Dragstalgia
Santa Pod Raceway, 11th-13th July 2014

Sunday


Click on a picture for a large size image. The latest updates are at the top of the page. Click on your Browser's Refresh key to be sure of seeing the latest news.

Click here to go back to the event index


Latest update 17:45


Ron Hope, driver of the Rat Trap Fuel Altered said 'It's wonderful at Santa Pod, it's a fantastic facility. Our schedule has been busy over the summer, because as well as Dragstalgia we appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. After that we went back to the US for a match race at Paducah, Kentucky. We travel back on Monday and Tuesday and then have a IHRA race at Cordova from Thursday to Saturday. Later we head to Bonneville with our Land Speed Car. We are planning to have a UK base for Rat Trap and to run it here and on the continent'.


Brian Hope, driver of Rich Guasco's Pure Hell altered, took over driving duties after the March Meet. He said 'I've previously driven Rat Trap and there's not much difference in the layout although Rat Trap is direct drive and Pure Hell is two-speed. I also drive Ron's Land Speed car which is a rear engined modified roadster with a best of 218mph. This is the first time Pure Hell has run outside the USA'.


Laurent Levi from Nice is racing his 'Gas Junkie' Mercury Comet in the Gasser Circus.


This reproduction of Arlen Vanke's Pro Stock Plymouth Duster is driven by 'Kiwi' from Swindon and runs in Super Stock.


Nic Williams of Eurodragster.com sponsor OCS Paints said that brother Dan's Nova is about to receive a new 427 BBC engine for Stock/Super Stock eliminator at the forthcoming Scandinavian Internationals at Tierp at the end of August. The car produced its usual wheels-up launches in Super Stock action.


Andy Robinson in Super Stock has owned his Dodge Coronet for four years and previously run it at the Mopar Euronats. It has a 572ci Mopar B1 engine with 1450cfm Holley carb. Andy said 'The car was restored in the UK and had the roll cage fitted by its previous owner and I am running it more or less unchanged'.


Wendy Baker is delighted the number of Nostalgia Funny Cars is growing and was pleased to be able to drive out of the track to the drive-in movie area for the UK Premiere of the Snake & Mongoose movie. She said 'The car was running fine but has an oil leak problem and we have had to take the pulley off to replace the oil seal. Then we found oil from the Lenco had gone into the clutch housing so we have had to take the transmission apart and hope we can run against Ramon in the next session'.


Doc Stinger said 'We have made four runs, one of which we were shut off. There are no real problems but we are struggling with the Crowerglide clutch and two speed Lenco which is set up for nitro. It is too slow off the line and our 60ft times are only 1.4s. However we don't want to change as we will be moving to nitro in 2016 and so far I am getting used to it having only done 20 runs so far'.


Ramon van der Weurf in the Wild'r at Heart '71 Charger is making quicker passes at every event he attends in 2014. He said 'Last year we were hurting pistons every time we ran so we put a new fuel system in and Adam Flamholc helped us rebuild the engine. I am very pleased and everything is in one piece. Ramon (pictured right) has Frans Krastek as his crew. Ramon's final run was 6.38/215, making three PBs in a row.


Andy Raw is driving his Beetle Funny Car for the first time in a year and a half. He said 'We have run our pB 60ft time however the car has been going left. The reason may be my hand leaving the steering wheel to make the shift causes the wheel to turn slightly. The team are putting cameras on the car to determine whether that is correct. I'm getting used to the car and the engine is doing what it is supposed to'. Andy gives a big Thank You to the Harrison family for loan of their motor home and to his crew. Next dates for the car are demo runs at Bug Jam and NitrOlympX where he will be running Super Pro ET and the night show.


Rob Loaring, crew chief on Tim Garlick and Perry Antoniou's Apache Funny Car said after the car's best-ever 6.58, 'Part of an O ring from the oil pump found its way into an oil gallery. We will need to take the short motor apart to get the rest of it out and we don't have time to reassemble it. However we are delighted with the performances this weekend.


Nick Davies in the Chaos Fuel Altered suffered suspected damage to the main bearing and car owner Lawrie Gatehouse decided to swap to the spare engine rather than take a risk as there was concern about the crank. Lawrie said 'We have run the same engine for two and a half years without major damage so are pleased with that.


Robbie Grabham has made three passes in the Freddie's Revenge Nostalgia Fuel Altered. He said 'I am really enjoying driving the car and ran a new Pb of 8.4s on the last pass. The gearbox wouldn't change out of first so we have taken it apart and hope to make another run.


John Dodd (pictured right) with son Paul (centre)and grandson Jason (left) are pictured by the iconic Beast, created by Fibreglass Repairs (FGR) and powered by a 27 litre Merlin engine .


Gary Clarke has been running Kawasaki H2 triple drag bikes for many years and his latest machine ran a 9.08 on Saturday afternoon. He said 'I bought it from Wisconsin USA and I rode it in Super Eliminator at Martin, Michigan where I broke the national record for the class by 0.5s and waved the Union Jack in doing so. When I brought the bike to the UK I made modifications and it ran high 8s with a 90kg rider. I have run it at rwybs and nostalgia meetings'.


Adam Charnley's '23 T altered 'Howitzer' has a Ford 2300cc engine and Sierra gearbox with four Yamaha carbs and runs in the Wild Bunch. Adam said the chassis is from a previous incarnation of Dorset Horn from 1997 and was also used in the previous Tiki Munki. The body is from Hairy Glass in the US.


Russ Carpenter, 2014 inductee to the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, has his Daimler engined dragster here and did a 8.31/150 checkout pass on Friday. He said 'The engine burned no.6 spark plug when we fired it up this morning and no.8 injector was leaking. So a replacement injector is being delivered from our base at Guildford and we will be looking to run again when fuel arrives'. Andrew Carpenter, pictured right, will take over driving duties later in the year at the Hot Rod Drags.


Jürgen Schomann with the 'Master of Desaster' Willys runs a near Pro Mod spec 526ci KB engine with Kuhl hi-helix blower and B&J three speed transmission. He said 'We like Supercharged Outlaws because the rules are more free for example we can change blower overdrive to what we like. We had some major repairs after rolling the car at Shakey last year but only minor damage from our latest brush with the guardrail here. We found the welds on the anti-roll bar had broken, have had them welded and hope to be on track again on Sunday. Our 8.3 run was with a damaged clutch so we need to change that and hopefully get back to our low seven performance'.


Tom Winter from Germany races this ex-Steve Hall Camaro in Supercharged Outlaws and wife Jutta is in the Wild Bunch with the '34 Ford 'Black Ball', which is one of the oldest race cars from Germany. The Winter family have been racing for 12 years and appear regularly at the NitrOlympX, but this is their first visit to Santa Pod. Tom organises the German Supercharged Outlaws and hopes to get some of the UK cars over to Germany to run there in 2015.


Kirsten van Croonenborgh's blown '70 Cuda is running with the Supercharged Outlaws. Kirsten also acts as back-up girl for the Wild'r at Heart Nostalgia Funny Car.


Mick Taylor runs the immaculate Banshee Fordson in Outlaw Anglia. Powered by a 4.2ltr engine he made his debut in the series at the Nostalgia Nationals in June.


Ian Tweddle from Middlesex runs the 'Anxious' car in Outlaw Anglia and this is his first meeting. He said 'The original owner was John Dumbold who ran it as a Gasser with a two litre engine. Then Steve Harrison bought it and fitted a beam axle and 502ci Chevy engine, running it in the Gasser Circus to a best of 10.1 with nitrous. I bought it four years ago, and Wisbech put in a new front end and four link at the rear. I also got new Center Line wheels with a deep offset to get them underneath the standard wheel arches. The car remains standard Ford green in colour. I have a 150hp gas kit and have had that on 40% for four seconds. My best ET in it is 10.26/132.5 and have been chipping away and would like to run a 9.9.



Reports and pictures ©Eurodragster.com