The second runs on Saturday were much improved for Ida who ran 4.0354/397 and Susanne who went 4.1297. Stig ran a 6.3785 but his earlier consistency placed him first in the accumulated times. Meanwhile Dennis didn't make the call and suffered a slowest time plus 10s penalty for doing so. The final combined times were:
1. Stig Neergaard 17.269
2. Ida Zetterström 17.683 +0.414
3. Susanne Callin 21.120 +3.851
4. Dennis Nilsson 29.270 +12.001
Ida took the win on a holeshot in a real tight final, running a 4.045/420 (261mph) to Stig's 4.043/469 (292mph).
She commented "On the first pass, even though we left the line well I was off the throttle before 100m, as we shook quite bad. The second run also had tyreshake, but we closed out qualifying by setting a new track record in ET with a 4.035 on an early shut off run (only 397 km/h). It's fun to be back at Mantorp again after 13 years and I appreciate everyone that has been taking the time to stop by and wish us good luck on our season and been cheering us on."
John Willard's Aussie Outlaw blog. 31st July:
Many thanks to Australian Outlaw Anglia racer John Willard for sending in a blog of his history-making visit to the UK, with thanks to all in the drag racing family who helped John along the way:
We had been dreaming of a trip to England to run in the Outlaw Anglia class since we began construction of the Aussie Outlaw Anglia in 2017. Mick Taylor was always keen to get us there but when Rob Nixon stepped up and initiated a Gofundme fund-raiser to do it everything started moving fast.
After initially agreeing to come, engine and tuning guru Brett Gillespie had to pull out, leaving a massive hole in our crew. Thankfully, long time crew members Doug Willard and Steve Busch were on board, along with my wife Margaret. Long time crew member Neil Webb couldn’t make it. Mick organised some great crew in Trevor and Steve Hirst and Patrick Byrne. Kiwi and fellow Anglia nut Graham Lilly was conscripted along with Englishman Albert Carter, the son of Outlaw Anglia and European drag racing legend Andy Carter. To say the crew worked well together would be the understatement of the year, with repairing and servicing of the car going smoothly and good times had by all while not racing.
Sportsman Nationals
After months on the water and what seemed like forever in the planning and preparation it was time for the Sportsman Nationals. Not being an Outlaw Anglia round this would be our Test and tune event. We had heard from the other side of the world that the Santa Pod 60 -330’ part of the track might not be as good as we were used to so we fitted a softer tune than usual to make sure that we could lay down a reasonable ET without looking silly by spinning or shaking the tyres. As it turned out this strategy worked well and combined with the great atmospheric conditions we ran a nice 6.73@206mph, the first 200mph pass by an Anglia in the UK and much better than the 6.9xx@ 199 or 200 mph that we were expecting.
Well, along with the amazing commentary by Colin Theobald, the reaction was just unbelievable. In the time it took me to walk from timecards back to the pits with the Taylor family there were people 3 or 4 deep around the car wanting autographs, t- shirts and pictures. If you know me then you would know that I found this a bit confronting at first but it turned out to be one of the happiest, most magical times that I’ve ever experienced and one that I doubt will ever be matched.
For our second pass we put a bit more power in it but after a 1.05 60’ it was getting a bit untidy so I shut it off just after half track and coasted to a 7.32@146. We had been burning some pushrod tips from the first UK start up and rather than use up all of our spares we decided to sit eliminations out to diagnose the problem. As it turns out, the bronze liner inside the rocker had turned enough to block the oil gallery to the pushrod. Trevor and Steve Hirst took all of the rocker gear back to their workshop in Doncaster and went right over it including pushing the liner out and pushing it back in in the correct position. Brett Gillespie also organised a couple of new rockers from USA so we wouldn’t get caught out again.
During the two weeks leading up to the Summer Nationals we took advantage of the (mostly) beautiful English summer weather and did some tourist stuff and also catching up with some old friends
The Summer Nationals - our first Outlaw Anglia event!
Being an MSA event the car had to meet a lot of rules not necessary in Australia so we had spent lots of time and money before leaving to ensure it was up to spec. Luckily, the chassis was built to SFI 25.1 spec so after many messages, phone calls and pictures to Mark Norton, all that was required on arrival was a sonic test on the bars and we were tagged.
It wasn’t so easy elsewhere though. SFI recertification doesn’t exist in Australia so we had to replace the flexplate, bellhousing, diaper and blower restraint. As the 14.2 blower restraint required has an extra strap at the back, we had replace the straight lower windscreen bar with a bent one and also replace the middle section of the firewall. I even had my great friend and sponsor Peter Mitcherson turn up a new aluminium knob to replace the plastic one on the electrical cut off switch.
It was all worthwhile though as all we had to do to pass tech inspection was to replace the single accelerator spring with a double and to fit a sticker at the electrical cut off switch. The only other hurdle was the wheelbase check by Jedd which was also passed with no problems.
The plan for the Summer Nationals was to run consistently but to save the car for Dragstalgia. In Q1 we ran my old mate Mick Taylor and ran a 6.79@204 into a stiff headwind. This was good enough for top qualifying position and also both ends of the Outlaw Anglia records if we could back it up. In Q2 we had Colin Millar in the other lane. We did in fact back up our previous record breaking run with a 6.76@204 and in the process ran the first side by side six second pass in Outlaw Anglia with Colin running a tyre shaking 6.98@195. This was also the quickest and fastest pass in Outlaw Anglia to date.
WHAT A DAY!
Sunday morning we had the bye and ran consistent 6.79 but at only 184mph. At 1000’ everything went quiet. What was initially thought to be an electrical problem turned out to be sheared bolts holding the blower drive to the blower so we were out. A bitter disappointment to an otherwise extremely successful debut Outlaw Anglia event.
Thanks again to Trevor and Steve Hirst with help from expat Aussie Tristern Hollis the blower was repaired and back on the car on Monday evening. We fired the car and we were ecstatic that we would make the big one next weekend!
Dragstalgia
Thursday before Dragstalgia was unbelievable, the pits were filling up fast and there was already lots of fans on site- the atmosphere was electric and the event hadn’t even started yet!
Friday evening was Q1 at Dragstalgia. The plan was to get a solid qualifier in tonight and then really lean on it Saturday to show what the car could do as we were confident that we could run a 6.5xx@ 210mph. All was going to plan until 1000’ when there was a large puff of smoke and the car started drifting towards the wall in the oil coming from both ends of the intake manifold, resulting in a 6.71 at only 197mph. After a good amount of racing in the shortest time span to date I was starting to feel right at home and confident in the car, and although it was drifting towards the wall, at no time did I feel in any danger- I just love this car!
As i turned out, something went wrong in the fuel system, leaning out one of the cylinders, damaging a piston and scoring the bore. Although we had spare pistons,rings, rods and bearings we didn’t have any liners so that was the end of us, a very disappointing end to Dragstalgia. Thanks to Jon Webster who offered us a liner/piston assembly out of his Promod Mustang that was very close to working but wasn’t quite right.
There was oil everywhere, but we had to get to the Outlaw Anglia photoshoot, so everyone got stuck into cleaning the oil from inside, outside and underneath the car. There was a record 34 Outlaw Anglia entrants at this year’s Dragstalgia and the photoshoot with all of them was unreal- something I’ll never forget- especially as there will be numerous large prints of it hanging throughout my home.
All in all, while there were some big disappointments, I feel that the positives far outweigh the negatives during this trip. Not only did we get to meet old friends again and make many new ones, we also managed to run the first 200mph pass in an Anglia in the UK, we ran in the first side by side 6 second pass in Outlaw Anglia, we ran in the quickest and fastest side by side run in Outlaw Anglia’s history and set both ends of the Outlaw Anglia record at 6.76@204.
Plans are already under way for a possible return trip in 2 or 3 years. I’m sure that by then there will be a few cars going the same or even quicker than us by then making for some great competition.
Thank you to everyone that supported us and turned out in great numbers to watch us, and a special thank you to Sheryl and Vanessa Lilly for your help. It was truly humbling the way we were received and treated. It’s a time that neither I or my crew will ever forget.
Swift snippets. 31st July:
Happy Birthday for today to VWDRC racer Zaykk Benoit, Nostalgia Superstock racer Harvey Bosomworth, Wild Bunch racer and builder Antony Colliver, Swedish Super Twin Bike racer Anders Hörnström and VW Caddy racer Mike Whittaker, we hope you are all having a fantastic day.
Mopar Euro Nationals perfect awards. 27th July:£125 is up for grabs at this weekend's Mopar Euro Nationals courtesy of Eurodragster.com and our sponsors.
Thanks to Perfect Light Award sponsor Cath and Tig Napier of Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing for putting up their traditional Mopar Euro Nats award which now stands at £75 after going unclaimed at Bug Jam.
The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds.
The Perfect Light Award is available in Lite Steer Nostalgia Superstock, Gasser Circus, Supercharged Outlaws, Street Eliminator Tryouts, and Nostalgia Eliminator during both qualifying and eliminations Saturday and Sunday, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by Andy Hadfield and the Twister Race Team has been reset to £50 after it was won by 7.60 Heads Up racer Brendan Clancy at Bug Jam 36. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Perfect ET Award is available in Gasser Circus, Lite Steer Nostalgia Superstock and Nostalgia Eliminator, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of the Twister Race Team.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are
available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
Butch's reveal-ing burnout for Chloe. 27th July:
Pro ET racer Chloe Wilkins has been a member of the drag racing family for some time before taking to her Eye Candy Dragster, but now is about to start her own family with partner Brackley Gates. She writes:
"Me and my partner had our gender reveal for our baby due in December and we would love to give a shoutout to my Dad Butch (Street Eliminator racer and Santa Pod marshal) for doing a burnout for us revealing the gender!
"Thanks to Dad for doing it for us in the way we have always wanted, we’re having a little boy due in December and we’re so excited already to make him into a little racer like his Grandad and Mum, safe to say I’ve got the coolest Dad going!"
Nostalgia Superstock still growing. 27th July:
With a number of new cars, Nostalgia Superstock reaches the final of its Lite Steer-sponsored Lifestyle Championship this weekend. The championship is in three rounds (there is a separate championship for Motorsports UK permit rounds) and after round 2, the points leader is Lee Chiles (pictured) with Ashley Rawson in second place and Dan Williams in third, both within a couple of rounds of the top of the table - definitely all to play for.
The class welcomes newcomers Matt Bolt (Chevrolet Chevelle), Raymond Pratt (Plymouth Barracuda), Dave Tildesley (Dodge Dart), Alan Patience (68 Chevelle SS), Alan Matthews (Ford Mustang Mach 1) and Glynn Dunford (Chevrolet Nova) to its ranks in another massive 59 car entry for this weekend's 29th Mopar Euro Nationals.
Sad news but an opportunity for a racer to purchase an iconic winner in the class is Don Scott has decided to put his Plymouth Superbird "Richard Petty" replica with its 572ci engine up for sale. Don says "It's a consistent 9.6 second multi championship winning car, the engine and transmission have only done a season and a half after a refresh and everything in date for permit events. Owned by me for close to 20 years, it's been great fun. It's UK road-registered with V5 and comes with street exhaust etc.
"It will be going to auction in a couple of weeks but can be yours for £55,000 now. I've had close to 20 years of fun with the ol' girl and I'll be sad to see it go, but the time has come for a new owner."
See Don's car for sale in our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Unusual Car Sales Swap Meet page.
Swift snippets. 27th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Drag Race Union club secretary and photographer Markus Münch who will be attending the Mantorp Drag Festival race this weekend. Have a great day Markus.
The Greenlight Nationals takes place on 19th-20th August with a test day on Friday 18th August. Car classes involved are Greenlight Pro (7.49 and quicker heads-up), 7.60 Heads Up, Big Bracket, Outlaw Anglia, Nostalgia Super Stock, Wild Bunch, Sportsman ET, Outlaw Flat Four, VW Pro and VW Sportsman. Bike classes comprise Pro Stock Bike, Funny Bike, Comp Bike, Super Street Bike, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, ET Bike and Junior Drag Bike. The race will be a round of the SPRC National and Club Drag Racing Championship and the ACU Dragbike championship.
You can enter the STP Greenlight Nationals at this link on the SPRC website and see the current entry list at this link.
Swift snippets. 26th July:
A Big Happy Birthday to Nitro Junkie and drag bike racer Kev Charman and to Tierp Arena Press Officer and photographer Fredrik Värnebjörk, we hope you both have a great day!
Kieran's latest Youtube video post is Pro Modified at Bug Jam 36, including qualifying and eliminations. You can see Kieran's video by clicking on this link.
Funny Car Cup showed that all three contenders are making performance strides. Qualifying was dominated by Kevin Kent's track record 4.1871/291.25, but in the semi finals, all three cars ran in the four second zone, Steve Ashdown defeating Jason Phelps 4.5761/191.21 to 4.9626/186.65, both early shut-offs. In his bye run, Kevin went for the National Record backup but a 4.3448/282.05 wasn't within the 1% margin for the record. When Steve Ashdown was a no-show for the final, Kevin once again went for the record but the car crossed the center line after 330ft and he lifted. You can see video of the action by Kieran at this link.
Steve Ashdown's Undertaker Team posted "Dave Bryant and Steve Ashdown want to thank all of the Santa Pod Raceway staff for a great track and to everyone that’s helped along the way. The Team worked really hard this weekend and that showed the car has come a long way since the Main Event. Short numbers are looking good, Dave and Steve broke a long time 330ft pb twice in one weekend.
"Congratulations to West Ten Motorsport for a mega run smashing the European record and winning round 2 of the funny car cup !
The car is now back at the workshop like usual plenty of work to be done before the final round of the championships.
Thankyou to all our supporters for sticking with us, and helping the team with buying merchandise and spark plug key rings from undertaker-racing.com."
Motorsport UK Pro Modified was once again a Bobby Wallace triumph, Bobby qualifying #1 with his nitrous Camaro ZL-1 in the one shot session, and then a bye run in round 1. Bobby defeated sponsor Andy Robinson in the semi final with low ET and top speed of the event, 5.9878/239.01, and overcame Wayne Nicholson in the final. Andy had suffered launch problems and in the final Wayne crossed the centre line after 1000ft however was pleased with the runner up spot which solidifies his second place in the championship behind Bobby. Late entrant sponsor Jon Webster had successfully tested a new setup with a 6.2s in testing, so he is looking competitive for the next round at the Euro Finals; David Smith with the Stranger Thing '55 Chevy was waiting on parts and was sad not to be able to attend.
In 7.60 Heads Up, Mark Turner and Darren Peart had the closest race of the event with an incredible 0.0009 margin of victory, or 2.7 inches (no Bob's Photo Finish Award at this race). Of the diverse 8 car field Darren qualified #1 with 7.7294/172.44 followed by Billy Gane in #2 on 7.7780. In eliminations, Mark (who had a steering wheel come off on his run but stopped safely) defeated a tyre shaking Kev Jenkins in round 1, whilst Brendan ran a perfect ET of 7.6007 against Belinda Bull. New competitor Jack Williams with the Shogun Capri engine in a Chevy Nova ran a great 8.324/156.84 to defeat a red lighting Billy Gane. The final was another close race with winner Brendan and Mark separated by 0.1181s. The final round in the championship is at the Greenlight Nationals.
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator saw the return of Joe Stevens not with his familiar Stiletto, but in the long absent Vauxhall Cresta previously campaigned by Al Simms and with a naturally aspirated big block engine. Also returning after engine repairs was Tony Higgs, whilst Elliot Day ran a great 8.6634/158.53 in testing. The top three qualifiers were Andy Bond (7.4599/197.15), Mark Sheridan (7.9918/204.18) and Al Mcsweeney (8.0225/178.53).
Eliminations saw Andy Bond advance over Joe Stevens in round 1, and Rob Carter over a red lighting Elliot Day. Round 2 had Rob score his best of the day (8.3258/169.80) over Tony Higgs, whilst Al McSweeney and Andy Bond had singles, James Murray breaking off the line againts Al. In the semi final the #1 and #2 in the points met with Al red lighting against Andy, and in the final it was Andy running his best of the day 7.3565/199.78 over Rob's 8.3804/168.54 with a quicker RT.
VW Pro saw 2022 Champion Graham Fairhead made a further move to defending his title by qualifying #2 and winning the event. #1 qualifier was the VR6 front engined dragster of James Gould who was +0.015 on his dial. Graham defeated Ed Keech in round 1 with his best reaction time of the event at 0.0054, then continued his great RTs into round 2, a 0.0842 and matching +0.0842 on dial defeating Sam Young's perfect ET of 9.2000. Following a bye in round 3 with a 0.153 package, Graham came up against James Gould in the semi final. Graham holeshot James with a 0.0305 RT and a 0.0929 margin of victory. In the final, Graham kept up his RT blitz with a 0.0731 against seven times champion James Hodson.
A remarkable run was made by Charlie Roberts in qualifying. His 10.9981/130.23 pass on a dial in of 11s was a new PB, his first ten and the quickest run recorded by a VW Up! in Europe. He also had the quickest reaction time of the event, 0.0021.
VW Sportsman had the largest field for 20 years with 40 cars qualifying. As well as usual VWDRC racers, a number of guests signed on, names such as Dave Cherrett, Dan De'Ath, Michael Franklin, Lee Huxley and Steve Mellors all making their class debut. The one shot qualifier saw Jerry Sadler first and he did a great job on the day in his 1800cc Beetle to go on to win eliminations.
After a bye in round 1, Jerry defeated Ian Dance's similar New Beetle in round 2, a breaking-out Caitlin Wilson in round 3, holeshot Reece Taylor in round 4, had a bye in the semi-final and was the beneficiary of a Connor Jones red light in the final round. For his efforts, Jerry had a huge points total propelling him to the top of the championship.
The closest race was between Thomas Circuit and Jon Crawford in round 1 which Jon won with a margin of 0.0076 or 9.5 inches.
Outlaw Flat Four was won by Stuart Hodgson who defeated #1 qualifier James Wotton in the final. Stuart's orange Beetle with a huge rear deck atop his turbo 2387cc engine, qualified third behind James and Dave Wheatley. In round one, Stuart's 10.4 defeated Adam Lowe, in the semi final he ran a single when opponent Dave Wheatley broke on track, and he outran James in the final.
Swift snippets. 25th July:
Happy Birthday for today to blown Alky VW Type 2 constructor and racer Wayne Allman, British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Ian Lloyd, and VW Sportsman racer Steve Stone. We hope you all have a great day.
Congratulations to 7.60 Heads Up racer Brendan Clancy who won the Eurodragster.com/Twister Racing Perfect ET award of £50 supported by Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield. The Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award of £50 supported by Cath and Tig Napier went unclaimed so rises to £75 at the 29th Mopar Euro Nationals.
Thanks to David Anniwell of the Santa Pod Timing Crew for sending us detailed timing data, including test day results, which we have posted to our timing data area which you can see by clicking on Data, then Timing Data at the top of any Eurodragster.com page. Official results can be seen at Santa Pod's Official Results Site. You can also see a Facebook album of the event on Santa Pod Raceway's page by going to this link.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Bug Jam 36
reports, results and galleries by clicking
here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link at the top of any Eurodragster.com page.
Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the race weekend including the unpleasant conditions on Saturday.
We look forward to publishing racer comments from social media on the event tomorrow, racers can also send comments to news@eurodragster.com.
Swift snippets. 24th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Nitro Revival sponsor and land speed racer Geoff Stilwell, Swedish drag racing official Kristina Lotta Andersson, Funny Car and Nostalgia Superstock team member Grace Roaf, VW racer and author Keith Seume, Super Gas racer Wayne Hiscock and Swedish Pro Stock racer Simon Ekengren. We hope you all have a great day.
Following our story on Funny Bike racer Dale Leeks' campaign in the Xtreme Dragbike Association in the US, XDA have published their latest points which show Dale as third in the MaxxECU Pro Extreme category. You can see the points table by clicking here.
Classes that ran were, in cars, Top Doorslammer, Pro ET, Super Pro ET, Stock/Super Stock, Pro Street, Top Sportsman, Vintage Drags and Junior Dragster. Bike classes were Super Twin Bike, Street Bike, Super Gas Bike, Super Comp Bike, Pro Comp Bike, and Junior Bike. Congratulations to Top Doorslammer winner Jari Sokura Super Twin Bike winner Samu Kemppainen and all other class winners.
Nine cars qualified for Top Doorslammer and the qualifying was:
Jari Sokura (57 Bel Air) (pictured) 4.098/292.80kph
Jaakko Lauhasmaa (70 Cuda) 4.225/286.09
Jarmo Nyberg (Dart) 4.296/271.57
Mikko Siironen (Cuda) 4.355/279.79
Kaj-Erik Nieminen (Corvette) 4.486/251.72
Marko Leivo (67 Camaro) 4.551/277.17
Lasse Niskaavara (09 Cobalt) 4.882/173.75
Marko Huttunen (Corvette) 5.174/182.83
Kaapo Lehtonen (41 Willys Coupe) 5.368/214.96
In eliminations, Jari Sokura of Elukka Racing ran a 4.130/300.29 top speed of the meet bye in round one, then had an easy bye when Marko Leivo was a no-show in round 2. Jari then defeated Jarmo Nyberg in the semi final 4.102/293.39 to 4.234/278.29 and in the final a 4.166/290.37 with his best RT 0.026 defeated #2 qualifier Jaakko Lauhasmaa's 4.939/207.68.
Six bikes qualified for Super Twin Bike and the qualifying was:
Mikko Rajaniemi 6.441/329.28kph
Elmeri Salakari 6.683/296.68
Marko Lantto 6.763/334.60
Samu Kemppainen (pictured) 6.822/334.50
Ismo Maenpaa 9.141/157.84
Teemu Kettula 32.665/
There were a large number of no-shows in round one and Samu Keppainnen defeated Marko Lantto 6.745/330.23 to 6.817/331.89, then it was solos in the semi final and final rounds for Samu who put on a great show, 6.738/337.04 in the semi and 6.692/307.95 in the final.
Round 4 of the FHRA championship is at Motopark Raceway, Pieksämäki on 19th-20th August. More details are at fhra.fi
Swift snippets. 23rd July:
Happy Birthday for today to Fuel Altered racer and team owner Dave Grabham, Elona Webster (aka Mrs Steve Splinter Nash), Stock Super Stock crew lady Christine Buckland, and Sportsman ET racer Ash Symons, have a great day all.
Bug Jam galleries, updates. 22nd July:
On the first day of Bug Jam 36 at Santa Pod Raceway, history was made with a new track record for Fuel Funny Cars of 4.1871/291.25, congratulations to Kevin Kent and West Ten Motorsport.
You can see a Facebook video of the run from Veedubracing by clicking on Julian's photo of Kevin's Chevy Monte Carlo. Kevin's run, alongside Jason Phelps in Gladiator, was made in the first session of qualifying, and qualifying at the end of Friday from the three cars present, after two sessions, was:
Kevin Kent 4.1871/291.25
Steve Ashdown 5.2671/140.38
Jason Phelps 5.5090 134.53
We have posted on-track and off-track galleries of yesterday's run what ya brung action from Julian and Diana, plus a summary of class racers who tested at our Event Index, which also includes a link to Santa Pod's official results and to streaming video for tomorrow's action.
SPR announced that due to the inclement weather today, all Bug Jam Saturday Day Ticket holders will now be valid for Sunday admission too.
Records updated. 21st July:
Many thanks to Andy Marrs for updating the European and UK Bests records sheet for recent records set in Outlaw Anglia.
Andy says "At the Summer Nationals John Willard set both the Outlaw Anglia ET and speed records at 6.762/204.31, with back up runs of 6.794/204.24, 6.7627 and 204.31 also being new SPR track records. At Dragstalgia he reset the SPR track record ET at 6.7132."
You can see the tables of European and UK Bests by going to this link, or via Data, then UK & European Bests in the main menu.
Robin Moore reunited with JT. 22nd July:
Pro Modified racer and site sponsor John Tebenham tells us of an unexpected reunion with Modified ET racer Robin Moore who visited Santa Pod at the Main Event.
"Robin was definitely one of my heroes with the Road Rage Mustang. It was great to catch up with him, also with Smax".
Robin's blown 500ci '69 Super Cobra Jet Mustang was last seen on track around 2000. We found his long extinct web site at
this link which revealed Robin's sense of humour in a couple of stories:
Road Rage was invited down to perform at the launch party in Central London for the Gumball 3000 rally. "It performed to a massive crowd including Pop and Media stars and Royalty. The evening was advertised as Mayhem and Burning Rubber", Robin wrote.
"Upon arriving we were told we were the Smoke Machine. White out in a central London Street! She lit the tyres, they spun till they exploded leaving the car on its back axles. The wheels were changed with some help from the officers of the Metropolitan Police."
Robin's first run at the Easter Thunderball in 1999 "found the team with its fastest 60' time ever at 1.3 seconds, which was particularly good having lost power by snapping the crank shaft in 3 places at about 40' from the start line. The good news was, upon examination of the engine damage, we were able to salvage the plug leads and valve covers...
"Having gone some way to solving this problem, a spectacular wheelie until 60' out, and the prop shaft snapping and trying to enter the rectum of the driver signalled the end of the season, and yet another expensive testing session."
Photo: Annie Valder.
Swift snippets. 22nd July:
Happy Birthday for today to Nostalgia Superstock racer Micky Churchill, VWDRC racer Ethan Lisle, Outlaw Street racer Russ Pursley, Super Comp racer Richard Tunstall, Swedish Pro Modified owner and crew chief Magnus Petersson. We hope you all have a wonderful day.
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Pro ET Dave Rudd at the STP Summer Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds.
The Perfect Light Award is available in all classes during both qualifying and eliminations after lunchtime on Saturday, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event.
The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with Cath and Tig Napier of Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by Andy Hadfield and the Twister Race Team has been reset to £50 after it was won by Lucas Oils Junior Dragster racer Ellie May Brown at the STP Summer Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Perfect ET Award is available in VW Sportsman, VW Pro and 7.60 Heads Up, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of the Twister Race Team.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On.
Note: We will notify award winners and pay them following conclusion of the event.
Mopar Euro Nationals deadline today. 21st July:
A reminder that today is the entry deadline for the 29th Mopar Euro Nationals on 28th-30th July at Santa Pod Raceway. Racers can enter the event at this link at racers.santapodtickets.com. Spectator and RWYB tickets are available at santapodtickets.com. We anticipate Run What Ya Brung will take place for the whole day on Friday and during the course of Saturday and Sunday as well.
Race classes available to enter into are Nostalgia Superstock, Gasser Circus, Supercharged Outlaws, Nostalgia Eliminator (for big tyre and modded suspension doorslammers) and Street Eliminator. In addition, run what ya brung includes Wild Bunch who we understand will be running as a group in the usual way.
Once entered, you can take part in the Wheels Up Contest for wheelies. Racers and spectators will be able to enjoy a wide variety of off track entertainments, both musical and car related. The usual Friday night cruise, show & shine and traders will all be appearing.
On Saturday when I was in the trailer working on a tune for the Chevelle he came in and said “Andreas, do you have time? We need to talk about a thing” When he said that I already knew what was coming! For some reason I had the feeling that he would ask me to drive his race car.
I have helped Jörgen with some small stuff in the past and we are good friends and when I go from the shop in Stockholm and home to Vansbro I pass by Ludvika where he lives and I stop by to say hi every now and then. And me and Sofi also helped out fire up the motor in the Vette for the first time at his birthday almost 3 years ago!
The story behind the Corvette is that Jörgen crashed his old Top Doorslammer Chevrolet Nova at Piteå Dragway in 2017, after that he ordered a new car from Mats Brag and he was going to step up to Pro Modified with it. The car got delayed and during the time Jörgen got sick and he’s not able to renew his racing license...
So that’s the reason why he asked me to do this is because he won’t be able to drive his new race car and he told me that he wants to see it go down the track...
So, he wanted my help to finish up the car, set up the chassis, fuel system, make sure we have all the right stuff in the car and that it all works properly, fix the ignition system, fuel management, Racepak and so on. And then drive and tune the car with my complete team with help from Jörgen and Bengt and then also use my truck and trailer to make everything easier, and I said YES OF COURSE! I’m really honoured that he asked me to do this and to drive his brand spanking new Pro Mod Chevrolet Corvette -79!
I saw this as an opportunity for me to learn something new, I have never tuned a Pro Mod legal roots blown Hemi before by myself. It’s a pretty big change from my own Big Block Chevy with a screw blower and of course it will be fun to drive and set up a new and different car / chassis! I saw it as a challenge for me to make this work and I actually got some racing spirit back again!
I’m an Outlaw Screwblower and Top Doorslammer guy in my heart but I really looked forward to make two test races in the Pro Modified class!
And something else that I really like about the Vette is that the body style is not something you see everywhere, just like with my own Chevelle 65!
So at the start of the year I began to work on some tuning stuff and we looked through the car to see what was missing and what we needed to add to it, one thing for me to be able to drive the car was to throw out the clutch and put in my Neal Chance converter, Bruno Drive and Lenco from the Chevelle in to the Vette! Not because I don’t want to drive a clutch car because, when it comes to the driving, it's way more fun with a clutch, BUT it costs way more, way more work and maintenance with a clutch if you want the same conditions every round with the car!... And I don’t want to work on it, we do not have time to work on it, and I have more Lenco ratios and knowledge when it comes to a converter, so a converter is the only option for me!
Then I wanted to rearrange some stuff in the driver area to make the car fit me better, so in the mid of April (2 months before the first outing) me, Jörgen and Bengt started for real to work on the car and make it ready for the Tierp test event in June! The plan from the start was to only make that event a test weekend to start to figure out the car.
I spent hundreds of hours myself on stuff on my end at my own shop and Jörgen and Benkt worked on stuff in Jörgens shop and then together we have spent a couple of hundreds of hours together at Jörgens shop during a total of maybe 10 days or so! Just like always, time is a problem and getting help at the shop is always difficult...It’s most of the time a one-man band working on race cars in the shop but at least we were 3 in the band this time!
We got the car ready the day before or so before Tierp after a lot of problems with the fuel system and blower package!..... More about that in a new post!
And Me and Sofi took the truck and trailer on a little secret trip of 310 kilometers from the ÅBM shop in Täby to Jörgens shop in Ludvika on Tuesday before the Tierp race to load the Corvette on Wednesday morning and then go to Tierp Arena!
We unloaded the car after we got our pit area done and it was some people that went over to us and was happy to see “our little secret” we continued to work on the car on Wednesday and during the whole Thursday mostly with the fuel system and idle problem…. We decided to go early to the track so the rest of the team could get familiar with the car because they had never seen it before and the race weekend / qualifying for us started first on Friday.
We made 2 planned soft test rounds on Friday, first just a 60ft to check the car and set up on it! 1.07 on a brand new car that never made a pass before is pretty ok I think with the little power I gave to it, only problem was the rolling idle on the motor that we been trying to fix but haven’t solved it all the way!...
On the second test pass I added some power to see how the car would react to it, but before the pass when we fired up the motor before the burn out the motor acted really crazy, idle was rolling more than earlier and after the burn out the idle was all the way from 1500-2400 in neutral…. And in gear it was really hard to hold the car with the brakes, I had to step way hard on the brake to try control the car but succeeded to stage it at least and made a 450ft ish pass, 1.00 to 60ft and was off the throttle at 2.99 and rolled into a 4.30 to the 1/8 mile! Car was still way down on power, rich on fuel, low timing and way too low gear ratio in the transmission! BUT I got what I wanted and next step is to add some power and make a full pass down the track to get more data on the motor and start reading real fuel flow, spark plugs and so.
Then we serviced the car to see that everything looks like it should, changed transmission to free up the motor and all was ok, then we continued to mess around with the blower and fuel system trying to figure out why we have so much problems with the idle!.... We took the injector hat and spacer off the blower and we found a lot of strange leaks, everything from o-rings, to mismatching parts that caused leaks and strange openings between parts that we sealed up to try control the idle.
We also found a leaking check valve in the fuel system, I wonder how the seller was able to control the opening pressure on it when it was machined wrong and did not close after it opened…. It closed first, then when it did open it did not close until pressure was zero and then it opened again at a pressure that of course also was wrong compared to what I was told it should be...
After that we got some awesome BBQ dinner presented from our great friend and partner Kaare and ICA Gärdet!
Then on Saturday the plan was to start making real rounds after the data I got on Friday, we fired up the motor to make it ready for the first round on Saturday! Now the idle was better with less rolling after all the messing around with the blower on Friday evening!
All felt awesome and then the motor just went silent...
We all got a bit confused for a while and after some quick troubleshooting we found out that we did not have spark or oil pressure when cranking the motor...We took off the distributor cap and the rotor did not turn as I assumed to be the problem, why I did is because I have had this problem before! Pulled the mag and the distributor gear on the cam was gone!… I have seen this 5 years ago on the same batch where this cam comes from!…. More about this in a new post.
Anyway, me, Jörgen and the whole team were happy with the weekend anyway, chassis works and respond great to my set up, motor started to get happy after all the mess with the blower and fuel system and then the cam broke!
I want to say thanks to all involved this weekend, Jörgen first of all that trust me and gives me the opportunity to drive his brand new Pro Modified car! Dad (Ake), Sofi, Max, Krille, John The Sneaky Snake, Marcus, Dennis, Benkt, Katrin, Ludde, Moa and Robert that was the team for the weekend! It was a lot of emotions and feelings during the weekend at Tierp Arena due to getting Jörgens Corvette out for the first time and also the loss of Jörgens great friend Rolf Simonsson that passed away in May this year.
Then I want to say a special thanks to my partners that supports this test year in the class Pro Modified, our own shop of course Åkes Bil & Motor, Peter and Patrik at Rörmekano, Tobbe at T.Grundström Plåtslageri, Christer at Alwerco Svets & Smide, Kaare at ICA Gärdet, Micke at Clearwrap East Coast, Nicke at Nicclast and Leif at Catch With Care! All of you helping out makes this possible for us to do and I can not thank you enough!
Directly at Tierp after the camshaft broke we started to talk about where we can go and test the Vette before the next Tierp event in August. The event in June was just for testing and August is for racing so we cannot go there with only 2 test passes on the car...I know about some tracks that might an option, but the some are not good enough for what I want to do, some of them is tracks I don’t want to visit for different reasons...
Then we talked about to take the Corvette to Kauhava in Finland instead of the Chevelle that was planned! But a work situation destroyed that plan so instead we are going to Norway and Gardermoen Raceway 4th-6th August. The best thing with going to Norway is that they are running the EDRS Pro classes, so Pro Modified is a class at the event and we will get more 1/4 mile passes in the car before Tierp and that is better for me to find a good tune up in the car!
I hope to see you all at Gardermoen Raceway in August!
Swift Snippets. 21st July:
A very Happy Birthday for today to Willys Wars racer Richard Warburton, have a great day Richard!
Longtime supporter and Photo Finish Award sponsor Bob Roberts has updated his Flickr page to include a batch of historic photos from Avon Park Raceway in 1985. You can see Bob's photos by clicking the link or clicking on by clicking on the West End Racers license plate on the left of the page.
On behalf of the drag racing community at large, the directors of the BDRHoF and Eurodragster.com offer Brian’s family their sincere condolences.
Callout for Demo Vehicles at Best of British. 20th July:
Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway Track & Events Coordinator Dan Melrose for a callout for British-model body or engined cars:
"Santa Pod Raceway is on the lookout for up to 10 demo vehicles for the Best of British event on 12th August. If your vehicle has a British-model body or engine and runs quicker than 11.99, we’d like to hear from you!
"Just send some photos and info about your vehicle to dan.melrose@santapod.com before 5pm Tuesday, 1st August, and successful applicants will be contacted after this date."
Bug Jam preview. 20th July:Bug Jam 36 takes place at Santa Pod this weekend from tomorrow 21st July until Sunday 23rd July. As well as a huge range of off-track entertainments which you can read about at the event website bugjam.co.uk there will be on track action aplenty. SPRC class racing will include round 4 of 6 of the Motorsport UK Pro Modified championship with an entry of six cars, Fuel Funny Cars competing for their championship, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Outlaw Flat Four, Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator and 7.60 Heads Up.
In Pro Modified, Bobby Wallace is leading the championship from Wayne Nicholson. The Funny Car Cup is led by Kevin Kent from Jason Phelps. In VW Pro, Ed Keech is leading with Graham Fairhead, James Hodson and Danielle Coppin close together in points. VW Sportsman is led by Paul Robinson, with Caitlin Wilson, Philip Jones, Polly Judge and Andrew Bambrick close in points.
utlaw Flat Four is led by James Wotton from Adam Lowe, Street Eliminator is led by Al McSweeney from Andy Bond whilst Brendan Clancy is leading 7.60 Heads Up from Billy Gane with Mark Turner close behind.
In addition to these classes there will be VW Group-only Run What Ya Brung and exhibition vehicles FireForce 2, driven by Martin Hill, Oklahoma Willy driven by Perry Watkins, and the Force of Nature steam powered 'Rocket' motorcycle with Graham Sykes as its rider. A match race has also been planned between UK Pro Modified legend Andy Robinson and DJ Carl Cox who will be driving his Procharged Cuda (pictured - photo credit Cool Flo).
You may enter the RWYB by going to santapodtickets.com (where spectator tickets should also be purchased in advance), and sign on for all day Friday at £30 or for Saturday until around 14:00 at £20.
Eurodragster.com's coverage will include a summary of Friday's times, plus a link to Saturday and Sunday's class results as posted by Santa Pod's timing crew, together with on-track and off-track galleries from Julian and Diana. There won't be a live report as editor Simon is away.
Dragstalgia 2023 – Noah’s Weekend. 20th July:
Many thanks to Nick Brooke Langham for an account of Gasser Circus at Dragstalgia.
Stifling heat on Friday greeted everyone as they made their way up Airfield Road arriving at the Pod is always filled with excitement and with the tickets in hand we were scanned in and on our way to the pits. We had been fore warned as Pit space was at a premium with a mere 275 vehicles entered to race over the weekend.
The Gasser Circus pits already had 12 Gassers lined up or with a few more spaces as the cars were out in the fire up road waiting to take part in the RWYB. It was so good to see Niamh back with her ‘Nogbad the Bad’ Austin Devon, having suffered serious engine damage at Round 2. A few long days and nights had seen the engine repaired and back together, unfortunately, it suffered another issue during the test session which would preclude it from the weekends racing.
Dragstalgia is always a bit different and Friday evening saw the Gasser Circus undertake Round 1of qualifying. For those that had tested during the day they had a good base line, but for the majority of the 22 drivers on site, it could turn out to be a one shot affair with the lets say interesting weather being forecast for Saturday.
Friday came and went without any more significant issues for the Gassers the same could not be said of the guys and girls over from Australia with their 6 second Anglia, as it holed a piston on Friday which also concluded their weekend. They did sign off with another 6 second pass this one being 6.71.
Saturday began with dark clouds but a pit full of optimism, a few cars were soon taking to the strip and with 21 gassers in the fire up road, it was an impressive sight as the cars filled four lanes at the end of the fire up road. It was good to see ‘Roarin Rat’ driven by Keith Bartlett in the lanes as the car has long been a stalwart of the Circus. Just before the track sweeper had concluded its prep run, it was followed down the strip by some very large rain drops. Suddenly traders stalls were exceedingly popular as was the signing on office as racers and crew competed for a dry space. Some drivers stayed sat inside their Gasser, some of those were to discover that their car leaked under the rain then thunder storm of biblical proportions. Eventually after over 30 minutes of rain, Gassers were directed to fire up and head back to the pits. It was very surprising to see a few hardy spectators sitting it out patiently waiting for the rain to stop.
The Gasser pit ran down the side of the fire up road, and at the bottom end of the pits of Steve Matthews, Ray Turner and Lee Pike could be found. When they got back they were in for a shock as they needed a boat to get to their pits. They were clearly at the end of a gradual slope in the pits and flood water had arrived and their tools, power cables and various items were now sitting in water. Trolley jacks were almost completely submerged and items were floating past the bewildered crews and drivers. Racers are a hardy bunch and all the teams took it in their stride, those strides taking them all to higher ground!
Santa Pod crew sent along there special sucker, a tanker which soon had most of the water removed, just as the guys and girls thought it was all over, more rain swept in and the floods returned, as of course so did the tanker.
Just before 5 a pair of the most renowned aircraft in the world arrived the Spitfire and Hurricane flying in formation, they too put on an inspiring display just as had the B17 that swept back and forth over the one time B17 airbase earlier in the day.
As the time ticked round to 06:30 the end of the fire up road was 4 lanes of Gassers, first pair up were Graham Barton in his ‘High Anxiety’ Devon and Andy Cobb in his Model A ‘Bad to the Bone’ both impressive cars. Graham dialled 10.60 and ran 10.70 and with Andy leaving the line in second it was a slow run for him. It was a great delight to see that Laurent Levi had made the trip from France to race his Mercury and he lined up against Pat Hobbs in his Falcon. They both performed big burnouts and in a cloud of rubber smoke came to the line Laurent dialled 9.76 and ran a 9.52 Pat dialled 11.58 and ran 11.63.
Chris Layram ‘Outa Gas’ paired against Sean Milson ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ 10.01 – both drivers were on it with Chris breaking out with a 10.29 on a 10.30. Sean was delighted to get some numbers on the board having failed to make Round 1 of qualifying due to fuelling issues on Friday evening.
Simon Glen’s Austin Pick up ‘Straight Shooter’ had a major change with his son Sam in the hot seat for the weekend. He lined up against Adam Kruczynski in his ‘Not So Mellow Yellow’ 55 Chevy. Having snapped a shock mount with a huge wheelie on Friday Sam was under instruction of No burnouts as the Austin was already gripping so well. Sam running a 10.45 for him and Adam 11.20.
John Gibson in ‘High Roller’ 10.20 lined up alongside Jason Darling in his ‘Sinister’ Chevy Coupe, but Jason shut down after breaking the beams as he had fuel spraying over his screen. This meant he was out and would not advance to Eliminations having not run on Friday night.
Next up Nervous Nick in ‘The Traitor’ and Keith in ‘Roarin Rat’, he was slightly delayed as Jason in his Coupe reversed back. As Nick and Keith came to the line they were held as the Timing system decided it needed a reboot. Nick was soon on a solo and ran 11.68 way off his dial in of 11.45.
Next up was Gasser Circus point leader Jason Pickett in his ‘Cherry Bomb’ 55, he was also on a solo dialling 10.85 he ran 11.00. The pairings were coming thick and fast now as the Wlillys pickup ‘Gas Junkie’ of Ray Irish burnt out alongside Lee Pike in ‘Honky Tonkin 2’. Lee getting in the spirit with a huge rolling burnout across the line. Lee dialled 9.57 and when the beams were broken at the top he had run a 9.65. Ray in the other lane Ray 10.15.
The ‘Short Fuse’ Fordson of Nick Hewison lit up its tyres, then came to the line Nick dialled 9.98 and ran 9.90 breakout with Keith ‘Roarin Rat’ 10.20 in the other lane running a 10.38 @127mph.
Brian Gibson treated everyone to a big rolling burnout in his ‘Identity Crisis’ Dodge Dart. Next to him was Simon Prest in ‘The Rocket’ Mercury, Simon having gone back to foot braking was now really consistent he dialled 11.00 and ran 11.06. Brian in his Dart, pulled a great wheelie on his 11.55 pass having dialled 11.39.
Steve Matthews 57 ‘Honky Tonkin’ lined up with Harvey Turner in his ‘Nurse Stoner’ Nova. Strangely Steve did not burnout as he had a few issues, but they did not seem to bother him when he stormed his way to a 9.67 on a 9.75 dial with a customary wheelie off the line. Harvey in the other lane ran 12.03 on an11.98 dial.
To round things off his father Ray was on a solo in his ‘Green Onions’ 55 and ran 10.97 on a 10.91.
Sunday
Round 1 Eliminations saw Sean Milsom racing Andy Cobb in ‘Bad to the Bone’ Model A. Sean ran 10.19 @130mph on a 10.03 and Andy dialled 11.35 but broke out with 11.01 123mph. Andy may have lost but he had a big smile on his face back in the pits as it was a PB on only his second event racing with the Circus.
Graham Barton ‘High Anxiety’ lined up alongside Simon Prest, Graham knowing he needed to cut a good light, he cut it to fine with an -.21 reaction time and left a red on the tree. Simon advanced but gave notice as he ran fractionally broke out with 11.00 on an 11.01.
Nervous Nick in his ‘The Traitor’ Pop and Dean Maudsley in his ‘The Defiant One’ Chevy Coupe were up next with Nick dialling 11.50 and Dean 11.99. Both cars performed strong burnouts and came to the line. Dean left first and was chased by Nick all the way down the track, Dean crossed the line first but the gantry showed there had been two breakouts with Dean running 11.83 and Nick 11.34. Nick taking the win by virtue of breaking out by the least whilst running a PB.
Laurent burnt out and guided his Mercury to the line dialling 9.45 in the opposite lane sat Pat Hobbs. The two cars had a great chase race with Laurent just overhauling Pat before the line with a 9.42 137mph but with Pat dialling 11.55 and winning with an 11.55 115mph, the lights confirming Laurent had broken out running 9.42, Pat advanced to Round 2.
Ray Irish in ‘Gas Junkie’ took on the Outa Gas Pop of Chris Layram, the latter running 10.32 122mph Chris taking the win with Ray running a 10.87 119 mph on a 10.19 dial in but at the end of the run feeling something was not quite right with his Willys pickup. This was soon discovered to be a bent valve!
Jason Hollamby had been on it all weekend he was after all no1 qualifier in his ‘Jumpin Jalapeno’ Falcon. He dialled 10.74 and knew it would be a close race against John Gibson with John Dialling 10.85. With both cars in full stage the tree activated and John launched too early with an -.002 light. Jason dodged a bullet as he had a 0.5 reaction time!
John’s brother Brian was next up Brian dialling 11.52 coming to the line against Nick Hewison in his ever faster ‘Short Fuse’ Fordson Nick dialling 9.90. As the tree dropped Nick brought the revs up and the Fordson rolled the beam handing the win to Brian, but Nick was not done he launched and still ran 9.92 133mph.
All eyes were on Lee as he brought his ‘Honky Tonkin 2’ Nova to the line as he was taking on Jason Pickett and as the winner of Round 2 Jason had a target on his back, with a £40 bonus going to anyone who beats the last event winner. Jason left first and when Lee left he was on it chasing hard and running a 9.56 @ 144mph. The win light on in Lee’s lane as Jason had broken out running 10.91 on an 11.04 dial.
Keith Bartlett dialled 10.25 in his 57 Chevy whilst in the other lane Harvey Turner had dialled 11.98. Keith chased down Harvey and edged up on him as they approached the finish line, before just nosing ahead, Keith taking the win with a great 10.31, Harvey running a 12.06.
The battle of the Tri Chevy’s was next on the menu as Ray Turner’s ‘Green Onions’ 55 sat alongside Adam Kruczynski in ‘Not So Mellow Yellow’ 55, this was almost a heads up side by side race but Ray took the win with a holeshot putting Adam on the trailer.
Sam Glenn driving his father’s Pickup ‘Straight Shooter’ was next up and waiting for him was Steve Mathews in his Honky Tonkin 57. This turned out to be a race of reaction times not by a holeshot but two differing reactions with Steve cutting a superb 0.001 light before running 9.60, and for Sam it was a -.2 resulting in a red light.
As the next round of Eliminations got underway Ray Turner came around the corner in his 55 Chevy and prepared to take on Simon Prest. Ray has been racing his 55 for decades and it showed as he pulled out a holeshot win over Simon with an 0.02 reaction time.
Next up Keith in ‘Roarin Rat’ sounded good as it came to the line and so did Chris Layram in his ‘Out Gas Pop’. Keith dialling 10.20 and Chris 10.24. As the cars almost left together the race was on and they were side by side all the way down the track and as they crossed the line, Chris took the win running 10.36 with Keith crossing the line 10.44 seconds after breaking the start line beam.
The battle of the ‘Honky Tonkin’ Gassers was next up as Lee in his ‘Honky Tonkin 2’ Nova prepared to race Steve Mathews driving a car that Lee had built and raced with his great friend Jerry Denning. As it turned out it was a breakout race for both cars, which shows just how much they wanted to beat the other. Lee taking the win courtesy of breaking out by less with a 9.36 on his 9.66 dial and Steve 9.67 dial running a losing 9.64.
Round 2 is a rare territory for Nervous Nick and it seems he was asleep on the line as Pat Hobbs took a holeshot lead with a 0.2 light to Nicks 0.5, it was a lead he held all the way to the finish line. Pat progressing his Falcon to the next round.
Talking of Falcons Jason Hollamby in his was next up, but he was on a bye but still put the car down the track with a storming 10.75 pass.
Little and large were next up with Sean Milsom in his diminutive Morris van lining up against the Dodge Dart of Brian Gibson. Sean dialled 10.13 running through with a 10.9 and taking the win as Brian dialled 11.55 and ran 11.63.
Laurent who had travelled from France to race in the Circus was delighted to be given the opportunity to run again despite losing in the previous round. Our gratitude to Santa Pod staff for facilitating this.
The quarter finals were a story of Reds, as Pat Hobbs lined up against Sean Milsom as the tree activated Pat was off followed by Sean, but he had left to early, with Pat seeing the win lights go on in his lane.
Chris Layram and Steve were next up and it looked set to be a close race, with both drivers needing to cut a great light, Steve frustratingly lit the red bulb with a -0.53 reaction, Chris advancing to a bye run into the semi-final.
The other pairing had Ray Turner dialling 10.95 as he lined up against Jason Hollamby on a 10.74, with both drivers in the top 5 of the Championship there was a lot riding on this. A green light race ensued and when the green Gassers passed under the finish line gantry Jason moved on having run 10.83 compared to Ray’s 11.09.
Semi Finals
The first pair came round and went through their burnout procedures, it was the battle of Falcons with No 1 Qualifier Jason Hollamby in ‘Jumpin Jalapeno’ preparing to race Pat Hobbs in his ‘Southern Fryer’. Jason dialled 10.75 numbers he had been hitting throughout the weekend, and Pat dialling 11.55. With a green light semi-final the race was on and when they too flew under the gantry the win lights glowed in Jason’s lane with him having run 10.96 to Pats 11.59.
Chris Layram had a bye to the final but dialled a 10.24, when the tree activated he was off and 20 seconds later he crossed the line.
The final was now set, and it was to befitting to see the Number 1 and Number 2 qualifiers contesting it.
As the golden glow of a late afternoon spread across the Pod, the two finalists fired their engines and headed round to burn out. Both had their crews with them, possibly on the minds of Chris’s crew was the hard work that went into getting to this point as on Monday the engine was out and in pieces as a rebuild was underway. Chris’s crew all resplendent in their Layram Pearson racing shirts. Jason’s crew had gone a different direction with their crew attire, preferring instead to don Mexican sombrero’s to cheer him on, arriba!
The drivers were signalled to approach the line and they both edged up, the rest of the Gasser Circus drivers and crews filled the sides of the start line waiting to see what would unfold.
Both Gassers rolled into Pre stage a slight delay as they went into stage and the tree activated as the light descended the second yellow came on and Jason was off the sombreros momentarily turned away from the strip as Jason had left a cherry on the tree, Jason stayed on it and so did Chris even though he could see he had just won his first Gasser Circus event, the Gassers both running 11.10.
Handshakes all round between the two crews and it was off to the pits for trophy presentations. This involved the fantastic Neil Melliard trophy, handed to a well chuffed Chris. Various other awards were handed out courtesy of the Gasser Circus sponsors, The Rocket Racing Team, Tom Margesson and Williams Brothers Racing.
Gassers were soon packed away, and are right now being prepared for the 4th Round which will be at the Mopars at the end of the month.
This season has so far been action packed the standings make for some interesting reading with potentially the top 8 all still in contention for the Championship, with 3 rounds to go. You can see the current points at this link or via Eurodragster.com's Points Standings page.
Make sure you catch the racing at the Pod or on line.
Gasser Circus – Racing the Dream.
Swift snippets. 20th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Detroit Spinner legend Arthur Bonner, Dirty Deeds crewman Carl Kirk, FWD racer Dean Hyndman, Willys Wars racer Kim Bishop and longtime Swedish racer Stanley Mellström. We hope you all have a great day.
Max Outlaw: Michael Westberg (Chevrolet Camaro), average time 4.9236
Street Outlaw: Jörgen Andersson (Opel Kadett), average time 5.3736
Ultimate Street: Sami Luokkala (El Camino), average time 5.9194
True Street: Sami Toivonen (Chevrolet Camaro), average time 6.0995
Pro Touring: Michael Callin (Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06), average time 6.4886
Import War (FWD): Krister Jungvar (VW Caddy), average time 10.7566
Import War (RWD): Daniel Johansson (BMW E92 Turbo), average time 6.0027
4WD: Henrik Andersen BMW 318Ti, average time 5.7758
Diesel Power: Linus Thollander (Chevrolet Nova), average time 6.7782
Hot Rod: Thomas Olsson (Ford 23T), average time 6.6693
Well done to Al McSweeney in his Volvo 162 who completed all five tracks in Street Outlaw with an average of 6.0257.
Malta Hal Far round 3 Night Event results. 19th July:
Congratulations to the official winners at round 3 of the 2023 Enemed Malta National Drag Racing Championship, which was organized at the Hal Far track by the Malta Drag Racing Association over last weekend 13th-15th May, racing taking place at night time:
Dragster DTA6 class and Open 6 class: Dunstin Bugeja, unopposed
Dragster DTA4 class: Tyson Debono (pictured right top) def. Nathan Bartolo
Dragster D4 class: Tyson Debono, bye
CA6 clss: Justin Muscat def. Anthony Vella (3rd place Dennis Desira)
Open 5 class: Lewis Vella, bye
SM4 Class: Stephen Xuereb, bye
Open 2 Class: Justin Muscat, unopposed
Open 1 Class: Mathias Caruana, bye
Front Wheel Drive Open Class: Clayton Johnson def. Glenn Caruana
Escort Class 3: Christian Pace def. Martin Scerri
Escort Class 2: Rosello Cassar def. Martin Scerri
Index Class 1: Neil Vella def. Steve Jennerway (UK)
Index Class 2: Chris Mercieca def. Joe Ashton (UK) (3rd place Neil Caruana)
Bracket 7.50-7.99: Dennis Desira, unopposed
Bracket 8.00-8.49: Ian Schembri, unopposed
Bracket 9.50-9.99: Glenn Caruana def. Clayton Johnson
Bracket 10.00-10.49: Gordon Cassar, bye
Bracket 10.50-10.99: Chris Mercieca, bye
Bracket 11.00-11.49: Nickovich Chircop, bye
Bracket 11.50-11.99: Steve Jennerway def. Warren Gauci
Diesel Open class: Ludovic Ferte, bye
Junior Dragster: Yelsin Bonello def. Ismael Mula Debono (3rd place Isaac Mula Debono)
Top Fuel Motorcycle and M/Cycle Open Class: Glenn Borg, unopposed
Best reaction time: Neil Vella
Tyson Debono's Vauxhall C20XE-engined XII Racing dragster continued his brilliant form from the May event and ran a new four cylinder car record for Europe after XII Racing upgraded the Precision Turbo & Engine turbo. The team reported "We managed to reset our personal best and Europe’s 4 cylinder record with very consistent passes of 6.159 @ 219.07mph, 6.166 @ 220.10mph and 6.163 @ 222.50mph. The cherry on the cake was to win both the D4 class and DTA4 class. See you in October, hopefully with less humid conditions and lower air temperature."
Nathan Bartolo in the Haltech Mitsubishi Evo 4G63-engined yellow car was runner up in DTA4, and said "Exactly 1 year since the first time at the track, it was a year full of hard challenges but together we are getting there with a best of 6.62 @207mph. Well-done to Farrugia Bros, you deserve it.
Other PBs and notable performances were from Chris Mercieca (bracket/index Nissan 100 SR20) with a PB of 10.560/134.70, George Cutajar's Open FWD/Bracket Starlet running a 9.4 before retiring the rapid car, and looking forward to bringing out a new car later in the year.
Dennis Desira In His Pro Street Sierra 2JZ (pictured above) reported that he regained confidence again after switching to an air shifted Liberty transmission and a 86mm Turbo, and was back in the 7sec xone with a 7.8sec pass @ 177mph. Clayton Johnson reported he was very happy with the consistency of his Starlet, despite the hot weather, running a couple of 9.8 sec runs, managing 1st place in the Open FWD class and 2nd in bracket 9.5 class, running a PB speed of 145mph.
Glenn Borg on his Funny Bike won Top Fuel Bike and the Open Motorcycle class and commented "Big achievement for our team, 6.60 with 209mph, still national record holder, thanks to all my dedicated team. Thanks to MDRA Hal Far, and to the crew for prepping the track. The bike is still in one piece!"
You can see videos of the event at the Youtube channel of MDRA Secretary Konrad D'Anastasi at this link.
Thanks to Alex Buttigieg for the photos. You can see Alex's photos from the event at his Facebook album.
Swift snippets. 19th July:
Happy Birthday for today to UK Drag Bike legend and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member John Hobbs, have a great day John!
We have two birthday requests today. Outlaw Anglia team member Jason Yates wishes Orange Pop driver and owner Simon Barlow a huge Happy Birthday. Also Wild Bunch racer Russ Heaven wishes a Big Happy Birthday to his son Steve Heaven, Crew chief and driver of the Tight Fit sling shot in the Wild Bunch and chief crew man on the Mr Mopar Outlaw Anglia. We add our birthday greetings, have a great day guys.
Many thanks to Tog for covering the event providing photo galleries and best times of the day. You can see our coverage of the event sponsored by John Woolfe Racing by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above.
The next race at Melbourne will take place on 5th-6th August. You can enter the race or get tickets at this link.
Dale's XDA exploits. 18th July:
Well done to Dale Leeks who has once again made the semi finals at the XDA Racing WPGC Bike Fest at Budds Creek Maryland International Raceway over last weekend, running a new PB over the eighth.
Dale said "I lost in the semis to my team mate John Collins but we dipped into the 4.0’s (4.088/179.68) and it was an awesome race. I’m loving this. Every pass this weekend we have stepped up and improved and the bike feels so good."
Dale qualified #5 in a seven bike field with a 4.280/169.51. His round one opponent was #4 qualifier George Whitaker and Dale got a great 4.10 @ 178 mph holeshot win. The race was run in what can best be described as tropical conditions, with winner Tommy Saxon running low ET of the event at 3.974/183.17 to defeat Collins.
Swift snippets. 18th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Pro ET and Super Gas racer Dave Fulton, Maltese Top Methanol Dragster legend Monty Bugeja, inventor of the "Maltese 60ft" full pass, and Top Methanol Dragster racer in waiting Tina Høst Nedregård who ran her first licensing launch in the Jedborn Motorsport dragster at Pite Dragway last weekend before her debut at Tierp in August.
Melbourne Sunday gallery and best times. 17th July:
Thanks to Former Editor Tog who has supplied a gallery of Sunday's on-track action from Melbourne Raceway's Midsummer Madness event.
Tog reported that Ant Harris in his Frantic dragster took the money in the ET bracket race over Morgan Wilson in her Beetle who broke out.
Also Allan Schofield in his new blown alky altered made a successful, and impressive, first pass to 5.61/122, lowest wheel driven ET of the day. Graham Sykes on the The Force of Nature steam powered rocket bike ran the top times of the day 4.35 and 167mph which we believe is a speed record for the Melbourne Raceway eighth.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Melbourne Raceway results and gallery by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above. We will publish the official results in a couple of days.
Street Week Sweden winners. 17th July:
Congratulations to Street Weekend Sweden winner Michael Westberg who celebrated on the podium on Saturday with event organiser Mats Appelgren to his right. The final Max Outlaw leaderboard prepared by Pär Pippi Willén can be seen at this link. You can see Michael's historic pass 4.09 pass at Malmö on TikTok at this link.
Michael's engine supplier Stefan Rossi said "2000 miles and plenty of low 6 second 1/4 and low 4 second 1/8 mile passes on his ACE Racing Engines 400ci LSNext² engine. 3’s coming up next...". He was also recognised by transmission providers M&M Transmission who made Michael's TH400 gearbox and billet converter. Michael suffered a lane awapping run at Laxå but recovered before he went on the grass, the track having no retaining wall.
Pro Stock racer Michael Callin won the Pro Touring Class in his yellow Corvette (pictured right). He said "It took 5 attempts to win the class but so incredibly nice to finally succeed. A huge thank you to Robert Johansson and Mattias Löf for all the help during the competition. And thanks to Brian Huntsbarger for his excellent tuning of my car."
We will publish a link to results when posted on the Street Week Sweden website.
Swift snippets. 17th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Supercharged Outlaws racers Joe Bond and Steve Wright, Pro Modified racer Bert Englefield and Custom Car magazine writer Dave Biggadyke. We hope you all have a fantastic day.
Melbourne Saturday galleries and best times. 16th July:
Former Editor Tog is in place at Melbourne Raceway and has posted galleries and best times from Saturday's action.
Graham Sykes on the The Force of Nature steam powered rocket bike ran best ET of the day at 4.81/154mph, prior to his appearance at Bug Jam 36 next weekend. Also present at the track for some checkout passes in his new blown alky altered (pictured) was Allan Schofield (now owner of the former Lee Gallimore car).
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Melbourne Raceway results and gallery by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above.
Drachten results and media. 16th July:
Many thanks to our good friend Mike Kraaij of Dutch Hot Rod Association for posting photos and detailed results of Dragrace Madness Drachten 2023 at the DHRA Drag Racing Facebook group.
The results were determined in most classes on best ET on index or dial-in in accordance with the racers' preference so that they could make the most runs, whilst Street Harley and Junior Dragster ran an elimination ladder. Congratulations to those who won by running the quickest ET in their category (click on class name for final qualifying order):
Super Pro ET: Sebastien Lajoux (Dragster) (pictured) 6.689/330.28 Pro ET: Ed Breedveld (9.52) 9.539/227.85 Street Modified (10.00 index): Joey Fransen 10.199/241.61 Street Legal A (12.00 index): Lennart Wijnmaalen 12.001/203.39 Street Legal B (13.00 index): Urville Olymph 13.021/182.74 Street Legal C (14.00 index): Merijn Breij 14.013/150.31 Street Legal D (15.00 index): Janita Kempenaar 15.029/157.55 Street Eliminator: Marten Hoekstra (11.85) 11.858/187.99 Junior Dragster: Thore Wolf (8.47) 8.514/115.76 def. Max Timmers (8.05) 8.146/130.67 Funny Bike: Kars van den Belt 7.616/291.50 Pro Street Bike: Naichel Martis 8.531/256.23 Street Modified Bike: Isbertus Laker (9.50) 9.508/233.01 Street Legal Bike: Nefty Martina 9.174/254.42 Street Harley Bike: Gert Jan Laseur 11.582/209.30 def. Kees van Bakel 11.385/193.55 Junior Drag Bike: Anouk Burgering (13.42) 13.553/78.35
Mike adds that the race was run until 17:00 on Sunday when heavy rain came so there are plenty of unclaimed trophies which early departing racers should claim.
Mike adds "It was possibly our last race at Drachten, but fingers crossed for next year, hopefully it is possible to organise another race event again at Drachten after a change in government. The future will tell. Congratulations to all racers who came this year."
You can see photos from Mike in albums from the DHRA Facebook page at this link.
Swift snippets. 16th July:
Happy Birthday for today to writer, Gasser Circus racer and Nostalgia Superstock committee member Nïamh Frances Smith, FWD racer Allan Duthie, ET Bike racer Gary Hester, Super Comp racer Steven Hudson, Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann and Maltese video producer and streamer Oliver Attard. We hope you all have a great day.
May and June were very busy months for Wallace Motorsport! In May, we welcomed a new member to the Wallace Motorsport Team! Annie gave birth to my beautiful niece; Mia Owen on the 11th May, and also supported me with the car at the Main Event too.
We then only had 4 weeks to turn the car around after getting to the final of the Main Event! After I got married on the 10th June – it was full steam ahead on car maintenance.
Luckily we had all the parts in stock to keep the engine fresh. Which meant we felt confident heading to the Summer Nationals. The hard work had all paid off, with a 5.93 off the trailer, in Q1.
Q2, was a learning curve for us. The car didn’t react how we expected it to, after experimenting with launch RPM and gear ratios. So for Q3, we went back to our original tune up and with the weather getting better later in the afternoon, this resulted in a 5.86. The whole team were over the moon, as this was our first no.1 qualifier position of the year.
Having only 5 cars entered, meant we had a bye in the first round. We had planned to make a full pass, however we shook the tyres at the top of first gear. We faced David Smith in round 2, after adjusting to the track conditions on eliminations day, we managed to get the win in round 2 with a 5.93.
We met Wayne in the final for the 2nd time this year! Unfortunately the Lucky Devil team had issues, so they just broke the beam and we won with a 5.86 – which was a great finish to another brilliant weekend!
It was great to have Annie back on the team full time, and thanks to Mum for spending your birthday at the track AGAIN! Another huge thanks to the whole team, we wouldn’t be where we are without you all!
Looking forward to seeing you all at Bug Jam next week.
Super Twin Top Gas at Malmö. 15th July:
Thanks to Herman Jolink for a report on the the first round of the 2023 Euroserie Supertwin Top Gas championship from Malmö Raceway in Sweden last weekend:
Malmö is a very good 1/8 Mile (201 m) track and in total 72 cars and bikes entered for the race, including four Super Twin Top Gas. Conditions were sunny and warm the whole weekend.
Jörg Lymant did some test runs on Friday with his USA built 2622cc V-Twin, one of his two bikes at the track. On Saturday, and Sunday morning, everybody got plenty of track time to try and qualify for the race on Sunday.
Qualifying:
Jörg Lymant (GER) (2622cc V-Twin) 4.809/223kmh
Janne Malmberg (SWE) (2600 blown V-Twin) 5.136/204kmh; before this race, Malmberg had problems with melting pistons, but now he has find the problem, and rides consistent times.
In Sunday eliminations: Lymant had a semi-final bye run and just staged, whilst Malmberg's 5.202/206kmh defeated Foit who ran 7.008/162kmh. In the final winner Malmberg ran 5.271/205 kmh to defeat Lymant who ran a 8.841/75 kmh, suffering a broken chain.
Euro Serie Super Twin Championship positions:
Janne Malmberg (SWE) 330 points
Jörg Lymant (GER) 265
=Malte Foit (GER) 120
=Mats Larsson (SWE) 120
The next Super Twin Top Gas round is on 27th-29th july at Mantorp Park, Sweden. We look forward to receiving Herman's report.
Photo: first place for Janne Malmberg from Sweden in Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas on his 2600 Blower V-Twin. Photo copyright: Piet Mom
Thundergod looking for crew. 15th July:
Owner of the Thundergod Supercharged Outlaw 23T altered Duncan Beard had a busier than expected Dragstalgia, and looks forward to being able to compete at the Mopar Euro Nationals - if he has sufficient crew.
Usual driver Des Taylor said "I had a really bad ear infection since Thursday before Dragstalgia, and got filled with antibiotics at the hospital which made me really bad all weekend. So Duncan was driving but, car wasn't playing ball. Dunc worked on it for 2 days solid and eventually managed to sort it."
Duncan said "I tried to launch it carefully by feeding in the throttle instead of planting it as usual, wasted at least a second BUT it hauled really well. I wanted an 8.3 or 8.2 & over 160mph, at least I got the speed. I didnt use full throttle till half track after correcting the steering slightly then it really hauled, felt much faster than 150mph, in fact was 9.21 secs at 161.89mph, my best ever speed.
"I'm suddenly very keen to get the Thundergod to the Mopars. However, Des Taylor is on holiday along with the rest of the crew. I'd drive myself, but need 2 or 3 crew, at least one of who must know what they are doing starting a blown methanol engine, adjusting mag timing and packing a parachute. Any volunteers?"
If you are interested, have the necessary skills, and want to be part of a blown altered team, get in touch with Duncan on Facebook messenger.
Swift snippets. 15th July:
Happy Birthday for today to VWDRC racers Gareth Bates and Phil Unsworth, FWD racer Ben Faggetter Top Fuel crew member Jamie Willis and current owner of the legendary Mr Torquer Fordson Paul Dawson, we hope you all have a great day.
Congratulations to Maltese Opel Dragster racer Tyson Debono who at Hal Far Raceway has recorded a 6.159/219.07 backed up by a 6.166/220.10 to become Europe’s fastest and quickest 4 cylinder car, and fastest and quickest import rail.
We also wish to congratulate 21 year old Elmeri Salakari who at the FHRA Summer Nationals at Kauhava, recorded a licensing pass on his Super Twin Bike of 6.511/353.50kph (219.65mph). As you might have surmised, Elmeri is the son of celebrated Super Twin racer Jaska Salakari.
Photographer Brian Slater has posted photos from the Main Event to his Facebook page.
Jim Brissette. 14th July:
We were saddened hear of the passing of Top Fuel tuner Jim Brissette who worked with FIA European TF Champions Andersen Racing also with Urs Erbacher and Joran Persåker during the 2000s.
Born in Buena Park, California in 1941, Jim started in the sport with the Brissette Bros Fuel Altered driven by brother Bob. Then Jim worked as crew chief to Top Fuel Dragster racers Wild Bill Alexander and Paul Southerland from 1960-65. A treasurable Facebook album of photos of that era assembled by Roger Lee (builder of a replica of Wild Bill's car) can be seen at this link.
In the 1970s, Jim tuned The Avengers TF car with Bob Noice driving and often setting low ET; in 1978 he was owner and crew chief for that year's NHRA Top Fuel champion Kelly Brown, who brought his championship winning car to Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2006.
Working in product development for Tuflex Carpet Mills in California, he became known as the only successful crew chief who turned the wrenches solely as a hobby. After working for Dan Pastorini in 1986-87, Jim tuned Tommy Johnson Jr's car from 1988-90. He then became crew chief for Doug Herbert in 1991 and was with Doug until 1997 during all four of his IHRA championships, also taking him to 300mph in 1993, the second TF racer in history to do so. He also worked for Joe Gibbs Racing with Cory McLenathan from 1997-99 and the U.S. Army team in 2001-2. Jim was also involved in racing at the South California dry lakes such as El Mirage.
Brad Anderson Enterprises commented "Jim has been a long time friend of our company and genuine gentleman. RIP my friend". We send our deepest condolences to Jim's family and friends.
Photo: Jim at 2008 Veidec Festival.
Racer information for Bug Jam. 14th July:
Many thanks to to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for
sending us details of track opening and signing on at Bug Jam 36 being held on 22nd-23rd July, including scrutineering times.
The main gates to the track will open from 2pm until 10pm only on Thursday, 20th July and then from 9 am on Friday, 21st July.
Friday, 21st July:
10.00 Signing on office opens for RWYB
12.00 Signing on office opens for race vehicles
14.30-19.00 Scrutineering open for competitors at the Scrutineering building
Saturday, 1st July:
09.00 Scrutineering and signing on open for competitors (no class order) (Competition Licences required)
09.30–13.00 RWYB only
14.0 Competition vehicles only – qualifying
Sunday, 2nd July:
08.00 Scrutineering and signing on open (Competition Licences required)
09:30 Track open for qualifying/ eliminations
The detailed running orders and entry list can be seen in our event coverage page. Ian adds "You will notice that there is a large time gap between Funny Car Q1 and the remaining qualifying, this is purely to get the Funny Cars sufficient turnaround time; we will be going back to RWYB and track prep between these times."
Melbourne Raceway coverage. 14th July:
This weekend, Melbourne Raceway in Yorkshire hosts Melbourne Summer Madness tomorrow and Sunday, 15th-16th July.
As well as the usual classes, you can enter the inaugural 50/50 big money bracket race at Melbourne. With over 10 cars entered, there will be at least £500 prize money available. £250 for the winner, £100 for the runner up and £75 each for the semi finalists. All cars welcome fast or slow. With a sportsman tree the dial-in bracket racing means everyone has a chance at winning. Entry is £150, £50 of which will go into the prize fund to make it even bigger, and £50 goes direct to the pits resurfacing fund.
You can enter Melbourne's 50/50 bracket race at this link which also includes entry for car and bike classes and spectator entry which is only £15 per day or £30 for the weekend including camping. The band Blood Sweat and Beers will be playing on Saturday evening in memory of their late member Andy Duckworth, son of Straightliners director Trevor Duckworth.
Other attractions at Melbourne Raceway include Graham Sykes on the Force of Nature steam-fuelled rocket bike making an attempt on each day to run the track's first ever 3 second pass, and a burnout competition.
Former Eurodragster.com editor Tog will be at the track posting on-track and off-track galleries and results. You will be able to see Tog's coverage by clicking on this link.
The postcode for Melbourne Raceway is YO42 4SS, For anyone traveling to Melbourne from the A19 from Selby, through Bubwith, the bridge is now closed for 10 weeks for repairs. From the M1,M18,M62, exit at Howden, take the left lane and then join the B1228 from Howden.
BDRHoF thanks to all. 14th July:
The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame has a barrowload of thanks to offer following the success of its Dragstalgia fund-raising Auction & Sale. First, thank you to Santa Pod Raceway, and especially to Dan Melrose and Max Frost, for the permission and the facilities without which the Auction could not have taken place. Then there are the donors who so kindly provided all the artefacts and memorabilia, chief among them artist Paul Whitehouse, always so generous donating paintings, Tony Morris and Dave Gibbons (TMC/RDR Performance Carburettors) who donated a print featuring the late Jon Morton, and Chris Goodale for his Goodale American Speedshop t-shirts. Jndia Erbacher autographed a rod and piston for the cause. Tony Thacker works wonders finding and sending materials from the USA, and USAutomotive ships them here. The Hall of Fame salutes these and all the other donors without whose generosity there would be nothing to auction or sell.
The display of historic trophies attracted much attention. The SEMA Trophy from 1963 (above centre) was provided by the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and Matt Seamarks offered the 1980 World Finals Funny Car trophy (above right). The Gosporteers Trophy was lent by its last winner, Stephanie Milam. The Hall of Fame thanks all three.
Then there are the many helpers who gave their time and energy before, during and even after the Dragstalgia weekend to ensure the success of the enterprise. And thanks, too, to Eurodragster.com for providing the event’s essential publicity (You're welcome - Ed). To all involved, the directors of the Hall of Fame offer their heartfelt gratitude.
Street Week Sweden report. 13th July:
Sweden's Drag and Drive event Street Week Sweden is making a return for its sixth edition, and we have been following the event for which track action concludes today . You can see a live stream at solidsport.com. If you are hooked, previous year's streams are available for 49SEK each (around £5).
The competition is based on eighth mile times set at five tracks which are:
Mantorp Park (Saturday-Sunday)
Emmaboda (Monday)
Malmö (Tuesday)
Vårgårda (Thursday)
Laxå (Friday)
Mantorp Park (Saturday)
The drivers take their best times from each of these tracks which are then averaged over the five days. Drivers must drive their own cars with spare parts and tools between tracks, and there are two checkpoints for each day. Penalty time can be imposed if there is any misbehaviour on public roads. As with the UK's Street Weekend, there is a social element with nutrition available, together with sponsors selling their products. As before, there are almost 200 participants.
Here are some of the top stories of the event:
The Street Week website at streetweeksweden.se lists the 'Four Second Club'. Up to 2022, that included three racers who had run 4.9s times. This year entrants have upped the ante massively with no less than eight running in the fours from the start of the event at Mantorp Park, joined by two more on Tuesday.
Michael Westberg sold his Chevy C10 truck after winning Sick Week in the south eastern US and announced he had bought the Top Doorslammer car of Anders Edh as a rolling chassis in which to place his turbo engine. After much work including new electrics and fuel system, cooling system together with new carbon fibre parts.
The result was a car (pictured above) dominating the event at the quicker tracks, with a 4.3430 at Mantorp Park, slowing to 6.0310 at Emmaboda but then running an otherworldly 4.0911 at Malmö which you can see a video of at this link (video by Hans Färemo). Michael's only reported problem so far is a flat tyre on his trailer. He said "We drive USA style, two men and a car vs nature. Completely solo without camping equipment and accompanying cars as companions, just like I was forced to do on the other side of the pond". (Photo credit: Stefan Boman)
Thanks to Pär Pippi Willén for calculating the average times (click on link) in the quickest Max Outlaw class after the first three days of the competition. Michael Westberg leads with an average 4.8217. In second place is Jocke Cedergren with a self built Ford 32 five window coupe. Although looking like a fairly conventional hot rod, the car has pure dragstriop technology with a chassis made with Docol tube, a turbo LS 427ci engine with Powerglide and Ford 9 inch rear (checkpoint photo: Stefan Bernhardson). Jocke's average of 4.8801 is only 0.06s behind Michael. He came to a halt on the road yesterday evening, finding the water in the cylinders was not engine failure but rainwater through the air intake.
In third average time is Charlie Östedt with his 6s Volvo Amazon estate. He is a further 0.06 behind Jocke with the car in the same configuration as we saw at Santa Pod Raceway in 2019, a twin turbo 522ci Chevy engine with Dart block.
Sole British entry is Al McSweeney who runs in the second quickest Street Outlaw class (Mantorp Park photo: Åke Lovén). All the racers had to endure a rainstorm at Malmö that caused flooding (the same weather system that affected Dragstalgia on Saturday, we believe) and delayed the Vårgårda round to today.
You can see a post of photos from Åke Lovén at this post on Facebook. The Street Week Sweden Facebook Group can be reached at this link and day by day results are at www.dragracing.eu (search Street Week).
29th Mopar Euro Nationals deadline approaching. 13th July:
The 29th Mopar Euro Nationals takes place from 28th-30th July at Santa Pod Raceway. Racers can enter the event at this link at racers.santapodtickets.com. Spectator and RWYB tickets are available at santapodtickets.com.
Race classes available to enter into are Nostalgia Superstock, Gasser Circus, Supercharged Outlaws, Nostalgia Eliminator and Street Eliminator. In addition, run what ya brung includes Wild Bunch who we understand will be running as a group in the usual way.
Nostalgia Eliminator is a new class designed for V8 engined muscle cars that are too wild for Nostalgia Superstock, i.e. with big tyres and altered suspension (or back-halved in the parlance) allowed. On-track action also includes a Wheels Up Contest for wheelies and Roger Goring's Firestorm jet, as well as a wide variety of off track entertainments, both musical and car related. The usual Friday night cruise, show & shine and traders will all be appearing.
The entry deadline is 21st July. Don't miss out, get your entry in fast!
Points update. 13th July:
Many thanks to SPRC National and Club Drag Racing Championships co-ordinator Yvonne Tramm and SPRC webmaster Pete Walters for updating the championship points after the STP Summer Nationals.
You can see the latest championship points by going to this link on santapodracersclub.com or via our Points Standings page which you can reach from our main menu if you click on News.
Dragstalgia media update. 13th July:
Here are links to media for Dragstalgia, anyone who posted pictures or videos please send your link to simon@eurodragster.com:
A big thank you... 13th July:
...to Nic and Dan Williams, Lorne Denny for all their hard work in keeping the Red Ned Nova going at Dragstalgia, writes Michael Dowdy father and crew chief for Nostalgia Superstock racer Matthew Dowdy.
The story started at the Summernationals when we had a bye in the first round of Sportsman ET. Matt took the car for a warm up and all seemed well. After he had been gone a while I went to look for him and found the car being pushed back by 2 helpful people and Matt who explained it had lost drive. So it was to prove useful that Matt had spec’d a winch on the trailer which we hoped was a one-off occurrence.
There ensued a thrash at the WBR workshop to get the car ready for Dragstalgia and by Thursday evening a new TCI gearbox was in place. We went down for the first qualifier, drove round to do the burnout, burned out and then no drive again!
After an initial inspection by Nic, the decision was made to take the car back to the workshop. Nic and Lorne went first leaving us to load the car on the trailer. At this point we have to thank the Surrey Muscle guys for their assistance and off we went, arriving at the workshop about 10.30. We hung around until midnight as Dan had also arrived to pitch in. Nic, Dan and Lorne finished about 2am and we picked the car back up on Saturday morning. We were about to tag on the end of qualifying when the storm hit so we stayed under cover whilst the others were getting a power shower!
