FIA/FIM European Finals entry. 31st July: Thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for forwarding
us Version 1 of the official entry list for the FIA/FIM European Finals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 5th-8th September and
which is the final round of the 2019 FIA European Drag Racing Championships and 2019 FIM Europe Drag Bike Championships as well as a round
of some UK National Drag Racing Championships.
FIA/FIM European Finals entry closes on Friday of next week, 9th August, after which entry, if accepted, may be subject to a late entry
fee. You can download entry forms via the Information link of the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at
www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
From inside the inferno. 31st July: The UK's Dave Nelson made a well-timed return to the track at Dragstalgia and says that he had a blast:
We had a fairly wild ride in Q1, with the car getting all kinds of out of shape. We think the main cause of this was the wheelie bar being set a little low, along with a reduction in
weight over the back axle of around 70 lbs, and me being a little rusty after two years out. After the run we didn't see the amount of oil pressure we had before while spinning
the motor on the starter, so decided to give everything a good once over. The oil that came out was a little thin due to a bit more methanol contamination than were used to, and
we decided to double down and check the bearings, which all looked great. So we buttoned her back up, with some nice fresh oil, and all was back as expected.
Unfortunately this cost us the opportunity to run in a couple of qualifiers. We got ready and towed down for the final qualifier on Saturday, but James Forster came to us as we
towed down and let us know that by the time we ran in the final qualifier things might be a bit tight for doing the fire burnouts, and that it looked like no one else would be
doing one! We'd already qualified so decided that we'd hang back and do the fire burnout instead, as Dragstalgia wouldn't be Dragstalgia without at least one!
So we towed back to the pits and got ready. We took off the wheelie bar and parachute, Dad filled his watering can, and for the first time we managed to get my mum to come
and watch me get set on fire! I suggested something we'd tried before with our fire burnout technique, and dad poured on plenty of petrol. James lit the fire, opting to light it in
the centre, as that helps the fire light evenly, which was a great call. I was watching for my dad's signal that both sides were lit and all was OK when suddenly all but maybe six inches
of my vision was fire, literally arching up over the top of my view. As I could no longer see my dad, and there was soo much fire, I should get the hell out of there! The tyres lit, the
engine stumbled slightly due to the oxygen being taken by the fire, so I backed out of it briefly so the motor could recover, and then got back on it and she started a drifting burnout;
unfortunately I had to back out before I'd have liked as she was moving a bit close to the centre line and the Christmas Tree! Even with that, from my perspective it was my most
intense fire burnout yet.
I know some of the photogs had an issue with my dad's positioning, and we're going to work on improving that for next time; it's never been mentioned previously. We'll see if
we can get him over on the other side of the car next time, but I guess its unfortunately inevitable that he'll be in the way for some. I do need him to be able to provide guidance
though as my vision from inside the car is pretty limited. Thankfully this time Darryl Bradford didn't stick a microphone in front of him!
Up at the top end, Mark Coulsell guided me out of the gate - much appreciated! - and it was great to catch up with the Wild Bunch family up there after a fantastic day during which they
got well-deserved recognition. I hope to be back racing with those guys in the future.
Unfortunately our weekend ended early the following day. When we went to refit the wheelie bar, we found a problem with the bracing and decided not to risk having it fail so
called it early. But we were glad to go start line to finish line with no problems, qualify, and return home with the motor in one piece! Hopefully we can be back on track before too long.
When we arrived home we were gutted to hear of Sam's and Bob's incident, obviously glad to know that they were uninjured and it's great to see that they will be back.
As usual, we captured the fire burnout on-board, with the slow-mo available on YouTube. We were
also approached by Jerry Lackey to perform a fire burnout at the NitrOlympx. Were gutted that we can't make it this year, but hopefully we can in 2020?
Callum Pudge captured an awesome set of photos, one of which we've turned in to an all over sublimation T-Shirt which is now
available on Etsy for £25.
We also had the good fortune of catching up with Dave and Vickie Stone over the weekend. We took ownership of the Stones' trailer thanks to our good friend Andrew Gibb, and it was
great to hear all their memories linked with the trailer and racing, and also show them some of the bits and pieces we found in there and still use - some are even on Dorris.
Event updates. 30th July: Many thanks to James Forster of Santa
Pod Raceway for forwarding the provisional
running orders for this weekend's Mopar EuroNationals. You can check out the Mopars running orders by
clicking here or by clicking
on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
Please note as ever that running orders are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other
reason deemed necessary by race officials.
Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for forwarding us the final official
entry list for the Green Light Nationals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 17th-18th
August. You can check out the entry list by clicking
here. Entry for this event is completely closed; no late entries will be accepted.
Swift snippets. 30th July: We have a birthday in the extended family today: a big hyvää
syntymäpäivää to longtime Eurodragster.com reader and Event Coverage fan Kai
Plathan. Have a great day Kai. Happy Birthday also to our good buddy and author Jim Kelly, and
to Jason Yates of the Orange Pop Outlaw Anglia team. Have a great day both.
I'd just like to say Thank You for everyone in the class for supporting the Award. It's a shame we didn't get to see the track but it's only a couple of weeks to the Green Light Nationals!
Swift snippets. 29th July: We would like to say a big grattis på födelsedagen with hugs to our dear
friend Lena Perés. Have a lovely day Lena.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Bug Jam reports, results and galleries
by clicking here or by clicking
on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
A big Thank You from Tog to photographers Julian and DD for their hard work and good humour in very unpleasant conditions.
Silverstone Classic gallery. 28th July: We are indebted to longtime Eurodragster.com supporter and Photo Finish Award sponsor
Bob Roberts for sending us a gallery of the Street Car Shootout at this weekend's Silverstone Classic.
You can check out Bob's Gallery, which is presented in association with
Lucas Oil Products, by
clicking here or by clicking on
the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
Swift snippets. 28th July: We have a birthday on the Eurodragster.com team today (Sunday). Please join Kirstie, Tog
and Julian in wishing Pit Reporter, Blog Editor, Links Editor and Photographer Simon a very Happy Birthday. Have a
great day buddy.
Swift snippets. 27th July: Swedish Pro Stock racer Stefan Ernryd is pleased to announce the return of Dicopay
as primary sponsor. "It feels great to have Dicopay on board again", says Stefan. "We had great success with them in 2017. The Dicopay team are true
motor enthusiasts and the combination of a fast car and fast payments goes perfectly hand in hand. We are also keeping in with our concept of traditional Dodge
colours and its very exciting to switch to Pink Panther". Dicopay CEO Marie Lundberg says "We are very happy to partner with Stefan Ernryd once again and we
are excited to be creating new successful stories together."
The EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship is at its halfway point, with part two of the title race starting at next week's Drag Challenge at
Gardermoen Raceway in Norway. After two races Marcus Christiansen, Filippos Papafilippou, Fredrik Fredlund and Vesa Ruhanen are the leaders in
their respective categories. Gardermoen will welcome some new winners and after round three it will be clear who is still in the title race when the
EDRS Pro Nordic MC travels to Tierp Arena for the grand finale. You can read a preview by our good buddy Remco Scheelings on the
Drag
Racing Europe Blog.
It came too late for yesterday's news update so a big Happy Birthday for yesterday (Friday) to UK Top Fuel Bike racer
Kev Charman. Hope you had a great day Kev.
Another Swedish invasion. 27th July: After many years of planning and a final decision in January, longtime Eurodragster.com buddy Anders 'Bostic' Envall
and Kent Edin shipped their Impalas to race at the ISSCA Nationals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bostic writes:
Friends since our youth, Kent and I were connected again through a mutual interest in powerful heavyweight Impala SS, while chasing each other on the drag strips in Sweden.
But it was a long time ago. My last good run was in 2011, Kent can't remember if it was 2007 or 2008.
This trip forced us to fix our cars. Both without engines, they were shipped by container to our friend and engine builder Karl Ellwein in Lusby, Maryland, where we
finished them just in time together with our crew Smokey Jonas Alholt and Jan-Åke 'Johnny Okay' Norberg. Yesterday we went to
Quaker City Motorsports Park to compete in a four-class drag race organized by Impala SS Clubs of America. Our class was Big Dog, a heads-up class for the quickest B-bodies.
We knew that we would have a handful of quicker cars to compete against, even eight-second cars, but it didn't stop us going - drag racing is drag racing!
This week has already been a fantastic experience in Pittsburgh, with nice people with the same interest, and it continues today. Wish us luck!
Today is also the absolute closing date for entry to the Green Light Nationals, which takes place
at Santa Pod Raceway on 17th-18th August and which hosts the special Pro Drag class*, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, Funny Bike
(double-header), Comp Bike (double-header), NMCN 8.50 Bike (double-header), 9.50 Bike (double-header), Accelerate for a Cause
and a Cure Super Twin Top Gas (double-header), Accelerate for a Cause and a Cure ET Bike (double-header), In Posterum Junior Drag Bike
(double-header), NEM Plant Ltd Nostalgia Super Stock, Outlaw Anglia, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, the Supercharged Outlaws, Outlaw Flat Four
and the Wild Bunch. The current entry list can be checked out by clicking
here.
*Pro Drag is open to all vehicles which comply with GSRs and which are capable of and proven to run quicker than 7.50. The class is firmly aimed at any Pro Mods not travelling to the NitrOlympX, Nostalgia Funny Cars, Altereds,
slingshots, the selection of Super Pro ET and Comp Eliminator cars at the quick end of the classes, and anything else which meets the criteria. The format is heads up on a Pro tree
with qualifying and eliminations. For more details see Saturday's news update.
Late entries will not be accepted for the Green Light Nationals as SPRC Club Secretary Ian Marshall will be away working at Hockenheim.
Green Light Nationals entry forms can be downloaded from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
Bike racers please note that one entry fee covers both days of the double-header.
If you have any queries about SPRC event entry then please get in touch with Ian at [email protected]
or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625).
Tebenham takes up smoking. 26th July: The UK's John Tebenham is taking both his Pro Modified and Super Pro ET race cars to the NitrOlympX and he has every intention of
having a good time:
The Pop is all warmed up and ready for Hockenheim. We're going to try some of our mad burnouts, the only problem is that the burnouts are so long that we're running out of fuel at the top end!
But anyone who knows Hockenheim will tell you that it's all about mad cars.
