The funeral of Dougie Warner who passed away on Thursday 15th September will take place at Streetly Crematorium at 10.30am on Wednesday 5th October.

The full address of Streetly Crematorium is :

Little Hardwick Road
Aldridge
Walsall
West Midlands
WS9 0SG

Former BriSCA F1 stock car driver and Handsworth garage proprietor Dougie visited the USA in the early 1960s with Hednesford track founder Bill Morris, saw the NASCAR style of racing, and then returned home to create the first ever Hot Rod and became the first Hot Rod driver to take to the tracks. It really is as simple as ‘The rest is history’.

Although often out of luck in the big races when behind the wheel, Doug did win a couple of the famed ‘100 lappers’ at The Hills, but rated his victory over fellow greats Tom Laffey and Terry Haywood in the 1971 South African championship as his best ever drive.

Gordon Bland was instrumental in painstakingly restoring that famous ‘first ever’ #131 car over a number of years and was very proud to present the car back to Dougie at the Classic Hot Rod National Championship meeting at Hednesford Hills Raceway a few years ago. Dougie was kitted out in all of the modern safety gear and gave the car an emotional return to the track at a fair speed and then became the Pace Car for the big race.

The photo above could well have captured one of the most influential moments in Oval racing with Dougie (left) discussing racing with Bill Morris (centre) and Bill France (right), founder of Daytona and NASCAR.

There will be a celebration of Doug's life at the Hardwick Arms on Chester Road after the funeral and the family would more than welcome anyone who would like to pay their respects.