Flamholc wins in Atlanta. 30th June:
Congratulations to ex-pat Swede Adam Flamholc for winning Xtreme Pro Mod at the NMCA All-Star Nationals in Atlanta last Sunday in tricky weather conditions, with humidity and rain. Adam has been busy as he and co-driver Hank Stubbs attended the Summit Racing Midwest Pro Mod Series at St Louis on 20 June where Hank qualified no.2 with a 3.720/202.15 and then went 3.710 and 3.699 in the first two rounds.
In between events, Adam and the team worked on the car at Stubbs' Racing Shop in Morris, Alabama. Adam wrote: Our plan for the NMCA event was to head to Atlanta Wednesday, test Thursday, then qualifying Friday and Saturday. On Wednesday night it rained pretty hard overnight, and we made one squirrelly test run around noon on Thursday (3.774/202.27), but just after the run the track started bleeding up rainwater. The track crew have worked nons-top to try to get it dry, but racing was cancelled in the end.
Hank Stubbs hopped in for a few test hits, as the car’s transbrake location was changed and he wanted to confirm the switch worked for him.
In qualifying on Friday, Adam took the wheel again and attained number two with a 3.79 which he improved in the early evening with 3.734/202.61 to go number one. The day wasn’t perfect though, as Adam was accidentally hit by a fellow driver while he was standing in the staging lanes yesterday; fortunately he sustained no injuries and so was able to run in eliminations.
In the first round on Saturday evening, Adam had to pedal it as his '63 Corvette shook the tires hard and drifted right. He willed the car back into the groove with the front wheels in the air and was lucky enough to get the round win. Thirty seconds after the run, the sky just opened up and it poured down. On Sunday, a 3.85 bye in round two was followed by another pedalfest victory in the semi-final. As Adam headed to the finals, he changed the settings in order to try to make a cleaner run against fellow finalist Craig Sullivan. Another 3.85 was enough to defeat Sullivan’s 4.05.
Adam said "It was tough conditions, but we got it done. I'm super proud of my crew, and really happy that my son Mattias Flamholc was here with us and pulled me up to the beams every run!"
Adam’s next race with the 5-Day Plantation Shutters & Blinds/SMP Racing/Flamholc Racing Corvette is the ADRL Gateway Drags on July 10-11 at WWT Raceway just outside of St Louis.
RRC build gallery: Jaguar XJR-15. 30th June:
The fifth of our series of features showing photographs by Bob Roberts of the builds carried out by Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Race Cars covers construction of a customer’s reproduction Jaguar XJR-15. The car's design was based on the Le Mans winning Jaguar and made by JaguarSport, a joint venture of Jaguar and Tom Walkinshaw Racing; and 53 originals were constructed. The build was ordered after TWR went into receivership using original body panels and cabin section with other components that were readily available.
You can see Bob’s gallery in our feature in association with Lucas Oil Products here or go to our Features, Interviews, Tributes index via the main menu.
Feature:1973 NDRC Silverstone International Drag Race. 28th June:
The first championship drag race at Silverstone Circuit took place in June 1973 and is the subject of our latest historic feature. The Club Straight had been resurfaced providing great traction, and cars from Sweden, Germany and a few driven by members of the US Air Force attended. Our historic feature with material kindly supplied by Jerry Cookson, Nick Pettitt, Neil Baskerville and others, includes the story of the event, why Silverstone stopped hosting championship drag races after only two years and three races and see more than 100 photos from a variety of sources.
You can see our feature, supported by Lucas Oil Products here or by clicking the features, interviews, tributes link from the main menu.
Photo of Björn Andersson in Second Invention Opel Manta FC courtesy Neil Baskerville (original photographer John Rudling)
Swift snippets. 28th June:
Our trio of spy pictures in last Sunday’snews update come team DTC Racing, headed up by Thorsten Appel aka Scorpion, owner of Scorpion Motors in Wolverhampton. He says 'Way too much professional help was acquired for this build, thanks to Penn Autos namely Andy Frost , the Intergalactic Custom Shop run by none other than Wayne Allmann, and last but not least, crew chief Gary Frost, who kept me in check when my ideas were too ridiculously stupid, without your help it wouldn’t be possible. We hope to fire up the car in the coming couple of weeks. And then dealing it in in a safe environment…'
A meeting at the venue was booked for 3rd and 4th August 2019 and to be run on a very short part of the existing track to gather interest and to prove the racing community still had the desire to race at this iconic venue. The event went down a storm and what has happened over the past 12 months has been nothing less than remarkable.
A community of drag racers and motorsports enthusiasts soon caught wind of the project thanks to the wonders of social media, within literally days the Facebook page reached over 2000 followers and the racing community raised its head amidst the negative keyboard warriors and the haters something amazing was happening, the community just kept on pushing nothing but positivity and with the Straightliners Crew and media team managing the project in the early stages the project was simply put forward as a fundraiser and nothing more, no promises, no expectations other than, raise the money and we can save the track. Well, as you can imagine soon the passion, decades of memories, children now adults and loyal racers got the bug and the fundraising began.
Calendars, t-shirts, raffles...the list goes on. Straightliners had a “Totaliser” put on a dedicated page ( https://melbournedrag.racing ) so the donations could be seen and targets reached. The project floundered a bit around £40k but some fresh enthusiasm from the community and another push from the community drove the target forward and closer to its goal.
Well to cut a long story short, early in 2020 before the dreaded “lockdown”, the £100k was surpassed and despite the hardships the Uk was facing everyone who had pledged money stepped up, people dug deep and the next stage was to look at working at the site. On Monday 22nd June 2020 Trinity Surfacing & MAC Planing who have some extremely expensive and unique resurfacing equipment roared onto the site and began work, operating the machines literally from dawn till dusk, what they achieved is just unbelievable. By Wednesday 24th June the new ¼ mile strip had been laid and the final topping on the cake has been laid...Melbourne Raceway lives!
Straightliners Events / UKTA has rights to the venue for the next decade, a community like no other stepped up through adversity and hardship and proved the love for racing in the Uk while venues are being closed by noise complaints and property developers is still as strong as ever and this community was not going to allow the hands of mother nature to reclaim this strip just yet. The fresh smell of brand new tarmac still lingers and one of the most dedicated and hard working men in drag racing and landspeed records in the UK who will reach 8 decades on this floating ball in space some time soon, a man who has spent most of his life removing thee red tape so people like you and me can go racing, from all skill levels and abilities, now stands at the beginning of a runway grinning like a Cheshire cat, proving there's still life in the old goat yet. And what’s more, the simply incredible community who raised this money stepped up and supported this cause, believed in the opportunity put forward, believed in Trevor and shut up each and every one of you negative nancies!
Long live Melbourne Raceway...now who wants to go racing?
Back on Track camping arrangements. 26th June:
We can report that in line with the latest Government announcements on camping (published 23rd June), Santa Pod Raceway have announced if you are planning to race/crew both days over the weekend for the Racer Days on 4th-5th July, you will now be able to camp overnight on Saturday only. However strictly No camping or overnight stay is available for single day drivers/crew, or for the Street Tyre day on 11th July. Full details of the requirements are available at rwyb.co.uk
Swift snippets. 26th June:
Episode 7 of the Santa PodCast has as its guests this week the man who has done it all, Funny Car, Dragster, Altered, you name it, Gary Page has done it. He's along side the Gladiator Jason Phelps. As usual. the show is presented by Colin Theobald & Luke Stevenson with SPR CEO Keith Bartlett. You can watch tonight’s episode by clicking here.
In the seventh part of his autobiographical blog ‘Golddigger to Drag Nuts’, John Hunt describes a trip to the USA in 1989 to explore options for working in the sport. You can read John’s blog by clicking here or going to the Race Blog link on the site menu.
Drag Racing historian Nick Pettitt has posted many more videos to his Youtube channel this week. UK drag fans will be interested to see Pelle Lindelöw, Gunnar Elmqvist and Janne Rosqvist race their Renault 4CV in Junior Comp Altered in England for the July Internationals in 1972 and NDRC Tor Line International at Snetterton in September 1975.
Our Kieran has also been busy with Youtube. His Mk1Kieran channel has a compilation of highlights from the Retro Show 2012-19. Kieran says ‘Retro show is an event that traditionally takes place on Fathers Day at Santa Pod Raceway. This is one of my personal favourites purely for the variety of stuff that attends as it's open to anything built prior to 1995!‘ Also posted is highlights of the 2015 Maltese Drag Racing Association Finals at Hal Far Raceway. Kieran says 'this event always attracts big attendance numbers in both racers and spectators to close the season in style. 2015 was the last time we competed in Malta with Fraudster before it underwent major surgery at Ladmu Chassis. It was a bit of an odd one too as there was high levels of dust on the strip which was a big safety concern so the event was postponed midway through and resumed two weeks later in early December'.
RRC Build gallery: Danny Pike’s VW Type 3. 23rd June:
The fourth of our series of features showing photographs by Bob Roberts of the builds carried out by Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Race Cars covers construction of Outlaw Flat Four racer Danny Pike’s VW Type 3 notchback which has a full tube chassis and turbo engine putting out around 600hp. It will return with Danny’s sights firmly on the eight second bracket.
You can see Bob’s gallery in our feature in association with Lucas Oil Products here or go to our Features, Interviews, Tributes index via the main menu.
Acute installation. 23rd June:Acute Angle racing team, Paul, Steve, Somer and Pam Dale, have just installed a freshly built Methanol injected supercharged small block Chevy into their little Anglia.
Paul would like to say a massive thanks to Aaron and Mark Windridge for not only building him a superb motor, but also for lending him the use of his workshop to get the new power plant in, up and running. Thanks also to Dave ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne for the lLoan of some headers so it could be run up and tested at the time.
Paul is booked in at the first test meeting at Santa Pod Raceway on 4th July to try to get to grips with the new set up, it certainly should be entertaining.
Also over in Barcelona, Pep Xampro has installed a freshly built 496 big block Chevy into the Detroit Spinner Prefect, along with treating himself to a new tow vehicle, ready to pull it back to the U.K. ASAP for some test runs.
Meanwhile...Unusual Car Sales U.K. has over 300 hot rods, Yanks, custom and drag cars listed this month! Included are two street legal Outlaw Anglias, Paul Watson’s Camaro , the legendary Steve Pateman Street Eliminator Calibra and much more.
Andy Willsheer’s Hockenheim. 21st June:
Racers and fans who have attended the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim each August for the last 34 years will have felt its unique atmosphere from the sheer size of the facility (large yet at the same time intimate) and Saturday’s Night Show (hugely entertaining and ‘out-there’). Records have been set, competition is cosmopolitan and fierce and at the same time there is something unique about this showcase event in the sport in Germany.
Noted photojournalist Andy Willsheer, who has attended many of the NitrOlympX events, kindly supplied a feature describing his thoughts and distilling the Hockenheim Experience. You can see Andy’s feature illustrated with a gallery of over 40 photos ,and supported by Lucas Oil Products, at here or click on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the main menu.
Spy picture. 21st June:
Today we once again have a trio of spy pictures from a single source. The intruiguing write-up says 'It's a street-legal car for use in various classes. The main goal for it is to run the Stockholm open, Street Week and door slammers. If it can fit into another class it might be given a shot'.
If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at
editor@eurodragster.com.
Swift snippets. 19th June:
In the sixth episode of the Santa Podcast, stories from on and off the track are related by Nick Good from Nick Good Motorsport and Eurodragster.com sponsor Nick and Dan Williams of Williams Bros racing. Nick, Nic and Dan are hosted by Colin Theobald, Luke Stevenson and SPR CEO Keith Bartlett. You can see all episodes of the Santa Podcast on Youtube.
The Mad Welshman has updated his Flickr gallery with 378 photos from the 2009 drag season including shots from Santa Pod Raceway and Shakespeare County Raceway. You can see Mad’s photos at his Flickr site.
SPR back on track. 19th June:
British drag racing roars back to life next month with Back On Track at Santa Pod Raceway, two individual days of track action for racers on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th July (Racer Days) and a third day for entrants running on treaded tyres on Saturday 11th July (Street Day). All three events, naturally, will be conducted according to the government’s lockdown guidance.
Each meeting will be held behind closed doors, admitting no spectators. On each Racer Day the attendance list will be limited to just 100 pre-booked entries. A paddock area accustomed to hosting 300 teams and their transporters will enable bespoke, enlarged pit bays to accommodate social-distancing requirements. The dragstrip surface will be prepared to full race standard.
A Racer Day entry fee of £150 per day will admit a driver/rider and vehicle, with the option of up to five crew members at £20 a head. Each entry and all crew members must be booked in advance in a single transaction; none will be allowed on the day. Both Racer Day events are open to cars and motorcycles using race tyres only. While vehicles may be left overnight, all personnel attending both events must vacate the premises and return next day. There will be no camping, and temperature checks will be carried out on arrival for the safety of all attendees.
Both Racer Day events will be live-streamed on Santa Pod’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
Street Day arrangements will be similar, but a £50 driver/rider fee will apply, again with the option of adding five crew members at £20 a head, all booked together in advance. Only treaded street tyres will be permitted on the track.
Hygiene safety measures will be observed, with hand-sanitiser stations located throughout the venue and regular hand-washing encouraged. Limited retail and catering facilities will be equipped according to required standards.
Full event information, detailing all the Racer Day and Street Day requirements and regulations, is available at www.rwyb.co.uk/backontrack.php and tickets may be booked, first-come, first-served, at www.santapodtickets.com.
The UK drag racing season was due to begin at Easter, with racers already eager for action after a long winter’s break from the track. By now, Santa Pod should have hosted three national championship events and the opening round of the FIA/FIM European Championship series, plus its regular programme of modified car shows, specialist festivals and public track days on every intervening weekend. Despite their Covid-imposed restrictions, the Back On Track Racer Day and Street Day events respectively offer racers and RWYB entrants on two and four wheels a precious opportunity to test, tune and match race for the first time this year. It has been a long time coming, but drag racing is at last heading Back On Track.
Elvington drag race is on. 19th June:
Straightliners director Trevor Duckworth has announced that Straightliners have secured Elvington for a two lane drag race event on the 11th and 12th of July. As you will know Drag Race events are very rare at Elvington. This will be a pre entry event. There will be no entries on the day and if the organisers have insufficient entries to make it worthwhile as a two day event, it will be run it as a single day. Elvington noise regulations will be in place with a 105db noise limit.
There will be no public at this event, if you entered the event at Dakota on 18th July, which is cancelled, you can carry your entry over towards Elvington or get a refund.
Eurodragster.com would be grateful if any racer with a camera could supply pictures for publication. Pictures may be sent to editor@eurodragster.com.
Scandinavian update. 19th June:
There was a race at Kjula Raceway, Eskilstuna, Sweden last weekend, the Mälardalen Open 2 Blacksmiths Nats 1. We’ve a few photos to show. The race was attended by Time-Tree and results can be seen at dragracing.eu. Although the race was unable to be run through to completion with only one round of eliminations taking place, the track recorded 784 time slips and qualifying was completed for the 122 racers taking part.
Notable performances in the Test & Tune were from Comp Eliminator race Gideon Liljegren (7,695/185.30), other seven second runners were Pro Street racer Johan Hedman (7.7689/173.63) 4 to 6 Pro racer Kristian Sjöberg (7.9716/171.75) and Super Pro ET racer Johanna Granholm. Stefan Flodell, he of the Dog Catcher ’56 Gasser was also testing.
Photo galleries of the event have been posted by Henrik Lindberg Photography, Micke Falk Photography, and Chrisfoto.se.
Clockwise: Stefan Flodell (Henrik Lindberg photo), Gideon Liljegren (Micke Falk photo), Micael Noren vs Johan Hedman (Chrisfoto.se photo) and Kristian Sjöberg (Micke Falk photo).
Future events occuring in Scandinavia in June and July (all subject to Covid-19 restrictions and with no spectator attendance allowed) are:
FHRA Test n´ Tune Kauhava, Finland 25th-28th June
Test & Tune at Hudik Raceway, Sweden 26th-28th June
No Prep race Malmö Raceway, Sweden 28th June
Junior Dragster/Drag Bike race, Malmö Raceway, Sweden, 4th-5th July
Cramo Nats, Malmö Raceway, Sweden, 11th-12th July
Test & Tune, Mantorp Park, Sweden, 15th July
J-Trading Junior Day, Kauhava, Finland 18th-19th July
Mantorp Drag Revival, Mantorp Park, Sweden 23rd-26th July
We will place links to results and photos for any of these events so stay tuned to Eurodragster.com for the latest news.
Firestorm build pics, in-car vid. 19th June:
The Firestorm jet funny car team of Roger Goring have updated their website www.firestorm-jfc.co.uk with a 'step by step' on the build of the latest incarnation of the popular car.
And whilst we’re on the subject of Firestorm the in-car footage from a run that Roger made at the Euro Finals 2019 gives you an idea of what the driver of a jet funny car needs to do, and how incredibly quick his reactions are. You can see the video by clicking here.
Swift snippets. 19th June:
In the sixth part of his autobiographical blog ‘Golddigger to Drag Nuts’, John Hunt describes organising the 'Ace of Clubs' indoor charity Dragster and Custom Car show in Farborough in collaboration with the National Street Rod Association, and National Street Van Association. A lot of organisation was involved and video of the show has been posted to Youtube. You can read John’s blog by clicking here or going to the Race Blog link on the site menu.
As an addendum to our analysis of UK racers earning NHRA Wally trophies listed in yesterday's news, we should note that ex-pat Brit Tony Morris won a Wally in Super Comp, and Mike Manners won in Top Alcohol Dragster at the 2010 NHRA Finals.
We wish our friends in Sweden Glad Midsommar. We'll race again...
UK Wally winners. 17th June:
A question posed by Outlaw Anglia racer Colin Millar in last Friday’s Santa PodCast was: who from the UK has been presented with an NHRA Wally trophy? A little research by Colin later revealed that in addition to Colin, Al O'Connor, Wayne Saunders and Dave Wilson and Eurodragster.com sponsor Nic Williams have all been presented with an NHRA Wally. Al O’Connor, of Al’s Gasser fame, had one presented by NHRA founder Wally Parks himself in 1988.
Here is a list of UK racers to have won Wally trophies, with the event, track and category for which they won it:
Al O’Connor: 1988 Keystone Nationals, Maple Grove Raceway, Reading, Pennsylvania - Special Appreciation Award.
Wayne Saunders 1999 NHRA/IDRC Finals, Auto Club Raceway, Pomona - Pro Import winner.
Dave Wilson, 2004 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Southwestern International Raceway Tucson Top Alcohol Dragster champion.
Colin Millar, 2015 Mellow Yellow Toyota Nationals, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Best Appearing Crew.
Nic Williams, 2018 Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. Edelbrock Never Rest Performer of the Race
Clockwise: Al O'Connor's Wally, Wayne Saunders, Dave Wilson, Nic Williams (centre) and Colin Millar and team Flyin' Fyfer
Wally trophies being won by UK teams started almost 20 years after the first UK racers made the long-distance trip to compete in the NHRA. In 1970 bike racers Dennis Norman, and team Pegasus (Derek Chinn, Mick Butler and Ian Messenger) attended the U.S. Nationals to receive a Long Distance Award (pictured left); in 1973 Dennis Priddle and Clive Skilton were at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Clive going on to be runner-up in the 1977 Springnationals, and in more recent years, multiple European Champions Andy Carter and Rob Turner raced in the NHRA, but all competed at an NHRA event without earning a Wally.
Moving across to the then-rival IHRA, Al O’Connor won their Iron Man trophy for becoming IHRA Super Gas overall champion in 1992, Steve Warner earned one in 1994 and Tony Guy in 1995 for being respective IHRA UK National Champions.
Left to right: Al O'Connor's Iron Man, Steve Warner with his Iron Man, Ray and Tony Guy
Thanks to Colin Millar for research also to the racers involved for photos with their trophies.
Nostromo jet truck allowed out. 17th June:
Prospective jet truck racer Sammy Tosuner from Germany, who is the former managing director at MZA Lukau raceway and has previously run a '57 Chevy jet funny car which suffered a fiery demise, has published details of his new Nostromo jet truck that he calls ‘Europe’s strongest racing box'.
The truck, named Nostromo was based on a circuit racing model rebuilt by former European champion Gerd Körber (Bickel-Tuning) and adapted in England for use as a jet truck dragster to run over the quarter mile.
The engine is a Rolls Royce Avon 301R from a BAC Lightning F3 intercept fighter aircraft, the same model of engine later being used in the Avro 698 Vulcan Delta wing bomber. The F3’s 301R engines allowed the aircraft to reach Mach 2.0 service clearance (2,450 mph)...
Since this engine provides extreme power (which of course goes with significant fuel consumption) we have a tank capacity of 2 x 600 ltr. Jet-A1 fuel on board for max. 3-4 minutes of operation time.
The passenger cell is made out of carbon fibre / aluminium composite with a safety cell and internal fire extinguishing system. And yes, the truck is a two-seater! The tyres are Goodyear semi-profiled special racing tires for high-speed use. The braking system comprises a double brake parachute system combined with a 4-disc racing brake system.
Overall the truck weights approx. 3,750 kg race ready, and fully fueled with two people on board. The performance from a maximum power output originally of 64,000 hp limited for testing and the first year of racing with only one (instead of two) afterburner stages is approximately 50,000 hp Expected performance is a terminal speed of 250mph or more after 402 meters.
Sammy says ‘Now we're all slowly becoming fidgety with three days left before testing. After we load up it's off with the jet truck to Peenemünde Airport along the Baltic Sea for the first Nostromo test. After lots of experience with Jerry Lackey and many runs of jet funny cars and dragsters and watching extensive video footage of our visits to England, we should be able to start Nostromo without any problems. However, if we spot any technical pitfalls or sudden mechanical inconsistencies in Peenemünde we know exactly to whom we owe this!
With tense nerves, two of our jet team crew (Florian Klauck and René / Neu Mi) checked everything so far visible on Nostromo today, tightened the loose tank clamp for the main fuel pipeline of the afterburner, the loose relay of the afterburner attached to the frame; mounted the two GoPros, mounted the seat, marked the control panel in the cab; repaired the air pressure braking system, and told me we are ready to load. Here we go!
Since we are not only allowed to test in Peenemünde but also in a music video, we loaded our Harley & Big Dog today to shoot this weekend so please keep your fingers crossed for us that the weather is playing along too.
From today onwards there will be announcements about the status of our test weekend on in Peenemünde and if you happen to be there, you can also watch a little Rock 'n Roll'.
Nostromo’s static test from 2019 can be seen here, in a somewhat unexpected part of Santa Pod Raceway...
VWDRC Golf in Zambia. 16th June:VWDRC racer Pawel Saroch has been in touch to tell the story of how his Golf has been shipped to Africa for a new life:
I started racing VW Sportsman with the VWDRC. Having always been interested in WW2, I decided to paint the car up and give it the insignia from a fighter plane flown by the RAF's Polish squadron (due to my part Polish family roots).
The car was also my daily driver for work too so when I decided to buy another VW Golf from fellow racer Simon McGee that was already caged, a fellow employee heard I was selling my Golf. Alex Chanda also has an interest in WW2 as his father (a Lance Corporal in the Northern Rhodesia Rifles) fought alongside the British throughout Africa and also into Italy. We agreed a deal for the car and a load of parts and chatted the rest of the shift about the car and about WW2.
The car made the long journey to Africa and was collected by Alex's son Christopher who is a keen mechanic and already has his plans for the car now that it’s in its new home in Zambia. I don’t know if they have drag racing in that particular area of the Africa, the car is retired and will be used as a daily driver.
It was only a short career for her, seven events in total, but she did win the 2019 Summernationals event in VW Sportsman. But maybe if I send them some drag racing videos or links to live Santa Pod events, who knows, maybe they might find somewhere for the the car to race again.
I would like to thank Simon McGee for selling me his car, Simon Blackburn of VMS Racing Wheels and 32 Speed Shop for his help currently with getting my wheels and parts, and the whole VWDRC class as several have given me help and advice.
Get well soon Nige! 16th June:
We would like to say Get Well Soon to Nigel Fitzmaurice, former Nitro FM DJ, current Phoenix 98 FM presenter/producer and ambulance driver, who is laid low and on a respirator with Covid 19.
Nigel’s partner Lisa Oldershaw has been supported by members of the drag racing community and colleagues. Although Nigel has a long road to recovery, Lisa will be visiting him and messages of support via his FB account will be much welcomed.
Zerbst steps up. 16th June:
Having already hosted two test and tune events during the pandemic, Zerbst Airport in Germany will be holding a German FWD Shootout on 27th-28th June, starting at 10:00 on Saturday 27th and 13:00 on Sunday 28th. The event will be supported by European FWD, European Drag Race List and organised by AMC Desau.
The following conditions are being made in order to race:
A maximum of 70 drivers per day.
A maximum of one accompanying person per driver.
Only registered persons are allowed to enter the site.
Online registration is mandatory. Tickets are available in the online shop , only while stocks last . Booking is possible until 8 p.m. the previous day.
Signing on takes place at the entrance to the site. All necessary forms must be submitted / filled in there.
A minimum distance of 1.5m must be observed.
Parking the vehicles in the paddock should be at a distance of 3m from the next racer.
No catering is provided, and self-catering is expected.
All persons must have their main residence in Europe.
For the time being, admission is not possible for viewers.
Swift snippets. 16th June:
A big Happy Birthday to fuel altered pilot and land speed racer Ron Hope, who would have been racing in Rat Trap at Dragstalgia if it were not for the disruption and suspension of racing in the UK. Drag racers are known for their patience, Ron, so we look forward to seeing you next year! For a short celebration of Ron’s achievements, click here.
Kieran's latest Youtube videos cover two popular classes. The first is Jets. Kieran says 'Jet Cars are often seen at big Santa Pod Raceway events to entertain the grandstands that are packed full of spectators. At last years Easter event 'Festival of Power' where we were treated to Fire Force running a team of 4 jets, Roger Goring's Firestorm, Split Second, Reign of Fire Mini Jet Car and The Oklahoma Willy Jet Bus for good measure. There were a few match races over the 1000ft as well as single full 1/4 mile runs. Here's a few clips I've filmed over the years of all things jet powered including a shopping trolley!' Kieran's jet compilation is here.
The second of Kieran's compilations is a European Gasser Drag Racing Compilation. Kieran says 'The Gasser Circus which formed in 2003 is a nostalgic race series that celebrates the cars of the legendary 'Gasser Wars' in the 1960s. The Gasser Circus clan attend around 4-5 events per year at Santa Pod Raceway most notably 'Dragstalgia' where you'll see 20+ in attendance including entries from other countries. I personally love this class for the variety that it brings, the paint jobs and the overall nostalgia that provides entertaining passes. You can see the Gasser compilation video here.
RRC build gallery – Kev Slyfield’s ’56 Thunderbird. 15th June:
The third of our series of features showing photographs by Bob Roberts of the builds carried out by Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Race Cars covers a well known car which has been part of the Motorsport UK Drag Racing Championship for five years – Kev Slyfield’s ’56 Thunderbird.
Bob says ‘This car had a long gestation period starting in 2010 for one customer and ending in 2014 with another customer – Kev Slyfield. Kev has of course had significant success in the car including MSA Pro Modified Championship in 2015 and running a five in 2019’.
Included are links to video of Kev in action and Kev and the RRC Camaro in a customer vs builder grudge race. Who wins? You’ll have to see the feature to find out.
You can see Bob’s gallery in our feature in association with Lucas Oil Products here or go to our Features, Interviews, Tributes index via the main menu.
Rip Rap Racers Club wraps, Joe champ. 15th June:
Spencer Tramm, organiser of the Rip Rap Racers Club online drag racing series says ‘Congratulations to George Oliver for winning the RRRC Finals.
Thank you to everyone who has taken part over the last 11 weeks (all 140 of you!) as well as those that have followed here online.
Special thanks to eurodragster.com for the coverage (Ed-you’re welcome), Colin Theobald and Kieran Jenkins for posting prizes.
There will be more races, likely over winter and maybe the odd one now and again if we feel like it!’
We’re sure all racers and others involved in the Rip Rap Racers Club would like to extend a big Thank You to Spencer for organising racing on a weekly basis over the last eleven weeks, a considerable task with the numbers of interested racers and tight timings involved as well as a busy day job.
In the final race, George Oliver defeated Callum Swinchatt who in the series points was runner up to Champion Joe Kellett. In their respective semi finals George defeated Jake Handy and Callum won against James Bennett.
The top 10 points scorers are as follows:
1 Joe Kellett 6100
2 Callum Swinchatt 5500
=3 Will Clark 4700
=3 Billy Everitt 4700
5 Spencer Tramm 4600
6 Matt Seamarks 4200
7 Craig Wright 4100
8 George Oliver 4000
=9 Simon Fulton 3700
=9 Callum Ellswood 3700
=9 Jon Crawford 3700
=9 Colin Theobald 3700
The full series points will be published to our OCS Paints-sponsored points pages when they are received.
Swift snippets. 15th June:
In the fifth episode of the Santa Podcast, you can see the entertaining pairing of Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award sponsor Andy ‘Fadster’ Hadfield, aided and abetted by daughter and Junior Dragster racer Purdie, with Outlaw Anglia star Colin Millar. Included in the discussion is a certain race pairing which hasn’t happened so far but will be near the top of many fans’ wish list. Fadster and Colin are hosted by Colin Theobald, Luke Stevenson and SPR CEO Keith Bartlett. You can see all episodes of the Santa Podcast on Youtube.
We were delighted to see a number of Facebook Live postings of live fire-up videos over the weekend, including UK race teams preparing for a return to the track. The team of Paul Harris, Herb Andrews and Mick Sharpe recorded their Nostalgia Funny Car fire-up here, whilst Tony Betts’ posting followed a couple of hours later. Tony commented “Great effort by the team today. Car sounds awesome with the new John Wright fuel system. One more change to make then good to go.” If you have a fire-up video you would like promoted to Eurodragster.com reader base, drop a line to editor@eurodragster.com and we’ll mention it.
Our good friend, the unfired Markus Münch has been reporting on a test n' tune held at Zerbst Airport in Germany on 5th-7th June. Three days of testing were permitted, and you can see Markus’s albums on the Dragmag web site or Dragmag.de FB page.
Feature: The first Cannonball. 11th June:
The first Cannonball Run drag race took place on 4th to 5th July 1981 at Santa Pod Raceway. The event drew on the popularity of Funny Cars and was also a promotional event for the film of the same name.
Our latest historical feature, supported by Lucas Oil Products, describes the event in detail and includes 50 photographs from it as well as a full scan of the event programme and a contemporaneous race report.
We are grateful to drag racing historians Jerry Cookson and Nick Pettit for supplying archive material. You can see our feature here or by clicking the features, interviews, tributes link from the main menu.
Santa Pod Raceway suspend July events, but testing may return. 11th June:
We print below the whole of the statement made by Santa Pod Raceway CEO Keith Bartlett, published yesterday:
Further to the previous statements I have released regarding Santa Pod Raceway and its 2020 calendar, I would like to update you on our current situation.
Since the government legislation announced in mid-March, Santa Pod has been unable to hold any type of event at all from that point.
As a result of this, the impact on Santa Pod has been nothing short of a disaster. Our ability to trade and earn income is non-existent. We have invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in setting up our 2020 schedule and have not earned one penny of event income since the lockdown. Despite working hard on survival plans for 2020 onwards, the losses have hit us hard and increase every day that we can’t turn a wheel.
We are now forced to make the difficult decisions around the major events due to be held in July. It is clear that the Government is not going to relax lockdown, social distancing and large gatherings sufficiently to allow these to proceed. It is therefore with deep regret that we must now officially suspend these too.
Of course, July includes the Bug Jam VW Festival. This event particularly has a strong following and I am devastated it will not happen this year – another killer blow for both Santa Pod, our fans and our finances.
It will come as no surprise that without the continued support from our loyal fans and spectators, Santa Pod would not have survived this crisis and once again, I plead with our advance ticket holders to give us the time and space to work through this tough time and to most importantly, take the credit value for our drag racing events and in the case of Bug Jam to please, please roll your tickets over to 2021. These particular events will now go into our 2021 calendar on or around the same dates.
After further Government Guidelines and the current lockdown rules, we are pushing forward to see what lower level events can we can host over the coming months. We are now at least planning to open our doors in July to some “behind closed doors” track days and racer test days with no spectators and within the current rules for social distancing and to meet health & safety regulations under the COVID-19 requirements. In this ever-changing landscape, we may be able to scale up from there but as of now, it’s still an unknown. It’s a start, at least, on our precarious road to recovery.
We need all your support to be able to get through this and to see us back in action in 2021 (I must also thank those of you who have purchased merchandise to date – every little really helps.) We have extended our credit redemption period from our normal 12 months to 24 months to widen the scope for your return visit.
Your actions on this issue of advance tickets may well be the difference between success and failure. Together – we will race again.
Swift snippets. 11th June:
In the fifth part of his autobiographical blog ‘Golddigger to Drag Nuts’, John Hunt describes an epic trip to the US in 1984 in which he took in three races including the 30th US Nationals and an IHRA National Event at Thunder Valley, Bristol, along with some problems on the way...
You can read John’s blog by clicking here or going to the Race Blog link on the site menu.
In his latest upload to his Youtube channel, drag racing historian has posted footage of York Raceway’s 1993 August meeting with Top Alcohol cars of Smax Smith, Andy Hill, Norm Wheeldon, Pete Barnett and Doug Bond. You can see Nick’s upload by clicking here.
The owner of Tierp Arena, Sånna Förvaltning AB (Sånna Management), have announced it is for sale. Sånna Management hope for a quick sale during the summer.