There was one qualifier left and we dialled in a safe number which got us in eliminations. I did ask if we should take it easy but was told that by someone who shall remain unnamed (but their initials are LD) that they didn’t work through the night for us to take it easy and we should put the car back on the trailer and go home, but in their own special way.
The first round was against Jason Dodd who has been great since we first entered NSS. Both drivers went for it and luckily Matt prevailed with the lesser of 2 breakouts. We progressed to the semi finals where Matt red lit. Other than that, it was a fantastic day and great to be part of it. We couldn’t have done it without the support and help from WBR.
Finally a quick thank you to Laurie Bamford as well and I will bring something more comfortable next time! Apologies to anyone I have forgotten but we are looking forward to the Mopar Euro Nationals now.
Swift snippets. 13th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Nitro tuner and former Fuel Altered racer John Wright, Outlaw Anglia racer Rob Stone, Pro ET racer Simon Innes, Anger Management crew member Ben Fisher and hot rod show organiser and author Rodger Attaway. Have a great day all.
Thanks to NDRS race organiser Kjell Petterson for reminding us that today, July 13th is the deadline for entries for the Summit Racing Internationals at Tierp Arena from 10th-13th August for which you can see further details at this link from which racers can register at normal fee.
For me, the most anticipated two weekends of drag racing was closing in fast, Summer Nationals, then straight onto the big show that is Dragstalgia 2023, preparations had in fact started way back last August after hurting a crankshaft and missing NitrOlympx, a new all alloy engine was ordered from Shafiroff saving me 110lbs, a new Powerglide gearbox with a high pressure pumps and a new Chance converter from Andy Frost at Penn Auto’s, a new Mark Williams floating rear axle from Robinson Race cars, a new lightweight body was prepared in the mould and fitted to the car along with a new carbon fibre propshaft and a super light weight lithium Braillie battery was fitted up front to try and adjust the balance of the car, all in all 280lbs were removed from the car.
All sounds easy but I can assure you I was in the garage every night from August through to the first week on July.
We had a blank canvas, and it was time to hand the artistic licence over to Peter Walters from PWRD for a new look Flyin Fyfer, he knocked it out of the park and continued the partnership through to hero cards, tee shirt and Hoodie design as well as stickers and fantastic advice and help throughout the process.
We hoped we had a competitive race car ready to take on anyone in the class including The Aussie John Willard, Simon Barlow and Jon Webster and as Dragstalgia developed Dalton Scarlett, some of the BIG hitters in the class.
We rocked up the Thursday before Summer Nationals and thanks to Jedd Guy got the car baselined ready to run, Friday we ran a couple of shakedown passes and all looked good; after popping in to see John Willard but mainly to see the Aussie Outlaw in the flesh I quickly realised this car was just at another level, John was coming here to win, full stop, no messing.
Race day had arrived, not a huge field 7 cars in total with John Willard and Mick Taylor who had been helping John all the way through from the start opening the show, sure enough John reset the Outlaw Anglia record for both speed and ET in his first run with a stunning 6.799 at 204.31 mph, wow just wow.
Next up was Q2 and of course I was itching to race John, what a race, yes maybe I was a wee bit too keen with a wee cherry on the tree of -0.002 seconds but we made history and the fans were able to witness live and on the fantastic Santa Pod Live stream history being made, with the first ever pass in Outlaw Anglia where two cars ran the magical six second pass, I was ecstatic as was John, we were starting to understand each other now, two guys who just want to race, nothing more, one from Scotland and the other from Australia, pretty damn bizarre if I do say so myself.
Sunday was eliminations day with only two rounds and then the final, unfortunately John lost power after his run and was unable to come out for E2, my old pal Rob Stone and myself into the final and I’m glad to say I won the race.
Leaving on Sunday night and saying goodbye to the Aussie’s with their heads down and a lot of glum faces, thankfully I got a message Sunday night around 10pm they had found the issue, the blower drive had let go, a very quick turn around by Trevor Hirst and the Aussie Outlaw was back fired up and ready to go by Monday night, fantastic.
We were now away on holiday before Dragstalgia so, going off on a tangent, we were recently on holiday in South Africa and went down for breakfast to sit with a couple, later we found out, from Winchester, as always talks go to hobbies, my usual “you won't really know much about drag racing but that’s what I do”, lo and behold guess what, he’s an ex-drag racer from the seventies through to 89 where he had to sell his MK2 Consul to Andy Robinson for the dreaded deposit for the house, the car is even still racing today and presently owned and raced by Mark Scarlett, crazy but true, Adrian and Karen Coggins, lovely couple, I organised two tickets for Doorslammers and they had an absolute ball, conversation moves to when I’m racing next and I explain the two back to back meetings and guess what? He handed me the keys to his apartment in Winchester as they were away on holiday, thanks you both so much, you see the drag racing family still works even if you’ve been away from it for more than 30 years!
I have to say, Winchester is a lovely city and Lynn and myself really enjoyed ourselves; a day out to Portsmouth at the historical dockyard and of course a wee visit up Spinnaker Tower and on the way home hot dogs at Valley Gas Speed Shop, thanks you Eloise Hibberd for your hospitality x
My thoughts bring me back to Dragstalgia and a return to Santa Pod Thursday to reset and be ready. Q1 was Friday evening with an astounding class of 34 cars, wow just wow, one six and three sevens, pretty strong with John resetting the OA ET again to 6.7132 but Simon Barlow right behind him with a fantastic run of 7.153 at 198.13mph, just about grabbing the magical 200mph badge.
It was myself and John’s second opportunity to race together, I was buzzing as I’m sure John was, this time John took the honours but a big puff of smoke at the stripe was certainly a concern when we came stopped at the top end.
Dalton Scarlett with only a couple of passes under his belt put in a strong run of 7.85, fantastic, we have some serious Outlaw Anglia cars this weekend!
29 cars ran and we had organised a picture shoot as soon as the racing had finished on Friday night in the shutdown area, what a sight to see, for me it was the pinnacle of what OA are all about, happy faces, chatting and bursting with life, a huge shout out to Santa Pod Raceway Max, Dan, Keith and James as well as a special thank you to Callum Pudge for doing what he does best, the results are breathtaking.
Saturday is here and Q2 is a something we would have to wait a very long time for as the rain had other ideas, however we did get to run albeit it was at twenty five to eight at night, 31 cars qualifying though.
A wonderful Saturday night with a full-on Hog Roast with around 300 people in attendance, not a bit of pig to be found anywhere at the end, great job Mick Taylor, the chats went on late into the night and we had some special presents given out to say our thanks to everyone who had helped, you know who you are xx
Sunday is here and unfortunately the puff of smoke had called an end to John’s racing but what a way to go out, ET record holder, speed record holder and history being made with two six second side by side passes, I am so happy I managed to be involved and play a part and have dreams that do come true, I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I am “living the dream”!
Eliminations were very busy with five rounds to get through and a few surprises, Jon Webster back on form with a fantastic run of 7.16, Wayne Power having two PB’s with a 7.59 and Ben Rushforth turning it up to a staggering 8.15, and I was well chuffed with a new PB for just on the motor of 7.87, that weight loss was worth all the hassle!
The end result saw Al O’Connor in the semi finals running against Dalton Scarlett and my friend Ginner running against me, just like old times but with a new youngster on the block.
I have to say well done to Al for getting to the semi’s not a bad path to make at 77, I wonder if I will still be racing at that age??
Into the finals and the day was getting long, just myself and Dalton just about closing the show, as you do lets turn it up, let's run this 6 and at the same time let's run this bloody 200mph thingy!
Well we were of like a scalded cat but maybe just maybe that very aggressive tune bit us in the bum, its been a long time since I had to drive that car so much, up on two wheels more than once and unfortunately I had to lift as even myself had passed the point of no return where I actually don’t think I’ve been before lol, and in the end Dalton drove round me and well done that man, his dad was in tears at the top end, you can clearly see how passionate the whole team is about this event.
We always have two extra trophies and one is for the most constant ET over qualifying on Saturday and this was won by Barry Woodford, well done that man with a difference of just 0.003 seconds and the second trophy is for the quickest reaction time during E1 on Sunday morning which was won by Jon Webster with a reaction time of 0.042 but Al O’Connor was close on his heels in 2nd place with a 0.047, still got it.
John Willard was given the “Spirit of Dragstalgia” trophy from Santa Pod for his amazing achievement in bringing his car over to the UK to race in the class, richly deserved and an inspiration to us.
Job done, two weekends raced and history being made with memories made all around the pits, we will, I’m sure, be telling our grandchildren in years to come what we all achieved.
Probably never to be repeated and often better not trying, just leave it where it is, I have to thank everyone involved in making it what it was, the OA guys and gals, our huge supporters, fans, marshals who keep us safe and of course Santa Pod Raceway, what an experience not just for the UK but all around the world.
As always I couldn’t do all of this without my crew so a big shout out to Aaron Springford and of course my wee Lynn who keeps us all on the straight and narrow, thank you xx
Thanks you and see you at the track.
One little thing, huge congratulations to Tony Betts on his 5 and Paul Dale on his 7, both making history, well done!
Snake Eye's new PB. 12th July:
Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch racer Andrew Clifford has sent in a write up of his thoughts on Dragstalgia where his Snake Eyes slingshot ran a new PB:
Well the PBs keep coming this year. Following our last outing at the Main Event where we reset our PB ET at 8.86 in our first round loss to Martin Curbishley, Dragstalgia was to prove even more fruitful. After a Friday morning check-out of 8.93 (looking good for Euros) we smashed into the 70s with a new PB ET 8.76 during the evening session.
Unfortunately my work commitments this week meant we could only squeeze in the first round on Sunday but I was properly excited to be running alongside Ford Skipp in another quality Ford-powered slingshot, Chasin' Time. Totally forgot the staggered-tree but hey-ho it's all about the experience!
So to sum up this weekend; I'll never forget watching John Willard's 6.71, gutted I missed Tony Betts' 5.96. However, good times with amazing people. Thank you to my wife Rach and top tuner/crew chief son James. Thanks mum and dad for your amazing support and shout out to FieldCraft Fabrication for building me a top notch slingshot.
BDRHoF, SPR staff, Eurodragster.com, all the commentary team and of course the racers - keep on doing what you're doing for this amazing sport (We'll try - Ed).
Unusual car sale to Switzerland. 12th July:
Unusual Car Sales UK admin Nigel Taylor has been in touch with a fascinating sale of a car across Europe.
Back in 2016 , an old friend of mine asked if I would advertise his slingshot dragster for him because he had no idea about the internet, I advertised the car and a few days later had a message from Alex & Petra Bieli asking about the car and could they have more details as they were 1000 miles away and didn’t want a wasted journey, so I contacted the old boy who told us it was a rolling project but could be pushed out of the garden onto a trailer, so we took his word for it and a deal was done and a date set for the big journey.
To our amazement, the dragster wasn’t rolling at all and after digging the car out of the ground and searching for all the bearings buried in the dirt, we was able to make it rolling and got to work just to get it out of the garden. Job done, 1000 miles back home and a happy couple of customers, so happy that they even sent me a chocolate hamper from there home in Switzerland.
Fast forward 7 years and Alex and Petra have struck another deal which saw them return the 1000 mile trip agin to meet up at dragstalgia and take home another dragster.
This time they have purchased the Alan Skipp Ratchet Strap Racing dragster which is now on its way to Switzerland.
You can see many drag cars for sale at our Unusual Cars Sales UK page sponsored by Jeff Bull Racing Engines.
Satan's Lady HQ migrates to marquee. 12th July:
Thanks to Suze Morris who has sent in a write-up of partner and ET Bike racer Phil Pratt's pit display which reappeared in the BDRHoF marquee at Dragstalgia, to a big audience.
What a fantastic weekend at Dragstalgia! We were very proud and honoured to be invited by Santa Pod Raceway and the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame to take "Satan's Lady", our 92nd Bombardment Group tribute bike, and our pit display, to exhibit in the Historic Marquee to mark the 80th Anniversary of their arrival at "Station 109". Obviously, the GSXR 1000 couldn't take to the track due to the pre-1980 caveat on vehicles, but it was what, and who, she represents which resulted in our race pit in pride of place next to the BDRHoF for the weekend.
We were set up by Thursday evening, ready for Day 1 on Friday, which we thought might be a quietish day, but how wrong were we! We chatted to SO many people that it quickly became clear that we were going to be in for a very busy weekend... and we certainly weren't wrong on that front!
"Satan's Lady HQ", with its walls covered with photographs and stories of just some of the servicemen who were based at "Station 109", was busy all weekend. We had a diorama to show the little ones the scale of a B-17, played footage from the "Doc Furniss War" film (an hour and a half of cine film footage from "Station 109" when the 92nd were based there - also available on YouTube if you'd like to view), and when our DVD player decided the vibrations of the cars in the pairing lanes behind us, and the track in front of us was too much to handle, we blared out some Glenn Miller who brought his orchestra to play for the servicemen on 23rd August 1944.
We were amazed by just how much interest we had in our display, and the emotional response it provoked, with several people being reduced to tears after reading the stories and thumbing through the pages of our "Book of Remembrance". We thank each and every person who visited and helped us keep the memory of those brave boys alive.
It was lovely to see so many racers popping by. Although "Satan's Lady HQ" is always set up in the bike pits, we know how difficult it is for racers to venture far from their own pits at meetings, and by the time they're in the pairing lanes by the bike pits, there just isn't the time to visit. So thank you to all the racers who took time out to come and see what we're all about.
We are eternally grateful to the 92nd Bombardment Group Historians who helped us with the research into "Satan's Lady", (including tracking down the story of her final mission which appears in our information leaflets/booklets), and to the families of those who serveds for sending the photographs and stories which we feature in our pits.
We must also say a big Thank You to John Hackney of copyprintdepot.co.uk who sponsored our new 12 page booklet, Pete at "Simply Wraps" behind the grandstand for naming his "wrap of the day" the "Satan's Lady 92nd Bombardment Group Tribute" (which was deeeelicious) and, of course, to Santa Pod Raceway and the British Drag Racing Hall Of Fame for inviting us to be a part of such a great event.
NSA Dakota gallery and results . 12th July:
Many thanks to Carol Jenkinson for sending in gallery of photos from the National Sprint Association's meeting at Dakota Raceway, Smeatharpe, Devon on Saturday. Thanks also to NSA Sprinter magazine editor Jerry Cookson for sending in results.
You can see Carol's gallery at this link or via our Event Coverage index, sponsored by John Woolfe Racing. Results for the event can be downloaded at this link.
Congratulations to Junior bike racers Sam Taylor (9 years old), Jorja Cleall (10 years old), Max Curtis (12 years old), Jack Taylor (13 years old) and Chloe Hayman (14 years old) for setting new records for their respective ages.
Pictured: Andy Boswell's H-D Sportster 1200cc which took low ET with a 9.848/137.91 in the Unlimited Racing class.
Stilwell ready for Bonneville. 12th July:
Land Speed Racer and site sponsor Geoff Stilwell says that his preparations for running a new 300mph+ record at Bonneville are well advanced:
From August 5th to the 11th this year Bonneville celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Speedweek so, this is a very important year especially if a record is set and with Bonneville Speedweek fast approaching the 7707 Landspeed Team have to step up a gear to get everything ready.
Firstly, if anyone follows my Facebook page you will see we now have 9 sets of slicks and wheels for Speedweek. At our last race which was at El Mirage in May we were shredding the tyres each pass down the track so with up to 7 continuous days Racing potentially ahead we needed to be prepared. With the tyres ordered and delivered team member Tony Thacker put them in the truck and headed to “Nate’s” the Landspeed tyre specialists to get them matched, mounted, shaved and balanced. So tick that item off the list.
Then the fuel was pre ordered with VP who are the fuel suppliers to the SCTA. 8 Barrels of Fuel plus methanol…….good job they deliver to the Bonneville Speedway as each barrel weighing in at 500lbs per barrel.
The race car came back to our race shop in Pomona looking pretty dirty but the team at Mick’s Paint soon had it looking like new. We had a few small issues with the car that we discovered on our return to the shop but, these have been sorted and 7707 is ready to go in the trailer.
Getting ready for Speedweek is a mammoth task and it seems we have to take the raceshop with us so we have everything we need at the track and in addition to our rig we have 2 support vehicles and then our RV which has to be readied so that team chef Marc can keep the crew fed and watered for a week which is no mean feat. Our car crew this year consists of Nick Davies - Crew Chief, Rob Loaring, Scotty Barnes, Scott Campbell, Pauly Rivera, Cory Silk who is flying in from New Zealand, Mick Jenkins, Tony Thacker, Marc Greenall and Nestor Cabrera from Brazil who looks after all the onboard cameras.
Our target this year is to run over 300 mph… and the car can do it I am sure. So fingers crossed.
There will be a live feed every day from the SCTA and you can go to SCTA-BNI.org and follow the directions for the online coverage. Please be aware that we are 7 hours behind the U.K. and all record backup runs are made just after 7am each morning. We will be trying to do a few live broadcasts so please keep checking.
Finally thanks go out to the team at Mick’s Paint for building me such a fantastic Hot Rod, plus Nick Davis, Rob Loaring and Scotty Barnes for joining me on this quest, Tony Thacker for everything he does regarding getting things organised before we get to LA, Marc Greenall our incredibly talented chef for looking after everyone and not forgetting all of our supporters:-
Mick’sPaint, USAutomotive, ARP, VP Racing Fuel, Brad Anderson BAE, Nate’s Tires, Lucas Oil plus Bob & Sharon Muravez aka Floyd & Mrs Lippencote.
Swift snippets. 12th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Pro Stock Bike racer Len Paget and from Sweden (where Street Week is in full swing) Top Doorslammer racer Johan Gustafsson and blown doorslammer/funny car racer Jan Birkenes. We hope you all have a fantastic day.
Read Tony Thacker's great account of his visit to Dragstalgia on the Torq Talk blog and you'll be in great anticipation for next year's event, already.
Photographer Patrick O'Connor with wife Deena Rose O'Connor have posted an album from Dragstalgia at this link on Facebook. If you've posted photos or video from the event, get in touch at news@eurodragster.com and we'll link to your work in our media roundup of the event.
BDRHoF Gala - save the date. 11th July:
The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame’s 2023 Gala Awards Dinner takes place on Saturday 18th November. The occasion reverts to its usual mid-November weekend after taking place a week earlier last year. The location, however, remains unchanged: Oatlands Park Hotel at Weybridge, Surrey, whose elegant, four-star luxury has served the Hall of Fame so well since 2017.
The highlight of the evening will be the induction of this year’s four new Hall of Fame Members revealed at Dragstalgia: Roger Gorringe, Rod & Anne Pallant, Eric Teboul and Roy Wilding. Notable presentations will also include the Stuart Bradbury Junior Drag Racing Awards to the season’s winning Junior Dragster and Dragbike racers.
Further details of the Gala will be announced later this month. Until then, please save the date in your diaries: Saturday 18th November.
Dalton's debut win. 11th July:
Thanks to Dragstalgia Outlaw Anglia winner Dalton Scarlett for sending in a write up on his winning weekend:
We went into this weekend not 100% sure what the car would do, we knew it made good power but not how it would yet go down the track. 1st run, we left the tune and wanted to see what the car would do, well let's say it was a bit lively so I aborted the run, back to the pits and down the power went.
2nd run, car left a damn sight softer and took us straight to an 8.1 - unreal! From there we just tweaked a bit more power in gradually and 3rd run we're in the 7's with a 7.85 @ 177mph unbelievable! Throughout the weekend we just tweaked piece by piece and the car just got better with our final best et of 7.42 @ 185mph! We played it safe and didn't make any "huge" changes as we managed to start winning in eliminations, next minute we're in the final and managed to win!
Team pic L to R: Mark Scarlett ("Dad"), Dave James, Dalton, Ian Wilton.
From start to finish, we're completely over the moon and it's totally mind blowing how the car went first time out and we can't wait to keep improving and seeing how fast we can get but one small step at a time!
It wouldn't have been possible with out my Team ,Jedd Guy, Jemma Guy, Dave James, Ian Wilton, and also a thanks to Trevor Hirst, Stephen Hirst and John Sleath for putting the car together and getting it up and running for us. But the biggest thanks of all has to go to my Dad, Mark Scarlett, as without him none of this would have been possible and he is as much of a Dragstalgia winner as I am!