The Corvette, with eight new liners and pistons, has been on a diet; we've taken off all the heavy stuff we don't need and it's got new wheelie bars, oil tank and a few other things besides.
There are thirteen crew going )it'll never be dull) and we'll have a ball. Marco and Jacob, the previous owner and Crew Chief, are crewing with us on the Corvette. Their help and experience
are invaluable, I've never heard of the previous owner of a fast car wanting to help its new owner so much.
I am offering a deal for the European Finals: anyone who wants their name on the Pop for the weekend (nothing too mad - we'll do the graphics) and come and join us for a barbeque, your
very generous donation will go to charity. I can also get you in the crew on the start line for one of the runs and give you photos of the car. I am looking at £500ish - come and have
a ball and be famous for a weekend!
Swift snippets. 26th July: UK Super Pro ET racer Billy Gane says that his family's seventh annual drag racing summer party will be held in Chelmsford, Essex
next Saturday, 3rd August. "The format is as it has been for previous years with live music, disco, BBQ, bar serving a wide selection of drinks, late night kebab van,
clay pigeon shooting, win a car raffle and much more", he says. "We start at 19:00 but you are welcome to arrive earlier. Tickets are £10 each and can be
purchased on the night. Everyone is welcome and we have plenty of space to bring tents, caravans or motorhomes and stay for the weekend. We look forward to
seeing you all soon!"
Thanks to Mike Collins for sending us the usual preview of his column in the latest issue of Street
Machine magazine including bonus material exclusively for Eurodragster.com readers. You can check it out by
clicking on the images above.
"People keep asking if we have team T-Shirts for sale", Andy told Eurodragster.com. "We don't, but there is
so much interest that we thought that printing a one-off limited run would be a great way to celebrate
the six-second pass and to raise money for a cause close to the hearts of the racing community."
The shirts are identical to those worn by Andy's team, and eagle-eyed readers will notice the subtle change
to the logo of the original crew shirts, with a 6 replacing the G of Ugly. Only six of these shirts will
ever be available outside the team so the winners are not only helping in the fight against all forms of blood
cancer but are guaranteed a unique piece of memorabilia. Each shirt will be personalised with the winner's name.
How to bid
To place a bid, simply E-Mail [email protected]
with an amount. We will publish the current top six bids on a regular basis and if you have been outbid then you
can of course just bid again. The auction will close at 23:59 UK time on Saturday 31st August.
You know what to do folks. Get those bids in, share the link, tell your friends... well, don't tell them how much
you have bid but you know what we mean.
Anglias field biggest field. 25th July: Dragstalgia 2019 turned out to host the biggest entry list in Outlaw Anglia history with no less than
thirty one cars cars entered. Jemma Bromley writes that it certainly lived up to expectations of being one of the best events of the year:
The weekend started off with testing throughout Friday followed by the first round of qualifying on Friday evening which certainly had all
eyes on the class, not least because of the amazing return of Al's Gasser after a triumphant rebuild led by Ginner.
In the first round of qualifying Paul Hensher took top spot with a 7.45 closely followed by Scotty Crookston with a 7.51, however it wasn't all sunshine
and rainbows as Gary Bird had engine troubles which put him out of play for the rest of the weekend.
Once the first round was out of the way and the track closed twenty eight Outlaw Anglias headed to the shutdown area for what turned out to
be a very iconic photoshoot! I think we can probably now say that it was the biggest gathering of sub-sixteen second Pops ever!
After all the hype of Friday evening Saturday morning was no different with twenty eight cars qualified including some new drivers to the class:
Andy Cunningham, Peter Jones and Nathan Barlow, as well as the return of Brian Nixon. In round 2 of qualifying on Saturday qualifying completely
changed again with Simon Barlow taking the top spot with a 7.27 on a very hairy run with Mat Cooper who decided to see if Simon's lane was faster,
followed by a flame and smoke from Simon's motor. Ronnie Mercer ran a new PB of 9.31/141. Paul remained in second place with Scotty now hot
on his tail with a PB of 7.48 and a record sixy foot time of 1.073, however a loss of oil pressure for Scotty raised questions and resulted in Jedd and
the crew having a last-minute dash to the Hales' unit at the gate to weld up the oil pump pickup.
The final round of qualifying bumped the class up to twenty nine cars with Steve Wells laying down a time and as ever the positions had a shuffle
around with Scotty just grazing into the number two spot with a PB of 7.450, just 0.005 quicker than Paul! Mick Taylor also moved up to seventh
from a previous twelfth and Shane Bird set a PB with a 12.18.
Round 1 of eliminations was on Saturday evening. Steve Wells had a wild ride and tuning the Flyin' Fyfer started to show as Colin Millar ran a PB
speed of 190 mph. Scotty also ran another PB 7.41/179. Sunday started out as a rather glum day but luckily the weather brightened up and the
amazing Santa pod track staff had us on the start line by 12.30 for round 2 of eliminations. Round 3 of eliminations narrowed us down to our
semi-finalists, Colin defeated Steve and Scotty defeated Ronnie but smoke through the shutdown area betrayed a broken rear track locator
for Ronnie - and the smoke was from the tyre rubbing on the wheel arch.
The Outlaw Anglia final closed the show on Sunday evening with what a lot of people are calling the best race of the weekend - but then we're
all biased! Videos from the race show just how close it was with both Scott and Colin pulling 0.08 Reaction Times however Colin nearly followed
in Matt's footsteps (or tyre tracks) and headed for Scott's lane so had to pedal, resulting in Scotty taking his first ever win in what was an insanely
close race with his 7.46 beating Colin's 7.53.
Outlaw Anglia are very proud of Ginner for winning the Spirit of Dragstalgia Trophy for the restoration of Al's Gasser and there was no surprise
in Colin winning the Best Burnout award.
We would like to say a massive Thank You to the Santa Pod track crew for giving us a awesome track, as always, even with our untrusty English
weather, and Thank You to Santa Pod for making Dragstalgia such an amazing event which is now a historic meeting for Outlaw Anglia!
Swift snippets. 25th July: No news update yesterday due to a fraught day and very late return home so
we were unable to say a big Happy Birthday to Lotta Andersson, Mary Roaf and Geoff Stilwell.
Hope you had a good day guys.
Ålund visits Kauhava. 25th July: Jimmy Ålund continued his full season of both FIA Pro Mod and Pro Stock at the FHRA Nitro
Nationals at the brand new drag strip in Kauhava in Finland. PiPPi writes:
A virgin track can have its challenges. The FHRA track crew worked around the clock to present a good track to all racers. Friday, the first day of
qualifying, produced some very solid numbers in both car and motorcycle classes. In Pro Modified Jimmy drove Magnus Petersson's Old 51 Chevrolet
Business Coupe to the #2 qualifying spot with a strong run in Q2, 5.92 seconds at 380.82 kmh (236.63 mph). But qualifying wasn't all pretty, The Old 51
only made it once to the finish line under full power. Jimmy said "We had issues with tyre shake and hooking the car up but we got that one 5.9-second
run in and it was enough to secure second spot."
In Sunday's eliminations Jimmy won round #1 with the quickest ET of the day, 5.99/378.56 (235.23 mph). The quarter finals were won with a touch and
go pedalfest at 6.79 seconds but that was it for the weekend. Jimmy went up against Peter Kunc in the semis but the transmission in the Old 51 did
not hold up with a loss as the result. Peter went on to win the whole event. "A weekend with lots of work to figure out the new track surface", said
Jimmy. "We'd like to thank the crew for all their hard work and of course congratulate Peter Kunc to his first Pro Mod win in FIA competition. "We
went a few rounds on the Sunday which is very important for the Championship battle". Indeed, Jimmy took back two places in the points race and
is now in fourth place in the 2019 FIA Pro Modified Championship.
FIA Pro Stock qualifying was hard due to the changing track conditions. The Summit Racing Camaro made it to the finish line only once under full
power but that good enough to make low qualifier with the quickest elapsed time and speed of the event. 6.60 seconds at a solid 338.83 km/h (210.54 mph).
In eliminations Jimmy went from the quarter finals to the semis where he met the #5 qualifier Simon Gustafsson. The Summit Racing Camaro left very
strong with one of the quickest sixty foot times of the weekend but then ran into tyre shake, with Simon winning the round and later on also the event.
"A tough weekend in all", says Jimmy, "but of course it was the same conditions for every racer. We picked up enough points to stay in the number
one position for the Pro Stock Championship and are looking forward to the next race at Hockenheimring. The same here as in Pro Mod, congratulations
to Simon Gustafsson for winning his first FIA event. Of course well-deserved and good for the sport."
Jimmy also points out that a new sponsor has come on board: Funny Garage, owned and managed by Kristian Kronvall and based in Skouml;vde,
Sweden. Jimmy says "This is great, a new sponsor and fan of the sport of drag racing who is dedicated to the sales of classical US muscle cars".
Mr Kronvall's focus is on sales and imports of US cars from the 1950s to the 1970s. Please visit the Funny Garage website at
www.funnygarage.se for more information.
Jimmy's next event is the NitrOlympX at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany. The first round of qualifying starts on Friday morning, 16th
August. Jimmy says "As always, we can't wait to get there and put more rounds in the car in front of the record crowd which is the trademark of
the NitrOlympx."
Summit Racing Equipment is sponsoring both the Old 51 Pro Mod car and the Ålund Pro Stock Camaro this year. This is in addition to
Funny Garage AB, Viking Industrimålning, Sverigedemokraterna, KB Racing, Camaroskroten, All American AB and Stigs Axle and Parts.
Jimmy Ålund Racing is very grateful for the continuing support from such great companies.
Web site updates. 25th July: Paul Lister has updated his DragCarAnon photo site with pictures from Dragstalgia.
You can take a look at www.paullister.zenfolio.com.
*Pro Drag is open to all vehicles which comply with GSRs and which are capable of and proven to run quicker than 7.50. The class is firmly aimed at any Pro Mods not travelling to the NitrOlympX, Nostalgia Funny Cars, Altereds,
slingshots, the selection of Super Pro ET and Comp Eliminator cars at the quick end of the classes, and anything else which meets the criteria. The format is heads up on a Pro tree
with qualifying and eliminations. For more details see Saturday's news update.
Late entries will not be accepted for the Green Light Nationals as SPRC Club Secretary Ian Marshall will be away working at Hockenheim.
Green Light Nationals entry forms can be downloaded from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
Bike racers please note that one entry fee covers both days of the double-header.
