1981 Transatlantic Drag Bike Race at Long Marston Raceway
Photos © original photographer, and reports © Dave Knight and Julian Ryder
Back in 1981, Long Marston Raceway had only just had its first season of racing after being upgraded in the winter of 1979/80. Events held during 1980 were fairly low-key and so the National Drag Racing Club wanted to raise the venue’s profile to compete with Santa Pod Raceway.
The event devised was a large bike race to be held on 24-26 July and headlining it was the quickest Top Fuel Bike in the world, ridden by Bo O’Brochta from St Petersburg, Florida. O’Brochta had run an otherworldly 7.080/196 at NHRA Ontario CA Finals 1980 to be the first rider to go quicker than Russ Collin’s 7.300 at 199.55 recorded three years earlier.
The NDRC team, noting how popular Top Fuel Bike racing had become across Europe, invited the quickest bikes to compete, including Henk Vink from Holland and all of the British Top Bike competitors including Jonny Munn, Jeff Byne, Mick Butler and Terry Sidebottom. Another US rider, Sam Wills was a late entry but did not feature.
In addition to this, and one of the few times in drag racing history where they didn’t have top billing, a Top Fuel Dragster challenge was announced with Dennis Priddle, Trevor Young, Andy Craddock, Alan Ritmeister and Tony Boden. Dennis didn’t make this event. Bo O’Brochta was undoubtedly a star attraction. Julian Ryder of ‘The Biker’ said ‘It may have cost them a few bob to get Bo over here but he sure gave them good value. Mr O’Brochta is as pleasant a guy as you could hope to meet, he had some time and a word for everybody’. He also noted Bo’s philosophy on engine preparation for his Terminal Van Lines sponsored Kawasaki engine, running a welded stock crank and stock rods: ‘All you really need to win a meet is four runs…and it’s easy to make a stock crank last that long. Throwing away a stock crank every four runs is a lot cheaper than rebuilding a special item after every run…We stay between 80 and 87 per cent nitro because the additional horsepower you make on runs with 95%, on these runs, the motor self-destructs’. The field assembled was the largest ever in terms of bikes, with 74 entries, plus several that entered late. A crowd of 6,000 turned up to watch the competition, and overall the meeting was a great success as the thank you letter from Bo O’Brochta testifies. Super Bike Qualifying
Eliminations Round 1 Bo O’Brochta 7.83/158 def. Jeff Byne 9.42/130 DQ late staging Semi-finals Bo O’Brochta 8.10/124 def. Brian Chapman Final Henk Vink 8.60/142 def. Brian Chapman 9.01/124 (returned under break rule) Bo O’Brochta suffered cylinder head damage in qualifying and the same problem in the semi-final caused him to drop out of competition. Bo blamed a faulty cylinder head casting. His 7.83 was the quickest bike ET yet seen in the UK.
Pro Stock Bike (1) Qualifying Round 1
Brian Johnson def. Erik Bauer
Semi-finals
Paul Andrews 9.50/141 def. Pip Higham 9.64/138 Final
Brian Johnson 9.70/144 def. Paul Andrews 9.73/139
The first round match between Brian Johnson and Erik Bauer had been needed to be re-run due to a glitch in the timing system. However Erik conceded that BJ had got to the finish line first.
Pro Stock Bike (2)
Qualifying Round 1
Rob van Ginneken 10.00/138 def. Norman Hyde 10.91/126
Semi-finals
Rob van Ginneken 10.04/137 def. Bert Voorthuis 13.13/55
Final
Rob van Ginneken 9.89/138 def. Graham Nash 10.02/133
There were so many entries into Pro Stock Bike organisers decided to split qualifiers into two eliminations based on qualifying ETs. Rob van Ginneken’s 9.89 in the final was a personal best ET. In 2017, Rob Janssen’s later Benelli-engined Pro Stock bike appeared at Santa Pod Raceway at Dragstalgia and was ridden by compatriot and co-rider back in the day, Erik Bauer.
Top Bike
Qualifying
Round 1 Jan Janssen 9.17/125 def. John Charlton 15.26/52 Semi-finals Terry Sidebottom def. Phil Brachtvogel Final Jan Jansen 9.10/148 def. Terry Sidebottom 9.30/146 Senior Bike Rod Pallant (Heavy Metal Buick 3500cc) qualified 5th with 9.73. Eamon Hurley (Concorde HME Wankel 1980cc) qualified 10th with 10.35 and defeated Keith Porter (Stalin’s Organ Morgo/Puma 800cc) in round one. Semi-finals Rod Pallant 8.90 def. Paul Rose (Hissing Sid Suzuki) Final Eamon Hurley 8.91/156 def. Rod Pallant 9.22/144 Rod Pallant's 8.90 in the semi-final was his first eight second clocking
Middle Bike Tom Vivian (UK, Tomfoolery Triumph 740cc) defeated Nigel Tee (UK, Frontiersman Yamaha 347cc), Pete Field (UK, Saabrina SAAB 850cc) and Jim Challenger (UK, Poltergeist Kawasaki 748cc) in the first three rounds of racing. Final Tom Vivian 10.99/125 def. Brian Simpson (Enginuity Kawasaki 1100cc) 12.59/86 red-light
Junior Bike
Eliminations (extracts) Round 1 Peter Birch (Green Light Kawasaki 500cc) bye Round 2 Peter Birch 12.47/104 def. Tony Wynne-Jones (UK, The Snowdonian Suzuki 771cc) 14.65/76 Semi-final Peter Birch 15.75/91 def. Alan Ing (UK, Masterblaster Jawa) 13.89/88 (broke) Final Peter Birch def. Vincent Cheeseman (UK, Invinceble II Morini 344cc) broke Street Bike No.1 qualifier was Jack Valentine (UK, Vengeance Suzuki) with a 11.02 followed by Peter Morrison (UK, Kawasaki 1200cc) with a 11.15. Eliminations (extracts) Round 1 Peter Morrison def. Alan Hughes (UK, Nice Time Kawasaki 1015cc) Round 2 Peter Morrison def. Paul Smith (UK, Honda 570cc) Final Peter Morrison 10.83/127 def. Tony Huck (UK, Rickman Kawasaki 1197cc) 11.49/115 Top Fuel Dragster Qualifying Eliminations
Semi Finals
Tony Boden 7.14/202 def. Ronnie Picardo Final
Tony Boden 9.28/201 red def. Trevor Young 8.01/168 crossed centre line
Dave Knight described the final: “As Boden went into stage, flames started to belch profusely from Young’s motor and despite attempts to douse the blaze the flames refused to be extinguished. Against the directions given by the startline crew Young insisted on continuing with the run and eventually staged alongside a very hot ‘Hitman’. On the green, Young’s car launched hard to the right narrowly missing the christmas tree. This unexpected change of direction was ably corrected but at half-track, the slicks lit up and the car veered over the centre-line. Again the commendable driving skills of Young brought the rail back under control and the rest of the quarter mile was completed without further trouble”.
We thank drag racing historian and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame director Jerry Cookson who has kindly provided copies of the material used in this feature.
Event programme (4 Mb pdf file)
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