Drag Racing in England

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Spent last week in various European countries on a business trip, with my last stop in England. I was able to stay an extra day, and found my way about 2 hours North of London to Santa Pod Raceway outside Wellingborough. Stayed local to the track on Friday night, and a short taxi ride at 7am Saturday morning had me feeling about as close to the United States as possible - even though I was ~4,000 miles away!

Gates opened at 8am, racing started very promptly at 9am, but then the drizzle began around 10:30 or so and I had to leave no later than 2pm to catch my flight out of Heathrow. So, I didn't get to see any of the Jr's run - quite a bummer, but what a great experience. These guys are fast!!

Took some pics that I thought you might like to see. First batch of pics are Jr Dragster based, later pics are big cars. There was a horrific crash later Saturday afternoon, driver lived:

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/gr...deo-67478.html



I got a little history lesson: the track is based on a US military base from WWII. They have a very nice memorial just outside the entrance to the track with the Stars & Stripes waving, I was quite impressed:





Since I was very likely the first spectator there, I wandered down to the starting line and talked to the track workers. They prep the line very similar, except for some type of powder they had just at the launch area.

The burnout box is actually just before the tunnel arches, not sure we'd have that configuration in the States since some Friday-nighter would likely put a fender into it! It works for them though:



Control tower is directly above and behind the cars, hence why some cars have their dial boards facing backwards.



The tan colored areas are the powder (dry traction compound??) that was on the track.... but, look at the uphill run!! Reportedly, the elevation change from start to finish is ~6 feet!



Christmas Tree was not in place yet.

Most race Teams were fully set up by Saturday morning, but some were still arriving like this Team of 2 Jr's. The incredibly narrow roads over there, not to mention the many 'roundabouts', make towing with an American style rig quite difficult. So, they resourcefully design with function over form, there were 4 people in the car as well!



By 8'ish, some Jr's were starting to emerge. The first 2 I saw was this pair of Half Scale cars, very nice cars.



Unsure of this chassis type, but it was a shock car extraordinaire:



Then the drizzle started, smiley-oops So, everybody went to the Midway to pass the time:



The kids do the same thing as in the States, they hang out and socialize!







Spent a fair amount of time with Andy Wheeler and the Alamo Team. These girls have raced at the ECF's the past 3 years, and we got to know them through Randy, Jaime and Erik at Half Scale Inc. Although Andy knew somebody from the US was in the area, his wife and daughters were stunned when we walked into the race trailer. Poor Paige's mouth dropped open for at least 5-6 seconds! smiley-mrgreen

It's one of the great things about the sport, getting to know different people - even those who are 4,000 miles away!



I have some pics of some big cars too, will post if anyone is interested.

Here's an example, a Nostalgic FC that was originally from New Jersey - a crew member gave me a lift from the gate all the way to the pits - about 3/4 of a mile. Big thanks!!



I will say that the big cars were just as fast as the US counterparts, although I did notice that their reaction times were a bit off. I surmise that is because they probably don't get to do this every weekend!

They are well equipped for the rain, that is true - but they were drying the track for at least 2 hours!! Should have let the Jr's run a time shot or two!

It was very interesting. I met some guys who were running Pro ET class in their '69 Camaro. He mentions that he has a damaged ZL1 engine headed to the States for an overhaul, where? "Pennsylvania", where? "about a 1/2 from Maple Grove Raceway", who? "Tilburg Racing Engines"! They fly over just to watch races here in the US at MGR, Cecil County, etc... What a very small world!

He stands this car on the bumper! smiley-cool



A few more big cars:






Brand new Camaro, quite impressive - didn't get to see it run though:

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

More:




Wow:



Fair amount of female drivers over their as well, this car being one of them:



A few more pics:

Belle Wheeler turned 10 on Sunday, and is moving up to 8.90! Her hero card states that her best light is .0000! She reminds me so much of my Amanda, smiley-laughing



Very few golf carts cruising the pits over there, oh - they call them 'buggies'! Much more 'Nike' being used.



This is where they do Tech, pretty nice in that it is covered but could be difficult for long dragsters to navigate through the garage on the right and then pull a 180 to head back through tech - but easy for the Jr's!



A LOT of tent campers in the pits, as well as small bumper pull campers, but these brave souls were camped out in this field - pretty muddy, reminded me of the pictures of York US30 and other drag strips where folks would come and camp out for the weekend.



I had not seen an American pickup truck the entire week, but when I got to Santa Pod - there were plenty! This white truck was actually from a track in the US, (don't know which one), as it still had it's NHRA identifier inside.

Note the creative track sprayer / vehicle, a lot cheaper to operate than a full size truck or trailer! With gas costing about 1.80GBP / Litre, (equating to ~$9.75/gal!!, assuming I did my metric conversion correctly), it's quite practical to use the car!



The track workers were joking with me about my choice of beverage - but I practically live on this stuff and was ecstatic to find it at a local supermarket the night before. I was in serious withdrawal mode, (ibuprofen (for caffeine withdrawal migraines) is only dispensed via pharmacist, and cost me $10 for 10 tablets in Switzerland!), they thought it could be a fuel substitute! smiley-mrgreen



I made it through the whole week over there without a jacket, but once it started raining, and the then the wind kicked up, I had to buy a jacket - why buy a boring one?



A few more big cars. I was impressed with the quality of their race cars, most every car had top notch parts, bodies in very good condition, and nice interiors. The owners were very proud of their rides, and were not shy in showing you around.

Cuda peeking out:



Another Nostalgic FC, not sure where this one was from:



This car was impressive,



Brand loyalty within the Big 3 runs strong over there too! My son liked the creative spelling on the back door of the trailer!



Even a custom chopper, (that's ~$48,000 USD smiley-oops )



I didn't really see many non-US cars, or perhaps I just didn't notice them. But this one caught my eye, don't know what it is though:



Figured it was a Jaguar, since he was already working on it after a short warm up! smiley-mrgreen



Then it was back to Heathrow, by way of some small villages. The cars on the left side of the road with the driver on the right side of the car sort of freaked me out, thankfully I was driven everywhere - not sure I would have stayed on 'correct' side of the road if I was behind the wheel!

I really enjoyed these 12 hours of my trip, gave me something to look forward to after talking corporate finance all week! Would love to go back.

[COPO_Anders]

Thanks Marlin, great to see !

I live much closer to England then you but I´ve only been to London once, and never visited Santa Pod.

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[ORIGLS6]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/cool.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/cool.gif[/img]

Our newest International PhotoJournalist. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Great Job M !! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]

[Salvatore]

Santa Pod has some pretty big events there.

[Xplantdad]

Thanks for sharing the awesome pics and commentary!

[jannes_z-28]

Nest time you have to plan a trip to Sweden.

The quality is up to par with the US, we even have some world record time cars, just a few weeks ago a Swede set a new record for Alcohol Funny Cars on a track in Sweden. Some Swedes have previously done records when racing in the US, but this time was the first ever outside of the states. The record was on top speed at 269mph, time was 5.437.

Most of the top teams buy their stuff from the US but we have some top notch builders as well.


Jan

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Thanks. I was definitely impressed with the program and the cars, top quality stuff - nothing was 'half-baked' over there.

I was always thinking how fast the cars would be at Santa Pod if the track didn't have such an uphill climb!

[Pulnaway]

There is a blue 67 Impala that is a regular at Santa Pod. Its called the Doomsday Impala. They even have a Facebook page!