NEM Plant Nostalgia Super Stock: Dave Billadeau (9.90) 9.8871/136.84 Rob Tyrell (10.23) 10.1006/130.98 red
VWDRC Heads Up: Dave Lea 11.9983/112.93 def. Richie Webb, broke
Gasser Circus: Nick Barnett (11.40) 11.4286/108.04 def. Graham Barton (10.70) 10.739/124.84
Renegade Outlaw Anglia: Mick Taylor 7.8345/174.38 def. Colin Millar 11.6900/69.60
Supercharged Outlaws low ET: Robbie Grabham 7.0 (see Supercharged Outlaws report below)

Congratulations to winners of the Renegade Outlaw Anglia special awards:

Best Reaction Time(1st round) - Jon Webster
Most Consistent ET - Barry Woodford
Bracket Race Winner - Rob Nixon

As well as the classes above there was a great Run What Ya Brung contingent including VWs, Wild Bunch and Outlaw Street which we will cover in tomorrow's race report. If you have a story to tell about your racing weekend, send it to [email protected] and we will publish it.

Congratulations to the show and shine winners whose vehicles you can see at Santa Pod Raceway's Facebook post.

Our good friend Callum Pudge has posted a bumper 518 photos at his Pudgey's Pictures Facebook page. You cana also see 77 minutes of video additional to that from the Santa Pod stream posted by drag racing historian Nick Pettitt from Saturday of the event at his Youtube channel.

You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored VW Breakout reports, results and galleries by clicking here or clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above.

What a tiring but utterly awesome weekend!
31st May: Many thanks to Jedd Guy of Eurodragster.com sponsor Shorty's Fabrication Shop for sending us a report of his weekend, not without problems, but with some great PB runs:

Our weekend was almost over before it even started with our tow truck deciding its engine didn’t want to stay in one piece on Thursday night.

A huge heartfelt thank you goes out to Jeff Bull for stepping up and towing our race car to the track. Not only has he built us a killer race engine but also for all his help this weekend as it may not have happened without him.

We ran a string of PBs on Saturday. Starting the day running the engine normally aspirated netting in a 7.51/176mph. It was very apparent from the Racepak data without the nitrous the torque converter was just too tight and not allowing the motor to work in its correct rpm window.

In the last two qualifiers it was time to see what turning on the nitrous would do. The first nitrous run the full throttle switch broke so in reality was just another N/A pass. With the switch fixed it was on to the last qualifier. Being the first pair in Outlaw Anglia I pulled round to the burnout box I could hear a banging coming from the gearbox. Having heard this before I knew the converter had come loose. I shut off not wanting to damage anything and accepted the day was done.

As it turned out the last pair of cars in front of us had left oil on the track. This gave us time to tow back to the pits, tighten the converter and re-join the back of the class before the qualifying session had even restarted.

And as luck would have it I was paired next to Jon Webster but with all the rushing getting back to the lanes I forgot to turn the burnout limiter off after the burnout (I will be kicking myself and getting grief from the likes of Scotty Crookston for ages for that!) Even with the engine limited to 6700rpm, where we would normally shift in the high 7000s. We managed a 7.41/177mph, a run of if onlys but still 1 hell of a race to end the day.

31st May: Eurodragster.com Perfect ET sponsor and class co-ordinator Andy "Fadster" Hadfield has summarised the fortunes at VW Breakout of the large field of Supercharged Outlaws, supported by Good Vibrations Motorsports.

An awesome weekend for the Supercharged Outlaws UK at Santa Pod Raceway for VW Breakout. Many PB’s, notably from Mick Checkett with a mind blowing 7.2 from his Shy Talker slingshot. I’m sure this is a PB for the car too. Robbie Grabham ran an amazing 7.0 PB and was so well deserved, such a hard working team!

David McCallan broke into the 8’s after his winter completely reworking the pickup and weight loss programme on the chassis and components. Lots more to come from that team. It was great to see Doug Bond in the record setting Nuthin' Fancy slingshot. Roy Wilding had some fairly wild rides in Chariots of Fire but held on and showed real promise for the coming events. Paul Dale showed real promise with the Acute Angle but decided to back off on the Sunday with slicks that were just not gripping...although there were some real “trouser” moments along the way. Gary Parkes strolled straight into the 7’s from previous seasons 8’s with a storming 7.80 and this was promptly backed up by even more 7 second passes until some minor engine trouble for early resignation from the event.



Pictures by Julian (left to right): Robbie Grabham, Mick Checkett, Roy Wilding; Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield, Gary Parkes, Des Taylor.

Keith Freeman stormed along in El Loco until his LSD clutches failed. Keith repaired the damage with help from his team and parts from friends then hit the track with a 9.7 straight after he had finished the repairs, well done that team! Andy Park just proved the Twin Screw You Model Y’s reliability with repeat performance in the mid 9’s time after time. Des Taylor and the Thundergod team chipped away over the weekend and continued to improve despite ignition gremlins with a 7.94!. Paul and Luke Watts had mechanical issues on both their cars and worked hard to get back on track. Steve Wright had fun with the Pacer but had to retire with minor engine leaks. Simon Boot had a brilliant weekend until engine problems caused his retirement on the Sunday. Commiserations to him and I hope he can get the rebuild sorted soon. Andy Fadster had a successful Saturday netting a 7.6 from his new set up but had to retire with blower trouble. Minor set back but should be back on track soon.

Next event is the Retro Show at Santa Pod in three weeks!

27th May: This weekend VW Breakout takes place at Santa Pod Raceway. With a strong field of cars, the event is looking good. We've analysed Santa Pod Raceway's entry list and posted an easy-to-print "unofficial" list based on class entries, and a short list of what we've heard will be running in Run What Ya Brung.

There will be several features which will enhance the 'festival' feeling of VW Breakout, and we're not going to discuss the weather either…

• Full day RWYB on Friday from 09:30 to 17:00;
• Five qualifying sessions on Saturday for classes entered, racing until 19:00, plus four RWYB sessions;
• Exhibition runs from FireForce Jet Funny Car and Nitro Bug Nostalgia Funny Car on Saturday and Sunday; and
• Autoglym Show & Shine on Sunday for VW entries with winners announced at 14:00; and
• Santa Pod Pub Garden (from 11:00) with funfair open too.

The classes involved are Outlaw Anglia, Supercharged Outlaws, Gasser Circus (see preview below), Nostalgia Super Stock and VW Heads Up. RWYB will include as well as VWs, around 17 Wild Bunch racers, who will be running a round of their championship, and Outlaw Street UK who have reached a landmark membership of over 100.

We reviewed Outlaw Anglia yesterday. Supercharged Outlaws, sponsored by Good Vibrations Motorsports, will have a field of 16 cars, with Roy Wilding (below left) in his Chariots of Fire slingshot with many updates including a new engine and supercharger, Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield in Twister with a new 600ci engine, David McCallan with a rebuilt truck with a new chassis and driveline from Steve and Babs Saunders' Hi-Speed Gas car, Steve Wright with his unique AMC Pacer with new engine, and Doug Bond in son Joe's slingshot (below right), returning to the cockpit at the tender age of 71, having last raced in his 20+ year career in 2003 with a best of 5.94. Also racing will be Andy Park, Rob Grabham, Paul Watts, Gary Parkes, Luke Watts, Aaron Windridge, Mick Checkett, Paul Dale, Keith Freeman, Simon Boot and Des Taylor.


There is a Gasser Circus field of 17 cars, Nostalgia Super Stock have 34 cars with several class debuts, and VW Heads up has a 26 car entry.

To attend as spectators you need to apply in advance using the Santa Pod ticket shop. Santa Pod Raceway are limiting the number of tickets available on a first-come, first served basis. Social distancing, hygiene and safety measures will be in place as described in the SPR ticket shop.

Racers should note that the track gates will be open only between 14:00 and 20:00 on Thursday.

Our coverage will include live race reports and photo galleries from Julian and Diana on all three days. You can go to our coverage page by clicking here or going via the event coverage list in the main menu. Santa Pod Raceway will also be streaming the event (no Nitro FM which re-starts at the Festival of Power Unlocked).

27th May: Many thanks to Nick Brooke-Langham for providing a preview of Gasser Circus for this weekend, also looking at the dates for the 2021 season.

Round 1 of the Gasser Circus Showdown kicks off this weekend at VW Breakout, held at Santa Pod. With 17 Gassers entered it looks set to be an exciting way to start the season. Amongst the Gassers there are various upgrades, with a few new engines built, installed and ready to not so much be run in, but more along the lines of ready to do battle.

The Ringmasters are delighted to welcome back 15 of the last cohort, along with two new drivers and their cars. Billy Jones (below left) racing his Willys Coupe, seen most recently in the Willys Wars and the duo of Tom Margesson and John Gumble (below right), who will campaigning their Ford Pop ‘The Tinseltown Hustler'. After our enforced lay off, it will be an extra special feeling turning into Airfield Road on Friday, unloading in the pits and hitting the strip. It’s been a long time coming.


The Gasser Circus looks forward to the coming five rounds of racing, and always welcome visitors in our pit, so make sure you drop by for a flavour of the mid-60s Gasser scene. Gasser Circus – Racing the Dream.

starting at 0930) were hoping for better weather than the guys and girls were given last weekend at the STP Spring Nationals, I really felt for them, nature still has a big hand to play in our sport unfortunately.

Rob Stone has had a big thrash the last three weeks and look like its all come together for him, good man Rob, Rob Nixon’s chomping at the bit and for sure he will be looking for that new PB, Ted Booth back out again double classing in Gasser Circus, Mark Bracking ready to rock and roll but he has the opportunity to drive the car on the street as well, Luke Hoskins is coming out to play in Dave Pearce’s car and not a bit of red lead to be seen with a new tidy paint job.


Barry Woodford (above left) is like a coiled spring desperate to get back down the track no doubt with the family looking on, Gary Bird and family will be in tow and as ever that right foot rarely gets lifted unless he’s REALLY out of shape lol, Adam Cuthbertson is back out after a period of absence, he will be looking to get a full pass in with the new set up as I watched him at York on the 1/8 and the car was flying, Garry Hill will be there - I wonder who is on the back up duties this year? - Jed Guy is ready to rock and roll after a very successful test day with in April, watch this space..

I for one am as keen as ever and so glad to get back down to my second home, Mick Taylor is also ready and I’m sure he is hoping to dive straight back into that 7.7 area, Kim Harrison (above centre) is debuting her lovely new paint for Ruby in Ruby red, Spencer Tidswell is back out and I’m very sure a bit of NOS will be sneaked in to get those numbers up, Peter Butler (above right) is back and will be looking for that win again after his success at last years Hot Rod Drags, Jon Webster although having a busy time with Pro Mod already has his Anglia ready for the off, watch this space.


Douglas McClure (above left) is out for the very first time in OA and I’m sure he will have a ball, make sure you pop round to his pits and say a socially distanced hello. Ben Kennedy is all set for the off in his second year in OA and we wish him the very best, Tom Margesson (above right) is another first timer out in OA after just completing one test day with a brand new car, hope all the wee niggles have gone Tom, and you can get the times and speeds up.

That makes up the 19 teams and from me I wish everyone the very best weekend in Outlaw Anglia and although it will be reduced numbers for spectators it will be fantastic to have them back where they belong, it was so so strange racing at the Pod with nobody cheering the class on, with that we will as always put on a great show for everyone who loves the class for what it is. Will there be any records set? Who knows, but there is one thing for sure, there will be plenty of smiling faces for sure.

26th May: Many thanks to Wild Bunch racer Andy Clifford for sending us an account of his first event back at Santa Pod Raceway since Greenlight Nationals 2019.

After gaining my license in 2019 with the new Snake Eyes car we decided to semi-retire dad’s Ratcatcher Resurrection after the National Finals in 2019 to concentrate on Snake Eyes for 2020. Anyway, skip forward over a year and Snake Eyes now has the whole bottom end from the Ratcatcher car along with the methanol injection. We attended the RWYB on 1st May with a plan to fire the car, go through the gears and make a few passes down the track to get comfortable again. Well, the car never made it off the axle stands as no matter what we tried we could not get the car to keep running. Fettling with the fuel system, timing, ignition, checking, double checking and triple checking everything gave us no improvement so we disappointingly packed up at the end of the day and headed home – I must say thanks to the Marras and John Tebenham for coming over offering support and tools!

With a plan to run the test day last Friday we were back at Santa Pod for Springspeed. Well, we know how Friday turned out. By mid-morning Saturday we were ready to try again. No luck. The car was firing but dying almost immediately. Many checks of all systems performed again and with advice from a good number of the Wild Bunch members we decided that the next step was to just throw more fuel in with a fully closed throttle gradually drip feeding through the trumpets until the engine pulled the methanol through. Success! Sighs of relief all round. Although by now the starter motor was extremely tired and literally cranky!

So, one-shot qualifier Sunday morning. Warm up was great, car sounded good albeit a little lumpy but running at least. Looking forward to running against the cars builder Steve Field and the starter motor is just spinning and spinning. Cue, the tow of shame back to the pit where we fixed the starter motor, loaded up the trailer and reflected on a DNQ as the rain lashed down.

Despite the setbacks I must say massive thanks to my dad Terry Clifford, my son James, my patient wife Rach and all the Wild Bunch teams for their support, advice and encouragement. It would be so easy to throw in the towel without them. That’s the definition of the drag racing family right there. On to the next event, the Festival of Power Unlocked in June. As a little extra note, I was so gutted not to make a run in remembrance of Dave Rowlands so Dave, I promise to get the car down the track at the next event with that silver ribbon flying in your memory.

26th May: Tony Morris and Dave Gibbons are pleased to announce that Tony Morris Carburetors LLC and Rough Diamond Racing will be bringing support to the Outlaw Anglia series for the remainder of the 2021 season! The support comes in the form of two awards and a racer discount.

The primary award will be the ‘TMC Tight End Trophy’. A trophy and £150 will be awarded to the loser of the closest race (win-lose margin) during eliminations between now and the end of the season – this means any OA racer has a chance to win the award irrespective of the cars performance. The trophy itself is yet to be commissioned and will be revealed at a later date.

An additional award will be the ‘TMC Grand Job’ personal achievement award. A trophy and £50 will be presented to the Outlaw Anglia racer who - in the opinion of the OA committee - has achieved the most with the least, or exceeded a personal goal during the season.

Finally, Tony Morris Carburetors LLC at Rough Diamond Racing will now offer Outlaw Anglia racers a 10% discount on all parts and labour for carb service on current OA race cars, or cars in build.

Dave added, “We would have liked to do more, and who knows, in future we may well do so! The UK operation is a small affair, but we like to keep our labour cost and margins low so every racer can benefit from our service”. He continued, “Both Tony and I are extremely pleased to be ‘dipping our toes in the water’ with Outlaw Anglia”.


Thanks go to Outlaw Anglia member and TMC customer Mick Taylor (above right) for his help in arranging this support package.

As always, specialising in 4500 and 4150 style carbs of any make, Tony Morris Carbs at Rough Diamond Racing exist for the racer, and are happy to help with advice and support. Most service parts are held in stock here in the UK, and service, rebuilds, upgrades, conversions (e.g. gas to alky) and re-calibration, are offered with a quick turnaround. New bespoke TMC carbs are built to order.

Rough Diamond Racing is the sole UK agent of Florida based Tony Morris Carburetors LLC. Tony’s unparalleled experience makes Tony Morris Carburetors the carb of choice for many leading sportsman racers in the USA - that wealth of knowledge is available here in the UK.

To get in touch with TMC at RDR, in the first instance either e-mail Dave Gibbons on [email protected] or use Messenger on the Rough Diamond Racing Facebook page @roughdiamondracing, you can also follow #thecarbfellas on Instagram.

25th May: Many thanks to Chi-Town Hustler crew chief Herb Andrews for updating us on his and owner/driver Paul Harris's weekend:

The positive that came out of Covid restrictions is that it’s given us the time to go through the car, assess what improvements should be made and get on with implementing them. Fast forward to the Springspeed meet and I was apprehensive if the changes I’d made to the clutch would work, as the finger weight and radius has an impact on performance off the start line. Hats off to Bob Molinari for his advice and parts as it worked great!

Along with many other changes the whole fuel system has recently been on Dave Wilson’s flow bench and the improvements from doing that have been significant. Dave’s wealth of racing and engineering knowledge is outstanding.

Between the heavy rain and wind, we got two runs in over the weekend which may not sound much but given the various changes and our cautious approach suited us.

Saturday's run saw a 1.044 60 ft and 2.72 330 ft time, which is a huge improvement. Paul was off it before the 330' timers as planned, and ahead of Tim Garlick, the short numbers indicating Paul was on a 6.1 run if he wasn't 'under orders' to lift, which bodes well for friendly competition in the future. We were held before we ran, as it was lightly raining at the top end. Hats off to Santa Pod's track crew who didn’t give up then or over the weekend to give us a safe track to run on.

When we fired it Sunday in the pits, we encountered an extremely rich idle. Mick Sharpe adjusted the barrel valve but it made no difference. We knew how to fix it but ran out of time plus didn’t have the right equipment with us to make an accurate adjustment. The run netted a 1.19 60 ft as the clutch counter weight had been reduced. Paul shut off at 1000' as planned.

We came away from the weekend with data and an intact nitro motor so it’s a good result. Next meeting is Dragstalgia where we will be running the Monza body, painted as a tribute to the late Dennis Priddle, who ran Olavi Knuutinen’s black car in 1977. It's coming round.

25th May: Racers were generally happy just to get back to the track at the Springspeed Nationals and mingle (socially distanced of course). Although truncated due to the weather, there were two qualifying sessions across Saturday and Sunday which enabled racers to try their vehicles on Santa Pod Raceway's quarter mile. Here are some of the highlights (and occasional lowlight) mentioned by racers in social media posts:

There were two Nostalgia funny cars present, Apache with Tim Garlick (below left), and Chi Town Hustler with Paul Harris driving (see Herb Andrews' account above). Both sounded magnificent and gave fans their first nitro experience in at least nine months. The cars ran twice, Apache cleanly on both occasions to a 6.2915/229.34 and 6.2823/222.21 and Chi-Town Hustler scoring its best 60ft time of 1.0442.

In Pro Modified the numbers entered dwindled, as Matt Peters withdrew. At the track but experiencing problems was Wayne Nicholson whose Lucky Devil Corvette suffered magneto issues and a niggling fuel leak. The quickest run was Kev Slyfield's 6.614/224.49, both his runs being affected by tyre shake causing the car to make a move around his lane, expertly corrected. Nick Davies (above right) got into the sixes on Sunday, the team bedding in a new Rossler automatic transmission based on a TH400 unit, with a Neal Chance torque converter, the many other changes made, plus a year out making things difficult on Saturday, but overcome rapidly. Nick wrote: "After an 18 month hiatus, a drivetrain revision comprising new transmission and converter, an extensive re-wire and some suspension changes, the weather refused to play ball. A 6.99 may not seem like it, but we made huge progress and consider ourselves in good shape for the next meeting in a month’s time".

Competition Eliminator benefitted from the inclusion of Stock/Super Stock to create a larger all-NHRA legal category. Robin Orthodoxou (below left) with a new front fairing bearing the word 'Incoming' ran with a lot of new parts on the Chaos Bros A/A including different clutch discs which allowed the car to go down the track to a 7.2259/188.08 to go no.1. Numbers 2 and 3 were the Super Stock entries of Dan Williams and Nic Williams. Elaine Hancock ran with a supercharger on Lethal Zephyr for the first time, the car making a great launch and sounding the business.

Super Pro ET had a remarkable session on Sunday when the lead changed hands four times, finally ending up in the hands of former champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Scott Hauser. Nick Good debuted a new black look on the Lucas Oil sponsored dragster, also racing a dragster is newcomer Kieran Astley who impressed by qualifying seventh in his first race with a 8.451 on a 8.38 dial. A competition debut also for former Micke Kågered crew member Mark Turner in his Toyota Supra, qualifying 16th with a 9.472 on a 8.75 dial, more to come there.


Pro ET had three members of the Huxley family racing in the class for the first time, with each having their own car (Brian the Mustang, Lee the white Nova and Marc with the copy of their first race car, a Corolla (above right)). The top of the qualifying standings went to Amy Watkins and Tom Watkins, Tom driving Dad Neill's Dodge Ram pickup as his own engine for his Charger won't be ready until the Festival of Power. Among the new faces, Alfie Wratten qualified sixth with a 9.492 on a 9.46 dial, John Bean in his smart Mustang qualified eighth with 10.063 on a 9.98 dial and Allan Schofield in a ex-Conrad Stanley dragster qualified 15th with a 8.989 on a 8.85 dial.

In Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET the new award sponsored by Cath and Tig Napier's Bad Habit Racing, drawn out of the hat by Kirstie, went to #1 qualifier off the trailer Felicity Gibbs, who maintained the position in the second session. Dan Holloway, entered in his Truck Norris Chevy S10 SS, suffered suspected bearing failure in his rear axle. He said "On the upside the community of drag racing never fails, and I was fortunate enough to receive various offers of a replacement car to at least get qualified and carry on racing! Ben Newsome came to my rescue with loan of his tow vehicle, his rather pokey BMW 335D". Newcomers welcomed to the class were Steve Mellors (Mazda MX5 - see story below), Troy Attree (Camaro Z28) and Chris Winn (Alfa Mito turbo).


(above left - Harley Coulsell's Bandit 1)

We also welcomed several new racers into Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, Jessica Bishop qualifying fifth with a RT of 0.0341. Jake Cooper, Jack Taylor, Max Taylor and Daniel Todd also qualified, welcome to them all. No.1 qualifier was Katie Ellis with a 0.0086 RT. Similarly in Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike we welcomed Hollie King who qualified no.2 in her first race, and newly licensed Lyra Humber (above right).

The full field of bikes topped by four Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bikes. Quickest in the two sessions held was Neil Midgley who ran an early shut off 6.7716/155.75 on the Cannon Engineering/Lucas Oils machine. Second was Al Smith on the PBR Rocket 3 who was the most consistent running two low sevens and getting furthest up the track; Allan Davies suffered engine misfiring woes from what we heard…


Leeks Landscape Funny Bike produced the bike run of the event, a 6.667/205.17 from Stuart Crane showing that his new setup has huge potential. New to Funny Bike was Tony Clark (above left) riding the Phil Crossley machine with no little determination. Lorcan Parnell (above right) had some new pieces on the Storm bike, including an aerodynamic front wheel fairing, and achieved a fantastic 45psi boost on the launch, Lorcan lifting to a 7.97.

Louis Davies did a great job in Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike as he ran a new PB of 7.2347/178.54 on a straight pass, great riding. Blade King, Roger Moore and Liam Holgate made their Blood Cancer UK ET Bike competition debuts, Roger making a full licensing pass of 7.6816/136.02 before eventually heading to Funny Bike.

A moving tribute took place on Sunday when the Santa Pod Raceway track crew assembled on the start line, and announcer Colin Theobald spoke from the heart to convey the grief the Santa Pod marshals and whole racing community felt at the recent untimely loss of marshal and racer Dave Rowlands, followed by a minutes silence for him.

We look forward to the next Championship round at the Festival of Power Unlocked on 25th-27th June.

All pictures © Julian

24th May: Former Funny Bike racer and Land Speed bike racer Steve French has been in touch to tell us of changes to his bike and his plans for 2021:

The latest version of the land speed bike with dual intercooled compound supercharger and turbocharger has now got some long awaited bodywork.


Its first outing at Elvington with its clothes on was disappointingly slow but mistakes are how you learn, and we think we may have this time. We are back on the 21st June to try and get that elusive 200mph, which for a pushrod 750 twin is rather quick.

On-track image courtesy of Andy Lincoln-Smith. Pit image with Baz, Dave & Steve by Harvey Brewster.

21st May: Melbourne Raceway will be holding its first event of the 2021 season this weekend, 22nd-23rd May. Racers and spectators will be able to book online, which will be the only means of obtaining tickets. Racers can arrive after 6pm on Friday 21st and camp out. The £120 weekend race entry includes 2 crew members and you can either race in run what ya brung, or enter a class and bag points, you can even enter multiple classes for an extra few pounds if you wish. Single day racer entry is £70, and spectator entry is £15 per day (specatator camping is sold out due to Covid restrictions).

Straightliners organiser Trevor Duckworth said "The drag-racing community, their friends and family, came together and saved this historic racing venue in Melbourne, Yorkshire. But the project continues and the fundraising must be maintained to build on this incredible venue ensuring it's future, we have a track to race on but the site requires a lot more work. The project continues in 2021.

Last year was an amazing year for Melbourne raceway and it's community. Despite all the difficulties and sadness, we still raced and had some great weekends. So, here's the plan for this year...

The next phase of fundraising at Melbourne is to extend the braking area and tarmac the other side of the pits. You will have seen on social media that work hasn't stopped and we are now looking to raise £45,000 to complete the next phase.

21st May: Spanish drag racing promoter Fuerza Libre Competicion (Free Life Competition) has organised a race at Matilla Airfield this weekend that is attracting some cars from across Europe. Although the event will be behind closed doors due to the alert level in the Community of Castiles and León, drivers and teams that have pre-booked will be able to participate. The event is planned to be streamed and you can see runs from previous events at the Fuerza Libre Competicion Youtube channel.


Among the racers entered from the European FWD league are Jose Realista with his 9 second TDI Polo (above left), Vanessa Ruas Piloto with her 9 second TDI Skoda Pickup (above centre), Romain Lauret from France in a Peugeot 206 (above right), and Ricardo Florencio's 700hp Citroen Saxo.

20th May: We received the spy picture shown below left with the caption "Our two favourite things, Lucas Oils and Carbon Fibre, see you at the Pod this weekend". If you know more, or have your own spy picture to send to us, contact us at [email protected].


Sportsman ET racer Rob Creswell has put his street and strip car up for sale. He says "my Audi RS4 nicknamed "The Beast" is now for sale. If anyone is interested in buying the car then come around to the VW Sportsman/Sportsman ET pits for a socially distanced chat at this weekends Springspeed Nationals. As well as the above picture, you can see a Youtube video of the car in action by clicking here.

This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset at the commencement of the season to £50. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available in all classes during both qualifying and eliminations, 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 Andy Hadfield and the Twister Race Team has been reset at the commencement of the season to £50. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Perfect ET Award is available in Peter Nee Super Pro ET, Modurstang Pro ET, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, B Fast R Super Comp, Dave Grady Super Gas Shootout, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, NEM Plant Nostalgia Super Stock, JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike, Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike, Blood Cancer UK ET Bike, and Eurodragster Junior Drag Bike. but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of the Twister Race Team.

Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.

Bob's Photo Finish Award, which is presented in association with Eurodragster.com sponsor Bob Roberts, will award £50 each to the racers involved in the closest race of eliminations at this weekend's event.

The closest race will be decided upon distance rather than time since, for example, 0.001 seconds at 230 mph is further than 0.002 seconds at 110 mph. For this reason the official timing data will need to be consulted so the winners will be announced here on Eurodragster.com as soon as possible after the event and the winners will then be contacted for their preferred method of payment.

Bob's Photo Finish Award is open to all classes during eliminations only and although Eurodragster.com decals are not mandatory we would appreciate if it they are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On.

Pro Modified and Super Pro ET racer John Tebenham has been in touch about what should be a busy STP Springspeed Nationals for him and his team:

"Two cars at Springspeed, can’t wait. The Pop is ready; oh yeah, I have a Pro Mod as well. Running two really fast cars is tough. But I have the greatest crew. I have a new technician on the team, Clint (make my day...), with loads of skills. Both cars are keen and ready to race, everybody is saying Kev is going to win Pro Mod, not so fast, we have the team and we want to win.

"I also have a video of us starting the Pro Mod in a workshop yesterday (click on link.). I was obeying Covid-19 rules as I had my mask on…

"Can’t wait to meet people again who come and see us in the pits, it seems like a long time time ago. Massive thanks to Keith and the SPR team.

"Dave Rowlands was a great guy with a massive love for the sport . When you come trucking back from the burnouts your future is their hands, you have to go into stage being confident with the track team. Going to miss you Dave."

16th May: Whilst browsing social media pages, three new builds came to our attention which show that racers have been busy building during the lockdown and will soon have their new vehicles out on track.

Pictured left is Andy Hill's slingshot which we saw on its wheels for the first time yesterday. He's building a the car with a blown alky hemi for Supercharged Outlaws using a Roy Wilding chassis. Andy used to run a Top Alcohol dragster back in the early to mid-90s; we will have a story soon about his return to racing(photo: Alan Scot).

In the centre we have Marc Manning's '34 coupe, more a complete rebuild than a new build as Marc came off the track at York Dragway (now Melbourne Raceway) over the finish line, and went into the corn field backwards at 130mph which twisted the old chassis. The '34, named named Pokies '34 Coupe, has a new 7.50 tagged chassis with push rod inboard rear suspension, a 468 Big Block Chevy and 2 speed Powerglide. Marc, proprietor of Pokies Paintshop, hopes to run the '34 Coupe under the in Super Pro. He will be bringing it out at Melbourne Raceway next weekend for their opening meeting of the season, and will be making the journey to Santa Pod later in the year.


Our third new build, to the right, is the Junior Drag Bike of John 'Spud' McLean who we will be seeing licensing in June, possibly at Japshow, and racing at Santa Pod Raceway later in the year. Jim Cross claims he is the "First man in history to paint three drag bikes for three different people called John Mclean in the same colour scheme". We don't doubt this claim.

We were shocked and saddened to hear of the death yesterday (Friday) of Greece-based racer Gerasimos Filippatos in an incident at Agrinio in Greece.

Gerasimos was making a test pass at the first round of the Greek Drag Racing Championship at Agrinio airport in his Nissan GT-R, one of the quickest such cars in Europe. At half-track the car made a hard turn to the right, exited the track and flipped multiple times. Tragically Gerasimos passed away at the track.

The event organised by main Greek promoter Proaction Racing was suspended.

Gerasimos raced in the All Wheel Drive category from 2016-17 in a Mitshbishi Lancer, then since 2018 in his Nissan GT-R competing mainly in Greece and also at Hal Far, Malta.

We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Gerasimos and to the whole drag racing community in Greece.

14th May: Kunmadaras Motorsport (Hungarian Drag Arena) held its first race open to spectators on 8th May, after a closed round on 17th April. A large field of street cars and bikes to to the well-prepared Kunmadaras track for the second round in the Motul Cup Hungary Drag Bike National Championships, MAMS Drag Bike Championship, and the Hungarian National Youth Junior Drag Bike Championship with the Toyota RoadService Cup for cars.

In addition to racing activities, the latest model Suzuki Hayabusa received its Hungarian show debut in front of the crowd. You can see video highlights courtesy of Audi Ingolstadt on Youtube and there is a Facebook gallery of 354 pictures thanks to Vidék Ma.

The next race at Kunmadaras is on 19th June.

Thanks to Mikey Durbridge who has created a collage of photos of the late Dave Rowlands who passed away last week.

Former Shakespeare County Raceway track manager Jerry Cookson writes:

I got to know more about Dave after accepting the role of track prep manager for Shakespeare County Raceway. Dave, as a racer, took the wheel of the Wild Bunch 23T Altered Destiny's Angel in the early 2000s. He was a man with great knowledge for his chosen pastime in making his race car go quickly and efficiently. Whenever he wasn’t racing Dave became more involved with the track's safety crew as a FAST response driver and fire marshal.

Dave was and always had time to help anyone who needed it, especially when it came to Shakespeare County Raceway and the safety of the track. When SCR closed, Dave took up a position at Santa Pod, first as a driver for the track's fire truck and later as a regular face the racers could trust covering the start line as fire marshal. Our deepest condolences go to partner Angie, son Warren as well as his family and friends. We’re sure going to miss you buddy, now Race in Peace.

Wild Bunch co-ordinator Claire Meaddows writes:

Dave was a longstanding, likeable and well-respected member of the Wild Bunch for many years, and crewed for several teams before joining in with the racing in his 'Destiny's Angel' altered, making his racing debut with the car in June of 2007. Dave had great success with the car, and so much so that he won our Don Garlits 'Spirit of Drag Racing' Shield in 2009. Here is the tribute that was read out at the Wild Bunch Prize Presentation when he won the Shield, and it is still so fitting now:

"This year's amiable winner is a quietly enthusiastic member of the Wild Bunch and is very committed to his racing, and always one of the first to arrive at the track. He has attended shows, promoting the Wild Bunch, and always offers to help fellow racers. He copes with any disappointment in a typically modest, sporting manner. He works hard to ensure the car is presentable and well-maintained, and has achieved success: winning an event, and finishing in the Top 4 a further five times, including making 3 Finals. He has steadily improved his performance this season, progressing to a PB of 9.402 at 146 mph. He took part in all 10 events, running both MSA and RWYB format, and made great progress in only his second event at York Raceway, running down into the 9.6s, with quite a wild ride! He finished in 4th place in the Wild Bunch Series, 3rd place in Real Steel, and Runner-up in the Roy Wilding Series. He shows great commitment to the Wild Bunch and is a valued member of the Bunch!"

Dave also worked for many years on the fire and track crews at Shakey, for the benefit of so many racers, and absolutely worked his socks off day and night! He put in many a long day on the track at Shakey and then worked in Kenny’s on the night, getting up early to work all day the following day. He really enjoyed helping people and would do anything for anyone, always with that cheerful smile! In more recent years, he also worked hard on the crew and startline as Santa Pod where his experience and work ethic were invaluable, and always much appreciated by officials and racers alike.

He was a real gentleman and a real ambassador for the sport of Drag Racing, so easy going, humble, and so helpful and encouraging. He will be hugely missed by his family, his many friends and all his co-workers at the track. Dave will be fondly remembered by all who knew him. At the next couple of events, Rob and Hayley have suggested that cars and people could run silver ribbons in memory of Dave, which is a lovely idea, so please do join in with this tribute to him where you can. Dave, we salute you and thank you for all you have done for the club and the sport. Race in Peace, Dave.

Pictures of Supercharged Outlaws racers, all from Friday at 2020 NSRA Hot Rod Drags: top row, Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield, Andy Park, Gary Parkes; bottom row, Keith Freeman, Simon Boot, Paul/Luke Watts.

Dave and Sally have kindly offered a £100 cash donation to the winner and a memorial trophy to be kept by the winning team until the end of the following season.

I don’t need to tell you about the bragging rights of being the fastest on the draw so let the fun commence - thanks again to Dave and Sally, what a brilliant idea!

You can see the Supercharged Outlaws, sponsored by Good Vibrations Motorsports, in action at their 2021 race dates (all at Santa Pod Raceway apart from final round):

• 28th-30th May - VW Breakout
• 19th-20th June - Retro Show
• 09th-11th July - Dragstalgia
• 23rd-25th July - Bug Jam
• 4th-5th September - VW Action
• 17th-19th September - Hot Rod Drags
• 9th-10th October - Final round - Melbourne Raceway

Above left: Mike with car at Mantorp 2019; right: testing at Malmö in July 2020.

2019 was our first real race season, and we started with a few test weekends at Malmö Raceway. In June 2019 we raced at Mantorp Park, and we ran a new PB of 4.248/276.30kph. We won the first round of eliminations, and were set to compete against Matthias Wulcan in the next round. We decided to add another stage of nitrous (until then we had only been running a single stage), because Matthias is very fast. The result was a meeting with the left lane wall after the tires lost traction, and the car turned left into the wall.


Above left and centre: the nitrous engine setup; right: testing at Malmö in July 2020.

"I was ok, but the whole left side of the car was destroyed. We sat out the rest of the 2019 season and the first 3 months of 2020 rebuilding the car. But then the coronavirus shut down most of our 2020 season. We only had two test weekends, and they didn’t go as planned. We have had a lot of electrical problems, but they should be fixed now. If the coronavirus lets us, we will probably be back at Mantorp in July, and we will in take all the Races at Malmö Raceway also. Hopefully we will also attend and run the car at Mosten Raceway here in Denmark. We may also attend other races, but it all comes down to this corona situation.

"We have the following sponsors for this year:

• Sunrocs - Oil and Fuel
• Klaus Pauls Auto - Autoshop & Mechanic
• Hydrive - Engine Cleaner
• Reymonds US Speed Shop - Parts for US cars & engines
• Kristiansdal - Rental Houses
• Faelgrenovering.dk - Wheel Repair; and
• KRJ Ejendomme - Rental Houses.

Mike's first race in 2021 was due to be the first round of the Doorslammer tour at Malmo Raceway last weekend, however due to continuing restrictions, the event was cancelled, to be replaced with a private test session.

"The car has an original 426 Street Wedge engine with the factory Hurst 4-speed option. The clutch pedal is still in the car, but I will be running a TorqueFlite 727 box in racing trim for reliability, but do not discount a four speed going back in at some stage."

Pete thanks Swedish Superstock racer Fredrik Frisberg who has been "a great inspiration and a endless supply of help and info".

10th May: Nitro Revival Eurodragster.com sponsor Geoff Stilwell has signed a new sponsorship contract with Lucas, which will result in additional exposure for the brand, and for Geoff's Land Speed Racing roadster 7707 which will be racing at Bonneville Raceway in August in Geoff's quest to run a 300mph record.

Geoff said "Lucas has increased its presence in racing with Brandon Bernstein being hired as head of Lucas Racing, and research director Tom Bognor has developed a range of oils for nitro applications including a 70 Plus blend specially created for Bonneville racers, whose nitro engines run for much longer than quarter mile nitro racers.


"As well as generously supporting my Bonneville record attempt this year, Lucas Oil will be sponsoring George Poteet's Speed Demon streamliner which plans to be the first wheel driven vehicle to hit 500mph.

"Conditions at Bonneville, which can vary greatly with the wind moving rainfall on the racing surface, are considered exceptional. "Brine has been pumped in to keep the surface solid, and it is now as hard as concrete".

Lucas have contracted video producer Nestor Cabrera to make a video advert for the new range of oils and you can see the result, with specially written music on Vimeo at this link. A video of the roadster's fire up from last week was posted by Tony Thacker which can be seen here.

Meanwhile Geoff's trailer is being worked on, which will be revealed in a future posting.

private test day at Santa Pod Raceway. The subject of the test was a brand new Ford Focus, commissioned by Ford and built in the UK to be raced in the US by UK racer Wayne Saunders. After a few years racing successfully in the NHRA Import series in other hands, the car apparently disappeared - until now.

We were contacted by former UK racer Shaun Saunders (no relation), who last raced in the UK in 1999 but is now resident in Scottsdale Arizona. Shaun brought us up to date on what had become of the briefly famous Focus that Wayne first demonstrated in the US at the 1999 NHRA World Finals:

"The famous Focus will wear the Saunders name again, as I have just purchased it. Built by Jon Webster in 1999 for Wayne to race with Ford USA; the build quality and engineering is outstanding. I race the world's fastest Mazda MX5 with its original engine, currently its best is 8.20 at 163 (see photo below right). I will be fitting one of my 4 cylinder Mazda turbo engines into the Focus for it to run low 7 sec passes again.


"After Wayne sold the car in 2000 it was raced by Ford for two years, winning the Pro Import championship, then it was parked in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles until 2014. Upon its release, it was owned by a fellow in San Diego who fitted a blown Ford V8 which is how I purchased it. I removed and sold the V8 to refit a 4 cylinder turbo engine, although a Mazda instead of the original Cosworth.

"I have been in contact with Jon Webster who is trying to get another set of the carbon panels made as the moulds still exist. I am planning on replacing the fibreglass roof and quarter panels with steel panels as Jon built it. I thought I would send you the info as it’s such an interesting car with great history. And yes, the weather here is gorgeous most of the year - but our racing season ends in May because of the heat. My last time out, until we resume in October, is 15th May".

We were shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden passing of track marshal and former Wild Bunch racer Dave Rowlands on Thursday morning.

Dave was keen on many aspects of the sport and ran an altered Destinys Angel in The Wild Bunch from 2007-11, coming runner up in the Wild Bunch Series and Real Steel Series in 2010 and also in the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series in 2009. In 2011 Dave shared the drive with son Warren, the model T altered being a regular nine second runner, Andrew Willcox also driving the car at one race and Tom Margesson also getting the experience.

When he decided to stop racing, Dave went on the crew at Shakespeare County Raceway where he met partner Angie Woods. They worked together on the SCR crew, Angie organising the Ladies That Launch event, until Shakey closed at the end of 2017. Dave nursed Angie after she suffered a broken leg in the staging lanes in 2014.

After the closure of Shakey, Dave, with Angie, worked at Santa Pod Raceway. Dave was described as "a great guy", "a true gentleman", a "fantastic track guy who was always alert when it came to racers safety" and "another good guy gone that loved doing what he did".

We send our deepest condolences to Angie and Warren, and all Dave and Angie's family and friends.

6th May: Racer, automotive enthusiast and celebrant Dave Gibbons has published his autobiography, titled The Recollections Of An Accidental Polymath, in which he recounts the story of his life and how he accumulated a wide variety of skills over the years. Dave told us:

I wrote the book as a record of things I thought that our son Scott (and hopefully future generations) might like to know – I never had any thoughts of publication. However, having written 66,000 words, I thought it might be nice to be able to give the work to Scott, friends, and family in the form of a tangible book. So in order to do so I decided to self-publish as the most cost effective means to do so. This of course means that it became available to the general public - but it also meant some serious editing, to remove the contentious detail and offensive language that would get me into trouble!

John Price was kind enough to write a foreword, and Russ Smith helped with some of the editing, and I hope the book presents itself well.

While drag racing and motorsport has been a big part of my live, this book doesn’t dwell on that aspect – I don’t want to appear that big-headed that I think I’m someone important enough to boast about their drag racing prowess – I’m not. As you will read, it really is a book of recollections (I hesitate to call it an autobiography as that feels to grand) encompassing pretty much everything – from the birth of my son, to some of the girls I went out with, and how I’ve managed to make a living without having a proper job.

Oh, and this is not a money making project – I get 13p from the sale of each book. Enjoy!

We read a copy of the book and found it well written, engaging and above all an honest account of the highs and lows of Dave's family and racing life, combined with his passion and drive to work in auto mechanics and also to entertain the punters.

You can order a copy of The Recollections Of An Accidental Polymath by going to this link on Amazon.

this link or via our event coverage index. The day suffered from intermittent rain in the morning which the ever-hard-working Santa Pod Raceway track crew made great efforts to dry out, and then a full track oil down in the afternoon which brought proceedings to a premature conclusion. Whilst running was possible there was a difficult head wind and cold track making PBs a rarity. We made notes of a number of club racers and others who took part:

New to VWDRC, Junior Dragster graduate Jack Gooding (see picture, right) brought his VW Sportsman Scirocco, the car running consistently in the 16.6-16.9s range all at 80mph, a solid start to his fresh career in the class. Steve Metcalf of Blue Steel Racing is also new to the championship, in which he will be competing in his VW Sportsman Audi TT as a new engine is engine being built for his Baja Bug.

VW Pro Covid Cup winner James Hodson brought his rapid FWD Golf out running a 10.379/136.51 for a new PB.

VW Sportsman racer Justin Foley of Team Bubble Racing, tested his spare Audi TT bought from Lee Cordery to 14.97/89 as the engine in his Red Dwarf Golf is being upgraded to a VR6 turbo.

Also testing from those competing last year were VW Pro racers James Gould of Team Mulisha running a pair of low 11s, and Carl Goldsmith who ran a mid 11. Adrian Solly has had a new intercooler fitted by EST Performance which has resulted in higher boost in his Audi A3 engine, however his runs in the headwind were bests of 11.573 and 128.77 compared to his PBs of 10.50/141.

We saw returning VWDRC racers who had taken 2020 off, with VW Pro racer Abi Tether taking her VW Golf R Mk7 to a new PB of 12.775/105.01, VW Pro racer Ian Dale (see picture, left) in his Strip Burner Beetle was also testing.

Graeme Freeman ran his Sick Bubblegum Beetle in 2020 after a top end rebuild, however the car suffered a broken CV joint after his launch today and was out for the rest of day.

John Brewster (see picture, right) who ran his previous Street Lethal Beetle in Super Street in the mid 90s brought his Unfinished Business along. This rebuilt Beetle, originally built for shows by Matt Dolby, first seeing the track in 2020's Drag Days, has a John Sleath tuned 2276cc engine with race-spec internals, a new gearbox with Rhino case and FTC gears, and a Quaife diff. On his first run he experienced gear shift problems, and he lifted early on the second pass.

In the non-VWDRC contingent James Willday in his Mazda RX8 tried to improve on his 8s run at the Scott Lewry Private Test day, however the rotary engine struggled to get to the high launch revs it needs to leave the line. James said 'I plan to run the car in Comp Eliminator and it should fit in a class where we can run under the index'. You can see James talking about his unique car at Youtube link.

Best time of the day went to Craig Evans with his Corsa FTD, 9.9507/145.74, run by his Raggy Conversions firm.

Other non-VWDRC cars included Clive and Jane Mccready's Ben's Van, returning to the Sportsman ET championship after a break in 2020. Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Al Williamson was there, but conditions weren't considered suitable for making a pass; Al mentioned that components had been re-mounted ahead of the rear axle to avoid the wheelies the car was experiencing regularly in 2019.

Ben Kennedy's Outlaw Anglia made a pass with new Centerline wheels. We also saw FWD racer Ahmed Jamshaid, who ran a 10.2926/136.42 in his roadgoing Civic with K24 engine (he also has a race-built K20 engined Civic tuned by Liam Garratt of Street racers rolling road tuning & remapping). Mark Moseley (see picture, left) brought out an injected Pinto-engined Escort Mk1. Matthew Wright had a turbocharged V8 Escort Mk2 with a single 105mm turbo, another addition to his fleet of race cars, the twin turbo Rolls in the process of having a 14-71 supercharger blown into by the turbos, so it can run in Supercharged Outlaws.

Thanks go to VWDRC Chair Luke Stevenson who organised the day and supplied streaming video whilst running took place, and the Santa Pod Raceway crew who worked hard in difficult conditions to put the track into a condition that cars were able to run on.

3rd May: Thanks to all those who supplied tributes to the late Dennis Priddle, who passed away just a week ago. A number of unseen photos came to light and some have been collected by regular contributor Mike Collins who has provided his own unique tribute to Dennis incorporating the themes of reflection and Essence of NitroFire from #8 cylinder with some unpublished pictures (Click image for pdf):

To see all the tributes we collected, click here or go via the Features, Interviews, Tributes index.

3rd May: The shortened racing season in Germany commenced this last weekend with a Test & Tune at Zerbst Airfield organised by AMC Dessau. The event, held only with pre-registration and without spectators, attracted a wide range of vehicles.

The German FWD Shootout is establishing a league of quickest quarter mile times from eligible cars in 2021, the first being Dirk Radzanowski's Honda CRX 1.6 L 16 V Turbo (12.222/201.809kph) and Maik Benndorf's VW Lupo 1.4 L TDI (13.018/168.308 km/h).

Personal best times less than 10.0s also came from three in other categories:

AWD - Nils Orlamünde - Audi 80 2.0 L 16 V Turbo Quattro (9.453/249.48kph)
RWD - Daniel Schien - BMW E30 2.5 L M50 Turbo (9.443/250.465kph)
FWD - Marcus Schmidt - VW Golf 3 VR6 Turbo (9.462/252.965kph)

Whilst weather on Sunday precluded any running, there was testing on Saturday by the cars and bikes present. Harald and Clarissa Czekalla, usually photographers brought out their ex-Brian Gandy altered with new Chevy power and assisted by Gerd Habermann. Christian Jäger was testing his Super Twin Top Fuel bike, which he managed to keep in the groove by some adept handling. Also seen were the new Camaro doorslammer of Walle Strobel and the Volkswankel Jetta which is headed for Super Comp action.



A full set of 228 photos of the event was posted on Facebook by Picture by Bob (Thomas Poppe). A selection is shown above.

The next planned event at Zerbst is the German FWD Shootout with Test & Tune 26th-27th June 2021. Support for Zerbst's 2021 season is from EM-Racing, high-quality racing and tuning parts for engines.

With thanks to Kieran and sponsors John Woolfe Racing, we have posted a gallery of pictures from yesterday's Santa Pod Saturday Night Special RWYB with running to just before 8pm.

We noted some of the times and comments from the racers who attended.

Nostalgia Funny Car racer Tim Garlick (pictured right) brought his Pontiac Firebird out for a couple of test runs. Tuner Rob Loaring said "the new clutch looks to be a good step forward. We made two short runs, the second on the throttle to around 400ft. It was a bit of a slug to 60' but the 330' was only 8/100's off Tim's best". The team's next outing will be at the STP Springspeed Nationals, where they will be joined by the completely rebuilt Venom of Tony Betts and Chi Town Hustler of Paul Harris.

The Top Fuel Bike of Phil Baimbridge was again piloted by Al Smith and you can see Phil's comprehensive write up with video at the PBR TFB Facebook page. The pair of launches resulted in a broken drive belt and damaged blower belt on the second attempt, following a 1.034s to 60ft on the first.

Hollie King completed her licencing runs on her Junior Drag Bike on her second outing. Brother Blade King (pictured left) got to see his new ride, supplied in white with help from Allan, Clair and Louis Davies moving up for the first time from junior bike. Blade made couple of nice gentle passes to get used to the bike and power, then last run of the day going for a launch with a fair bit of spin off the line, but keeping straight and still putting down a 140mph over the stripe. Also on a Junior Bike was Meg Talbot of Rise Racing aided by Kerryanne Frazier and Simon and Jake from sponsor Bod's Custom Cycles. Meg made eight runs, loads of random issues meant the last two runs were two new PB's 9.06 and Meg's last run of the day a 9.02.

Former Pro Mod racer Roger Moore (pictured right) brought his renamed and repainted Box of Frogs Racing bike back with team Lucy Moore, Dave Moore, Gary and Bob Brooks. The team reported that the burst panel went on the end of the first run and pneumatic issues pestered for the rest of the day with the pressure regulator being the source of failure. The team worked tirelessly trying to repair the regulator but sadly to no avail.

Super Pro ET and Pro Modified racer John Tebenham with the Crew Killer Pop ran a 9.0027/148.65, once again frustratingly short of his 150mph target.

Bike racer James Cross ran new PBs of 9.1010 and 142.48 on his Suzuki GSXR. European FWD racer Ahmed Jamshaid ran new PBs in his Honda Civic of 9.1897/154.67.

Also appearing was Chris Bates's rare Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo-R (pictured left), headed towards Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator. The Airtrek has a Pro-charged 434ci SBC put together by Dan Williams at Williams Bros Racing. The car was bought from Belfast as an unfinished project and delivered to Jon Webster at Eurodragster.com sponsors Webster Race Engineering.


After some hold ups and the pandemic fiasco, the car was completed in November 2020. Chris thanks all involved to date, Webster Race Engineering, Williams Bros Racing, Dave Rowe at EPS and Darren West at Power Race Graphics for the original render.

It was good to have back at the track again the ex-Rob Smallworth '55 Chevy now in the hands of Iain Shurey with wife Jill and Dave Cunningham as crew.

You can see Kieran's gallery at this link or via the event coverage index from the main menu.

The Spring 2021 edition of HOFTalk, the magazine of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, has been published by compiler, UK Nostalgia enthusiast, and BDRHoF director Jerry Cookson.

This latest issue was finalised before the recent sad news of the death of Dennis Priddle. The next edition will be a Dennis Priddle Tribute issue, dedicated to his tremendous contribution to British Drag Racing.

In it, you can read about activities of BDRHoF members, tributes to those members who have passed away, and a retrospective look at the 2009 BDRHoF inductee presentations.

There is an article by Tony Thacker on Merek Chertkow who, as a 19-year-old driver of the Moonshot AA/FD, visited Britain's Drag Fest in 1965, and an interview by Eurodragster.com editor Simon Groves with South African fuel dragster pioneer Arthur Christy who made the long journey to compete at Santa Pod Raceway's 1971 International Meeting.

Also there's a new feature on drag racing collectibles, Collectors' Corner, which features models of several iconic British Drag Racing vehicles. To read the latest packed 35-page edition of HOFtalk (in PDF format, file size 45MB) you may download it direct from this fast link, or click on the Lucas Oils-sponsored Features, Interviews and Tributes link on any Eurodragster.com page.

1st May: With the cancellation of international racing leaving a vacuum in European drag racing calendars, a collaboration between four Swedish tracks, Kjula, Malmö, Mantorp and HMK Hudiksvall has established a new series the Doorslammer Tour and Bike Battle, a points competition that will take place during this summer with all class entries welcome.

Classes will comprise Pro Xtreme (aka Top Doorslammer with 3.66 index to the eighth), Super Pro Xtreme (4.40 index to the eighth) and Street (8.60/5.20 index), Pro Street (7.60/4.80 index), ET Pro (dial-in 8.50 to 15.0 or 5.10-9.60 in the quarter), Four To Six Pro (6.00 or 3.66 index to the eighth), Real Street (10.10/6.50 index) in cars. Bike classes are Pro Comp Bike (7.50 index), Super Comp Bike (8.50 index), and Super Gas Bike (9.50 index).

The race dates for the Doorslammer Tour and Bike Battle are:

• 7th-9th May, Malmö (including Super Pro Xtreme and Pro Xtreme)
• 12th-13th June Kjula Dragway
• 2nd-4th July, Huddik (including Super Pro Xtreme and Pro Xtreme)
• 29th July-1st August Mantorp Park
• 27th-29th August Malmö (final for Super Pro Xtreme and Pro Xtreme); and
• 18th-19th September Kjula Dragway (finals for all other classes)

The series has its own rules which you can check out at www.doorslammertour.se, with car and bike rules available separately in Swedish.

We'll supply summary reports and links to the detail and media.