"We have decided that we want to have other priorities in our business. Therefore, we will sell to someone who wants to take the business forward and run it in a good way", says Christopher Hamilton, CEO of Sånna Management.
According to Hamilton, work is under way to produce a sales prospectus, both in Swedish and English, for Tierp Arena together with real estate agents.
"The prospectus will be sent out at the end of the week, but discussions are already underway with several different stakeholders, both Swedish and foreign", says Hamilton.
He explains that the decision to sell has been brewing for a while. "We are working with our companies in hotels and events as well as motorsport with Sturup Raceway and Tierp Arena. The coronavirus pandemic has affected our group hard, and was an important factor that came into play when we made this decision".
In 2014, the then bankrupt Tierp Arena was bought by Sånna Management for SEK 20 million [a little over 2 million Euro]. The book value was then set at SEK 37 million by the bankruptcy trustee.
"You could say that we bought a drag racing track with stands. We have since developed the arena to an event facility with motorsport in various forms with hotels, conference, camping areas and a trade fair area", says Hamilton. Since the acquisition in 2014, the capacity of the stands has been expanded and today it holds 30,000 spectators. The area has also been expanded with a rally cross track where there have been championship races.
What is the selling price set at? "That is nothing I can comment on at present, but based on what we have paid and what investments have been made, you can speculate a bit".
Hamilton explains that the ambition is to sell the plant relatively quickly. "An important factor when it comes to the buyer is that it operates the plant in the same direction and continues to be an important player when it comes to arranging good quality motorsport competitions". Until a new owner takes over, the facility will be kept open for certain activities. At most, nine people have worked in the arena. Today, one person is employed at the arena.
"We will not have any further events in the arena. This means that we will not be hosting the European Championship drag racing event in August, even if the situation in the country allows it", explains Christopher Hamilton. However, he emphasizes that a new owner may have the opportunity to organize the European Championship event. "That decision is entirely up to them," he says.
Joe’s fourth. 8th June:
Congratulations to Joe Kellett for his win at last night’s Rip Rap Racing Corona Nationals. Joe defeated series organiser Spencer Tramm in an extremely tight race with a win margin of 0.0067 seconds. Previously Joe had defeated Craig Wright in his semi-final, and Spencer had defeated Paul Evans with a perfect light of 0.0000.
We have posted the points to our OCS-sponsored points pages. Joe has opened up a lead over Callum Swinchatt; Billy Everitt, Spencer and Will Clark occupy the remaining positions in the top five.
Trailer for sale. 8th June:
The Speedghost Motorsport team have announced that their Wilson race trailer is for sale.
Mark ‘Animal’ Bodimeade said ‘It is a 2002 trailer and comes complete as seen. There is a full awning 6 metres wide complete with sides. There are eight beds upstairs and the trailer will take any short wheelbase car up top, or any dragster down stairs. There is a double side opening door. The neck is a living room with a sofa that converts to a double bed. Also there is a brand new tail gate with brand new rams but needs finishing’.
Any enquiries on the trailer should go to Mark on +44 7909 528355 or Patrik Pers on +46 70 6961385.
Robinsons video interview. 7th June:
The Fastr Facebook page has posted a well-produced video interview with Andy and Luke Robinson of Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Race Cars. The video shows Andy’s racing career and shows us how Luke got involved in the car building business and how the team operate.
You can see the interview, which runs to 25 minutes with extensive video action clips at this link.
Robinson Race Cars build gallery – Shelby Cobra Daytona. 7th June:
The second of our series of features showing photographs by Bob Roberts of the builds carried out by Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Race Cars covers a replica of a historic circuit racing car (Ed: don’t tell Tog).
Bob writes: There comes a time in the life of a race car when it has been so hard used, so crashed and repaired, so potentially fragile that it needs a major rebuild. The alternative is to have a copy made and that was the brief to RRC from the owner of this Daytona – build me a copy chassis. To make life easy the original was in the workshop for the majority of the build.
You can see Bob’s gallery in our feature in association with Lucas Oil Products here or go to our Features, Interviews, Tributes index via the main menu.
Swift snippets. 7th June:Kieran has posted two videos to his Youtube channel. The first is a Honda Civic Drag Racing Compilation. Kieran says ‘The Honda Civic makes up for the majority of the European FWD Leaderboard and the power some of them produce is just mind boggling! This compilation contains a mixture of power plants, N/A and forced induction including K-Series, B-Series and even D-Series!’. You can see this video of clips from Santa Pod Raceway and a few at Hal Far Raceway in Malta here.
Kieran’s second video is of one of the most-seen cars at Ford, lifestyle and RWYB events - Darren Scannell's YB Mk1 Escort Street Sleeper. Kieran says ‘Darren’s mental Cosworth Mk1 Escort is a regular at Santa Pod Raceways RWYB events partaking in the Old Skool Ford Drag Challenge and outings with the Taz Racing clan. Since first appearing in 2011 running high 10s the car has since propelled into the mid 9s on a h-pattern gearbox and maintaining it's stock appearance with all steel panels. Darren's had a lot of success with the car in RWYB Competitions. In 2014 he made it into Santa Pod's 'Quick Shift Challenge' Final, Semi-Finalist at Doorslammers 2018, OSFDC Champion 2018 and Runner-up in the four cylinder class at Doorslammers 2019. You can see Kieran’s video of Darren’s Escort here.
Each week presenters Colin Theobald & Luke Stevenson chat to guests from the world of Drag Racing and Santa Pod Raceway. The guests this week with stories from on and off the track are adrenaline junkie & Funny Bike rider Dale Leeks and the man with the Lambo, Pro Stock Bike Rider, The Bish, Martin Bishop. The PodCast also features two bright stars in the Junior Dragster Ranks with Archie Wray and Frankie Fordham as they chat about their future in drag racing.
If you missed any of the previous episodes of the Santa PodCast, they are a great way of keeping in touch with what’s going on. You can find them at Santa Pod’s Youtube channel.
Swift snippets. 5th June:
In the fourth part of his autobiographical blog ‘Golddigger to Drag Nuts’, John Hunt describes how he got into organising social events and volunteer work for the National Drag Racing Club and Surrey Street Rodders, including a dragster display at Wheels Day in 1984.
You can read John’s blog by clicking here or going to the Race Blog link on the site menu.
Many thanks to drag racing historian and director of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Jerry Cookson for supplying a scan of the first edition (earlier than the others we have posted) of the 1990 edition of the Euro Drag Racing List for car classes originally published by Tommy Nilsson.
As well as the pro classes, bests are included for Competition Altered, Factory Experimental Europe, Dragster, Pro Modified, Pro Street, Street Altered, Street Rover, Econo Gas, Modified Stock, Super Stock GT, Super Stock and Stock under Euroseries, German and Swedish rules as appropriate. There are many names to nudge memories in the Euro Drag Racing List which can be downloaded from this link. Later editions are available from 1992 and 1995.
Feature: 1970s Mantorp gallery. 4th June:
Our latest historic feature focuses on an iconic location for drag racing in Europe, Mantorp Park. By the end of the 1970s it was, alongside Santa Pod Raceway a key track for racing and provided great entertainment for fans.
A collection of photos came to our attention when looking at the excellent Svensk Street & Dragracing 1968–1979 Facebook Group. The owner of the pictures, Lars-Petter Kolkind had originally bought the collection from the estate of the original photographer Allan Iversen from Oslo and scanned them to a gallery. We are grateful to Lars-Petter for supplying permission to place many of them into a gallery, with our captions.
It has been a lot of fun trying to identify cars with the help of programmes from the era. There are also several surprises for those interested in the sport in Europe, and you can see pictures of some early race cars of those that would later go to the top of the sport.
You can see our gallery of Mantorp photos in association with Lucas Oil Products at here or go to our Features, Interviews, Tributes index page via the main menu.
Street Machine shaved. 4th June:
Editor of Street Machine magazine Dave Smith writes: "I’m doing a Facebook Live thing every Thursday evening on the Street Machine Facebook page.
"As I haven’t been barbered since well before lockdown, I’ve been getting a bit of a Milton Jones look about me, and last Thursday I said that if the readers would pledge £100, to be split evenly between the Santa Pod fund and the Melbourne Raceway fund, I’d get my head shaved #3.
I then, rather foolishly, said that if people pledged £200, I’d shave it #1. Well, people have pledged £350 so far, bless ‘em (the b*st*rds). So, this Thursday, June 4th, at 7.30pm I should be getting tennis-balled, live on Facebook… Would any Eurodragster fans care to chip into the fund?
"All pledges will be tallied, and I’ll be chasing for payment via PayPal after the mowing. All money will be split 50/50 between Santa Pod and Melbourne Raceway.
Feature: Robinson Race Cars build gallery – Marc Meihuizen. 1st June:
Today we start a new series of features which look behind the scenes at race car builders and Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Race Cars. Bob Roberts has kindly supplied a gallery of pictures taken by him and Luke Robinson whilst the build of Marc Meihuizen’s car took place.
Bob says ‘There are lots of pictures of the finished car because it really is my favourite of all of Andy's builds’. We look at the performance of the car over the years and the consistency and outright speed are amazing.
In future Bob plans to send galleries on three more ground up Pro Mods, one VW, one ProMod rebuild and a couple of non drag cars for good measure.
You can see Bob’s gallery in our feature in association with Lucas Oil Products at here or go to our Features, Interviews, Tributes index page via the main menu.
Callum at the double. 1st June:
After the on-line RRRC Excitement Nationals held yesterday evening, congratulations go to Callum Swinchatt for his win, his second of the series. Callum defeated Lloyd Perkins in the final after a win over Paul Evans in the semi-final. Lloyd had defeated points leader Joe Kellett in his semi-final.
In the points Joe Kellett leads with Callum now in second place having overtaken Billy Everitt who is a short way behind in third. Will Clark is fourth and Matt Seamarks and Spencer Tramm round out the top five.
We will post the points in due course to our OCS Paint-sponsored points pages.
Swift snippets. 1st June:
A big Happy Birthday for tomorrow (Tuesday) to Eurodragster.com Team Nutritionist Syd McDonald. Have a great day Syd and we hope you'll be feeding us again soon.
Kieran has posted his latest compilation video to his Youtube channel. The subject of the upload is a UK Outlaw Anglia Drag Racing Compilation. Kieran summarises: “Outlaw Anglia is one of the most exciting heads up classes in UK Drag Racing with just a few simple rules... The body must be based on a 'Sit-up & beg' style Ford Anglia, Popular, Fordson or Prefect. The wheelbase can be no more than 101", the driver must be seated to one side, no flip-up funny car style bodies and no alterations to the front windscreen angle. Other than that, it's anything goes! Current ET Record Holder is Colin Millar with a 7.24 and Speed Record Holder is Simon Barlow who trapped 193.7mph”. You can see Kieran’s video here.
If you have seen any 'Tierp Arena is up for sale' comments on Facebook over the weekend, you could be forgiven for thinking you are having flashbacks. But as we don't comment on rumours, we will look for an official announcement and report it here.
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been set to £50 per day. The money will be paid to the first racer on the day to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. Saturday and Sunday will be treated as separate events, so if no-one wins the money on Saturday, it will get rolled over to Sunday.
The Perfect Light Award is available on all timed runs, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the day.
The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with Cath and Tig Napier of Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing.
Editor of Street Machine magazine Dave Smith writes: "I’m doing a Facebook Live thing every Thursday evening on the 
