
Dave Goodwin
2002
Demons Racing Team
Steve McEvoy
Andy Robinson
Marc Watkins
Ian Webb
Brett Fiddler
Baden Powell
Dave Kingston
Chris Hill
Nigel Beardsmore
Emo
Steve Jones
Rob Merrick
Scott Hill
Chris Cullem
Chris (Rambo) Keys
Roy Wildeman
Stuart Ward
Dave Butler
The team has now grown considerably with at the moment (2003)
42 members, 31 of those being drivers of various formula's