So thank you to everyone and hopefully see everyone soon even faster!
Nostalgia Superstock's biggest ever Dragstalgia. 11th July:
Despite some VERY wet periods, and a lot of waiting around for the weather to let us get back on track, Nostalgia Superstock had another great weekend of drag racing at Dragstalgia 2023, writes Nïamh Frances Smith:
We had 73 entries, including a lot of new racers and cars; AJ Denning with his wild ‘57, top fuel bike racer Ian King with his Chevelle and Keith Williams with his Nova to name just a few!
It may interest readers to learn the manufacturer split of Superstock, which Cath and Tig of Bad Habit racing worked out for us after the commentators were speculating on Saturday what that split may be. The qualifying cars of Nostalgia Superstock were made up of 2 Oldsmobiles, 3 Pontiacs, 5 Fords, 23 Chevrolets and 36 Mopars. This shows that perhaps the big three manufacturers should maybe be just the big 2 in the world of Superstock! The top 2 cars of choice for the NSS racers however, are the Camaro (10 cars) and Novas (7 cars).
After some juggling around of the scheduling due to the weather, and Don Scott putting his bargaining skills to the test to get us a second qualifier, we had 64 cars qualify over 2 qualifying rounds.
After the first qualifier, Mick Sharpe was at #1, however that spot was taken by Karl Kenyon after he ran a 14.903 on a 14.90 dial in! Second spot went to newcomer to the class, Beavis Allen with his wicked Impala, and third qualifier was Gary Semper with his ‘Tydd Speed’ Pontiac. These results netted them some cash from Zoe Thompson and Adrian Portelli’s qualifying cash builder pot which most racers put a tenner into, as well as an NHRA Wally presented by Blue and Pete Wiseman on behalf of the MMA, which I think Karl was chuffed with!
This was all done at our class BBQ, where we had some delicious food provided by Guy King, and cakes homemade by our very own ‘Mary Berry’ Lorraine Brazier. We also presented some randomly chosen £75 vouchers to spend with Goodale American Speedshop, which three lucky racers went home with.
Sunday morning was an early one for Superstock, with our first pairing on track of Santa Pod’s very own Colin Theobald up against Chris Goodale. A red light saw Colin and ‘Bruce’ out, along with 32 of our racers as we we whittled the field down. A short cloudburst saw our racers running for the drying cloths, but we were soon up and racing again.
Our second round saw a few of our experienced racers being taken out of the running by some ‘underdogs’, and three red lights meant we were down to 16.
The third round saw a red light from AJ Denning, Dan Sanderson with his Mustang, and Stewart Arthur. A breakout from Lee ‘Cookie’ Chiles saw John Sleath through to round 4 along with Karl Kenyon, Matthew Dowdy, Vic Parsons with his freshly built Belvedere, Ash Rawson, Pete Dodd and Glenda Thompson, who surely has to have a special mention for a perfect ET - a 13.9003 on a 13.90 index.
The quarter finals saw only one green light drag race from Karl Kenyon and Pete Dodd with Karl taking the win; the other three won by Ash, Matt and Vic who were through to the semis.
In the semi finals, we had the two red WBR cars, in which Matthew Dowdy pulled a cherry allowing Vic a place in the finals. Ash and Karl’s race was close, with Karl being 5 hundredths off his dial in, but Ash closer being only 3 hundredths off his index.
It all boiled down to this; a rainy, hot weekend culminating in a final between Vic Parsons and Ash Rawson. The Belvedere and the Duster staged for the last race on track at Dragstalgia 2023. As the bulbs went down, both racers set off with great reaction times. It was close towards the end, with Vic and Ash crossing the line with around half a car length between them. Both racers went too quick, but Ash broke out by the lesser (with a 0.0055 breakout) and Vic with the greater (0.0176). A PB for Vic of 9.76, but Ash Rawson took home the valve cover trophies decorated with sign writing by traditional signwriter Craig Ainge, as well as prize money and bragging rights!
Thank you to all of our racers and crew which allow us to put on such a great show for all of the spectators, and our sponsors who make it all happen. We hope all of our racers got home safe, and look forward to joining us at our next event, the Mopar Euro Nats at the end of July!
Peachey's winning Old School Stocker. 11th July:
Thanks to Dragstalgia Old School Stocker winner Richard Peachey for sending in his thoughts on the class at the event:
I arrived on Thursday night expecting to take advantage of the Friday test session in readiness for the first qualifier late in the afternoon. But after a number of failed runs we spent more time pushing the bike to and from the track than riding, so did not make qualifying.
Great expectation for Saturday and we believed bike was finally ready but the weather had other ideas, so we spend most of the day hiding from the thunderstorms. But great credit to the Santa Pod team who cleared and prepared the track so we could run into the evening finally getting a qualifying run of 8.8759, incredibly a PB and my first into the 8's and qualifying 3rd in the 16 bike field.
In the first of Sunday’s eliminations we were against Sean Biddlecombe on his Wes Cooley Replica GS1000 it was a nervous start with my bike hopping off the line but it powered to a win with a mediocre 9.3 but into the second round against Freddie Smith on an immaculate Kawasaki 750. I knew I needed to get closer to my PB as Freddie qualified with a 9.2 but we hooked up and I ran back into the 8's with a 8.9 and the win.
In round 3 I was racing against Rod Spry on his very quick Suzuki GS1000, who was very capable of running into the 8's and knew I needed a good reaction time if I stood any chance. I pulled a 0.05 compared to Rod's 0.13 which gave me the edge and the win.
So, into the final against Gary Hester on his Suzuki Katana. Gary is a seasoned ET racer normally consistently in the high 8's, so I needed another good start but didn’t manage such a good reaction time but manage an amazing 60’ (1.25s) giving me an edge at the 1/8 but I knew it was close as I could hear Gary not far behind; although managed to hold on for the win with another PB of the weekend of 8.86.
So, an amazing weekend, two PBs and the win and I'd like to thank my team, the old school stockers and Santa Pod raceway for the best every weekend's racing.
BDRHoF's new website. 11th July:
The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame has a new website, courtesy of Peter Walters Race Design. The website address remains the same, www.britishdragracinghof.co.uk, and the previous website’s familiar features are maintained, but widely improved, and the site will now be home to the Hall of Fame’s magazine, HoFTalk, edited by Jerry Cookson.
The central figure throughout the website’s existence has been Hall of Fame Member Ian Messenger (Pegasus drag bike team). The first website was designed and built by a company owned by Ian’s son, Lee Messenger, and Ian himself carried out the site’s day-to-day management. When Lee advised that the website’s supporting system was being discontinued, and that he now has other business interests, the Hall of Fame’s directors placed the new design project in the hands of Peter Walters Race Design, already well known and respected within the drag racing community. Ian has continued to liaise with Peter Walters during the creative process and speaks appreciatively of the experience.
HoFTalk will now come as a steady stream of online articles and features, replacing its previous form as a twice-yearly compiled magazine which reflected its origin as a print publication. The first article is already in place, covering the return to these shores from America of the late Hall of Fame Member Brian Johnson’s record-setting Top Fuel Bike.
The Hall of Fame’s directors are delighted with the quality of the new website and are indebted to Peter Walters Race Design for its development and construction. They wish to express their gratitude to Lee Messenger for his work on the previous site and especially to Ian Messenger for his continuing supervision and management of both sites.
Swift snippets. 11th July:
We have a Birthday on the team, the Happiest of Birthdays to photographer, Pro ET, Sportsman ET racer and crew member Kirstie Tramm, have a great day Kirstie and thanks for the Dragstalgia photos over the weekend. Happy Birthday also for today to former York Raceway and Santa Pod announcer, also BDRHOF supporter Graham Beckwith, Street Eliminator racer and Junior Dragster dad Mark Todd, Pro ET racers Roy Walker and Gino Bernadine, Santa Pod Raceway marshall Angie Woods and crew member and apparel producer Craig Dixon, have a great day all.
There will be a brief interruption for routine maintenance to our www.eurodragstereventcoverage.com server between 06:00 and 07:00 this morning (11th July). Normal service should resume by 07:00.
Congratulations to Tony Betts for setting a new track record for Nostalgia Funny Car at 5.9645 and 237.46mph. Graham Sykes set a world record ET for a steam powered rocket bike with his Force of Nature bike traversing the quarter mile in 6.7189s. There were several other personal bests also set which we will endeavour to highlight in our usual follow-up to the race as well as gathering racer quotes. If you've a report on the race you'd like us to include, contact us on news@eurodragster.com.
The bonus Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award supported by Cath and Tig Napier was not awarded as no-one achieved a perfect 0.000 light during the event. The Award will be carried over to Bug Jam over the weekend of 21st-23rd July.
The event was marked by a thunderstorm on Saturday which drenched the track; due to a fantastic effort by the track crew, the track was dried in order to run a second session of qualifying following Friday evening's first session. Unfortunately there was one incidents involving the blown slingshot of Christian Zulauf from Switzerland. Without chutes after a 6.8462/202.40 test pass, Christian's car went into the field and rolled over 3-4 times. Christian was able to extract himself from the car and was checked over by medical staff.
Commiserations to our visitors from Australia, Outlaw Anglia star John Willard and blown altered racer Paul Stephen who both suffered serious engine damage. Despite a huge effort to try to repair, they were unable to return to on track action, although John set a new Outlaw Anglia track record. Let's hope John and Paul can return in the future, although it is no small effort and cost to come all this way.
You can see our coverage of Dragstalgia 12, sponsored by John Woolfe Racing, with on-track and pitside galleries thanks to Julian, Diana and guest photographer Kirstie, at our event page.
Swift snippets. 10th July:
Happy Birthday to former Street Eliminator racer Gary Gooding and commentator and VW exponent Paul Venners, have a great day both!
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame 2023. 8th July: The British Drag
Racing Hall Of Fame continues into its eighteenth successful year and is pleased to announce the 2023 intake.
Nominees are eligible by dint of having raced, owned, designed, built, maintained, prepared, promoted, officiated, supported or
taken part in British drag racing in any capacity, having been involved for at least twenty years, or having made
a significant and recognisable contribution to the sport.
The 2023 inductees are as follows. We link from the photos of inductees to their full profiles on the BDRHoF website.
For 50 years, Roger Gorringe has been a drag racing trackside fixture, building an unparalleled pictorial archive of the sport and parlaying that initial photographic enthusiasm into a wealth of coverage in print and online publications, at home and abroad.
As owner, editor and publisher of Drag Racing News in the 1980s, he provided an essential conduit of news to the drag racing community in the pre-internet era, and continued that service through the ensuing decades for a diversity of publications.
Under his editorship, Santa Pod Raceway’s event programmes were commended for their detailed informative quality by editors of leading motorsport publications. Awards received over the years included, in 2018, the BDRHoF Lucas Oil Media Award, now complemented by Membership of the Hall of Fame itself.
You can read Roger's full citation on the BDRHoF website by clicking here.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Rod Pallant’s name was a byword for engineering and competitive excellence in the world of motorcycle drag racing.
Starting with a Harley Davidson machine and moving on to a supercharged Triumph, he made an indelible mark in the sport when heading down the twin-engined route, fielding a series of blown and unblown bikes under the name LA Hooker.
A nitro-burning double Kawasaki of that name became a particular crowd favourite in the early 1980s before a return to the single-engined concept which earned him World Finals victory in 1987.
While Rod served as president of the BDRA from 1988, his wife Anne Pallant made her own organisational contribution to the sport as race secretary.
You can read Rod and Anne's full citation on the BDRHoF website by clicking here.
Eric Teboul is the quickest-accelerating motorcycle rider in human history.
In his single-minded pursuit of record-snapping performances, the French rocket biker has put his life on the line at racetracks in Europe and America, but it’s at Santa Pod that his greatest exploits have unfolded, hence his worthy induction into Membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Eric followed his brother Philippe into Top Fuel Bike drag racing, at one point holding both ends of the European TFB record, but it is his quixotic embrace of rocket-motored power that stamped his achievements into the annals of drag racing history.
Two unshakeable numbers provide the fitting epitaph to his remarkable career: 4.976sec/290.51mph – on two wheels!
You can read Eric's full citation on the BDRHoF website by clicking here.
A career that began as a hobby in the customizing and cruising world of the 1970s has grown into one of important achievement on several levels of UK drag racing, with particular relevance to the burgeoning Nostalgia scene.
Roy Wilding is not only an esteemed builder and restorer of the front-motored ‘slingshot’ dragsters which personify Nostalgia drag racing – for himself and for customers to drive – but also a key fabricator of the Nostalgia scene itself.
He figured significantly in the founding of The Wild Bunch, providing a home for slingshots and Competition Altereds, and then of the Supercharged Outlaws, a gathering of blown dragsters, altered and doorslammers. He continues to compete himself while never shying from helping his fellow racers with advice and assistance.
You can read Roy's full citation on the BDRHoF website by clicking here.
Full details of the event can be seen at this link on the Santa Pod Raceway web site.
Tierp entry deadline approaching. 7th July:
Thanks to NDRS Motor Club official Kjell Pettersson for reminding us that the deadline to enter the next round of the FIA and FIM-E European Drag Racing Championship, the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals, at the normal entry fee is fast approaching.
"Registration is currently open for the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals at Tierp Arena on August 10-13 2023.
In case you are not already registered, last day for registration at normal entry fee is July 13th. You can see more information at
this link on www.dragracing.eu.
The event is organised by Tierp Arena and NDRS Motor Club, and will comprise the following classes: Top Fuel, Pro Modified, Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car, Pro Stock, Top Doorslammer, Funny Car, Top Fuel Bike, Super Twin Bike, Pro Stock Bike, Super Street Bike, Competitions Eliminator, Stock/Super Stock, Pro Street, Street, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster, Super Comp Bike, Super Gas Bike and Junior Drag Bike. The event will also be the final for the Summit Racing Super Series in Pro ET & Super Pro ET (Pre quilfied drivers only).
Information on the sportsman classes is at this link on the www.dragracingeurope.eu website.
Events this weekend. 7th July:
There are events taking place in the southwest and Scotland this weekend, plus events in the Netherlands plus the North and South of Sweden and Finland. Let's round up what they are and how you can get involved.
Strangely the southwest has two events running on Saturday 8th July. At Dakota Raceway, Straightliners has organised a drag and drift event alongside the National Sprint Association's event for their Elgar championship. Action starts at 08:30 and goes on to 16:00. RWYB drag entry is £50 per car with a £40 per person additional charge for a passenger. More details on rules and membership can be seen at the Straightliners website. Dakota Raceway is at Smeatharpe airfield, Upottery, Honiton EX14 9RF.
Meanwhile in Cornwall, a drag and drift event will be taking place on Saturday 8th July at Spitfire Raceway at which you can spectate or take part in.
Admission for racers and spectators is £10 per person (under 16s go free) and you can drag race from £10 after admission. For racing, a crash helmet and full driving licence are required. There is also a show & shine with no charge after admission.
All vehicles are welcome, gates are open at 8am and track action takes place from 11am to 3pm. Camping is available onsite if you book at this link You can book for the remaining 2023 events at Spitfire (16th September and 25th November) by going to www.spitfireraceway.com.
Note that all vehicles have a safety check for drag racing and drifting; there is also a drag strip riders and drivers meeting at race control 10.45am.
As with all events drivers and riders are requested to respect the surrounding areas and speed limits when travelling to and from this event.
Crail Raceway, Scotland's 1/4 mile Drag Strip, host a quarter mile drag and drift day on Sunday 9th July. This, the seventh event of the year organised by the track, is a one day event and costs £20 to race and £10 for spectators. Gates open at 09:30 and the track is live from 10:00-16:00.
More information including future events and comprehensive times from the new Portatree timing system are on Crail's website at www.crailraceway.co.uk. Crail Raceway can be reached at Seafield Kirklands, Crail, Anstruther KY10 3XL.
In the Netherlands, what could be the final event at Drachten Airport titled Dragrace Madness takes place this weekend and there should be racers from all over continental Europe. This will be an "unforgettable spectacle with more than 150 drag race participants, including a demo of Gerd Habermann's fire-breathing school bus with 20,000 HP.
"There will be exciting drag races with participants such as "Goldy" the famous Honda Civic with 1040 HP. And let's not forget Harry Kempenaar, who will compete in the Super Pro ET class with his Pontiac with more than 2000HP+. Of course, drag racing motorcycles should not be missing either. Former ACU Funny Bike champion Kars van den Belt is present with his Funny Bike (Honda Blackbird 1100xx Turbo) with 763 HP and a ¼ mile time of 6.9 seconds!"
Full details can be seen at www.dragracemadness.com. Racing starts at 14:00 on Friday and 09:00 on Saturday and Sunday. With a break for Jet Bus demos, racing concludes at an impressively late 22:00 on Friday/Saturday and 18:00 on Sunday. Weekend drag race participation for racers, including camping for 1 persons is €225 and €400 for a team of 4 (race license necessary). Spectator entry can be bought at the website for a discounted price of €20 (Friday), €30 each for Saturday and Sunday and €45 for the weekend, children aged 6 to 12 have reduced prices which you can see on the website,. At Dragrace Madness the timekeeping is provided by DHRA, and the races are held according to the guidelines of KNAF and KNMV.
In Sweden the Midnight Sun Drag Festival (Part 1) will take place at Piteå Dragway, near Luleå, Saturday and Sunday 8th-9th July. This is a round of the EDRS Championship and will include Top Doorslammer and also Top Methanol Dragster testing by Daniel Jedborn. Our good friends Carla Pittau and Rick McCann will be contesting Stock/Super Stock and most other sportsman classes are represented.
The Midnight Sun Drag Festival actually is a week long event covering other events as well as drag racing at the weekend and the following Friday and Saturday. There will be exhibitions, rallycross, and a test & tune and Street Race on Thursday 13th July. You can see more details at this link.
In the South of Sweden the Malmö Raceway Summer Nationals takes place from 7th-9th July, although this is not part of a recognised championship, Malmö has good support from almost 70 racers and has attracted Pro X-treme (Top Doorslammer) and Super Twin Top Gas entrants from across the continent. More details are available at this link.
Also of note is Malmö Raceway's acquisition of 10 electric car charging stations from new sponsors Laddbox Örebro, signifying a commitment to supporting electric cars and therby the environment. With other new sponsor CM Freight, funds have arrived to refurbish the facility, which at one time was thought not to be able to open for 2023. Now with work carried out and the support of the local municipality, events are able to happen.
Finally, in Finland, FHRA Street car acceleration runs take place on 8th July 2023 at Kiikala Airfield (almost exactly half way between, or an hour's drive from, Helsinki and Turku) from 10:00 to 18:00. Details are available here Online registration has ended but you can still register at the track for a post-registration price of €70 inclusive. The track length is 1/4 mile but if you go more than 230kph at the finish line you will only be able to run the eighth. You must also be registered on dragracing.eu to take part.
Of interest to many who love the Pegasus machines, is the news that Chris Illman has the bike that this famous team first started with - a modified single cylinder Panther (pictured right from Pegasus website) - which was noted for being rather temperamental. Here’s hoping Chis can coax it back to life, and maybe get the bike out on track. While at the event, do check out the bikes on display, which will include Brian Chapman, with his pair of formidable Vincents.
It will be a poignant weekend for the family of Dennis Norman, who passed late last year. The double-engined bikes built and raced by him, and now ridden by son Gary and grandson Matt, will be carrying some of Den’s ashes down the track for one last time, when they run together.
The Old School Stockers have assembled a strong field of 16 riders for the event. Somehow, Claire Rule has entered her Suzuki, after recovering from a recent road crash; but class coordinator Tyne Blight has unfortunately had to withdraw, due to an injury. He has once again called in Len Paget as substitute rider - and we know what happened the last time Len rode the bike!