If you have any queries about event entry then please get in touch with Ian at [email protected]
or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625).
Bug Jam Perfect Awards. 23rd July:£100 is up for grabs at this weekend's Bug Jam courtesy of Eurodragster.com and our sponsors.
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Lucas Oil Junior Dragster racer
Harley Jay Darby at the STP Summernationals. The money will be paid in cash to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect
Light Award is available from 16:00 on Saturday to racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, 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 or from Eurodragster.com staff.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by the Twister Race Team has also been reset to £50 after it was won by
Modurstang Pro ET racer Laura Baynton at the STP Summernationals. The money will be paid in cash to the first racer at the event to tun +0.000 on index or dial-in.
The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend to racers in Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), NEM Plant Ltd Nostalgia
VW Pro, and VW Sportsman but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy Hadfield
aka Fadster of the Twister Race Team, who is represented this weekend by Purdie Hadfield in Lucas Oil Junior Dragster.
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.
Swift snippets. 23rd July: A big Happy Birthday with hugs to Christine Buckland, all-round good girl and Heaven and Hell team
member. Tog would like to say a big Happy Birthday with hugs to his sister Kirsty Rogers(Not to be confused with our own Kirstie - Ed).
Have a lovely day both.
Web site updates. 23rd July: Paul Bryan has updated his Flickr gallery with more than 400 pictures from Dragstalgia. You can check out Paul's great pictures, which include
something for everyone, at
www.flickr.com/photos/paulbryan_photopedia.
This coming Friday, 26th, is the absolute closing date for entry to the Green Light Nationals which takes place at Santa Pod
Raceway on 17th-18th August. No late entries will be accepted. You can download entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at
www.eurodragster.com/sprc, and you can check out the current entry list by
clicking here.
Swift snippets. 21st July: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to our good buddy, His Worshipful Flatulence The
Very Reverend Sir Neville Mottershead ODE. Have a great day Nev.
Enter the Bug. 21st July: Andy Raw, Karl Harrison and the Nitro Bug team got the Beetle Nostalgia Funny Car out on
track at Dragstalgia Karl says that after a monumental four-year build all he can say is "Wow!":
Andy, Steve Taylor, Jason and Roy Phelps and I have put countless amounts of hours into creating what we all think is not only a pretty, but also a running and functioning
Nostalgia Nitro Funny car. Believe me, it's not easy to achieve. The run up to the event went like this...
A month prior, we had test fired the engine on petrol, methanol and then nitro - thanks to Mark Hawkins and Brett Sheriff for giving up a free Sunday to assist and advise us
with the first fire-up on nitro. The car was then taken to Jason's at FGR Motorsport on the Saturday before Dragstalgia and he worked for three days solid to finish off the last
fabricating jobs required to make Nitro Bug ready to hit the track.
We all arrived at Santa Pod and Jason's workshop during the day on Thursday. We soon had a brand new pit, team and race car all together for the first time and we cracked
on finishing off all the little jobs like building a spare new rack of rods and pistons, organising the clutch parts, tools etc. Thank you, Tony Betts, for the loan of the piston ring
grinder - I want one of those now!
Ready to get the first run in on Friday, we had planned to run earlier in the day but simply ran out of time but luckily Santa Pod kindly put a slot in the busy schedule for those
cars entered into the Cannonball to have a test session. We warmed up early to ensure that we were ready, just in case there were any last-minute issues - thankfully there
weren't).
Nitro Bug was the first car out for the test session. We soon realised, once the body went down, that we had a clutch issue. The car just wasn't driving on its own. Lee and Shane
pushed the car into the water box and Andy let it go. It roared into life and did a burnout. He got it stopped and the same again... just too much stall on the clutch. Steve pushed
it back and then what seemed like the whole Santa Pod start line crew jumped in and helped get the car back. Thank you to David Warren for directing Andy, I do apologise for
not thanking you all at the time. After all that, I pulled Andy into stage, pulled a couple of air bleed plugs out and luckily he had enough extra rpm for the clutch to engage enough
for him to drive into the beams. Andy hit the throttle for about half a second and away it went! I don't think I've ever felt so much joy and relief all at the same time as I did when
I saw that car launch.
Back to the pits, and the engine was in perfect condition. The clutch was good too, so we kicked back, had some well earned food and a couple of beers. Then off to bed, ready to
do it all again Saturday. In the morning the crew got the car ready, we warmed up, refuelled, did the last few checks and off we went again. Towing down with eight other Funny
Cars, a nitro dragster and an altered was quite something, and something I'll never forget. We were on a solo again, but this time the clutch was working! We fired up, body down
and Andy let his foot off the clutch and it drove without being pushed! Burnout done, back and then into stage. Andy hit the throttle again for about the same time as the first
launch - don't worry, he's been told off and also told that if he doesn't keep his foot in it longer next time, I'm going to drive it! Back in the pits and again perfect engine etc.
Unfortunately it went downhill from here.
We were ready for the third go, but during the warm-up we sustained a damaged blower. Not through human error though; drag racing is harsh and running blown-injected
engines in drag racing is just brutal. The good news is that we will back at Bug Jam for a planned 330-foot hit. If that goes to plan, we will test once more this year in preparation
for going racing next season hopefully giving the Apache, Venom and Dirty Deeds teams a Bug to chase.
There has to be a massive thank you to Tash and Lisa, and to our crew of Steve Taylor, Lee Stirling, Shane Bigg, and Jono. The truth is, even with the above people, Andy and I
can honestly say that it wouldn't have happened without the following people: Jason and Roy Phelps, Jeff Bull, Post en Dros (Egbert Dros and Dick Koster), Kenny Gomez,
Ricky Ruiz, John Dunn, Shaun Hide, along with our sponsors Cool Flo, Fastec Racing, TSR Engine Conversions and Superpower Unlimited, and my dad for machining the con
rods.
Please come and say hello to us at Bug Jam. It's going to be busy, as we are also crewing on the Gladiator FC.
"We have over 800 American cars, hot rods and custom cars", says Gary. "We also have a drag race display with John Price commentating. Anybody who would like to
show a race car is more than welcome."
If you have any queries then you can call Gary on 07740 827288.
Green Light Pro entry still open. 20th July: James Forster of Santa Pod Raceway has been in touch with a reminder that entry is still open for Green Light Pro,
a heads-up class which will run exclusively at the Green Light Nationals on 17th-18th August. Green Light Pro will be open to all vehicles which comply with the
GSRs and which are capable of and proven to run quicker than 7.50.
James writes: with the European Championships in Hockenheim that weekend, we're offering an opportunity for some track time to those who aren't travelling abroad.
It's also a unique occasion at which we hope to see some unusual match-ups. In the past we've seen some impromptu match racing at other events and it's all been more
than a little entertaining. We're hoping for a real battle royal of drag racing with the class firmly aimed at any Pro Mods not travelling abroad, Nostalgia Funny Cars, Altereds,
slingshots, the selection of Super Pro ET and Comp Eliminator cars at the quick end of the classes, and anything else which meets the criteria.
The format will be pretty straightforward: heads-up on a Pro tree with qualifying and eliminations.
For further information please contact Darren or myself on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828),
[email protected] or [email protected].
Entry closes next Friday, 26th July, and entry forms are available on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at
www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
Thursday 25th July
10:00 Gates open
21:00 Gates close
Friday 26th July
09:00 Gates open for the duration of the event
10:00 Signing On opens for Run What You Brung; DVLA licences only for RWYB
12:00 Signing On opens for race competitors; Competition licences required to sign on for racing
12:00 Track opens for Run What You Brung
14:00 Scrutineering opens, no specific order sign-on/scrutineering details
19:00 Track closes
Saturday 27th July
07:00 Signing On opens for competitors; Competition licences required to sign on for racing
07:00 Scrutineering opens, no specific order sign-on/scrutineering details
09:30 Track opens for RWYB
15:00 RWYB ends
16:00 Track opens for qualifying
Sunday 28th July
08:00 Signing On opens for competitors; Competition licences required to sign on for racing
08:00 Scrutineering opens, no specific order sign-on/scrutineering details
09:30 Track opens for qualifying and eliminations
The provisional running orders are now available and can be checked out by
clicking
here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com
page. Please note as ever that running orders are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other
reason deemed necessary by race officials.
No race vehicle motors are to be fired up before 09:00 or after 20:00 on any day of the event, which in this context includes Friday.
Before 09:00 vehicles should be pushed or towed to Scrutineering, not driven or ridden. Non-observation of curfew will result in exclusion from the event.
Junior racers please remember the rule about pushing vehicles back to the pits once through the arch beside
Scrutineering.
Only race officials and SPR staff are allowed in Race Control whilst racing is underway. Should racers wish
to raise any matter with race officials then please do not visit Race Control; please firstly see the Race Secretary
who is based in Signing On.
Colour commentators are requested to come to Commentary only when their class is at the head of the lanes,
to vacate Commentary as soon as their class has run, and not to bring guests to Commentary with them.
At the request of SPR management the Eurodragster.com office at the Bankside end of Race Control is similarly
out of bounds during racing except to Eurodragster.com staff, Zeon TV crew and racers or crew collecting
Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards.
Swift snippets. 19th July: Jason Yates and the whole Orange Pop team asked us to say a big Happy
Birthday for today (Friday) to Outlaw Anglia racer Simon Barlow. Our pleasure, have a great day Simon.
Top Five and Best In Show: 1929 Ford Model A Pick Up, owned by Garry Higgins
Top Five: 1932 Ford Model B Tudor, owned by Marianne Woolfall
Top Five: 1955 Chevrolet, owned by Charlie Gatward
Top Five 1930 Ford Model A, owned by Martin Friend
Top Five: 1953 Ford F100 Pick Up, owned by Kevin Bridges
You can find out more about the NSRA on their web site at www.nsra.org.uk.
Slingshot Showdown racer Sam Freeman got in touch to say a big Thank You to Santa Pod Raceway's fire and safety crew for their response to his crash on Sunday.
"They did an excellent job and very quickly had the car on its wheels and me out of it", says Sam. "My sincere apologies to Bob who unfortunately got caught up in my crash.
Thanks for the many messages and calls wishing me well. The cause of the crash took some while to establish and was traced to the fire bottle on the left hand front of the car;
it moved back and set itself off also breaking the pipe which carries the extinguisher fluid to the engine and drivers compartment. The discharge nozzle squirted the fluid out
of the right hand side of the chassis and under the right hand slick from there on I was a passenger". Sam's partner Lindsey Walsh adds "The crew at were brilliant, I
was somewhat getting hysterical about not being allowed up the track but fully understand the reasons why. However, the staff were brilliant with me whilst waiting to see if
Sam was OK. I was relieved that he was and I applaud all those who helped both Bob and Sam."
Mark Bishop of the Grey Vegas team says that whilst last Wednesday's spy picture was not really the biggest secret
or the hardest spy picture, it was great to finally get Kim's Willys out alongside the Slingshot at Dragstalgia. "Unfortunately time really beat us in being fully prepared with
both cars having new engines that were only completed on Thursday and fired up for the first time on Friday!", he says. "We decided to concentrate on the slingshot for the
first two runs on Saturday and after having trouble on the burnout with the idle too high and then an oil leak at the rear of the manifold we took the car back to reseal it.
As we lifted off the manifold we found a little bit more metal in the valley than we were willing to continue with on a brand new engine, so decided to take it home to
clean it up properly before running it again. This left us time to run the Willys but we decided against it in the end as we were having issues with that as well.
Thank you to everyone who came around that said they looked great together. Hopefully at some point we will have them lined up together on the line to race."
Thanks to Neil Marks who as well as sending nice words about our induction to the British
Drag Racing Hall of Fame sent this great picture of Tim Garlick trying to outdo Santa Pod's resident stunt driver Terry Grant.
Fans of the Knut Söderqvist and Harlan Thompson shows of yore will enjoy Mike Collins' latest work exclusively for Eurodragster.com readers, a
brief tale of the legendary duo's various Funny Cars. Click on the picture above right for the PDF.
Swift snippets. 16th July: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for passing us the final version of the Motorsport UK
Pro Modified entry list for the Mopar Euronationals, which takes place on 2nd-4th August (racing 3rd-4th). You can check out the entry list
by clicking here.
Comp Eliminator racer Robin Orthodoxou has asked us to say a big Happy Birthday for today (Tuesday) to Chaos
Brothers Crew Chief Darren Orthodoxou. Robin tells us that Darren plans to spend today at Silverstone, one knee lower than the other
and going round in circles looking for the finish line (right). Have a very Happy Birthday Darren.
Further to the passing mention above, on behalf of the whole Eurodragster.com team, the extended family and Honorary Staff Members Your News Editor would
like to thank everyone for the E-Mailed, messaged and verbal congratulations on our induction to the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame which are still
coming in a few days after the announcement.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Dragstalgia reports,
results, pit notes and galleries by clicking here or
by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame 2019. 12th July: The British Drag
Racing Hall Of Fame continues into its fourteenth successful year and is pleased to announce the 2019 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 2019 inductees are:
IAN LLOYDProfile by Graham Beckwith
lan was always a car enthusiast and superbly turned-out, highly-engineered fast cars were his passion. His first project, which took over ten years to complete, was the
restoration and rebuilding of a Mk 1 Ford Zodiac. Sporting a finely-tuned six-cylinder motor, finished in red and running on wire wheels, it was a head-turning street racer in the sixties.
The sport of drag racing seemed to fit the bill for a young man who was keen to go faster in safety, and when the owner of the garage where lan worked asked him to work on his Vauxhall
Ventora to bring it up to the standard of the one just sold, the opportunity arose for him to produce a race car. He fitted the car with a Rover V8 and went on to win the PDRC Street Racer
Championships with it. The car also became an early race car for Dave Warne when it was eventually sold.
The quest for quicker times had begun! It took lan only six weeks to build the Rover V8-powered Dutton that was a real threat in both Super Comp at York Raceway and the Rover V8
Challenge rounds. First outing for the car was at a meet at the old US Air Force base at Burtonwood, organised by the newly formed PDRC, where lan raced the red kit car against all comers,
along with Pip Higham on his bikes. Having broken the gearbox, he consoled himself by doing burnouts for the crowd... in reverse!
It was in 1978 that the birth of an idea to build a state-of-the-art Competition Altered led lan and a friend to fly over to Detroit USA armed with a bundle of cash to buy the parts needed.
lan's plan was that only the best would be good enough for what he intended would be a quick-turnaround race car so he could achieve the maximum number of runs. Following a discussion
with Fred Whittle about building a mid eight-second car on a box chassis, those plans changed. Instead Fred built lan a chrome moly tube-frame chassis to go with the Pat Cuss fibreglass
Fiat Topolino body. Powerplant was to be a normally-aspirated small-block Chevrolet engine with the best of everything. Gonzo the Great was débuted in 1981 and continues
to be raced today, now by Ian's son Alan. An acknowledged masterpiece of engineering, besides running and competing successfully in England Gonzo also toured Europe, appearing at
Hockenheim, the Österreichring and twice at Le Mans.
ln the early 1990s the state of the track at Melbourne, York Raceway, was of great concern if racing were to continue there. lan was the first to back the Mac the Track campaign and
commit money to the fund. From that point on, lan took on the role of project foreman at York Raceway, organising the work parties and materials deliveries whilst other campaigners
drummed up sponsors and support. Ian was on site each weekend from October through to the following April as work progressed, and became an ambassador and spokesman for the
project, working tirelessly over those eight months to ensure the track would be ready for the new season. Effectively Mac the Track gave racers a further twenty years of racing at York.
ln more recent years lan was contracted by Bentley Motors in an engineering role. He is very proud of his achievements with that company, in particular designing a Dyno tester for them
to prepare their 6.7-litre V8 engine to meet current-day emissions regulations, thereby enabling them to continue to provide engines for the many restored Bentley cars still on the road today.
As a footnote, in 2018 lan tuned Gonzo to achieve a European best for a normally-aspirated small-block Chevy of 7.879s/154.85mph with Alan at the wheel – quite an achievement.
THE McCOY DYNAMICS TEAMProfile by Keith Lee
One of the important areas of drag racing to acknowledge is innovation - and thinking outside the box. In the mid-1970s, three bike racers got together to form a racing
team, known as McCoy Dynamics. All three made their mark on the sport, and set world records at Elvington, with spectacular performances on two – and sometimes
three – wheels.
Angus 'Ag' MacPhail is someone definitely able to think laterally. After a spell riding a miniature Ariel two-stroke, he built his version of a three-wheeler, which featured
the Triumph engine and gearbox positioned between the rider and passenger. He next built a novel Ford-powered three-wheeler, which featured the rider prone, in front
of the engine. When three-wheelers were banned from competition – due in no small part to the performance of Ag – he remodelled the bike as a two-wheeler, with wide
slick, to mutterings that it would never work. It did!
The McCoy machine was effectively a test bed for the unforgettable Jade Warrior, boasting a monocoque chassis, one-off two-litre supercharged motor, torque
converter transmission – and a very effective exhaust-driven ground effects system. Helped by Mick, this most unusual machine eventually broke into the seven-second
zone in 1985, running on straight methanol, which was a brilliant achievement.
Mick Hand was very much at the heart of the group. He and Angus would bounce ideas off each other in the search for ways to advance performance. Mick's
own bike of choice was one of the early Japanese-engined entries – a diminutive twin-cylinder blown 250 Honda. Small it might have been, but it was the sharpest,
noisiest bike on the strip, and set a world record in 1971. With massive boost, the bike eventually got down to 9.08/158 after extensive development work on an
enlarged engine. It was a true world-class achievement.
Keith Parnell was the third member of the team. Rouge et Noir, his special short-stroke blown Triumph, is well remembered for winning the race to be the first
European bike to run under nine seconds, at Santa Pod in June 1975. His follow-up bike was the first to trial a ground effects system, which was then further developed
on Jade Warrior. Keith himself carried on in a distinguished sprinting career until he hung up his leathers at the age of 73. Bert Hopkinson deserves credit for his
ongoing machining input to aid the racing efforts of the team.
Times have changed since the McCoy Dynamics runners made their mark on the sport, but it has not stopped the ideas. When Mick gave up riding himself, he continued
helping Barry Eastman with his turbo CBX Honda. Mick wanted to pursue the idea of a compound turbo bike, so Barry was up for a partnership in the experiment. After
much hard work over the past few years, in 2018 the Storm Funny Bike really proved itself to be another machine to successfully demonstrate that there are
alternative ways to go racing. The methanol-fuelled compound turbocharged Puma-engined entry, coupled to sophisticated electronics, has been painstakingly developed
and won the 2018 Funny Bike Championship. The machine has recorded best times of 6.56/218, with more performance still to come.
Ag, now in his eighties, made his own notable contribution to the Storm drag project – especially with the fairing design. Completing the McCoy involvement, the
pilot is none other than Keith Parnell's son Lorcan. Sadly, early in 2019, Mick's partner in the project and his old friend of more than fifty years, Barry Eastman, passed
away. On a happier note, it looks like the project will continue, as a fitting tribute.
The innovative McCoy spirit is what marks the team out as special, and deserving of this recognition.
THE WILD BUNCHProfile by Jerry Cookson
The idea for UK drag racing's Wild Bunch first saw the light of day in 1994. After many years competing separately at hot rod events, Nostalgia enthusiasts
Roy Wilding and John Guthrie both had visions of forming a class to cater for those slingshot dragster and competition altered owners who were racing for
fun on a budget. Towards the end of the season Roy and John presented the idea to then Avon Park Raceway promoters Goodguys UK and the class, with
an invited eight-car field, was given a chance at the season-ending Night of Fire.
A partial season of events for the club was run exclusively at Avon Park the following year, which led to more new and historic cars joining the Club. The
first full season came in 1996 with an ambitious series of events taking place at the Club's home at Long Marston Airfield. Averaging around fifteen to twenty
teams at any one event, the inaugural series win went to Roy Wilding and his Chariot of Fire slingshot.
For the first nine years the club ran its events within the track's Run What You Brung meetings but this then grew, as many wanted also to run at RAC/MSA
level and at rounds held at the newly renamed Shakespeare County and Santa Pod Raceways. At these races, instead of running to the Club's traditional
time trial format, teams would race in bracket-style eliminations at MSA events.
In the 1990s the nostalgia scene in UK drag racing was evolving with events such as the Hot Rod Drags and the Nostalgia Nationals. The Wild Bunch Committee
constantly came up with fresh ideas to make their class more appealing. One such idea arose from a letter written by Roy to the King of the Dragsters, Don Garlits,
to have an annual award presented at the season's end in the great man's name. A few days later, Roy received Don's enthusiastic endorsement, and so the Don
Garlits Spirit of Drag Racing Shield was born in 1996; a fantastic accolade for any individual or team who gets to be nominated, and especially for the winner. The
award recognised the recipient's sporting values and virtues, dedication and achievements, all in the spirit of nostalgia drag racing.
Since those formative years, the Wild Bunch has grown from strength to strength with a fantastic line up of racers and machinery and a huge fan following. In 2001,
Roy retired as Chairman to concentrate on developing his chassis-building business while forging a new racing career with the Supercharged Outlaws, but he will
always be affectionately known to the Wild Bunch as "Little Daddy Roy".
In 2002 'Crazy' Chris Hartnell, owner and driver of Backdraft, the restored Malibu Express slingshot dragster from the late 1960s, was elected Chairman
and, together with partner Claire Meaddows, oversaw the running of the Club until the end of 2014 when he retired. Since then Claire, along with a very supportive
Committee, has overseen the day-to-day running of the Club.
The Wild Bunch have come a long way during the last quarter-century and ensured that Nostalgia drag racing continues to thrive in the UK. Everyone who has
been involved has a passion for the sport, a burning desire to go fast safely while, most importantly of all, preserving our sport's history. Even now, more
vintage dragsters and altereds are being brought back to life, while new recreations are being built. Competition with a fun element is always at the forefront
of every Wild Bunch racer's mind, and it is for these reasons we have inducted the Wild Bunch Nostalgia Drag Racing Club into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
EURODRAGSTER.COMProfile by Robin Jackson
Can anyone imagine a drag racing world without the presence of Eurodragster.com? It is in the nature of institutions that they are taken for granted – the very word
'institution' implies an immutable foundation built on rock. Yet Eurodragster.com confounds that perception. It is an institution that hangs by a thread, existing solely
on the dedication of a handful of fellows who devote time and energy to the revelation of our sport in all its glories across the continent of Europe. Snap that thread
and a pillar of the sport crumbles into an institutional-sized sinkhole which no social media outlet could hope to fill.
Eurodragster.com never sleeps. To the casual enthusiast, it provides an almost-daily journal of the comings and goings, happenings and proceedings of the sport – "All
the news that's fit to print", to borrow the New York Times' motto. To the serious student, perhaps engaged in chronicling the sport for a purpose – say, compiling
programme notes for a race – it is a vital tool, a treasury of facts and data stretching back over two decades. Need to follow the round-by-round developments in a big
race in another country? Eurodragster.com takes you there (try following a race which Eurodragster.com is not covering and you'll notice the difference!). Need to
double-check a record performance? Eurodragster.com will likely satisfy your quest. Want to discover who qualified low in Pro Stock Bike at Gardermoen in 2002 (Vesa Rautio,
to spare you a search)? There's a goldmine of information concealed in the microscopic red print running down the left side of Eurodragster.com's home page, and its value
grows more evident the more it is used.
Eurodragster.com was conceived in 1997 and published its first news item in February 1998. Lest we forget, the internet was in its infancy and one had to wait till magazines
went on sale to find out race results and other news. Since then, Eurodragster.com has expanded its pioneering scope exponentially, for example listing and analysing Championship
points standings; archiving records and timing data; generating live webcam and video streaming; providing a racers' on-line marketplace; disseminating regulations, race details,
entry lists and other official information from Clubs, organisers and sanctioning bodies; furnishing a direct line from racers to fans, which never existed before; delivering a focus
on European drag racing for enthusiasts and followers around the world; and generally helping to draw together the diverse European racing community.
Today's Eurodragster.com crew is led by founding editor Andy 'Tog' Rogers, joined by Simon Groves, author of the compendious Pit Notes which add so much light to Eurodragster.com's
race reports, and photographers Kirstie Tramm and Julian Hunt, with Diana Macrae and Callum Pudge providing auxiliary camera work. It is for the ceaseless devotion of this small
team to the portrayal of the European drag racing picture, and for the efforts of the few who preceded them in helping build the wealth of material that populates and underpins the web
site, that Eurodragster.com is inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
ANITA MÄKELÄProfile by Lesley Wright
Anita Mäkelä spent one summer in Ohio State, USA, far from her native Finland, when she was sixteen years old and after that became a huge fan of American cars, her first being
a Pontiac Trans Am. That brought American car shows, cruising evenings and drag racing into her life, and at one Street race the fastest lady got a special award, which she won. Anita
says that left a competitive spark in her soul which is still there today.
In 1987 a friend was working at an FHRA race office and overheard Rune Grönlund saying his Competition Eliminator dragster was for sale. Anita asked Simo Patoharju to become her
Crew Chief and form a team with her. She won the last race of the year at Motopark, Finland, a great start to her career.
Anita then heard there was one more race that year, at Santa Pod Raceway, and made the long journey to compete. On Sunday she ran against Tony Morris and won, but the chutes didn't
open immediately after the finish line and she ended up rolling in the field. She emerged safely, but sore, and her new dragster was in pieces. The team built a fresh dragster, and won the
Finnish Championship in 1988 and 1989.
Anita decided to step up to Pro Comp and bought a Top Alcohol Dragster from Ken Murray and Brian Hansell in Canada. She went to the USA to make a deal with them and got her licence
at Bakersfield. Jarmo Pulkkinen was a huge help to the team. The rivalry between Anita's Sega dragster and Tony Donges' Nintendo dragster was legendary and Anita finished in the top
three in the European Championship from 1992 to 1996, gained two Championship titles and held the record for the quickest ET and fastest speed several times over this period.
Returning home on the ferry in 1996, as the FIA European Top Alcohol Champion, Anita got to know Tommi Haapanen, whose car she drove to licence for Top Fuel and who would
become her soulmate and husband. After their daughter Hanna was born Anita made a deal to drive Peter Lantz' Top Fuel car, and finished third in the 1998 FIA European Top
Fuel Championship. At Alastaro, Tommi and she had a bet – the loser would change Hanna's nappies. She won! Heikki was born in 1999 and Anita took a year out, returning in
2000 to take the FIA Top Fuel Championship, becoming the first racer to win FIA titles in two categories. In 2003 she ran the first four-second run in Finland and in 2019 ran
the first three-second thousand-foot pass in Finland.
In 2007 Tommi returned to racing and the children were growing, becoming well behaved, and loving pit life, so by 2009 Anita was back in the driving seat. As Anita says "Once
a racer, always a racer. Nothing beats Top Fuel racing. Especially if you can do it with your family".
After meeting the Lagana brothers, the team rose to a new level with their racing and Anita reaffirmed her 2000 title by taking the Championship again in 2016 and 2018. The
consistency of their car was outstanding at the 2018 European Finals, running a string of three-second runs, culminating in a European ET record of 3.870 seconds. At the
time of writing, she has made a great start to defending her title, achieving low qualifier and winning the 2019 Main Event at Santa Pod – setting a new European low ET of 3.842
seconds in the final – and winning again at Tierp in June with a personal-best speed of 315.66 mph.
Anita's thirteen Top Fuel event wins are an FIA record and her vast achievements over her thirty-year drag racing career make her more than worthy to be inducted into the
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame. But for all the spectators, officials, photographers, journalists, crews and their families, it is the smiling personality which she brings to every
race which makes her so deserving.
Members of the Hall of Fame receive a 'Bootsie', a trophy encapsulating an image of the late Allan 'Bootsie'
Herridge, a man who put so much into British drag racing, together with an exclusive commemorative pin. They
join the élite list of inductees from previous years and will be listed on the official British Drag Racing Hall of Fame web site
which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the British
Hall of Fame link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
The 2019 inductees will be presented at the Gala Awards Dinner to be held on 23rd November at the Oatlands Park
Hotel, Weybridge, Surrey. The BDRHoF are taking reservations for the 2019 Gala Awards Dinner by E-Mail at
[email protected] or by telephone on 01933 279102.
This year the dinner tickets, which include table wine, remain competitively priced at £70.
The BDRHoF have managed to keep the same rates for hotel rooms of £115 for double rooms and £94 for single rooms which includes
breakfast and VAT as well as parking. The event always sells out well in advance, so if you would like to join us for the occasion we suggest
that you make your reservation sooner rather than later. On receiving your reservation you will be given the procedure to book rooms.
On-going news about the Gala, sponsors and other events in which the BDRHoF is involved is regularly published on the British Drag Racing
Hall of Fame web site at www.britishdragracinghof.co.uk, here on
Eurodragster.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
We're out tomorrow night for a first qualifier, hoping the air is good and the sun has been out all day, with another two qualifiers on Saturday and straight into first round eliminations at round seven on Saturday
evening. Sunday will be busy as we have had to squeeze in another elimination round due to the 32 car ladder. The racing as always will be electric and never boring, making Outlaw Anglia what it is.
+
We have a few new faces with Nathan Barlow running the original Orange Pop, Nathan got some seat time last weekend at The Ford Show, Andy Cunningham débuting Lee Taylor's old Pop for
the first time and jumps in with both feet, Peter Jones who has been out for three years upgrading his car and who also took the opportunity to get some seat time last weekend will be joining us and tasting what's its like.
Barnaby Levy returns to the track after a while away and making the long trip from southern Ireland with all the family, Phil Ginner Middleton returns also after time out with a sick engine, lets see what he has under his belt ?
The class as always has people creeping up on the numbers with Steve Wells running a storming 8.10, Mat Cooper back out this year and back on form with a straight, yes straight 8.2 and feeling confident, Mick Taylor
has found the key to go fast, Nitrous hit of the line with a nice 8.27 and certainly more to follow. Jeff Meads chapping on the door of that seven with an 8.0, all these cars have the potential of a seven-second pass so fingers
crossed they can do it this weekend.
The gauntlet has been massively thrown down by Simon Barlow with a storming 7.08 last weekend at The Ford Show, absolutely amazing with the magical six-second barrier in his sights, who would have
thought these numbers were even possible? He deserves this as there has been a massive effort from Simon and all the crew, this can only mean one thing: "Turn it Up". Paul
Hensher is I'm sure planning to come back even stronger after his 7.4 run, Scotty Crookson running yet another PB of 7.49 with more in the tank and being young is rapid on those lights. I will of course be trying
to catch Simon as that is the name of the game, the proof will be those numbers on the timing slips and for qualifying and there will be some damn close racing I'm sure.
Time permitting we have in store an Outlaw Anglia ET bracket class which will feature the sixteen cars eliminated in the first round, fingers crossed we can get this done right through to the final as we've
even gone out our way and got a trophy this time. This is not easy, far less getting the numbers right, but running ET on a Pro Tree is hard. Good luck to everyone involved.
Whatever happens come and see us. We will be in the pits mucking about as always, misbehaving is a must and the older you get the worse you get, the biggest thing to come out of Outlaw Anglia
is the need to enjoy and have fun no matter what. There may be a wee surprise in store so make sure you make a point of catching up and visiting us in the pits with the most entertaining class out
there, Outlaw Anglia, however I may be slightly biased!
Swift snippets. 11th July: We have a birthday on the Eurodragster.com team today (Thursday): please join us in wishing a very Happy
Birthday to our Photographer and Sportsman ET racer Kirstie. Have a lovely day Kirstie and see you tomorrow.
Happy Birthday also to Track Announcer and all-round top bloke Graham Beckwith - is this the right room for an argument Graham? -
to Perfect ET Award sponsor Andy Fadster's main spannerist Craig Dixon, and to six-second Super Pro ET racer Mark Todd. Have a great day all.
Best wishes to Dave McKenzie of the Team Thing Supercharged Outlaws team who is poorly in hospital. Fuzzie is a big strong guy and
he'll be back before we know it.
Martin Drake aka Drakie has released Issue 3 of his magazine Street and Strip Times with features from the worlds of drag racing
and hot rodding, show reports, and everywhere Drakie's excellent photography. You can check out the free PDF-format magazine by
clicking
here.
Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for the following entry updates:
The final official entry list for Bug Jam, which takes place on 26th-28th July (racing 27th-28th),
can be checked out by clicking
here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
Version 1 of the official entry list for the Mopar Euronationals, which takes place on 2nd-4th August (racing 3rd-4th)
and which is a round for Motorsport UK Pro Modified, can be checked out by clicking
here.
Version 1 of the official entry list for the Green Light Nationals, which takes place on 17th-18th August and which hosts the
special Pro Drag class*, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, Funny Bike (double-header), Comp Bike (double-header), NMCN 8.50 Bike (double-header), 9.50 Bike (double-header), Accelerate for a Cause
and a Cure Super Twin Top Gas (double-header), Accelerate for a Cause and a Cure ET Bike (double-header), In Posterum Junior Drag Bike (double-header), NEM Plant Ltd Nostalgia Super
Stock, Outlaw Anglia, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, the Supercharged Outlaws, Outlaw Flat Four and the Wild Bunch, can be checked out by
clicking here.
*Pro Drag is open to all vehicles which comply with GSRs and which are capable of and proven to run quicker than 7.50. The class is firmly aimed at any Pro Mods not travelling to the NitrOlympX, Nostalgia Funny Cars, Altereds,
slingshots, the selection of Super Pro ET and Comp Eliminator cars at the quick end of the classes, and anything else which meets the criteria. The format is heads up on a Pro tree with qualifying and eliminations.
Standard-fee entry for the Mopar EuroNationals closes on Friday 12th July, after which date a Late Entry penalty may be applied. Entry for the Green Light Nationals
closes completely on Friday 26th July; no late entries can be accepted as Ian will be away working at Hockenheim. Green Light Nationals bike racers please note that
one entry fee covers both days of the double-header.
Mopar EuroNationals and Green Light Nationals entry forms can be downloaded from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at
www.eurodragster.com/sprc. If you have any queries about event entry
then please get in touch with Ian at [email protected]
or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625).
Dragstalgia Perfect ET bonus. 10th July: Further to yesterday's news item we are pleased to announce that
Andy Hadfield aka Fadster is joining in the fun and that a bonus Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by the Twister Race Team
will be available at this weekend's Dragstalgia at Santa Pod
Raceway.
The Perfect ET Award of £50 will be presented to the firsr racer to record an Elapsed Time +0.000 on dial-in, starting from Friday
afternoon's qualifying session. The Award will be available in Nostalgia Super Stock, the Gasser Circus and the Wild Bunch (starting with
session 4 on Saturday's schedule) but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the event. Other classes may be added dependent
upon their qualifying and elimination rules. As this is a bonus event, if the Perfect ET Award is not won at Dragstalgia then it will not
roll over but will remain at £50 for Bug Jam.
Eurodragster.com decals are not mandatory to collect the Perfect ET 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 or from the Eurodragster.com staff.
Slingshot Showdown preview. 10th July: As the 2019 edition of the Dragstalgia Slingshot Showdown approaches, Mark Bishop has been in touch with a
look at some of this year's entries:
This year we have nine entrants vying for the crown, seven from the UK and two from Switzerland.
Following an engine blow-up at Easter which resulted in a brush with the wall, the chassis of Bob Hawkins' Time Traveller 2 has now been completely rebuilt and upgraded.
A new, shorter stoke, more nitro-friendly engine has also been scratch built. With a win and two runner-up places so far in the Slingshot Showdown, the team is very firmly focused
on getting quickly up to speed and will be looking for a second win!
Joe Bond's Nuthin' Fancy 2 has had a motor freshen and a few minor chassis upgrades. Chris Manning's Villain has a new engine from EDA, 538 ci with 15% blower overdrive.
The motor made 1324 hp at John Sleath's and Andy Frost built a tough Powerglide after the output shaft sheared at the Nostalgia Nationals. The team are looking forward to going quicker!
Christian Frei's The Linac #2 is a 1968 Woody Gilmore Chassis with an old Tom Hanna body which he has owned since purchase from Wayne Luddington in 2011. The BB Mopar is 500
ci with Hilborn methanol injection and a Powerglide. Last year the team finally achieved their target of a seven-second pass and Christian won Super Pro ET at the Hills Race at
Rivanazzano Dragway.
Mark himself says of his Grey Vegas: After snapping the crank on our first qualifying pass last year we have built a brand new engine with thanks to Billly Macdermid at Topspeed
Automotive/CM Frosts for helping source our many of our new parts including Jon Kaase's brand new SR71 heads, Oliver Rods and Diamond Pistons. We will once again try to achieve our
first seven-second pass!
Dave Nelson of the Dorris Dormouse team says that it is really exciting to see the class so strong: after an unplanned two years off are glad to be back racing. Life got in the way to
some degree and I've spent some time working on myself with some weight savings away from the car. We aim primarily to have as trouble-free a weekend as possible, maybe get a bit
closer to Dorris' potential and to qualify, although I fear it will be asking a lot for us to get anywhere near to the top half of the qualifying list. If we manage to sneak fifth then maybe we
can go a round or two - this is drag racing so anything is possible! Fingers crossed I'll also be in the Hot Seat at the end of Saturday.
Mick Hannah returns in the Haggis Hunter and the Showdown is joined by two new cars, Sam Freeman's Long Time Dead and Christian Zulauf in
Silberblitz.
Wild Bunch preview. 10th July: Wild Bunch Race Co-ordinator Claire Meaddows writes that the Nostalgia racers are looking forward to this
weekend where with thirty eight teams entered theirs is one of the largest classes:
The entry is made up of long-standing regulars, returning drivers and a few newcomers, including a teenager with a passion for drag racing! We will also have some
welcome overseas drivers from Italy, Sweden and France joining the festivities. There will be a large variety of slingshots, altereds, dragsters and Funny Cars, back-up
girls galore (Yay - Ed), wheelies, burnouts and the Cacklefest plus a celebration of all things Nostalgia!
Speaking of which, one team celebrating very special anniversaries will be Crazy Chris Hartnell and Claire and family, with Chris racing Backdraft for the first
time in five years, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the car's début as Malibu Express at the Big Go at Santa Pod in May 1969, as well as the
twenty fifth year of the car running as Backdraft. It will be fantastic to see you back Chris!
This year is the Club's twenty fourth full season and Dragstalgia will be our fourth event for 2019. The competition will include Wild Bunch Series Round 2, Spirit
of Nostalgia Challenge Series Round 4 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Round 2. The Wild Bunch Series is currently led by Mark Coulsell in the Ballbreaker
slingshot (after his win at the Nostalgia Nationals with fantastic runs in the low eights), followed by last year's multi-Series winner Phil James in the Rampage
Funny Car. Craig Larman in The Ferret altered (proudly running in tribute to dad Tom) is third and Callum Swinchatt is fourth in the team's period-perfect Topolino altered.
The Roy Wilding Series currently has the same leaders as there has just been one event for each so far. We will be glad to have Roy around in the pits with us this weekend,
as his health improves, and hopefully building up to fulfilling his dream next year of running that 200 mph pass. Young Callum is the current leader of the Spirit of Nostalgia
Challenge Series by just one point over Phil James, followed by Mark Coulsell in third and Keith Crampton fourth with his Soul Town Shaker slingshot. This is sure
to be a developing battle throughout the season with good close racing and friendly rivalry.
At Dragstalgia, the Wild Bunch Spot Prizes are kindly being sponsored by Team East of the Ellie's in Trouble Now slingshot. Many thanks to them! We also
have some great two-tier trophies for the winners. With so many teams entered, the competition is bound to be really close, so we're really looking forward to finding
out the winners on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
We would like to say a huge Thanks to all the fantastic marshals and officials, track and safety crews, promoters, organisers, media, photographers, and the brilliant
Eurodragster.com team (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed). You are all stars! Thanks for helping us all do the racing we love and telling the stories.
See you at the drags!
Swift snippets. 10th July: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (right) came with the words
"Back home and and looking like her long sister. Ready for Dragstalgia... #WW1". You probably don't have to be James Burke to make the connection here but if you know
more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected].
Many thanks to stats guru Andy Marrs for letting us know that, although no records were broken at the FHRA Nitro Nationals, congratulations
are due to Pro Modified racer Micke Gullqvist who at the weekend became the first FIA European Championship racer to win 150 rounds
in a single class. Well done Micke!
Our good buddy Remco Scheelings has posted two FHRA Nitro Nationals reports on the Autosport.nl web site. There is a race report
which you can check out by
clicking here
and a report of "Other things I saw" which you can check out by
clicking here.
We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Pat Salt; have a great day Pat. Tog would like to say a big Happy Birthday to his
non-racing friend Malcolm Pellett; have a great day Malcolm and hope the quarter pounder, egg and chips have gone down now.
