Grandson of WWII airman visits his former airbase in North Yorkshire to race a mini dedicated to the Halifax bomber crew

Andy Walker took part in a weekend of races at the Melbourne Raceway in Pocklington, the former home of RAF Melbourne where his grandfather, Flight Sergeant Jack ‘Johnny’ Walker, was based.

The only drag racing track in the North of England, the event held over the weekend remembered the airfield’s role as a bomber station, home to No.10 Squadron, during the Second World War.

Mr Walker, whose racing mini bears the identification number of his grandfather’s plane, travelled up from his home in Surrey to take part.

“It has been a great weekend of racing and quite emotional as well, I’ve had to bite my lip a couple of times to stop things spilling over,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

All seven of the crew members on the Halifax bomber shot down on February 19 1944, which included Flt Sgt Walker, bailed out and were taken as prisoners for the rest of the war. “My grandfather came back,” Mr Walker said.

“After the racing as we sat in the evening we tried to imagine how it must have been with the bombers going up the runway and remembering all those who flew out and never came back.”

Mr Walker, who has visited the airfield previously with members of his family said he was really pleased the site, which was left to dereliction after the war, had survived, along with the raceway.

More than £104,000 was raised to reopen the track in a campaign led by Trevor Duckworth from Brighouse-based motor sport event organisers, Straightliner.

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James Mitchinson