One of the popular exhibits at Dragstalgia has been the Force of Nature steam bike of Graham Sykes, who rode the ex-Jay Upton Triumph at last years event. This time it has changed, as Graham will be putting in his test pass on the steam rocket at Santa Pod, when he closes the show on Friday! One of the many things not to miss on what is going to be a spectacular weekend.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 1. 6th July:
Following the article posted on 25th June describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the final four lots for auction:
Lot 38 – Hot Rod Magazine 75th Anniversary hardback book (signed)
Written by Drew Hardin HOT ROD Magazine celebrates 75 years of stunning content that has been created and published by the magazine’s staff in all or parts of nine decades. Witness how HOT ROD has been on scene with iconic photographs and articles detailing Dragsters, Roadsters, Slingshots, Funny Cars, Coupes, Customs, Lead Sleds, Muscle Cars, and their builders and owners. This is the definitive and officially licensed look back at that influence.
Lot 39 – SO-CAL Speed Shop tin sign
Unlike many tales, the story of the So-Cal Speed Shop is not one made up by some clever marketing types; it's a true story of friendship, hot rods and the need for speed, and you could have a piece of this history on your workshop or office wall with this reproduction tin sign.
Lot 40 – 2022 El Mirage poster
El Mirage, one of the great lake courses in the world of land speed record breaking and you could own a piece of it with this colourful event poster (18” x 24”) designed by LSR racer Frank Silva. Last season’s event poster features the 7707 record setting Blown Fuel Roadster raced by speedy Brit Geoff Stillwell who has very kindly offered to sign the poster for the lucky bidder.
Lot 41 – Ed Pink Rod, Arias Piston & blower pulley from The Mob
Items like this always make great paperweights and wall ornaments so why not own an Ed Pink rod connected to an Arias piston and even an out-of-shape blower pulley as a conversation piece from the days of when The Mob altered ran methanol at Shakespeare County and Santa Pod Raceways.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see the article on 25th June for full details.
Dragstalgia Perfect Light bonus. 6th July: We are pleased to confirm that a bonus Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award
will be available at this week's Dragstalgia at Santa Pod
Raceway.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards are usually posted at UK National Championship events but sponsors Cath and Tig
Napier of UK Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing have kindly offered to post £50 for the first 0.000 Reaction
Time at Dragstalgia.
The Perfect Light Award will become available at the start of qualifying, currently Gasser Circus Q1
which is scheduled for 17:00 on Friday,
and from that point will be available to all racers in all classes. As ever, the money will only be awarded for the first Perfect
Light of the event. As this is a bonus event, if the Perfect Light Award is not won at Dragstalgia then it will remain at £50
for Bug Jam on on 21st-23rd July at Santa Pod Raceway.
Eurodragster.com decals are not mandatory to collect the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate if it they are carried, although
we do of course understand about decals on period-correct cars and bikes. If you would like to carry Eurodragster.com decals then
they are available in Signing On.
The next Eurodragster.com / Twister Racing Team Perfect ET
Award sponsored by Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield will be posted at Bug Jam.
Dragstalgia ever-presents 2023. 6th July: Your Editor has been consulting his notes, entry lists, record books and everything else he
can find about Dragstalgia and has compiled a list of racers who have contested every Dragstalgia that has been held since 2011:
Mark Bracking
Keith Crampton
Bob Hawkins (pictured right)
Nervous Nick
Ray Turner
Paul Watts
Others have participated in run what ya brungs or have crewed at every event. There are a record 51 racers making their Dragstalgia competition début this year.
New for Dragstalgia: (pictured left to right): Brian Whitfield and Ian Tubb's High Spirits Fuel Altered (Phil Grayston pic), David Pertué's Green Monster turbine engined slingshot (Saturday and Sunday) and Graham Sykes' Force of Nature steam rocket bike (Friday evening only) .
Finally we have compiled an easy-to-print entry list for this weekend's Dragstalgia class contestants. You can take a look at the PDF-format Guide by
going to our event coverage page.
Racing by moonlight. 6th July:
Many thanks to Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer James Murray for sending a few words to explain what happened on the startline on Saturday.
Before racing that day, former Street Machine editor and crew member, Dave Smith had declared "If you run a nine - I'm going to moon the commentators". I took this in jest as we aren't in our twenties any more... (plus that was my job on top of the human pyramid).
However, in Q2 I ran my first nine with a 9.89 @ 135 and true to his word, Dave did indeed perform a moonie. I was at the other end of the track, so don't blame me! For better or worse, the live stream didn't capture this moment (Thankfully, neither did our photographers - Ed).
After my run, I was most touched by the shared excitement of fellow racers at the track who came up to congratulate me and online cheers from friends I've raced with for years in NSCC at York now Melbourne.
Thanks to my crew Phil, Dave and Kieran for getting me to the startline and putting up with me when I'm grumpy.
Swift snippets. 6th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Pro ET racer Marie Mills, NSS crew chief Michael Dowdy and Swedish drag bike team manager Roger Lyrén. We hope you all have a great day.
The latest Youtube video from JT Racing UK asks the question "How far did the JT Racing UK Ford Pop go at the Main Event?" Included in this insight into Super Pro ET racing are interviews with sponsor John Tebenham by videographer Simon Letkey, pit footage and track action. You can see the video at this link. Don't forget to 'like' and 'subscribe'!
Lot 33 – Ford Flathead Engines: How to Rebuild and Modify softback book (signed)
Although not the first V-8 engine ever produced, Henry Ford's side-valve V-8, launched in 1932, certainly qualified as the first mass-produced V-8 sold to the public. Written and signed by veteran author Tony Thacker and flathead guru of H&H Flatheads, Mike Herman, it takes you step-by-step through the rebuilding of a vintage flathead. It all adds up to more than 500 colour photos and insider tips on building what could be called the most iconic engine ever built, the Ford flathead V-8.
Lot 34 – How To Build Affordable Hot Rods softback book (signed)
Written by author and lifelong hot rod aficionado Tony Thacker this book takes you through the process of building a hot rod on a budget. Drawing on his own extensive experience of both buying and building rods, Thacker explores the good, the bad and the ugly. When Henry Ford introduced his beloved Model T, he unwittingly gave the average person the means to go racing. More than 100 years after the original Model T, hot rodding remains alive and well in Australasia, Europe, and (of course) its birthplace the US.
Lots 35 and 36 – Bill Pitts Chasing Magic hardback book (signed)
Chasing Magic is a thrilling autobiography capturing Bill Pitts’ efforts to rekindle his teenage passion for 1960s drag racing. Wanting to pay homage to his heroes and get the flames cackling again, he purchased a forgotten front engine dragster and brought it back to its original glory. Little did he know that this wonderful adventure would not only kick start a new movement in the sport, but also help him to meet and become friends with his heroes. A wonderful book to enjoy, and it’s signed by Bill.
Lot 37 – Ohio George Montgomery softback book (signed)
As a young man, George Montgomery lived for cars. He came of age in the classic era of the hot rod and fully immersed himself in the car culture. George took car building seriously and went on to become one of the pioneers of the sport of drag racing especially with the ground breaking Malco Gasser Mustang and his succession of Willy’s Coupes, one of which George brought over to race at the historic 1964 Drag Festivals.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see the article on 25th June for full details.
STP Summer Nationals bike racer comments. 5th July:
We present below bike racer comments from the STP Summer Nationals.
Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike was reduced to an entry of two as other regular racers Neil Midgley and Al Smith both had issues which prevented attendance. Al Smith's bike owner and engineer Phil Baimbridge wrote in his excellent PBR Top Fuel Bike blog "We hurt the motor a lot more than we thought in the first round of eliminations at the Main Event. Apologies to the SPRC, our TFB competitors and the fans for not making it to the Summer Nationals. Hopefully be back for the European Finals." Team manager for Neil Midgley's Lucas Oil-sponsored Puma Bike said "We just could not comit to doing this event so close after Tierp as we weren’t sure if the bike would be serviced and ready to run; it’s the 1st Summer Nats we have missed for years. Marius van der Zijden will finish the service Wednesday next week before he goes to Dragstalgia with Jan Honee."
Steve Woollatt (below left) and Rene van den Berg were able to make some runs although the race will not go into the championship points total.
Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike: saw a range of issues for the five quick machines present. Lorcan Parnell qualified top on the Storm Drag Bike with 7.0191/188.16 in Q3 after traction problems in Q1 that caused the bike to hit the rev limiter before 60'. The bike then suffered engine explosion in the round 1 burnout and Lorcan would take no further part.
Roger Moore in the meantime had qualified third with two runs in the 7.5s and defeated newcomer Ryan Davidson in round 1. Dave Peters was a tenth better than Roger in no.2 but the headwind which had been troubling a few, pushed the Riggerboot Express to the centre line and he was unable to catch Jordan Kenway. After two byes in the semi finals, Roger with a 7.495/175.07 prevailed over Jordan who had suffered problems in qualifying but after a lot of work was back in the eights on race day.
The final of Taylors Trophy Super Street Bike was a Morrison family affair, this time between the two brothers, Ross defeating Alan Jnr with times in the sevens. Of the seven qualifiers, three were in the 6.8s, Jake Mechaell, Daniel Lencses all the way from Hungary, and Alan Jnr. In his first round single Jake's engine suffered a spun big end bearing which put him out, whilst Daniel suffered a repeat of the traction issues that have plagued the record-holder's season. Ross's bike had been affected by the headwind in qualifying but Jake's early exit gave him a bye into the final, whereas Alan Jnr defeated dad Alan Sr in round 1 and Stephen Mead in the semi final in what he called his final race.
The biggest performance gains in the class came outside of competition where Margot Schmidt, now teamed with Daniel Lencses, ran two great time trial passes of 7.142/201.44 and 7.153/194.70, a tenth off her PB coming into the event.
Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike has expanded as several former Super Street Bike racers have changed classes. Mark Dainty qualified on top with 7.3722/171.76 after three sessions, with 2022 champion Paul Hambidge and Graham Dance within a tenth of his time. Paul was undeterred after his bike got blown by the wind into the path of the finish line reflectors whilst Garry Bowe was hampered by a broken chain on launching in Q3.
In eliminations, Jasmine Cordelle and Chris Neary's engines both cut out in their round one matchup, Jas keeping ahead for the win. After a pair of all seven second semi finals, the final looked potentially close with Garry Bowe's and Graham Dance's bikes both on song, Garry coming out the victor with his best of the event of 7.1866/199.78.
JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike: saw Brad Head take his second consecutive win which should propel him into the championship lead. Qualifying saw four Dutch bikes in the mix, with Angelos Karandreas taking #2 place behind Dan De'ath's 8.501/166.67 #1 qualifier. Nine of 15 bikes were in the 8.50s.
In eliminations Brade defeated Jonny Hines, who broke on the line, holeshot Dan De'ath with an incredible 0.008 RT (closest race of eliminations), in the semi final round defeated no.2 in the championship Martin Hallett in another squeaker, then in the final kept ahead of Stacey Reed who got caught by the headwind.
Brad wrote: "What an unreal feeling and what a weekend!
The bike was on song all weekend not running any slower than a 8.59. A shout out to Jake at JKE Race Works for building me this bad ass bike and sponsoring me this year. Thanks to Tony Underhill for being an absolute star crew man, couldn’t do it without u brother! Chloe Jade Carter for keeping us fed and watered all weekend, Purdie Hadfield for videoing duties could not do it without you all by my side.
Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike: was won on a holeshot by Dion Hartley over Dave Hall. Class promoter Debbie Sawatzki wrote: "Another great weekends racing, but a strong head wind.
"Carl Thomas took the no 1 qualifier, giving him a bye in the first round with a 9.503, unfortunately for Carl, Dave Hall took the win in the second round and also took the win in the first sending Richard Sawatzki home early Dion took the win in the first round against Rob Stanley and giving him a bye to the final.
"The final saw a very close race between Dion and Dave with only 25 inches in it, Dion taking the win. I cannot say it enough, these guys are great and I’ve heard we have a new recruit for 9.50 next meeting cannot wait to see him race.
"A very poignant moment was the minute's silence for Steve Moxley, you could hear a pin drop, a very respected and liked man in the bike pits." Blood Cancer UK ET Bike had 17 bikes qualified, making for five rounds of racing. No.1 qualifier was Jake Boden, who with the smallest engine and second slowest qualifying ET did incredibly well to get to the final in this bracket racing class which usually gives an advantage in racing to the quicker bike. The fourth quickest and no.2 qualifier Blade King was Jake's competition in the final round and ran his best reaction time of eliminations (0.0103) and +0.089 on his dial to reach the finish line ahead of Jake and extend his points lead in the championship.
Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike: saw two of the most sporting moments we can remember, the first coming in qualifying session 1 when Grace Pollen came off her bike early in her run and then came back in Q2. Hollie King ended qualifying in #1 position, but then went out in round 1. Championship leader Leah Morrison lasted one more round, however Richard Willcox ran a consistent race, defeating Grace in the final. The second sporting moment was Richard, in the trophy presentation, donating his trophy to ET Bike, and former JDB racer Scott Collier, whose many trophies had been destroyed in a house fire last year.
Swift snippets. 5th July:
Happy Birthday for today to Super Street Bike racer Alan Morrison Jnr and Huxley crew man and web guru Richard Bell, have a great day guys!
The 1973 Petersen Publishing Internationals - Part 2. 4th July:
Part two of the Heavy Sound of Summer 1973 continues as the Petersen Publishing International Series moved down to Daedalus on the south coast for round two where not only was it raining but the strip was too short! But a welcome break in the weather and a decision to run over 1000 feet produced some great match racing and super low ETs with fives from the Fuelers, Funnies in the sixes, eight second bikes and Pro Stocks in the nines.
Then it’s back to Santa Pod for the final weekend. Don Schumacher had returned to America so Allan ‘Bootsie’ Herridge was let loose in the Stardust Funny Car but nobody was prepared for what happened next...
This is part two, the second round of the series held at HMS Daedalus Royal Navy Air Base, Gosport, Hampshire Santa Pod on 14th/15th July and the finale at Santa Pod on 21st/22nd July 1973. See yesterday's update below for part one.
You can read the story, written for the 50th anniversary of this historic series, by Nick Pettitt with help from Jerry Cookson, both of British Drag Racing Historians, at this link or by clicking on the above image of Paula Murphy racing Allan Herridge.
British Drag Racing Historians is open to anyone who writes about the history of British Drag Racing and has been published through the internet or print media. John Hunt founded the group by contacting those in the group and others in early 2020 asking if it was a good idea to operate under one banner as a group of like minded individuals who are dedicated to the History of British Drag Racing. The Group aims to promote the history of our sport through websites, Facebook, books and magazines. The group operates as an association and is not formally registered as an organisation.
You can read about Paula Murphy being honoured by Women in Motorsports North America at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles on May 24 at this link and see the feature Paula Murphy Undaunted at this link.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 3. 4th July:
Following the article posted on 25th June describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the next four lots for auction:
Lot 29 – Linda Vaughan signed & framed poster
If your names John then you could be a lucky fella by owning this signed poster of the first lady of motorsports – Miss Hurst Golden Shifter Linda Vaughan – it’s dedicated to John!
Lot 30 – NHRA 40th Anniversary multi signed and framed hero card
Some of the greatest names in drag racing have signed this piece of NHRA history. Racers like TV Tommy Ivo, Tom McEwen, Jeb Allen and James Warren and more have signed this card and it could be yours!
Lot 31 – Tommy Möller framed print
This fiery wheel’s up shot of Sweden’s Tommy Möller was captured in 2005 at Santa Pod. Tommy was at the wheel of Lorentzon & Moller Pennzoil Top Fuel Dragster which at the time was a state of the art American chassis from Doug Herbert Racing and was a regular visitor to the fours and 300 mph.
Lot 32 – Snake & Mongoose Funny Car Hot Wheels set
Back in the early seventies the Snake & Mongoose names were American drag racing most iconic and pioneering teams in term of sponsorship and in particular the Hot Wheels brand.
Drivers Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen were the star attractions at any drag strip and it’s legends like these that keep on rolling with this 1/64th scale re-released set from Hot Wheels of the Snake Barracuda and the Mongoose Duster. Fancy owning this iconic set! Place a bid at Dragstalgia.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see the article on 25th June for full details.
STP Summer Nationals car racer comments. 4th July:
We present below car racer comments from the STP Summer Nationals.
Motorsport UK Pro Modified saw Bobby Wallace win his fourth Pro Mod race in five starts and extend his lead with his five second Camaro. Bobby will be sending his thoughts later in the week. Others had problems although David Smith did improve his PB in qualifying to 6.3890/219.30, which is a PB for the car as well. Sponsors Andy Robinson and Jon Webster both had problems. Andy's team reporting the car was launching in second gear and worked incredibly hard to rebuild the gearbox twice on Saturday, following which he suffered bad tyre shake in Q3.
"Unfortunately in the first round Andy was a bit eager and went red on the tree.
This ended our competition but we were kindly allowed to make a test hit. With very little track time this year, that's what we needed. We managed to get from A to B with a 6.08 which we were a bit happier with. Whilst it's not where we want or need to be to be competitive, it is a good starting point, we've gained some data and hopefully we can look to improve on that at the next meeting which is the Bug Jam in 3 weeks time." As well as Pro Mod, there is the matter of a match race with World Superstar DJ Carl Cox and his Procharger powered Plymouth ‘Cuda...
In Track Worx Competition Eliminator the eight car field was headed by the awesome COPO Camaro of Nic Williams, which ran .7849 under his index, also performing well in qualifying were Swiss Rene Ehrismann in his 532ci nitrous Bel Air who was 0.6187 under his 8.02 index and Dan Williams, -0.5091 in the 1970 Camaro 350ci and Spencer Tramm . Good to see Rob Smallworth return to the class in his '55 Chevy.
Eliminations ran to form with the semi finals being the four top qualifiers, Kevin Jenkins going out in round one despite a great 7.848/175.73 from his Mk1 Escort. The Williams Bros had an extremely close race helped by Nic's slightly early chute deployment but he subsequently found an engine problem. He said "Unfortunately we have damaged a lifter so it was not worth risking any further damage - these things can happen when you turning the engine to 9500rpm". Spencer Tramm took the winning lap, his second of the year and closing the gap to Nic who has also won two events in 2023.
Peter Nee Super Pro ET saw the top 15 qualify less than 0.1s over their dial, with the top 3 less than 0.01s over, Nick Good's oh-so-consistent 6s blown dragster, followed by the 598ci Jeff Bull-engined naturally aspirated Hauser Racing dragsters of Scott Hauser and Joe Kellett. Joe's car had the engine from his previous car, still for sale, installed with his 8.90 throttle stop setting for team consistency.
Eliminations resulted in the second win of the season for Alan Didwell, who also has a runner up under his belt, for a strong points lead. Alan had no easy ride as in each round the competition was incredibly tough. He defeated Mark Coulsell who ran +0.0095 over his 8.30 dial in round 1, then Nick Good who ran 0.0061 over his 6.83 dial in round 2, David Russell who broke out by 0.0069 in round 3, AC Bell who broke out by 0.0068 in the semi final, and Matt Peters who was +0.0082 on his dial in the final.
A couple of other Super Pro ET highlights were Ron Bartlett's PB of 7.8923/171.70 in round one, and, away from competition, Harru Gibson's awesome licencing pass of 5.9443/238.51 in Martyn Jones' Another Small Fortune, and Jack Brewster finally getting his Firebird to run straight and recording 7.6302/172.36, good for 7.60 Heads Up we say.
Modurstang Pro ET was very tight qualifying despite only three sessions, as the 34 car entry saw two not in the ladder. Incredibly the top 31 qualified less than 0.1s off their dial in and five less than 0.01s over. #1 went to Harley-Jay Darby who at 16 years of age cannot legally drive on the public highway but is handling his 8.99s, 150mph race pickup like a pro. Simon Rickwood won the class despite only making a single qualifying run in his Chevy Nova, being beneficiary of an early leaving Darren Huxley in round 1, a Tom Kaye red light in round 2, then taking out #1 qualifier Harley-Jay with a 0.1118 package in round 3, Brett Featherstone red lighting in the semi final (Simon running a perfect +0.0004 on dial) and breaking out by less than Ronnie Mercer in the final.
Fast R Super Comp went to Leah Kellett. She wrote "After being so apprehensive of swapping engines over for this meet, I was absolutely blown away with it! Not only did it not take much time to try and set it all up (which i thought it would!) I ended up going all the way to the final! Jeff Bull stoppedby and said we should just lower the revs on the throttle stop which was a great shout, as it gained even more mph and I ended up flyin' through them traps at 175mph! New PB speed for me.