Gane takes the Challenge. 10th July: UK Super Pro ET racer Brian Pateman was one of the UK invasion to the Clastres 8 event
and got in touch to let us know how things went:
Twenty eight cars qualified in Super Pro ET with two Pontiacs at the top and Billy Gane Racing third
(qualifying list).
Pateman Racing got past Eric Mathijs in E1 but we were dispatched by Oliver Petzold in a very close race in E2.
Billy Gane went all the way with five straight round wins in The Only Way Is Essex Vauxhall from Chelmsford.
Well done Billy and team! You can find a race report on the Challenge web site at
www.suproet.de.
Billy is now effectively leading the Super Pro ET Challenge by twenty five points with the best score from two events - only the best four scores are counted
(points).
There is already a good
entry for Clastres 9
with five UK entries in Super Pro ET and five UK entries in Pro ET.
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 Willys Wars 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 not roll over but
will remain at £50 for Bug Jam.
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 (The lead time was just too long on vellum with
illuminated manuscript - Ed). If you would like to carry Eurodragster.com decals then they are available in Signing On or from
the Eurodragster.com staff.
The next Eurodragster.com Perfect Light Award supported by the Twister Race Team will be posted at Bug Jam.
Swift snippets. 9th July: Regular readers will know that US legend Roland Leong is in the UK to work with Tony Betts and the
Venom Nostalgia Funny Car team. Both the Venom and Apache teams tested at Sunday's Ford Show at Santa Pod Raceway
and our own Simon was there with them. You can check out Simon's John Woolfe
Racing-sponsored gallery of Venom's and Apache's day at the track, as well as some of other Ford Show
attractions (Congratulations to Simon Barlow on the 7.0 - Ed), by
clicking
here, clicking on the picture below left, or clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of
any Eurodragster.com page.
Sandie Gibb asked us to say a big Thank You to longtime family friend John Dewey who chauffeured her daughter Thaliah to
last week's school Prom in his 1969 Ford Mustang (above right). Nice one John.
July is a popular month for birthdays both on the core Eurodragster.com team and in our extended family. Our first birthday of the month
falls today (Tuesday) and the lucky recipient of that twenty four-hour no-firing guarantee is regular Contributing Photographer and all-round
top bloke Callum Pudge. Have a very Happy Birthday Callum. A big Happy Birthday also to UK Funny Bike racer Lorcan Parnell,
have a great day Lorcan.
Mister Six goes to Dragstalgia. 8th July: UK legend Dennis Priddle will be making the trip up to Santa Pod this weekend, where he will be taking part in the popular
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Legends'
signing sessions during Dragstalgia, on the Saturday and Sunday of the event. Keith Lee tells us that a few copies of his book Mister Six: The story of Drag Racing Legend Dennis Priddle
will available on the BDRHoF stand. More details of the legends attending the signing session will be revealed in an upcoming news item here on Eurodragster.com.
Keith comments that Dennis will obviously also be taking a keen interest in one of the Nostalgia Funny Car runners and the latest update on the Paul Harris Racing team is that Paul will
be competing with the Omni-bodied Chi-Town Hustler set-up for Dragstalgia. The Mister Six Monza tribute body is not yet in a position to be making an appearance. Talking to Paul,
he is very much focused currently on securing his racing licence, which he hopes to do during the course of Dragstalgia. Fuelling issues which hampered the previous outing have been
addressed by the team, and they are aiming to make good progress during what promises to be an excellent weekend for flopper fans.
The much-awaited début of the Monza, styled by Darren West at Power Race Graphics and which was unveiled at last November's BDRHoF Gala, will be at a suitable Santa Pod
event when Paul and the team are fully satisfied with the current set-up.
Editor's note: As is traditional this year's inductees to the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame will be announced here
on Eurodragster.com at 12:00 midday UK time on Day 1 of Dragstalgia, this Friday (12th).
Swift snippets. 7th July: Swedish Top Doorslammer racer Andreas Sjödin fulfilled his plan to set world records with his
standard bore space big block Chevrolet with conventional heads whilst running at the Doorslammers and FIA/FIM Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. "Two weekends in a row and
two awesome events with awesome performance with our Swedish self-built bad-ass doorslammer!", says Andreas. "We now have a Personal Best for the quarter mile of
5.8813/242.55 mph or 390.35 kmh! How awesome is that?". You can read all about it at
www.abmracing.se.
UK Outlaw Anglia racer Steve Wells has rebranded his Team Orange Ford Pop pick-up to the Hellcat Special to celebrate longtime crew man and fellow drag racer Malk
Motler's musical début at Dragstalgia. The Hellcats will appear on the Live Stage on Saturday at 18:00 and again at 22:00.
Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall tells us that the final version of the Bug Jam entry list will be available this Tuesday.
It came too late for yesterday's news update so a slightly belated Happy Birthday for yesterday (Saturday) to Michael Dowdy. Hope you had a great day Michael.
Around November last year we decided that it was time to get on with putting together a new car. We were happy with the way the old Buttera chassis handled so it made sense to
build a replica. A pile of chrome moly was ordered, which arrived in late November, and the chassis was started. A new torsion bar, steering box and a heap of tabs and sundry bits
were ordered from Mark Williams.
In the Christmas break the basic chassis was welded, and in January the original body was dropped off to have a mould taken. It is not possible to get a new body with a 115" wheelbase
as all those available in the States are mostly 125" with a very few at 120".
The new body was collected at about the same time as the final welding was done to the chassis. Next came fitting the running gear - recycled from the old car - and tinning out the
new body. Sadly time has prevented us from having a proper paint job, instead we have resorted to a "rattle can" finish rather than miss Dragstalgia.
So a few shakedown runs to check out the handling and hopefully we will have a race car again!
The Hawaiian has landed. 5th July: UK Nostalgia Funny Car racer Tony Betts tells us that The Hawaiian has
landed in Essex (UK, not NH - Ed):
Roland Leong, his daughter Ralanda and Jerry - ex-Chief of Police in Hawaii - all arrived at Heathrow yesterday afternoon.
Roland will look over the car today and we will head to Santa Pod tomorrow morning. We will be testing at the Ford Show on Sunday
with Tim Garlick and then head back to the Pod next weekend for Dragstalgia.
Swift snippets. 5th July: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com
came with the words "Fresh for Dragstalgia". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy
picture, then drop us a line at
[email protected].
Gates
Gates will be open between 12:00 and 19:00 on Thursday for racers with racer tickets only. The general public will not
be admitted on Thursday. Gates re-open to racers and open to the general public at 08:00 on Friday.
Run What You Brung
RWYB will take place from 09:30 to 16:00 on Friday only. Qualifying for the weekend begins at 17:00 on Friday.
If you have entered to race in an invited class then your entry includes sign-on for all sessions of qualifying and
racing but excludes RWYB on Friday. Racers are welcome to take part in the RWYB on Friday at a price
of £25 for unlimited runs. The Signing On office will be open from 08:00 on Friday.
Sign-on
Please note that, new for this year, crew will be required to sign on. Racers and crew in invited classes can sign on once
for the entire weekend; this can be done from Friday.
Calling out
Each class, including the Custom Car Invitational, will be called out from the pits to run as per a regular race event and at Dragstalgia
in previous years. During the racing timetable, please do not join the pairing lanes without being called out.
Pitting
Please follow our marshals' instructions at all times, including when being shown where to pit for the weekend. Pitting will be strict
as we have a lot of you to fit in. Anyone who has raced at a permitted event so far this year will be aware that we are having a clampdown
on pit access in 2019 – this clampdown will be in force at Dragstalgia too. For more information on that please see the news piece of
7th May here on Eurodragster.com.
Noise curfew
Please remember that race engines are not to be started before 09:00 or after 20:00 on any day of the event. The only exception to this
is if we end up running on track between 20:00 and 21:00.
Deadline: Friday. 4th July: Close tomorrow (Friday) is the deadline for:
Standard-price entry to Bug Jam; entry forms are available on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at
www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Entry after tomorrow, if accepted, may be subject to a
Late Entry penalty fee. If you have any queries about Bug Jam entry then please get in touch with SPRC Club Secretary Ian Marshall
at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK
+44 1933 313625).
Entry to Dragstalgia; this is an absolute closing date and late entry will not be accepted. You can enter Dragstalgia
via the event's official web page at www.dragstalgia.co.uk. If you
have any queries about Dragstalgia entry then please get in touch with Santa Pod Raceway on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234
782828).
Discounted advance spectator tickets for Dragstalgia; from Saturday onwards ticket sales will be at gate prices. You
can purchase your tickets via the event's official web page at
www.dragstalgia.co.uk. If you have any queries about Dragstalgia tickets
then please get in touch with Santa Pod Raceway on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828).
Not a bad start... 4th July: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Tethys' return to the class hasn't been entirely without problems, but he says that on balance it has been positive:
At The Main Event, we struggled to get the car down the track in qualifying for one reason or another and ended up qualifying in seventh. The good news was that it all came together in the first round
of eliminations, and I ran the second-quickest ET of the round. The bad news was that I was racing Liam Jones who ran the quickest ET of the round, so that was the end of the weekend. Still, I came away
with new Personal Bests for both ET and speed, and was pretty happy with that. Looking at the incrementals, it was probably on course for my first three-second pass until we pushed out the head gasket,
which cost us a bit a the top end.
We arrived at Tierp full of optimism, but that was soon dashed in Q1 by a pushrod failure which triggered a chain of events in which we dropped a couple of valves and threw rods out of the side of the block.
You can't race a nitro car without breaking parts, but this was more than any of us wanted to see. It made for some spectacular photographs, with Stefan Boman getting the best of them, but there was a lot
of damage to repair. We worked through the day, missing Q2 and on into the night. We left the track at 4:00 am to get a brief hour and a bit of sleep before returning the following morning. I can't thank my
crew enough for the work they put in to get the car turned around.
We thought we were set for Q3, but in the warm-up the supercharger was getting too hot - we'd bent the rotors in Q1, so we had to swap the blower out which meant skipping the round, and it gave us one
shot to qualify in Q4. Fortunately, we got in a reasonable pass to put us fifth, and we faced Stig Neergaard in the first round. That resulted in my first ever round win in Top Fuel, and Stig was enough of a gentleman not
protest the win due to my front wing triggering the pre-stage bulb, for which I'm grateful. In the semi-final I lost to Micke Kågered due to two dropped cylinders, which just didn't give me enough power
to catch him.
