VETERAN stock car drivers will go back to the track this weekend to race in memory of an Oxford man considered one of Britain’s pioneers of the sport.

‘Dangerous’ Don Evans, from Blackbird Leys, who died in August aged 82, is revered in stock car circles as one of only two drivers to win a national finals race meeting at Wembley Stadium, in 1974.

On Sunday, friends and fans will gather at Northampton International Raceway at 1pm to race in Mr Evans’s name.

Drivers of all different abilities will take part, but it will only be the novices, recognisable from their white roofs, who will have the chance to win the Don Evans Cup.

The winner will be awarded a trophy by Mr Evans’s grandson 14-year-old Ashley Radbourne, of Rose Hill.

Mr Evans’s daughter Gail Evans, 54, of Druce Way, Blackbird Leys, said: “We are all chuffed to bits, we really are.

“He would probably have said not to make such a fuss.

“I imagine there will be a lot of people there that didn’t know my dad, but knew of him,” she added.

“It’s a big thing for me and my family.”

The president of the Veteran British Stock Car Drivers Association, Johnny Pratt, a former racing rival and friend of Mr Evans, helped organised the race.

Mr Pratt, 76, from Dorchester, said: “It will be a real honour for the novices to have the chance to win an award. Don would have liked that.

“He would have thought it was wonderful, he was a great guy.”

A replica of Mr Evans’s lilac number 37 stock car, which was brought to his funeral, will also race around the track.

Eynsham-born Mr Evans, of Balfour Road, Blackbird Leys, had been suffering from cancer of the oesophagus.

He worked as a mechanic in Enstone.

He helped his grandson run Domino Disco until his death on Thursday, August 5. He is survived by two children, four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and five step-great-grandchildren.

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk