0323archive

Latest News 23/12/23

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. As I've managed to just get this update in before Christmas I shall take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a splendid New Year!

Excuses department... As I've spent some time over the last couple of months working on some other projects for next year with the British Drag Racing Historians there hasn't been a huge amount of spare time left over to add to this site. But I've done my best and somehow cobbled together enough new material to be able to put this one out. I have plenty of material to work my way through here, but don't let that discourage you from sending more. Contributors submissions always take precedence over my own research.

The next volume of the Retford Scrapbboks has been uploaded, but it's not Volume Six, as it should have been, it's Volume Four!.... Volume Five is now Volume Six... An administrative error occurred a couple of updates ago in which Volume Four was overlooked, and Volume Five was posted in it's place. I've searched high and low for someone to blame, but, as I'm the only one here, I will have to accept full responsibility. I've maintained the chronological format of the books by shifting Four (Five) from Four to Five, and putting Four in it's place. And of course Five (Six) has moved to six... So, if you've already viewed Four from a while ago, and want to see the new one, go back and look at Four. It'll be different. But don't look at Six. Or Five. You've already seen them. Unless you want to see them again...... I think I should shut up now.

I've recently acquired a floppy disc reader (yes these do still exist!). Why? Well I found two boxes of discs stored in the loft, and many of them contain material that I had archived in the early days of the website. I'm still working my way through them, and some of them are alas unreadable, but I have already discovered some material that never got added to the site, and quite a few bits and pieces I'd forgotten about. I will get around to including this over the next few updates.

If you've bothered to read this far, and are feeling up to it, why not also check out the Trakbytes Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time and often post landmark events from the past on their anniversary dates. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, it really does make me happy.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

The latest volume of The Retford Scrapbooks has been uploaded. But it's a previous one.... See above for details.
I've added a couple more events to the Landmarks page. The first UK built Funny Car to run into the sevens, and the first nine second run from a Pro Stocker, both in 1974. Bonus points if you name them both without looking.
I've added half a dozen programme cover scans that I found on some of the floppy discs. These are all from York Raceway and were originally sent to me by Darren West many years ago. (How many years ago I hear you ask, probably 22 years ago!) I guess I never got around to adding them. They are 6th June and 19th September 1982, 17th May 1986, 19th June and 7th August 1988 and 5th May 1996.
1971 another update from the "Floppy Files" with details from the NDRC's meeting at Elvington in June, from a report written by Kevin Rees. Dennis Priddle set a new UK Top Fuel low ET mark at this event.
1974 A snippet in January about Clive Skilton's visit to Northern Ireland. Thanks to The Retord Scrapbooks '74 gets even more info crammed into it. This is possibly the most comprehensively covered year in the whole archive. The Wolfrace Trophy meeting at Santa Pod in June gets a rewrite with some additional material not previously included. I have also managed to find more details from a damp Wroughton NDRC meeting at the end of June which should have seen the Top Fuel debut of Roz Prior... SPR's July Internationals gets a rewrite. This meeting received some criticism in the press for the lack of Top Cars and the decision to allow Peter Crane to test drive Firefly during the weekend in preparation for the arrival of his new car. I've included a link to Pete's reply which is pasted into Volume Four of the Retford Scrapbooks. SPR's Drag Racing News sponsored meeting later in July also gets rewrite. This meet saw the debut of the Houndog 8 fueler and an attempt to amalgamate the two top Street classes into a handicapped eliminator that didn't quite work out as planned. There's a new entry at the beginning of August with details of the UK Racers that travelled to Mantorp park to run at the Swedish Championships. Finally for '74 a new entry for a meeting that I had no details of whatsoever, the NDRC's August meeting at Blackbushe which saw the return of the Page Team with their new version of Panic. I have no bike details for the last three of these meetings as yet. Can anyone help please?
1983 Santa Pod's Easter meeting gets an update with the addition to my original entry of some further details from Clive Rooms.
All the following updates, up to and including 1986, have also been supplied by Clive.
1983 A handful of details from Long Marston and Blackbushe in May, and Long Marston again in September.
1984 Details from Long Marston's NDRC Springnationals in June, including a Pro Stock Bike Final where both riders disqualified themselves, and Yorks Northern Jet Nationals in August.
1985 Details from Long Marston's Spring Nationals in June and a chilly Santa Pod Fireworks meeting in November.
1986 Details from the NDRC meetings at Long Marston in May and North Weald in June.
2003 Details from SPR's Speedfreaks Ball in May.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Allan Herridge The Pages, Clive Skilton, Sammy Miller, the Stones and Dennis Priddle
All driver/rider entries from this update have been included in the Competitor Index.
That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 6/10/23

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. This is an anniversary update as it is 25 years to the day (just) since the first handful of pages of this website appeared on the internet. You won't be surprised to read that I had no idea I would be continuing with the site two and a half decades later. I'm encouraged to continue by your comments, messages and e mails. Without the help of the many racers, fans and friends who have sent material for me to add to the archive the site would be nowhere near as large as it is today. My thanks to you all, and to the group of friends who gave me the impetus to continue doing this.

Back to the normal kind of updates again. Somewhere in the region of thirty updates again this time. With fewer projects to occupy me now that summer has gone I'm hoping I can find a bit more spare time to devote to this never ending project, but I'm always saying things like that. I'm very fortunate to have been sent plenty of material to help swell the archive and I shall diligently work my way through it. As always I tend to give priority to information that has been contributed, despite the enormous amount of material I have collected myself. You will see that one of the main contributors over the years has been British Drag Racing Historian Clive Rooms. Clive has been busy finding material to fill in some of the gaps in the archive, particularly those in the eighties and nineties sections. Fellow BDRH contributor Jerry Cookson has also been on the case and provided some material that I have used in this update. I am very grateful to them both.

A little while ago I mentioned that I was considering continuing the archive by moving on from the current closing year of 2002. It's hard to believe that this is now more than two decades ago, and so it only seems right to start to fill in those years in between then and now, as if I didn't have enough to do... It seemed especially appropriate to resume development of this part of the archive on the 25th anniversary. So I have added all the main dates for 2003, and begun adding details from the first few meetings. Needless to say these have initially been compiled mostly from the excellent live event coverage on Eurodragster.com. BUT, as always, if there are any additional details you feel should be included please let me know. This is the first time this part of the archive has been updated since 2003!

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

As mentioned above the Competitor Index is up and running, and growing with each update. There you will find over 2500 alphabetically listed racers with links to all their entries in the main archive and results pages.
I realised that I hadn't added Eric Teboul's outright two-wheeled strip record from last years European Finals to the Santa Pod Bike Strip Records page. Having done this it occurred to me that there were a number of other runs from Eric that should also be included, so I've done a bit of research and come up with a handful of times where he bettered his previous best ET. If you think I've missed any please let me know.
The next volume of The Retford Scrapbooks, Volume Five, has been uploaded. This one covers more of 1974 and into early 1975. The focus begins to lean more towards bikes here with cuttings from Motor Cycle, Motor Cycle News as well as Autocar and Autosport magazines. Amongst the subjects included are a review of the 1974 season from Autosport, some race reports from SPR and Blackbushe, a profile of Tom Christenson of Hogslayer fame, who sadly passed away last week, and another of Clive Skilton's Dragster, and a lot of talk about the new Weslake powered machine being built by John Hobbs.
Corrections Department... My thanks to British Drag Racing Historian Nick Pettitt for pointing out an error in my post on the Trakbytes Facebook Page on October 3rd. The entry for the Woodvale meeting of the 1965 Dragfest has been updated accordingly to record that Danny Ongais was the first to break the 200mph barrier in the UK. There's another correction in the 1991 section. Whilst adding some of the new material supplied by Clive Rooms to the Competitor Index page I noticed that the winners of the June European Drag Bike Championship were identical to results I had posted for a September meeting in that year. It turned out that my race report and results sheet had somehow been posted in the wrong place. I have moved it all to the June date now and edited the two race reports together for a more detailed report. This gave me another job to do in sorting out the entries in the Competitor Index and for a while made me wonder why I'd bothered creating something that requires so much maintenance...
There's a new addition to the Landmarks page. A recent post about Brian Johnson's Pro Stock bike reminded me of his first round win at Santa Pod at the Easter 1981 meeting where he became the fiirst Pro Stock rider to run into the eights with an 8.98/150. And now for the updates....
1964 Details of the Drag Racing exhibits at the Racing Car Show, where Sydney Allard introduced his new kit-form Dragster. Also some additional details of Dante Duce's performances at the Brighton Speed Trials in September. Thanks to Jerry Cookson for sending scans from the report in Motoring News from which I compiled the update. I've also added the programme cover for this event.
1967 Clive Rooms sent me a scan of the results for the SPR car meeting in March, an event for which I previously had no information. The results sheet has now been compiled and added.
1970 A small update to the NDRC meeting at Martlesham Heath in May with a now rare appearance on track for Alf Hagon.
1972 Addition of a poster for the NDRC meeting at Blackbushe in August, from Jerry Cookson's collection.
1978 Addition of the entry list for the Blackbushe meeting in August, from Clive Rooms collection.
1982 Clive has also supplied some details for a couple of low key meetings at SPR in May and August.
1983 Details from the Street Machine magazine sponsored meeting at Blackbushe in August.
1984 Some Pro Comp and Nitro FC detail from Long Marston in May. There's also an update to the September 20th Anniversary Of The Dragfests meet entry that took place at Blackbushe. Clive recently posted about this meeting on the UK Drag & Sprint Strips That Time Forgot Facebook page, and added the entry list, which I have shamelessly pinched. Fellow BDRH member Phil Waters pointed out that there was one car present at the meeting that was also entered for the Dragfest meeting 20 years earlier. Race reports and/or results for this meeting are proving difficult to find. Can anyone out there help?
1985 Details from the NDRC's season opener at Long Marston, and their inaugural meeting at Bitteswell in May supplied by Clive.
1986 Details from a very cold Fireworks Meeting at Santa Pod in November.
1987 Clive has also managed to provide quite a bit of info to fill what is the least covered year in the archive, beginning this time with some details of what turned out to be the last meeting organised by the NDRC at North Weald in June, followed a couple of weeks later by details of a new club following the eventual demise of the NDRC.
1988 Details from Long Marston in September where the final round of the newly established ACU/UK Drag Bike Championship took place, also from Clive.
1989 Details from the opening round of the Euroseries Pro Stock Bike Championship from York's Open Internationals in May. From Clive.
1991 Details of a world record for Tony Baker at SPR's Doorslammers meeting in September from, you guessed it, Clive.
2003 Finally for this update, as mentioned above, I have begun to add to the next, as yet uncovered,year in the archive with details from a Run What ya Brung in April, which saw many racers take advantage of the chance for some pre-season testing, including a return to the seat of a Top Fuel car for one competitor, the Easter Thunderball, which saw a rookie take the Pro Fuel Shootout title on his first weekend in a Top Fuel car, and an eventful Excitement Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway in May. How can this be twenty years ago already?
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for The Pages, and Alf Hagon.
That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 4/5/23

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. I know it's been a while but I'm sure you'll understand why if you read on.

I get a report once a month listing all the words that have been entered into the search tool on this site. It's a free widget that I added many years ago, I'm not even sure how I found it. Whilst it was useful to a certain extent back then, the archive has now grown so large that a successful search result can still be followed by a "needle in haystack" search of the appropriate page for the thing you are looking for. Having noticed that the majority of the searches are for names it occurred to me that an index of competitors might possibly be a useful addition. I started compiling such a list a while ago in spare moments whilst compiling new material, fully aware that it was going to take a while to complete. I was however fully unaware of just how long. After a while I abandoned the new updates temporarily and concentrated fully on the task at hand. The end result is an alphabetical list of every competitor included in the main archive and the results pages. I haven't included the other pages on the site, but as these are much smaller in size the search facility will hopefully still be useful for those. I also haven't included the entry lists. This would probably involve just as much work again. In fact, almost certainly a lot more, and I can't face that, yet. So having originally optimistically, and as it transpires, naively, envisaging a list of a few hundred names, I have ended up with a competitor index containing over 2500 racers. I hope this is useful for anyone searching for information on a particular racer. Your mad uncle Fred, who once unsuccessfully raced his Francis Barnett Plover in 1966, might actually be in there! It's given me a few headaches along the way, not least the proliferation of Pete Smiths I was faced with. My thanks to Drag Racing Historians Keith Lee, Jerry Cookson and Nick Pettitt for helping me sort them out. My trawl through the years brought to light quite a few entries for racers in the Hall Of Fame which hadn't been added to their respective pages, so that has been addressed. As always it is possible (some might say likely) that there are some errors in there. It's possible that typos from the source material have been carried over into the archive, and then into the index, so if you come across such an occurrence please let me know and I'll correct it.

So, as a result, this update contains a mere ten additions in the way of updated material. Considerably fewer than the number I normally aim for, but now the index is up and running I'll get back to work and tentatively promise more next time. Of course I'll have to add all new entries to the index as well...... A fact that occurred to me shortly after I began, and it still didn't put me off...

If you've bothered to read this far, and are feeling up to it, why not also check out the Trakbytes Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time and often post landmark events from the past on their anniversary dates. Not as often as I could lately I'll admit... but now the index hurdle has been successfully, er, hurdled, I'll try and get back to it. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, it really does make me happy.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

As mentioned above, the Competitor Index is up and running. Links to all the archive entries for over 2500 racers.
As promised the fourth volume of The Retford Scrapbooks has been added on the Special Features page. This is comprised entirely of cuttings from 1974 taken from such publications as Hot Car,Custom car, Autosport, Motorcycle News, and others I haven't been able to identify. There are articles on DLT and Tender Trap, Ed Shaver (Shaver's Ravers!), the first NDRC meeting at Snetterton, an interview with T C Christenson, a look at the UK Funny Cars of the day, and plenty more.
The Santa Pod Strip Records list has another addition that I had missed when I searched through the archives. Peter Crane interrupted Dennis Priddles run of low ET performances with a 6.37/204.8 at the Easter meeting in March 1975.
1965 I have added the programme cover/poster for the September Dragfests, which has been sitting patiently in a folder waiting for me to notice I hadn't included it. I can't remember where this scan came from but it's an iconic image that I've recently had printed on a tee shirt, and very fine it looks too. I've also added the 'Demonstration Of Drag Racing" that Rex Sluggett organised in Devon in early October. An event that by all accounts didn't live up to the expectations of the thousands that unexpectedly turned up to watch.
1974 gets a lot more attention, thanks to the cuttings contained in The Retford Scrapbooks. This time I have added more details from SPR's August Supernationals, which saw the famous vertical wheelstand from the Houndog Funny Car, and the first competitive runs for the car that became Stormbringer. There are a few more details added to SPR's GMax Trophy meeting, which has now been moved to its correct date in September (some unwitting errors go unnoticed for a very long time...) The Silverstone International meeting gets a large rewrite also, despite the early finish to the weekend as the rain came in. It was this meeting that saw TC Christenson run the UK's first eight second bike pass, an achievement that I hadn't included in the Landmarks section. I've added it now of course. The NDRC's well received and eventful first meeting at Snetterton gets a weighty rewrite too, with more record performances from T C Christenson, a number of personal bests, and a bump in the track that caused a few problems. Finally for '74, for now, a rewrite of the SPR November Fireworks meeting which saw only one rider master the wet conditions and run into the nines on both days, and Peter Crane take his first Top Fuel Final win, in the rain, and in the dark.
1975 After posting on the Facebook page on the anniversary of John Hobbs and Henk Vinks first side-by-side bike race I realised that I had mistakenly labelled this as the first time this had happened. My thanks to Neil Baskerville who pointed out that Hobbs and Danny Johnson had run side-by-side eights a few months earlier. This has now been corrected, and the Landmarks page updated accordingly.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Clive Skilton, Allan Herridge, Peter Crane The Pages, The Stones John Hobbs and Alf Hagon. All the other Hall Of Fame pages have new additions consisting of entries I had previously missed.

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 14/10/22

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. I was unaware that the last update took the number of entries in the main yearly archive to over 1000. Two more than that to be precise, and seven more if you include this update. This means that the total before the previous update was 999. That's of no significance whatsoever I suppose, but I wonder how many hours work I have put into this venture over the years? As I have collected more source material, and visitors submit their own pieces, it is inevitable that more details will be added to already existing entries, and this has made up a large percentage of the updates in the last few months. Did someone say "padding"? I prefer to think of it as a relentless quest for thoroughness... And of course there remains the possibility that information I added 24 years ago may be incorrect and has gone unnoticed as I haven't looked at it since. If you find an error, let me know. There are still plenty of meetings listed that have only a few scant details, and plenty more that have none at all. So any help in finding material to fill those gaps would of course be greatly appreciated. Also, the sudden end of the archive at the year 2002 is starting to bother me now. The reasons I chose to stop when I did are explained at the end of the 2002 section. There was a time when that was bang up to date, obviously, but it occurs to me that that is now twenty years in the past, and therefore, also history. But is it worth me extending the archive to bring it closer to the present day? Eurodragster still has the live updates online, so all the information is there, in much more detail than I could realistically include here. So what should I do? It's not necessarily a rhetorical question although I'm aware that I am now thinking out loud..... Typing ..... Typing out loud ....

23 Updates this time, spanning the years 1962 to 1992. See below for details.

If you've bothered to read this far, and are feeling up to it, why not also check out the Trakbytes Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time and often post landmark events from the past on their anniversary dates. Not as often as I could lately I'll admit... If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, it really does make me happy.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

I have updated the Hall Of Fame page for Sammy Miller with a couple of corrections that were quoted on a post on the excellent UK & European Drag Racing Photos Facebook page by regular contributor Wez Selecta. Sammy's all time world ET record, set at the 1984 Cannonball, is often accompanied by a terminal speed of 386mph. The actual recorded terminal speed on that run was 285mph. Quite how this spurious speed has become attached to the record run is not known for sure, but the double-sided sword of "social media" has ensured it has spread unchecked around the internet. And before anyone points it out, yes I was one of those who quoted it many years ago when this site was in its infancy. Having had the error pointed out to me I corrected the offending entries, but a couple escaped my notice. In my defence I wasn't there the day the run happened, or for quite a few years after, so I was just using the available material at the time... One possible explanation for the source of the error is that the website at www.slamminsammymiller.com correctly mentions his quickest quarter mile time, and fastest recorded speed, as being different runs, and in different cars. Those being 3.58s in Vanishing Point, and 386mph in Oxygen, but in a different section the time and speed are listed together as Sammy's best quarter mile numbers. It seems to me that this may be where the problem began. It might even be where I gathered the erroneous details myself all those years ago.
The third volume of The Retford Scrapbooks has now been posted. This volume begins in early 1974 with some season previews, and ends in June of that year with a profile of Roz Prior from the New Reveille tabloid newspaper. There are also some of John Dickson's columns from Fast Car magazine, race reports from Autosport and plenty of other snippets. I'm pleased to say I've had some very positive feedback about these scrapbooks, and rest assured there are more to come.
1962 From a post by Jerry Cookson on the UK Drag & Sprint Strips That Time Forgot Facebook page I have added a few more details of Sydney Allard's performances at the Church Fenton Drag Sprint in September. Jerry also mentioned a similar event at the venue in July which I didn't have in the archive, so I've added that too, but as yet I have no details from this meeting. As Allard was at Goodwood with the Dragster the previous day I suspect he was not present on this occasion.
1965 A couple of details have been added to the Woodvale Dragfest in October regarding the two quickest visiting US motorcycles. This information comes from Keith Lee's excellent book on the life of John Hobbs, which also reminded me of another entry for the SPR Bike Strip Records page. At the 1974 July Internationals John shaved another 100th off his own strip record, set the previous month. The information in Keith's book has meant a couple of changes elsewhere in this list, and it may still not be complete.
1968 A re-write of the June Combined Car & Motorcycle meet at SPR, where John Lloyd became the first in the world to take a 1000cc bike into the nines. I have added this particular run into the Landmarks list as this was the first time a bike under 1000cc had run that quick anywhere in the world.
1969 There's a full report now from the BDR&HRA 'On Tour" meeting at Woodvale in August with details and results from all classes.
1972 A re-write of the entry for the NDRC meeting at Martlesham Heath in April where Tony Anderson debuted his new car and Keith Parnell inadvertently combined scrambling and Drag Racing.
1973 A re-write of the NDRC's first meeting at Long Marston using some details sent to me by Jerry Cookson.
1974 I have added some more details (including Roz Prior's first drive in a fuel car) to the May Blackbushe entry, originally supplied by Clive Rooms. There's also details for a mishap for Clive Skilton at Silverstone in May, and a rewrite of the entry for the SPR Big Go at the end of May. Thanks to Jerry Cookson for supplying a race report from the Long Marston meeting in June which has provided me with more details to add to another of Clive's original entries.
1986 Some more info from UK Drag & Sprint Strips That Time Forgot. Thanks to Clive Rooms for posting a comprehensive set of scans from York's Street Racer Championships in June which I have shamelessly plundered for my own uses here.
1987 This underwhelmingly sparse section gets a boost with some details from SPRs 27th annual Big Go in May which saw the debut of two new Fuel Altereds. These details come from an edition of UK Drag racing Magazine which was among some publications I've recently re-discovered.
1991 A new programme cover and poster for the Avon Park meeting that didn't happen in June supplied by Jerry Cookson.
1992 There are two new dates added that I didn't have before now, both at Avon Park in June. The first has details of the second round of the British Top Alcohol Championship, the second has details from Drag Bike and Pro Stock Bike at the Drag Bike International meeting. Also in '92 there has been a re-write to the entry for SPR's rain-affected Cannonball meeting which now contains results and details from all the classes that ran, and one or two that didn't....
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Clive Skilton, Allan Herridge, The Pages, The Stones John Hobbs and Alf Hagon

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 15/7/22

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. A smaller one than usual perhaps. I usually aim for around thirty new/updated entries but I have decided to publish what I have prepared so far as spare time has, as always, been at a premium lately. This time the new material spans the years 1964 to 1989. I know there are a few of you who have been waiting patiently for the second volume of The Retford Scrapbooks so it has been uploaded now and I promise I won't make you wait for so long for volume three. There are new additions to the strip records page for cars, and the addition of a similar page for bikes. Both these are possibly (probably) incomplete, so if you have anything to add, or any corrections, please let me know. There are new entries and re-writes, with 1974 getting a lot of attention this time.Tthis was the first year I attended Santa Pod. As has become the custom over the last few months there are a number of new programme covers very kindly supplied from the collection of Clive Rooms. I think that this latest batch is the last of these. If you have any that we haven't published here, and you're willing to share, send me scans or photos and I will add them.