Still, despite troubled weekends at both of the meetings so far, I've come away feeling upbeat about the season. Budgetary and logistical constraints mean I can't do the full season, so I'll wish good luck to
team mates Urs and Jndia in Finland, and I'm looking forward to getting back in the hot seat later in the season.
Swift snippets. 4th July: Further to Thursday's news item, Ramon van der Weurf's
Wild'r at Heart Nostalgia Funny Car is now for sale on our
Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored
Swap Meet. The page is now fully recovered and all ads posted after the
recent server malady so take a look at this and all of the other recently-posted bargains.
We have three birthdays today. First up, a Happy Birthday and hugs to Santa Pod Racers Club official Kathy Taylor.
Have a lovely day Kathy. Happy Birthday also to 6.0-second street-legal racer Andy Frost, have a great day Frosty,
and finally a big Happy 18th Birthday and hugs to Erin Marrs; have a lovely day Erin.
Also on the subject of birthdays we would like to wish all of our friends and readers in the USA a Happy 4th July. Have
a great day guys.
Dylan does drag racing. 4th July: Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET and VW Sportsman Racers Jon and Karen McGarrigle want to thank Santa Pod Raceway,
all of the racers and everyone else who made Dylan so welcome and gave him a great experience at the STP Summernationals. "Dylan"? Read on...
We were asked to give a talk to Sunday School children at our church, which is Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Blackwood, South Wales. Dylan, who is a cuddly donkey
and a biblical animal, decided that he would come to the SummerNationals and would then go back to church to tell all the children what a great time he had.
On Friday morning he went training at the local gym in readiness for his adventure where he jogged on the treadmill and lifted heavy weights.
Having arrived at Santa Pod Dylan wanted to experience everything. He had his photo taken everywhere including with the fabulous paramedics who helped Karen
after she took a tumble on Friday - thank you to Bill, Chloe, Jo and Amy. Dylan also went on the Street Eliminator Cruise so a huge thank you to Nigel and Ricky Hale
and all the other racers, as he had his photo taken with all the cars. In the photo below left he can be seen in one of the engine bays as assistant mechanic, checking things
over.
Dylan was also a crew member/mascot for the Clueless Racing Sportsman ET team, who did so well in getting to the final on the Sunday. Driver Jane Macready is pictured with him
with the runner-up trophy. Congratulations also to Dan Holloway who was the winner.
Dylan can't wait to tell the children about his weekend and is looking forward to Bug Jam to see more drag racing and explore more of Santa Pod! He has already been
promised a trip up into the Tower and possibly even a ride in a fire truck!
Thank you once again to everyone for their kindness and support, which make our sport and Santa Pod so special. We hope everyone else had as much fun with Dylan
as we did!
Web site updates. 4th July: The Mad Welshman has updated his Flickr site with a gallery from the STP Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway.
You can check out Mad's pictures at
www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman.
Bug Jam entry update. 2nd July: Thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian
Marshall for forwarding us Version 4 of the official entry list for Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway
on 26th-28th July (racing 27th-28th) and which is a Championship round for VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Outlaw Flat Four,
the European Nitro Funny Car Series (over a quarter mile), Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, Hutchinson & Dibley
Sportsman ET, Outlaw Anglia, and a non-Championship round for Lucas Oil Junior Dragster.
You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking
here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com. Bug Jam entry closes this Friday
(5th) after which a Late Entry penalty may apply. You can download the official entry forms
via the Information link on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET racers please bear in mind the rule that to enter Bug Jam you must either have contested
an event this season, or have pre-entered an event later this season; this does not apply to VW Sportsman racers
wishing to double-enter.
If you have any queries about event entry then please get in touch with Ian at [email protected]
or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625).
Elsom's FC needs a tow. 2nd July: Anais Shepherd has been in touch seeking the help of Eurodragster.com readers to get Rob Elsom's Nostalgia
Funny Car to Santa Pod for Dragstalgia. However please note that help is needed this weekend:
We need a fifth wheel pick-up truck to pull the Funny Car trailer, but we would need the owner to come to Mansfield this coming Saturday morning to pull the trailer
off the drive so that we can load up and then go to to Santa Pod for Dragstalgia.
If you can help then please call or text me on 07462 886609.
Swift snippets. 2nd July: As this week's inaugural FHRA Nitro Nationals at Finland's Kauhauva approaches, our good friend Remco Scheelings
has posted previews of the FIA European Championships and EDRS Pro Nordic MC Championships on the Drag Racing Europe Blog. You can check
out the FIA preview by
clicking here and the EDRS Pro
Nordic MC preview by
clicking here.
We would like to wish a big Happy Birthday with added hugs for today (Tuesday) to Podington Pea and
Eurodragster.com Off-Track Photographer Diana Macrae. Have a lovely day DD.
The server issue having been fixed we have now posted all outstanding classified advertisements on our
Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored
Swap Meet. Those advertisements which were held for the longest are at the top so
if after a careful look you can't see an ad which you have submitted in the last couple of weeks then please re-send.
Web site updates. 2nd July: Paul Bryan has updated his Flickr gallery with 380 pictures from the STP Summernationals. You can check out Paul's great pictures at
www.flickr.com/photos/paulbryan_photopedia.
The Festival of Power was a decent meeting and, although losing out with a red light in the semis, we
gleaned plenty of information and were able to rectify several small problems. We left that
meeting with a solid back half performance in the bank - consistently gaining 50+ mph in
the second eighth.
We were getting a handle on the MoTec system and the Doorslammers promised an
opportunity to look at the short numbers but the weather had other ideas! An
improvement mid track netted us a 196 mph and a glimpse at our first target, 200 mph. A
few adjustments resulted in a 201 mph/7.68 backed up with a 202 mph/7.66 to take the win
and the bonus of a fat cheque from Mr B - fantastic!
The pre-Main Event test day is always a great opportunity to bank data and dial into the track. We
concentrated on sixty to one hundred feet and gleaned plenty of information. We dialled back for Q1
to put a good number on the board and then returned to testing. By Q5 we had sufficient
data to progress and tuned to beat the 7.24 target, potentially improving our PB by 0.5 seconds.
Picking up the 7.13/206 slip and breaking the Street Eliminator ET record by such a huge margin -
fantastic!
Rain on Sunday meant that we were bumped. In the afternoon we enjoyed the statutory twenty eight-mile
mile cruise around a wet Northamptonshire and on Monday, after waiting all day, we ran three
elimination rounds in an hour and a half. The objective was to win the meeting, but the prospect of
taking the ET record from Mark Todd (7.24 seconds, 2015) and the speed record from Richard
Billings (208 mph, 2012) was just too tempting so a more competitive tune was put in.
7.08/209mph! We took all three - what a moment! The Ugly crew were ecstatic.
The Summernationals appears to have Ugly stamped all over it. 2017 meeting was the
scene of that brush with the wall and in 2018 the Ugly Sister returned to the track.
In 2019 we arrived with great expectations and made good use of the Test Day, packing in seven
runs to continue testing the short numbers.
We played safe and once again dialled in a default tune to get the Q1 slot. Our game plan was to edge closer
to the elusive six-second pass with the intention to bring it home at the European Finals. Now maybe it was the team
momentum, our growing confidence, or sheer impatience but after an assessment of the track there was
a discussion with our Crew Chief and the decision was made. Game on! 6.99/210, the first Street car in full street
trim to run a six! I didn't need to see the ticket, the top end crew were going nuts with the time held high on a
board - what a feeling! Such an immense achievement for the car and team.
It's been quite a ride so far, ups and downs but throughout it all we have never doubted the capability and potential of this
awesome car. Huge congratulations to the Ugly crew led by the genius that is our Crew Chief Martin
Kerr (Tubeworks) whose vision, patience and quiet resolve have allowed us to hit so many
targets in our first full year - six-second pass, 210 mph - ten back-to-back 200+ mph passes.
Full credit to ICE Automotive for the design and build of an incredible engine and for their
ongoing support. Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway track staff for consistently providing a top-quality track
whatever the weather.
Looking forward to the second half of the season - it seems that Ugly really is the new cool...
Swift snippets. 1st July: We have two spy pictures for you today. The first (below left) came with the words
"Out in front"...
...whilst the second (above right) with the words "Skool's out for Bug Jam but The Lady will be back!". If you know more, or if you would like
to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at
[email protected].
We have recently experienced a server issue which has prevented postings to the
Jeff Bull Race Engines Swap Meet, but we are pleased to
say that this has now been sorted out and we will catch up with outstanding submissions this evening (Monday).
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Lucas Oil Junior Dragster racer
Harley Jay Darby at the STP Summernationals. The money will be paid in cash to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect
Light Award is available from 16:00 on Saturday to racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, 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.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by the Twister Race Team has also been reset to £50 after it was won by
Modurstang Pro ET racer Laura Baynton at the STP Summernationals. The money will be paid in cash to the first racer at the event to tun +0.000 on index or dial-in.
The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend to racers in Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), NEM Plant Ltd Nostalgia
VW Pro, and VW Sportsman but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy Hadfield
aka Fadster of the Twister Race Team, who is represented this weekend by Purdie Hadfield in Lucas Oil Junior Dragster.
16th July: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for passing us the final version of the Motorsport UK
Pro Modified entry list for the Mopar Euronationals, which takes place on 2nd-4th August (racing 3rd-4th). You can check out the entry list
by 
Members of the Hall of Fame receive a 'Bootsie', a trophy encapsulating an image of the late Allan 'Bootsie'
Herridge, a man who put so much into British drag racing, together with an exclusive commemorative pin. They
join the élite list of inductees from previous years and will be listed on the official British Drag Racing Hall of Fame web site
which you can view by 
Dragstalgia Perfect ET bonus.
10th July: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (right) came with the words
"Back home and and looking like her long sister. Ready for Dragstalgia... #WW1". You probably don't have to be James Burke to make the connection here but if you know
more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at 
5th July: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com
came with the words "Fresh for Dragstalgia". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy
picture, then drop us a line at
Swift snippets.
1st July: Jonny Nilsson says that Sweden's Autoart Motorsport will be at Dragstalgia next week with
plenty to check out as well as a special invitation to UK Nostalgia Funny Car racers:
