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Devon knows it’s so good.

The sometimes quiet runway of Devon’s Smeatharpe Airfield once again echoed to the sound of highly tuned engines at the NSA/Straightliners Drag ‘n’ Drift day last weekend. Although certain mobile apps predicted doom and gloom on the weather front the day was a rather subdued affair with a few spits, spots and sun albeit a little drafty round the Knees. The only time the rain did show itself was after the track had closed and all equipment had been safely stowed away, writes NSA announcer Jerry Cookson.

The National Sprint Association’s championship round attracted an eclectic motorcycling mix of some 40 plus machines. Also Straightliners laid on three class competitions to find the quickest FWD, RWD and 4WD cars of the day that certainly brought up a few interesting challenges and call outs.

With no less than 4 riders solidly in the nines over 4 different classes the screws had well and truly been turned up by mid-afternoon to produce some lively top end charges. Having sat the first round out Black Dragon Motorcycles Pete Ford brought his high revving blown 750cc class Suzuki to the fore and after the obligatory 10.7/130 mph checkout pass Pete began dialling into the conditions to end the day with a blistering 9.232/149.71 mph, although not quite on par with his 9.11 track record, his machine did manage to black stripe its way across the concrete surface for the first 100ft on all of his other 9 second passes.

Although Pete wound up the quickest over the quarter he wasn’t the fastest. That honour belonged to the NSAs flying Welsh wizard Mark Taylor as he blasted his Hayabusa across the line to a maxed out speed of 163.28 mph, and he told me afterwards there was still more to come! By midday and despite gear selection issues everything was pointing in the right direction as he quickly turned the bikes 9.760 into a 9.356 and then a 9.335 to take the Unlimited class win but not quite enough to get within striking distance of his 9.021 class record!

Matching in ETs but in road trim was Steve Everett’s class winning 1300cc Busa. Solidly in the high nines from the start of the day Steve took the silver bullet to the days third quickest 9.664 at 140.39 mph.

Whatever Paul Hayman does on any given surface it has to be fast, and that’s exactly what he did. On three separate occasions Paul launched his 1000cc GSXR as it was being shot out of a cannon. Every one of his nine second passes was without any drama but was arrow straight with a 60ft time of 1.576 by the end of the day resulting in a class win of 9.903 at 136 mph.

Other highlights saw Wild Bunch racer ‘Crazy Chris’ Hartnell taking his first tentative passes with Backdraft Too. Although Saturday’s meet was Chris’ first time ever on two wheels on a drag strip, and with support as always from partner and WB administrator Claire Meaddows, adapted to this new found environment with ease despite his visor misting up on his first timed run. Formerly ridden in NSA competition by Tony Pettitt and before that in the seventies by Mighty Mick Warne as Jus Blue the 400 class Clift Honda, and now complete with its customary metal flake red Backdraft coach work Chris ended the day with a 16.144/86.99 mph and second to Simon Hewer’s KTM 300.

In the Vintage classes Richard von Mach reset the 350 class record with his Arial Arrow by lowering it from a 16.768 set by Richard Morgan to 14.972 while in the Unlimited class Mark Richards took his show worthy 1954 Triumph 500 to the class win over Tony Lockwood’s fast charging Tri/JAP; 14.617 to 15.441 respectively.

The Scooter class with 3 other entrants belonged to Green Light Scooters head honcho Adie Horrocks as he took his class winning Vespa to a 13.260 at 98.71 mph, despite gearing issues, over Nigel Howard with the GLS Renta Ride; 13.727.

Despite the Junior classes being single entry affairs all four comprising of Jorja Cleall, Max & Libby Curtis and Chloe Hayman were giving it large with Jorja resetting her own record on her Peugeot called Midnight.

With a nice mix ‘n’ match entered into the days RWYB for cars, mostly RWD, the quickest FWD was smiling Jim Bradford with his smartly turned out Focus ST at 14.236/105.37 mph. With no less than 11 entered one Rear Wheel Drive topping the time sheets early (12.458) was the race prepped, and possibly Hillclimb VW Golf of Austin Grice. But by midday the VW was on the tow hook with its ET superseded by Kevin Headon’s Pontiac Le Mans with a 12.527/111.34 mph to its credit. However, by late afternoon it all changed again thanks to Dan Wilson’s Antique Toy SBC Wild Bunch slingshot dragster following a hard charging, but bouncy, 11.041/108.48 mph. Second quickest was Kevin Fone’s motorcycle engined rear motored dragster (12.372) and Kevin’s Pontiac at 12.442.

One interesting car that stood out against the Nissans, Mazdas and the Ford Model B of James Bull was Scott Riddell’s ’55 Chevy ‘Shoebox’ for its barn find looks. I asked Scott where it had come from and he told me it was found in a California desert and that the guy he got it off pulled out a couple of sack fulls of pure American sand. Scott, for all intense and purposes, has left all of its original patina as is and the only window that had been wiped was the front wind shield. Everything else looked as it was found and good for 15.2 second quarters.

However, the main interest was with the 4WD category and Nick Martin’s 11.008s performance early doors with the silver grey AMG Mercedes. Then along came Luke Zborowski and his Audi A4 Avant Estate! Straight off the road, the Audi’s 150hp 2.0-litre 35 TFSI equipment banged out a 10.978/130.17 in no effort at all. Nick replied with a 10.896/129.87. Then Luke came back at him with an even quicker 10.825/130.17 pass as the winning run.