"Getting sudden cramp in my throttle foot during the burnout in the semis was an experience I'd like to not have again, my toes were crippled all the way on that run and I couldn't wait to throw my boot off when I got back to the pit.
"Since red lighting back in 2018 against the incredible quadruple champ Stuart Doignie, I have always wanted to really try since, and i guess a bar of chocolate and a Coca-Cola did the trick this time rather than snoozing on the tree or going before the tree, I whacked a 0.007 light out of nowhere, so it just felt really great to have given it my all this time!" That great light and three 8.9s runs gave Leah her tenth Super Comp win.
Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas was a tough field of 12 racers, including huge experienced class racers. The top three were Stuart Morrice, Stuart Doignie and Pete Creswell. Stuart Doignie unexpectedly broke out against Mark White in round two, and the other two reached the final, Pete defeating Stuart who had a -0.0003 red light.
Thanks to Clare Lake for sending in a report on Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET which you can see below. Special congratulations go to our colleague Kirstie for her first win in the class and second consecutive win.
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator was a story of the on-track defeat of the quickest car in the class by a racer with a huge improvement in performance, and hard luck for one of the most spectacular cars in the class. The repeat winner downed was Street Weekend victor Andy Bond, who proves you can drive hundreds of road miles in a six second/200mph capable car; Andy qualified #1 with 7.4913/195.55 and looked as if he would repeat.
But Mark Sheridan had other ideas, he had tuned his Noonan engined twin turbo Plymouth '71 Cuda to launch quicker and it produced new PBs on ET culminating in a 7.4302 at 200.78 in a semi final defeat of Andy's Ugly Sister. In the final Mark tried but Al McSweeney had a better reaction time and that was the difference as both cars ran 7.6s (more potential 7.60 Heads Up competitors?). So well done to Al Mc and Mark, also to Robert Slater going further into the eights and James Murray with his first nine in the LS engined Cortina Mk2 sleeper estate. Commiserations to Tony Higgs, who had a rod go on his Capri leaving him with a big rebuild.
Outlaw Anglia had seven qualifiers in the weekend before the class's biggest event of the year at Dragstalgia. Australian John Willard was #1 qualifier at 6.7627/204.24 with an amazing side by side against Colin Millar at 6.9869/195.47. Yet another 6.7 in a round one bye from John, 6.794/184.30 however he found problems with his MSD 44 amp distributor which the UK racing community has been quick to respond to with offers of a replacement. John not being able to make it to round 2 left the door open for Colin Millar but he was unable to repeat the six in his rebuilt Flyin' Fyfer, leaving us in expectation for next weekend.
The final of Springfield Direct Wild Bunch had the welcome return of Alan Loten facing off against Phil James, Alan's history with the Paranoia '33 Plymouth Jag engined altered and its predecessor Model T, both run with Brian Thomas back in the day, go back to the 1970s, and Paranoia performed as well as ever, however his 10.1280/132.97 was a breakout from his 10.27 dial in, and Phil's 9.7144/136.46 on a 9.58 dial in brought him another win.
VW Pro had Danielle Coppin in #1 qualifying position with a + 0.0022 on her 12.05 dial (you can race in the class if you run less than 12.99s). James Gould returned in his new build dragster (really an altered chassis with minimal body panels and his previous VR6 engine), and reduced his time after initial runs to a best of 10.3213/129.02 with much more potential. Ed Keech was the star performer, he had won the VW Sportsman championship in 2014 and moved up to VW Pro in 2017. His VR6 engined Golf defeated returnee Jacob Bailey, holeshot Abi Tether, downed the new James Gould machine, and in the final overcame Chris Waterhouse whose S3 was solidly in the nines.
VW Sportsman had 21 qualifiers, Polly Judge coming out on top with +0.0083 on her dial. In eliminations, the top three in points, Paul Robinson, Caitlin Wilson and Andrew Bambrick all went out in round one, to the benefit of winner Phil Jones. Phil defeated Nigel Gregg, John Crawford, Thomas Circuit and, after a semi final bye, Hazel Carter, power shifting Patricia the Passat in an impressively consistent fashion.
Lucas Oil Junior Dragster had 31 entries all vying for trophies and an improvement in their points standings. Daniel Weir achieved the best reaction in qualifying with a 0.0018, however went out in round 2. Liam MacDonald, currently leading three championships in the UK, France and Germany, extended his lead by qualifying #4 and going to the final, as #2 in the points Luke Mugridge went out in round 1. But the winner was Kai Cooper who qualified third and got through all five rounds of racing on top.
Sportsman ET at the STP Summer Nationals. 4th July:
Thanks to Clare Lake for sending in a report on Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET at the STP Summer Nationals.
A blustery wind caused a few problems during qualifying for Sportsman ET at the Summer Nationals. A fierce headwind, then the side wind and intermittent gusts, meant that many people struggled to find the correct dial. That is apart from Brian Huxley (SPET25, Ford Focus). Back in his V8 Focus, after being rebuilt from the fire at Springspeed Nationals, he managed to have an almost perfect dial in the first round of qualification, running 13.9210, on a 13.92 dial.
Matt Halsall (SPET964, Escort Mk2) once again broke his drive shaft, even though replacements were fitted between events. He somehow, heroically, managed to replace them again after the first qualifier and was back for the second round of qualification. Unfortunately for Ashley Symons (SPET48, Nissan Skyline R34) he had to retire from the event during the second round of qualifying as he was pushed back from the line. He had broken a stub axle that goes into the differential, which could not be replaced.
There were a few very close breakouts in both the second and third round of qualifying, from Stef Pateman (SPET68, BMW 435I), Kirstie Tramm (SPET5, Chevrolet Camaro) and Chris Winn (SPET780, Alfa Romeo Mito Veloce Turbo), as we started to get to grips with the environment. By the end of the third round of qualifying no one could knock Brian off the no 1 spot, but Jane McCready (SPET4189, Mk4 Escort Van) managed to get close. She secured second place by running 15.1449 on a 15.14 dial in. A great day of qualifying for Jane having also run her best 60ft. The Bad Habit Racing Award was again scooped by Georgina Smith, this time for qualifying 13th.
Eliminations started with Matthew Dowdy (SPET 5736, Chevrolet Nova) also having a breakage with a suspected transmission pump failure. He was due to have a first-round bye due to Ashley having to retire, which resulted in one less pair of racers in round 1 and an unexpected bye in round 2. Brian, who had the official bye, cruised down the track into round 2. Steve Mellors (SPET19, Mazda MX5) and Matt Halsall, with the compromised driveshaft, decided to unusually both put 12.00 as the dial in. As Matt had to be careful not to break his car again, predictably Steve went through to round 2.
Both of our double class racers, Bill Wilson SPET851, Ford F100) and Covid Cup winner Carl Magedera (SPET520, Tesla SP85D), red lit allowing Liam Sturman (SPET81, Jaguar XK8) and Geoff Cowley (SPET495, Chevrolet Camaro Z28), respectively, to move through to the next round. Geoff claiming the bounty having defeated the winner of the previous round, and Liam would go on to face Brian. Unfortunately, Stef also red lit, allowing Chris W to take the place against Geoff in round 2.
Holley Walters (SPET4, Ford Mustang) was back this event, and had a similar reaction time to Michael Franklin (SPET940, Range Rover Sport), but she took the win with Michael’s car once again going slower than expected in the unusual conditions. The racer who would be facing Holley next would be Steve Giles (SPET603, Subaru Forester) having beat Debbie Taylor (SPET236, Ford Mustang) with a much better reaction. Kirstie claimed the unexpected round 2 bye by taking the win against Sportsman Nationals runner up James Grew (SPET244, VW Touareg), with an impressive 0.0082 light.
Jane continued her good run from Qualifying when Georgina Smith (SPET387, Toyota Supra) broke out. Despite Richard Palmer (SPET109, Jaguar XKR) having a brilliant 0.0065 reaction he too broke out taking Felicity Gibbs (SPET816, Ford Mustang) through to face Jane in round 2. The critical matchup between 1st and 2nd place points leaders, of Gary Lake (SPET 167, Pontiac Trans Am) and Chris Creswell (SPET33, Ford Fiesta ST) would decide who would be facing Steve M in round 2. It was always going to be a close run but Chris broke out giving the win to Gary.
The second round of eliminations again provided some excellent reaction times. Felicity had an outstanding 0.0025 light contributing to her success, taking her through to the next round over Jane, where she would meet Gary. Although close at the finishing line Gary’s run of 14.2825 on a 14.28 and a good light meant that he just got over the line before Steve M. It could have so easily resulted in a breakout!
Kirstie through to round 3 on a bye would face Steven G. Holley had, as always, an amazing reaction time of 0.0013, but having dialled in taking account of the wind, broke out when it subsided on her run which was unlucky for her. The final two places in the Quarter Finals were decided by breakouts too. Liam going a fraction too quickly led to Brian taking the first place. The other went to Geoff who broke out slightly less than Chris W.
Who would proceed to the semi-finals was also decided by breakouts, with everyone conscious of the wind when dialling in. Kirstie took the first place being on the right side of her number when racing Steven Giles. As a 2023 Dial in Day graduate, it was Steven’s 1st quarter final so I’m sure there will be more to come. Both Brian and Geoff did great lights as expected from seasoned racers, with Brian passing the line first. However, he broke out more than Geoff who therefore took the win. So, Kirstie would be facing Geoff, who had previously won the class championship 3 times, in the semis. The last quarter final was for the semi-final bye into the finals between Felicity and Gary. Again, a close race with Gary crossing the line first but breaking out 7 thousandths more than Felicity, sending her straight through to the final.
The semi-final race between Kirstie and Geoff couldn’t have been tighter, with both having a 0.06 reaction time and both being close to their ET, but Kirstie took the line first into the Final. So on to the last leg, both Felicity and Kirstie having been in many finals before, Kirstie winning in Pro ET at Main Event and Felicity being 2018 Sportsman ET champion, both could have easily won, but this time Kirstie proved too formidable and took her 1st Sportsman ET round win in an extremely close race. Congratulations to Kirstie who was in the zone and seems to be continuing the Tramm legacy. A massive well done to Felicity who also gave everyone a good fight.
As always credit to all the racers in the class who always bring their A game and make it a great competition. Hopefully those who had breakages and issues are all mended before Greenlight Nationals, you all left a space in the contest. Of course, thanks to everyone at Santa Pod, the commentary team, the Eurodragster.com team (all pictures in this report courtesy of Di and Julian) and Hutchinson and Dibley - without whom none of us would be here. We would also like to that Tig and Cathy of Bad Habit Racing for their continued support. We get to do all again in a few weeks……see you then!
Swift snippets. 4th July:
A very Happy Independence Day to all our friends in the USA, have a great day one and all!
Happy Birthday to the ever youthful queen of Signing On at Santa Pod Kathy Taylor, to US fuel altered racer Randy Bradford who thrilled us all in 2016, to Swedish Pro Mod racer Michael Nord and to 8.50 Bike racer Gary Malone, we hope you all have a fantastic day.
Dragstalgia racers update. 3rd July:
Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway Events Coordinator Max Frost for an update to racers competing at Dragstalgia this coming weekend:
Due to the very successful entry at this year’s Dragstalgia, currently standing at over 275, as you can imagine pit space is at a premium. We have tried to give everybody adequate room, but we ask all racers to be considerate to one another and to not use up any more space than you need.
If you don’t absolutely need them in your pit bay, please locate extra vehicles and caravans in the racers camping area.
Likewise, we are running to a tight timetable this weekend due to class sizes, so we ask that all racers are prepared and ready to race when you're in the pairing lanes.
Remember to follow all instructions of marshals, security and SPR staff – we’re all here to help facilitate the smooth pitting and running of this event, but we need you all to work with us in achieving this.
See you all at the track!
Our printable pdf Dragstalgia entry list is now available at this link.
STP Summer Nationals results. 3rd July:
Congratulations to the winners of the STP Summer Nationals held at Santa Pod Raceway over the weekend:
Motorsport UK Pro Modified: Bobby Wallace 5.8615/246.37 def. Wayne Nicholson broke off line Track Worx Comp Eliminator: Spencer Tramm (11.68) 11.3775/113.17 def. Nic Williams no-show FastR Super Comp: Leah Kellett 8.9112/174.36 def. Stuart Doignie 8.8605/153.62 Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas: Pete Creswell 12.9339/70.07 def. Stuart Morrice 9.8910/148.57 red light Peter Nee Super Pro ET: Alan Didwell (7.67) 7.6865/161.87 def. Matt Peters (7.67) 7.6782/172.35 Modurstang Pro ET: Simon Rickwood (9.86) 9.8515/126.97 def. Ronnie Mercer (10.52) 10.4780/125.44 Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET: Kirstie Tramm (12.00) 12.1030/103.24 def. Felicity Gibbs (17.23) 17.4130/79.51 Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Al McSweeney 7.6375/185.06 def. Mark Sheridan 7.6583/197.06 Outlaw Anglia: Colin Millar 13.8491/59.43 def. Rob Stone DNS Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch: Phil James (9.58) 9.7144/136.46 def. Alan Loten (10.27) 10.1280/132.97 VW Pro: Ed Keech (12.10) 12.1208/95.82 def. Chris Waterhouse (9.68) 9.9573/141.56 VW Sportsman: Phil Jones (14.60) 15.1609/92.87 def. Hazel Carter (15.00) 15.5557/95.06 Lucas Oil Junior Dragster: Kai Cooper (9.16) 9.1511/69.58 def. Liam MacDonald (8.25) 8.2300/76.04
Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woolatt 8.0783/109.77 def. Rene van den Berg no-show Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike: Roger Moore 7.4958/175.07 def. Jordan Kenway 8.9097/154.20 Taylors Trophy Super Street Bike: Ross Morrison 7.1434/180.67 def. Al Morrison Jnr 7.6846/131.04 Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike: Garry Bowe 7.1866/199.78 def. Graham Dance 8.8008/171.74 Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike: Richard Willcox (9.53) 9.7320/65.36 def. Grace Pollen (8.79) 8.7825/76.57 JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike: Brad Head 8.6182/144.38 def. Stacey Reed 8.8250/155.75 Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike: Dion Hartley 9.5479/140.85 def. Dave Hall 9.5382/146.66 Blood Cancer UK ET Bike: Blade King (8.94) 9.0290/128.74 def. Jake Boden (12.05) 12.1900/99.48
The event was held in dry conditions with partly sunny skies but a headwind which caused directional issues to a couple of bikes that hit reflectors at the top end. Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike racer Grace Pollen had a great comeback from a spill in the first qualifying session, qualifying in the following session and eventually becoming runner-up. Barring these, and some minor oildowns, the event was incident free.
Congratulations to Modurstang Pro ET racer Dave Rudd who won the Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award of £75 supported by Cath and Tig Napier, and to Lucas Oil Junior Dragster racer Ellie May Brown who won the Eurodragster.com/Twister Racing Perfect ET award of £50 supported by Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield.
Congratulations also to Track Worx Comp Eliminator racers Nic Williams and Dan Williams who won the Bob's Photo Finish Award of £50 each posted by sponsor and longtime Eurodragster.com supporter Bob Roberts for the closest finish of a green light and non-break out race. Nic and Dan's finish line margin was 0.0017 seconds or 3.5 inches.
Thanks to David Anniwell of the Santa Pod Timing Crew for sending us detailed timing data, including test day results, which we have posted to our timing data area which you can see by clicking on Data, then Timing Data at the top of any Eurodragster.com page. Official results can be seen at Santa Pod's Official Results Site.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored STP Summer Nationals
reports, results and galleries by clicking
here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link at the top of any Eurodragster.com page. We should repeat our new policy that the watermarked photos from our galleries can be downloaded and may be used in social media posts but please do not crop or modify them, in particular we need the watermark retained.
Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the race weekend.
We look forward to publishing car racer comments on the event tomorrow.
The 1973 Petersen Publishing Internationals at Santa Pod Raceway - Part 1. 3rd July:
50 years ago, Santa Pod staged their 4th annual Internationals Series featuring top cars and bikes from America. Don Schumacher and Paula Murphy brought their nitro guzzling, ground shaking 426 Ed Pink Plastic Fantastics, Tony Nancy came with his beautiful Revell Liner AA/Fuel Dragster, Norm Wilcox was over to drive Mr Revell and Danny Johnson had brought a pair of nitro burning Harleys. Also a large contingent from Sweden, Holland and South Africa made this the most spectacular Drag Racing so far witnessed in the UK.
This is part one, the first round of the series held at Santa Pod on 7/8th July and the start of the Heavy Sound of Summer 1973.
You can read the story, written by Nick Pettitt with help from Jerry Cookson, both of British Drag Racing Historians, at this link or by clicking on the above image of Paula Murphy.
British Drag Racing Historians is open to anyone who writes about the history of British Drag Racing and has been published through the internet or print media. John Hunt founded the group by contacting those in the group and others in early 2020 asking if it was a good idea to operate under one banner as a group of like minded individuals who are dedicated to the History of British Drag Racing. The Group aims to promote the history of our sport through websites, Facebook, books and magazines. The group operates as an association and is not formally registered as an organisation.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 4. 2nd July:
Following the article posted last Sunday describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the next four lots for auction:
Lot 25 – A Fuel Team Sweden T shirt
Sweden’s A Fuel Team consisting of Tony Bryntesson, Daniel Jedborn and Jonny Lagg are strong competitors in the FIA Top Methanol championship with their startling dragsters. This has now extended to an eye catching T shirt which the team have made available to us for you to own with the winning bid!
Lot 26 – Stranger Thing Kids T Shirt
From Britain’s newest Pro Modified on the scene is this kid’s sized T shirt featuring a graphic of David Smith’s ’55 Chevy BelAir doorslammer - Stranger Thing.
Lot 27 – VooDoo Hemi T Shirt
Look cool in this retro VooDoo Hemi Superbird Pro Modified T Shirt donated by team owner and driver Dutchman Mark Harteveld.
Lot 28 – Kenny Bernstein signed & framed hero card
King Kenny was at the top of his game in both NHRA Funny Car and Top Fuel back in the 80s and 90s and more so behind the wheel of the Bud King 1997 Top Fuel Dragster earning him the title of the ‘King of Speed’, and this autographed hero card could be yours.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see last Sunday's article for full details.
Swift snippets. 2nd July:
Happy Birthday for today to hot rodding and drag racing pioneer Maurice Takoor, colleague of John Bennett at Spa Engineering, to Supercharged Outlaws racer-in-waiting Bob Glassup, to former Super Street racer Bob Lees, Comp Bike racer Daniel Bergelin and to Nostalgia Super Stock racer Nick Martin. We hope you all have a fantastic day.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 5. 1st July:
Following the article posted last Sunday describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the next four lots for auction:
Lot 21 – Jndia Erbacher signed rod & piston
Want to own something that’s gone over 300 mph in 3 and a bit seconds! Well now’s your chance. Make it a conversation piece in your home with this piston and rod exclusively signed by European Top Fuel racer Jndia Erbacher - scorch marks and all.
Lot 22 – TV Tommy Ivo 32 Cylinder Showboat Revell model kit
British visitor Tommy Ivo has certainly raced and driven some fast vehicles in his time but nothing compares with the four engined dragster called Showboat. Drawing in crowds whereever the car ran in the early ‘60s it would smoke the whole quarter and some to much appreciation. Now you can build a scale model thanks to American manufacture Revell with this second issue 1/25th scale plastic kit.
Lot 23 – NHRA 60th Anniversary Press Pack
In 2019 the oldest and celebrated sanctioning body in American motor sports – National Hot Rod Association celebrated 60 years of drag racing heritage that you can read about in this special media press pack issued at every event on the NHRA trail in 2019.
Lot 24 – Liz Burn Autobiography ‘Drag Racing Through The Eyes of a Woman’ book
This is a humorous recollection of disasters and successes that Warwickshire, UK based drag racer Liz Burn encountered back in the 1970’s. Liz was one of just two women involved in Top Fuel drag racing, survived a 200 mph crash and came back to win the European Championship two years in a row while beating the men at their own game. And now you can read all about it in this 108 page soft back book with many unpublished photos.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see last Sunday's article for full details.
Robin Moore reunited with JT.
With great sorrow, we must report the death of a true British drag racing pioneer, Brian Sparrow, at age 86, writes Robin Jackson.