As always, feel free to send me any details you would like to see included here. Everything from race reports and major event results down to a personal best E.T. by your mad Uncle Geoff. All are welcome.

If you're feeling up to it why not check out the Trakbytes Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time and often post landmark events from the past on their anniversary dates. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, it really does make me happy.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

Volume Two of The Retford Scrapbooks has now been posted in the Special Features section. It covers 1972 - 1974 and includes features on The Hillbillies Topolino, Russo's Rat, UK Pro Stockers, Paula Murphy's Funny Car and Gary Goggin's Camaro plus many more articles race reports and snippets.
Also in Special Features is an attempt to list all the Santa Pod strip records for bikes, which follows on from the car strip records page introduced earlier this year. As before this is entirely unofficial and may have omissions and/or mistakes. Feel free to contact me with any updates or corrections.
1964 My thanks to Clive Rooms for pointing out that the date for the formation of the British Drag Racing Association was six months out. It has now been moved to its proper location of June 1964.
1968 There's re-write with a lot more detail for the final SPR meeting in December including results for the bike classes at last.
1969 Another selection of re-writes, this time for May's Big Go at SPR, with more details including motorcycles, and the Spring Nationals in June, and the August All Stars Meeting, in August, obviously.
1970 I've added a link in the October Elvington section to all the FIM/ACU standing quarter mile records as they stood at that point, including those that were set at this meeting. The scan comes from the January 1970 issue of Drag racing & Hot Rod magazine.
1974 Three new entries to open the '74 section. The first two cover Clive Skilton's appearances at Pheonix and Pomona driving John Durkee's Pegasus fueler, and the third has a link to details of the new rules announced for the joint BDR&HRA/NDRC Castrol/RAC National Championship. This link is to a page from The Retford Scrapbooks, because I'm lazy and really couldn't be bothered to transcribe all that detail. In fact all the new material for this year comes from the Scrapbooks. They really are a great asset. There's also updates with some more details added to Clive Room's entries for the March Season Opener at SPR, the Spring Smokers Meet at Blackbushe in April, SPR's Easter meeting, also in April, and the NDRC's Wroughton meeting again in April. There's also a re-write of the my original summary of the very wet May 5th meeting at Santa Pod.
1983 Thanks to Tog for pointing out another four-wheeled strip record from Santa Pod that I had missed. I've no excuse other than incompetence as it's included here on the site. At the Cannonball this year Sammy Miller ran a best time of 3.81 in his Oxygen rocker dragster. I've also brought the list bang up to date with the addition of Ida Zetterstrom's new European best set at the Main Event this year
There are more programme covers from Clive Rooms collection. This time there are an additional 9 joining those already in 1972, 17 in 1978, an additional 5 in 1979, 7 in 1988, 7 in 1989,
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Clive Skilton, Allan Herridge, The Pages, The Stones and John Hobbs

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 25/2/22

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes and the first one of 2022. Happy New Year?.... Apologies for not managing to get any new material posted until now. I'm back at work full time now and the last couple of months have been particularly busy. I'll try and make sure you don't have to wait so long for the next one. But, I do have something a bit different to offer this time.

This update includes the first of a series of scrapbooks that were lent to me many years ago by a contributor to the site. They span the years 1964 to 1975 and contain cuttings from various publications. Scanning them all and compiling them has been a challenge but they have provided a lot of information that I have used in recent updates, and a lot more that will appear in future ones. This has also been quite a challenge as many cuttings do not include dates, so I've had to cross reference many of them with articles I already have to find out what goes where, and when... I've published them here in PDF format and compressed them to a size that should be manageable and still readable (if you zoom in). If anyone has any problems viewing them let me know and I'll see if I can rectify it. Or perhaps you can just let me know how I should have done it. And then explain to me how to do it.... My next problem is that after numerous house moves, and a relocation of all the material on the website to a new server, I no longer have a record of who sent me these scrapbooks originally. If they're yours, or you know who they belong to please do get in touch and I'll make sure they are returned.

I'm currently enjoying the new additions to the Stories OF UK Pioneers feature on Eurodragster. John Hunt, Nick Pettitt and Simon Groves have done a sterling job in transcribing and compiling these memories, and they provide a valuable and fascinating insight into the development of the sport in this country. New additions are currently being published every Monday and Friday, and I'm assured there are plenty more to come.

Brian Taylor has just announced this week that he is writing a book devoted to telling the story of the Allard Dragster. I'm looking forward to seeing this as I'm sure it will be a well researched and fascinating read. You can see the latest news on the Facebook page dedicated to the book here; The Machine That Changed British Motorsport

This time I have 30 new updates to the site for you, spanning the years 1964 - 1993. There are a few corrections, 51 new programme covers from Clive Rooms collection, 7 new event posters from Jerry Cookson, plus updates and some new additions to many meetings.

If you're feeling up to it why not check out the Trakbytes Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time and often post landmark events from the past on their anniversary dates. These however, as you might imagine, a little thin on the ground during the winter months. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, it really does make me happy.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

As mentioned above a new addition to the 'Special Features' section is now uploaded. The first volume of The Retford Scrapbooks covers the years 1964 to 1971 and includes 57 PDF files of magazine and news cuttings from various publications. Included here are the Dragfests, JWR's Hustler, Santa Pod's Wheelie Stingray, Hemini, The Good Vibrations Anglia, The quest for 200mph and many more articles and race reports. Volume Two in this series will be added on the next update.
My thanks to Philip Eeles for correcting a couple of typos he noticed from the 1968 section. I'm sure Ray Elgar will be happier with a 12.43s run compared to the previous entry which worked out at nearly 14 minutes.....
This is a second call for help on the Help Us Find page. Does anyone know Dave Woodgate who advertised the Altered "De Judge" for sale in Derby in 1978? We would like to find out what happened to the car in the years after that advert was placed.
More thanks, this time to TSI Timers Andy Marrs, who rose to the challenge, and has supplied a huge update to the list of outright Santa Pod strip records, bringing the list bang up to date. Andy has also supplied some spreadsheets relating to the two wheeled competitors, which means that there is a possibility that at some point in the future I may compile a similar list for those... Here's a question for you, who was the first person to set the strip record on two wheels?....
1964 Some updates to the first Big Go meeting at Duxford in May with details of some of the competitors driving Allards. The Allard Owners Club co-promoted this event which was the first Drag Race held in the UK. There is also now a link to the results from this meeting.
1965 Addition of what I think was the programme cover for the Elvington Records meeting in October. I found this in a file on my laptop with no record of where it came from, so if you sent it in my apologies for not remembering.
1969 A rewrite of the May 4th Spring Match Race meeting at Santa Pod with a few more details from eliminations. I have also updated the results page for this meeting (originally supplied by Steve Collins) with a few more times and speeds.
1970 A few more details to the first ever NDRC 'On Tour' meeting at Martlesham Heath in Suffolk in May, a meeting which featured some car/bike match races as an added bonus. There's also some more detail added to the Drag Racers record attempts at Elvington in October, where Tony Densham beat a record that had stood for 43 years. Finally for '70 there are some details from a demonstration of Drag Racing vehicles at Walthamstow Stadium in November.
1971 Following on from the above entry about a very succesful appearance at a short oval stadium for a number of Drag Racing vehicles, there was a rather undignified demise for a Santa Pod car at Wimbledon in October. There is also a tiny update to the NDRC June meeting at Elvington where Dennis Priddle set a new UK low ET mark, and some more details to the August Bank Holiday meeting at SPR where Dennis became UK National Champion.
1973 A few more details have been added in the August SPR Nationals, there's a large expansion to the Blackbushe NDRC finals section in October, and more details added to my brothers original entry for the SPR European Grand Prix in September, and the addition of a poster for the Castrol Championship Finals at SPR in October from Jerry Cookson. The entry for this meeting has also been updated with more details. There's also a re-write of the entry for the SPR Drag Racing News sponsored meeting in October with the addition of details for Pro Stock and Top Street as well as some more information in the other classes. There are also a few more details to a low key and weather affected Fireworks meeting at SPR in November and finally, at the end of the 1973 section, you will find a link to all of the years championship winners in the car classes. If anyone has the results for the bikes I would be very grateful for the information.
1978 Another of Jerry's posters, this time for the August NDRC meeting at Blackbushe.
1983 Another couple of posters from Jerry, one for the Transatlantic Drag Bike Race at Long Marston in July, and one for the April Easter meeting at Santa Pod. Along with the programme covers from Clive Rooms this year in the archive really does look like it contains something. That was sarcasm folks. If anyone has ANY race reports or information for this woefully empty year please send them in, as did Jerry, who also sent one of his own reports for the Blackbushe October meeting, which I have used to write the entry for this event. Jerry also supplied a poster for this meeting which I have also added. Many NDRC class records were broken at this meeting, and there was the debut of a rather special two-wheeled machine. Incidentally I have not yet got any details of the bike results for this meeting, so if you can help fill that gap please let me know.
1984 another Transatlantic Drag Bike Race poster from Jerry in July.
1985 yet another Transatlantic Drag Bike Race from Jerry in June.
1986, guess what, that's right, another Transatlantic Drag Bike Race poster, guess who sent it?
1993 An addition to the Cannonball entry in July. In my search for the first side-by-side five second runs by Funny Cars in the UK I had noticed that both Harlan Thompson and our own John Spuffard had put in five second passes in the first round. In the report I acquired this information from, I don't recall where it was, it wasn't clear that they were running together. But a recent look at an Anglia TV 'Wheels" show covering the event, posted by Nick Pettitt, showed that indeed they were. I have corrected the link on the Landmarks page to point to this moment, and removed the link to what I had previously thought was the first time we had seen this at the 1996 Cannonball.
As usual there are a number of programme covers added from the collection of Clive Rooms. This time we have 51 in total, there's 9 in 1976, 10 in 1977, 14 in 1984, 8 in 1985, 7 in 1986 and 3 in 1987 that got missed out before.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Clive Skilton, Allan Herridge, The Pages, Tony Dickson and Tony Densham

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 31/10/21

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes.

This time we have 30 new or updated entries from 1963 through to 1985. There are also 73 new programme cover scans from the vast collection of Clive Rooms. I have also begun to add scans of some posters for various meetings which have been sent to me by Jerry Cookson. Full details of all the latest updates are listed below.

If you're interested please check out the Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time and often post landmark events from the past on their anniversary dates. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, it makes me happy.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

Thanks to Lesley Digby for pointing out some dud links in Allan Herridge's Hall Of Fame page. These had somehow survived from the time I moved what was left of the old website onto it's new server. They should all be repaired now. No doubt there are more of these old links somewhere on the site. Please let me know if you find any.
Theres a new request for help on the Help Us Find page. Does anyone know Dave Woodgate who advertised the Altered 'De Judge" for sale in Derby in 1978? We would like to find out what happened to the car in the years after that advert was placed.
Somewhat inevitably there's a couple of additions to the Santa Pod Strip Records list that I added on the last update. I missed out Tony Densham's 8.459s run from August 1968, a remarkable achievement when you take into consideration that he had run the first 8 second pass from a UK driver less than an hour before, and Dennis Priddle's 8.28 in Tudor Rose just a couple of months later. That's another one on the list for Dennis, the man who has beaten the outright strip record more times than anyone else in the track's history.
1963 there are a few more details to the entries for the Transatlantic Challenge featuring Dante Duce, Sydney Allard and Mickey Thompson. I think this series of meetings are all fairly well covered now but if anyone has anything else to add let me know. I recently posted on the Trakbytes Facebook page on the anniversary of Mickey Thompson becoming the first man in Europe to make an 8 second run. The entry originally said that Mickey collected the SEMA Trophy at the end of the meeting. My thanks to Brian Taylor for getting in touch and setting the record straight; " I think you will find the challenge was declared a draw. The trophy was left with Sydney Allard and displayed in the Adlard's showroom, Clapham with Sydney's name on it. It is now at the National Motor Museum Beaulieu. The SEMA identification was replaced with branding reflecting the Allard Motor Company and the British Drag Racing and Hot Rod Association in 1970 when Alan Allard presented it to the club as the winners trophy for the annual international event. Sydney's name has now been joined by Bjorn Andersson, Clive Skilton and Dennis Priddle."
1965 A new entry with details of a very successful day out for Alf Hagon at Elvington in October.
1966 There is now a write up on the second weekend of the US Commandos visit to Santa Pod in June, with details taken from the June 17th 1966 issue of Autosport magazine. This was the meeting that ended with E.J. Potter parting company with his bike at 120mph. E.J. remarked later in his autobiography that the freight charges for getting the bike back to the States were considerably cheaper as it was shipped as "Assorted Motorcycle Parts"...
1967 has the addition of a poster for the July BHRA Motorcycle Meeting at SPR contributed by Jerry Cookson. There are more of Jerry's posters added, as listed in the updates below. As with all the programme covers click on the picture for a larger view.
1968 Five updates here. There are more details from the August 10/11th combined meeting at SPR, a rewrite of the entry for the 1968 Championship meeting in September, some details of the Drag Racers exploits at the Elvington Records weekend in October, and a little more Priddle/Densham detail from the October meeting at SPR which took place the day after the Sluggett/Priddle team had set the World Standing Start Quarter Mile Record at Elvington. There are also details from SPR's final meeting of the year in December, which saw Harold Bull end the season on a high note.
1969 sees the addition of details from SPR's Club Meeting in April I have recorded Dennis Priddle as being the driver of the JWR Whistler at this meeting. Can anybody provide some evidence of this? None of the reports I have knowledge of mention the drivers name. Also there are some top times and speeds from the Spring Nationals in June (a bit late for Spring?)
1970 sees three meetings updated. There is a little more detail to the inaugural NDRC meeting at Santa Pod in April, and a rewrite of the report for the July Internationals at SPR with a lot more detail to accompany the class results originally supplied by Steve Collins.
1974 The addition of a poster from Jerry Cookson for the Crosland Moor meeting on the 31st August/1st September.
1977 addition of a poster from Jerry for the Blackbushe August 14th entry.
1978 Plenty here. The addition of a poster and advert from Jerry for the Blackbushe meeting on September 24th and full results for the Blackbushe 16th April, May 21st, August 13th and September 24th meetings, plus Snetterton June 3rd/4th and September 9th/10th, kindly contributed by Dave Dibley. There are also some additional details and new NDRC class records added to some of these meetings. There are also the NDRC points leader boards as they stood on September 11th, and all the final NDRC records and points boards for the 1978 season, also contributed by Dave. Many thanks for your contributions Dave. Thanks also to Victor Strugnell for pointing out, on a recent post on UK Drag & Sprint Strips That Time Forgot, that the published results for Middle Bike at the August 13th meeting are incorrect, and he was awarded the win in the final after Jim Challenger was disqualified. The power of the internet!
1984 Another of Jerry's posters has been added to the Blackbushe entry for August 12th.
1985 A little more detail to the inagural North Weald event for the NDRC in August. The additional details have come from Jerry Cookson's post on his excellent UK Drag & Sprint Strips That Time Forgot Facebook Page. This is added to a much earlier entry that includes mention of Henk Vink running a new World Record at this meeting on his rocket bike. I have been unable to find any confirmation of this. Can anyone help?
From the collection of Clive Rooms I have added 73 new programme covers. There are 14 in 1968, 14 in 1969, 15 in 1974, 13 in 1975, and 17 in 1983.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Clive Skilton, John Hobbs, Allan Herridge, Tony Densham and Alf Hagon

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 11/8/21

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. Since the last update I have had the pleasure to have been invited to Blackbushe to attend the Reunion of the 'Surrey Pioneers", the group of racers featured in John Hunt's excellent series of articles, published on Eurodragster earlier this year. (Click here to visit). This event was preceeded in the afternoon by a meeting with UK Drag Racing journalists and historians, which proved to be very interesting and entertaining. I would like to take this further opportunity to thank John Hunt for the invitation, and Simon Groves and Eurodragster for sponsoring the event. You can read Simon's report of the event, along with a number of photos, on Eurodragster here. Nick Pettitt has also uploaded a video of the evening which you can view here on his YouTube channel.

On to this latest update. A total of 38 new entries, 84 programme covers and 4 entry lists. See below for details of what they are, and where to find them. The earliest this time is from September 1963, and the most recent from August 1998.

Whilst putting this one together I found myself comparing some of the quickest times recorded at Santa Pod since it's beginnings in 1966. This somewhat inevitably resulted in me trawling through the archive and compiling a list of all the strip records contained therein. This is entirely an unofficial list and, most likely, an incomplete one. If anyone out there has any dates and times that might qualify for inclusion then let me know. You can find the list on the Special Features page. I suppose the list could continue beyond the current reach of the Trakbytes archive. It's up to you.

I was contacted recently with a request for photos of the Anglia that belonged to Mick Collingham in the seventies. I put this out on the Facebook page a couple of weeks ago and had some good responses, but if anyone has any more to add you can find the request and contact e mail address on the 'Help Us Find' page..

If you're interested please check out the Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, just so I know somebody bothered.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

There's a new request on the 'Help Us Find' page for pictures of any of Mick Collingham's cars from the seventies. I have already received a few after posting this on the Facebook page, but if anyone has any more I'm sure they would be appreciated.
The 'Special Features' page has a new addition listing all the strip records at Santa Pod that I have in the archive. There may be more that I don't have listed, so if you have any details, including dates and elapsed times, then I can add them to the list. Click here to go straight to the list.
There is a small update to the profile of 'Slo-Mo-Shun" in the Vehicle Files section, provided by Chris Pattison.
1963 there's some more detailed information from the Press Day at Silverstone in September, where Dante Duce and Sydney Allard, amongst others, demonstrated their Dragsters ahead of the First Transatlantic Challenge. There will be more information on the following meetings in the next update.
1965 Addition of the programme cover for the BDRC's Gala Day at South Marston. Apologies to whoever sent this, I have lost the details.
1966 Addition of the entry list for Santa Pod's inaugural meeting in April.
1967 Having posted on the Trakbytes Facebook page on the 54th anniversary of Alf Hagon's first run in the nines, I was reminded that I hadn't updated the archive entry (supplied to me by Alf himself) with the full details of this event. Well, now I have.
1968 Details from Santa Pod's August 17th/18th meeting which had previously not been listed in the archive.
1969 Addtion of the entry list for SPRs Championship meeting at the end of August/1st September, and thanks to Clive Rooms for supplying the entry list for Septembers BDR&HRA 'On Tour' meeting at Hullavington.
1972 Additon of a few more details from the NDRC event at North Luffenham in May, and some more details from Santa Pod's Big Go the same month which was the meeting that saw Dennis Priddle run the first sixes outside the US.
1974 Addition of the entry list for SPRs Springnationals in April, plus a couple more results from the NDRC's meeting at Wroughton in June. Further information on this meeting is proving difficult to find.
1980 My thanks to Jerry Cookson who has filled in some of the gaps with four programme covers, SPR's Easter International in April and Festival Of Speed in May, and the NDRC's meetings at Blackbushe in June and Long Marston on August 3rd.
1988 A few details from SPRs Cannonball in July, this meeting was severely affected by the weather, so there doesn't appear to be much to add. Sadly this meeting was the last Santa Pod appearance of Swedish Funny Car driver, and Santa Pod crowd favorite, Lee Anders Hasslestrom.
1996 There's a new entry with all the car class details from Santa Pod's World Finals in September. This was the last time this meeting was dubbed the 'World' Finals. It became the 'Euro' finals the following year.
1997 Thanks again to Jerry Cookson who supplied three programme covers to help fill in the gaps here, North Weald in April and the Hot Rod Drags & Doorslammers in September.
The following updates have all been contributed by Clive Rooms.
I am continuing to add programme covers submitted by Clive, and there are plenty more to come. This time we have 15 in 1966 & 1967, 8 in 1972, 16 in 1973, 10 in 1982, 9 in 1997, 7 in 1998 and 11 in 1999.
1979 Details from the NDRC (Midlands) meeting at Long Marston in June.
1991 details from the first round of the FIM European Drag Bike Championship at Avon Park in June.
1992 Pro Mod details from Avon Parks Hot Rod Drags in September.
1993 a few details from the Fireworks meeting at SPR in November.
1994 Details from Yorks Open Nationals in May and Santa Pods Saturday Night Specials in April and July.
1995 Details from Yorks Open Nationals in May, Ultimate Street Bike, also in May, Midsummer Nationals in June and North Star Nationals in August. There are also winners from SPRs Mopar Nationals and Saturday Night Special in July.
1998 Details from Santa Pods Main Event in May, and details of the Brits performances in Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, FIM Comp Bike and Pro Stock Bike at Hockenheim in August.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for The Stones, the Pages, John Hobbs, Sammy Miller, Allan Herridge, Tony Densham and Alf Hagon

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 9/6/21

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. This time we have a total of 42 new or updated entries, plus the addition of (I think) 76 new programme covers. There are also a number of new entry lists added. I don't know what that number is, but I'll guess at ten. Yes I have a lot of spare time on my hands currently, and unfortunately, or fortunately, I am not able to do much else as I have my right arm in a sling so progress could best be described as leisurely currently. It just occured to me that if I took a photo as proof of my predicament it could be regarded as a 'Sling Shot'........ never mind.

Since my last update we have learned of the sad news of the passing of Dennis Priddle. I was lucky enough to have seen Dennis run many times throughout the seventies. At my first meeting, he was running the STP Avenger Funny Car, which to my young eyes looked outstanding, and it remains one of my favorite UK cars. I was lucky enough to meet him 25 years later when I was crewing for Showtime. Tom Hoover, who spent the weekend with us, introduced me and Dennis was gracious enough to spend some time chatting and answering my questions, many of which he had no doubt answered countless times before. My photo of Dennis and Tom from that day can be found on the Trakbytes Facebook page. I'm pleased to say that the latest updates contain a number of references to Dennis' achievements and there are new updates to his Hall Of Fame file accordingly. Rest In Peace Mr Six.

Many years ago I had a page on the site with a list of questions that I was unable to find answers for. One of these was when did we first see side-by-side five second runs by two Funny Cars? Bob Jarrett once told me that he thought it was probably Gary Page & Harlan Thompson, but he couldn't be sure. One bright spark suggested that at the time of asking it hadn't happened yet.... I managed to find one or two contenders but I felt sure that it would have happened in the early nineties when Hoover, Spuffard, Thompson & Co were putting in some quick times. After putting the question on the UKDRN forum a couple of months ago I was none the wiser, but then Jon Spoard kick started the quest a few weeks ago by posting the question on the UK & European Drag Racing Photos Facebook page. Within 24 hours Simon Groves of Eurodragster came up with the earliest record he could find, which was Gary Page and John Spuffard at the 1996 Cannonball, which appears to be the date in question, unless anyone out there knows different. I have trawled through all the material available to me and can't find an earlier example. I've updated the relevant entry in the archive and am waiting to be proved wrong. It's happened before....

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first lucky people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

1964, Details from the Thames Estuary Sprint at Graveley, where both a half mile sprint, and quarter mile drag course were employed, side by side.
1965 Details of some demonstration runs by the Dos Palmos Dragster at Croft Circuit in August.
1966 Addition of all class results and best times from the BHRA's July meeting at SPR.
1968 The Commuter makes an early appearance in Stockholm in February, along with Stripduster. Thanks to Mats Wallander for the dates.
1972 Addition of all class winners from SPR's Season Opener in March, a few more details for the Grand Fuel Meet in August, some more details to the BDR&HRA meeting in September, and the addition of all class winners from Novembers Fireworks Meeting.
1974 An addition in June to the NDRC's rerun at Wroughton of a rained out meeting in April. I've as yet only managed to find this one piece of information from this meeting. I was beginning to think it hadn't been run at all. If anyone has anything to add to this date please let me know. There's a rewrite of the NDRC's second International meeting at Silverstone in June. This meeting saw a number of firsts, one of which was noteable enough to make it into the Landmarks index. Both my older brothers made the trip to spectate at this meeting. For some reason they didn't take me. I've also added the entry list for this meeting. There's also a rewrite of SPR's Fireworks Meeting in November and details of SPR's Winternationals meeting which closed the 1974 season, and where a novel approach to drying out the startline area was employed.
1975 Details from a pre-season shakedown meeting at Santa Pod in March, and all the detail worth reading from the Season Opener a week later. I had often skimmed past this date and wondered why I hadn't added any details there yet. Now I know why... There's a major rewrite to the Easter meeting at Santa Pod too. I got carried away.
1977 saw the opening of the Pennine Drag Racing Clubs new venue at Melbourne in June, and the entry now includes details of an appearance of a crowd favorite who threw down a rather unusual challenge race. There's also the addition of the car results from Snetterton in July and a new entry, with a few details, at Long Marston, also in July. Finally for '77 there's rewrite to the SPR July Internationals where Don Garlits returned to collect his car and avenge his previous years defeat, plus the addition of the entry list for this meeting. I've also added the date for the demise of Alleygator at Drachten in August. Thanks to Jerry Cookson for finding it.
1981 My thanks an ex-pat currently residing in the NE USA for sending the programme cover and entry list for the Long Marston Transatlantic Drag Bike Challenge in July. I've also included a profile of Bo O'Brochta that was printed in the programme, and three pictures of Bo's TVL bike from that meeting. They have also supplied a programme cover and entry list for the 1981 World Finals at SPR in September.
1985 I've added an entry marking the opening of Screamin' Alley Raceway in Kent, after reading an article on the Raceway Hussy blog of Niamh Frances Smith.
1990 Clive Rooms had already sent me some Pro Mod details from Avon Park's Whitsun meet, and then a race report came in from Jerry Cookson with some more details, including a couple of car debuts. I've cleverly combined the two submissions into one seamless entry, AND added the programme cover Jerry sent, AND added the entry list Jerry sent! Well done me! Jerry has also supplied some of the missing programme covers for 1990, one is the SPR Spring Nationals in May, which has also received addition of a semi-detailed write up and final results, (it was this meeting that saw the first six second pass on two wheels in the UK). The other covers are the SPR Whitsun Nationals (May), York Street Racer Championship (June), SPR Summer Nationals (August), and SPR World Finals (September) There are also entry lists added for some of these. No, I can't remember which ones, and I can't be bothered to go back and check.
Jerry has also supplied a photo from York in May 1990 when Jerry Gwynn (Father of Darrell) was Guest Of Honour at the grand opening of the resurfaced York Raceway after the Mac The Track appeal instigated by Pip Higham and Ian Lloyd. In the abscence of a programme cover for this meeting we have included it with the event entry. There's also some Super Gas Championship detail from this meeting taken from a report Jerry sent me, plus some more details listed below with the material from Clive Rooms.
1994 There's an entry now for the Main Event at SPR in May plus the addition of the entry list.
1996 A small additional detail to the Cannonball event in July where John Spuffard & Gary Page became (I think) the first two Funny Cars to run side-by-side five second passes. I have also added this to the Landmarks index.
The following updates all come from super-contributor Clive Rooms
There are a total of 60 new programme covers from Clive's collection. You will find the earliest in 1931, plus 13 in 60-65, ten in 1970, 11 in 1971, 13 in 1980 and 12 in 1981.
1983 Details from the UK Drag Racing Magazine Bracket Nationals at York in July.
1987, this somewhat sparse section has been bolstered up with the addition of 8 of Clives programme covers, to give the illusion that it actually contains something.
1990 Pro Mod details from Avon Park's Whitsun meeting in May.
1991 A few details from Avon Park in April for a meeting that very nearly didn't happen, some details and results from York's Open nationals in May, and all class results from SPR's Ultimate Street Bike in July.
1992 details from SPR's World Finals for Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Pro Mod and Top Fuel bike, plus a little detail from York's North Star Nationals in August.
1993 Details from SPR's VW Spring Nationals in April.
1994 Super Gas details from York's Open Nationals in May, plus details from Avon Park's Euro Drag Bike Series in June, and SPR's Saturday Night Special in September.
1995 Top Alcohol details from SPR's Bug Jam in July.
1997 Details from SPR's Main Event in May for Top Fuel (including a new European record) Top Methanol, Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Super Pro ET, plus Pro Mod & Super Pro ET details from SPR's Sportsman Nationals in July.
1998 All class results from SPR's Season Opener in March, when you would expect rain, and details from a very soggy Sportsman Nationals at SPR in June, when you wouldn't.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Clive Skilton, Peter Crane, The Stones, the Pages, John Hobbs Sammy Miller and Allan Herridge.

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 26/4/21

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. Bringing you all the latest news about stuff that happened years ago... Contributions this time include a wealth of information from Super Pro racer Brian Pateman, for which I am very grateful, plus more from Clive Rooms and Jerry Cookson.

Not too much waffle from me this time, down to business. I've added a direct link on the front page of the site to the series of stories from the Drag Racing Pioneers on Eurodragster. As I mentioned in the last update this has been a superb series of articles, with a load of previously unseen photos, and is well worth checking out.

There's some news from the (surprisingly inactive) "I didn't think this through" department at Trakbyte Towers this time. When I sent out the last e mail to the mailing list I made an idle request for scans of programme covers that I could include alongside the corresponding events in the archive. On reflection I should have, 1. Checked the capacity of my mailbox before doing this, and 2. Anticipated a (most welcome) tsunami of covers from the (presumably now worn out) scanner of Clive Rooms. I've upgraded the mailbox now, to a much larger one. I've probably got enough capacity to receive a full size scan of the Bayeux Tapestry now. (I don't need one by the way, so don't be tempted) I shall be adding more of Clive's scans over the next few updates.

I make it a total of 38 new entries this time, plus around 82 programme covers. I think that's enough to be going on with. New material to be added continues to mount up, ensuring that I have something to occupy any upcoming spare time, and I have a couple of different projects I'm working on that will be appearing on here at some point in the future. Don't forget, if anybody has anything to contribute please feel free to do so. And don't be shy about correcting anything you think I may have got wrong. I've adjusted a few details here and there as I've been adding the new material. Some of these I will mention, some of them I won't, and nobody will ever know....

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first people informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

1963, addition of all the best times of the day for the final round of the Transatlantic Challenge at Debden, featuring Mickey Thompson, Dante Duce, Sydney Allard and Tony Densham.
July 1964, Dante Duce flies in to discuss the upcoming Dragfests with officials and the UK motoring press.
1968 there's an addition of the programme cover for SPR's October meeting. I can't recall where I found this one, possibly eBay. Also in '68 there are a couple of corrections to the details of the runs made by Tudor Rose at it's debut appearance at Easter. Those updated details come from Keith Lee's excellent Mr Six book about the life and times of Dennis Priddle.
1970 addition of all class results for the NDRC's meeting at Santa Pod in October.
1975, I've added the last driving appearance of Mike Hutcherson, driver of the Houndog cars at SPR's Easter meeting.
1977 and the entry for SPR's August Bank Holiday meet has had a rewrite and now contains the results for most classes. This was the meeting that saw the demise of the Houndog 7 Duster Funny Car.
1978 sees a new addition of the first meeting of the year for the Pennine Drag Racing Club at York, with a few details and all class results. Also in '78 the addition of the NDRC(Midlands) opening meeting of the year in May. Thanks to Jerry Cookson for his help with confirming the date, which I couldn't find mentioned anywhere else, and also for supplying the programme cover and entry list, which I have also included.
Jerry has also provided a more detailed update, and programme cover, for York's May meeting in 1979, which includes a new strip record for Jim Read. He has also provided a programme cover for an NDRC meet in June, which is a date I didn't have in the archive, and another for the same venue in August. There are also another seven covers from Jerry, these have also been added to the 1979 section.
Super Pro racer Brian Pateman has been in touch. Brian has supplied a programme cover and details from SPR's Big Go in May 1982 (His debut race meeting) and details of the entire 1984 May meeting, which aren't as extensive as you might imagine... Also from Brian, 1984, details of the 6th Garys Picnic at SPR in June, his first event win, details from York's Street racer championships in June, and details from the Street Machine Street Racer Championships at Blackbushe in August. This event was also the 20th Anniversary of the Dragfests meeting, which means I now have details of a lot of the class winners from that event. If anyone has any further details, for instance the bike classes, please let me know. Brian also supplied a report of Santa Pod's first International Doorslammers event in September '84, a meeting which did not officially take place. On to 1985, and Brian again took the win at Gary's Picnic in June, a trip to Sweden saw another victory, less luck (depending on how you look at it) for Brian at July's Cannonball event before a return to form at the August Summer Nationals. In September the Garys Shack Doorslammer meeting took place for the first time officially, there are now details of the Pro Mod and Street eliminations with the Street class running possibly the first ever UK 32-car elimination. Finally, a couple of details, including another win for Brain at the Doorslammers meet in October 1986. Thanks to Brian for taking the time to supply all the material.
Pascal Sarrazin recently posted some elimination ladders from the 1983 LeMans Dragster Festival on Facebook, a meeting which I had added on the last update due to the UK competitors who made the trip over. He has kindly let me add these to the archive.
There's a correction to the Cannonball entry in 1984. Nick Pettitt has pointed out an error with the terminal speed on Sammy Miller's record run, which I have now corrected, and added a couple more details from a snippet Nick sent me from Drag Racing News.
The following updates all come from much valued contributor (or collaborator) Clive Rooms.
Clive has supplied plenty of programme covers for me to add to the archive. You can find the first 70 (yes, SEVENTY!) of these from the 1990 through 1996 sections. Some of these are meetings I didn't already have in the archive. Those ones are marked as new entries.
Details from Pro Stock Bike and the Rover V8s at York in May 1990.
Results from the Ultimate Street Bike meeting at Blyton in August 1991
Details from Avon Park's ACU/UK Finals meeting in September 1992. Also details from the MCN Street Bike Series at North Weald in July and York's Open Nationals in May and Grand Nationals in September.
Details of the Super Gas action at York's Northstar Nationals in August 1993.
Details of a good day out for Steve Johnson at Avon Park's Judgement Day in May 1994.
Details and all class results from Santa Pod's Fireworks meeting in November 1995. plus a small addition to the Saturday Night Special a month earlier. Also in '95 Clive has provided a comprehensive write up of the Super Gas Shootout eliminations at Santa Pod's Saturday Night Special in June.
More details for Santa Pod's Summer Nationals in August 1997, covering Top Methanol, Fuel Funny Car, Pro Mod and Super Pro ET.
A big update to Santa Pod's Easter Thunderball in 1998 plus all class results from Avon Park's Super Series in May.
A little additional detail from Santa Pod's Fireworks meeting in 1999 including an impressive time for a Top Fuel car in November.
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Peter Crane, The Stones, the Pages, and Sammy Miller.

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 9/4/21

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. I'm beginning to get the hang of this again. Opinions may vary, but that's mine.

Thanks to all those who made contact after the previous update to show support, or appreciation, or ask to be added to the mailing list, or ask where the hell I've been. It's encouraging to know that someone else gets some enjoyment from all this. The site has grown from a little project of mine to put some of the events in this countries Drag Racing history into a timeline for my own reference (23 years ago if you can believe that!), into an archive spanning the first 42 years of it's development with far more detail than I ever imagined. It's not unrealistic to say that currently I can't envisage a point where there won't be anything left to add to the site. If that should occur I imagine I'll eventually be reduced to adding the names of the staff manning the gates before I give up and go off to start a blog about vintage sewing machines.

I'm sure you are all aware of this, but Eurodragster have been running an excellent series of stories about some of the pioneers of UK Drag Racing in their own words. Transcribed by John Hunt, these make interesting reading, and feature plenty of photos, many of which you won't have seen before. Currently the series includes Derek Metcalf (Wombat & Strip Star), Bill Haynes (Quarter Horse), Mick Wheeler (Scorpion), Tony Anderson (Trouble) and Keith Stacey (Whiskey Peddler). You can view all these from the links on this page. http://www.eurodragster.com/news/features/blogs/pioneers.asp

I've had a bit of a re-shuffle on the front page of the site. This should have made the front page a bit ..... narrower (not sure if that's the correct technical term?) for those of you that apparently have the ability to look at websites on your portable telephones. (Whatever next!) You will see the addition of some new banners for two of Jerry Cookson's Facebook pages, Memories Of A Warwickshire Dragstrip, and UK Drag & Sprint Strips Time Forgot. These are both fascinating pages that regularly get updated with photos and information from days gone by. Also there is a link for Nick Pettit's British Drag Racing & Hot Rodding Archive. This is a nostalgia addicts gold mine featuring hundreds of photos, articles and items of memorabilia, as well as links to Nick's definitive collection of Time Travel videos. Undoubtably the most comprehensive collection of early British Drag Racing videos in existence.

Quite a large update this time. I seem to have a lot of spare time on my hands at the moment. I've been working my way through a stack of magazines that I rescued from my brothers garage many years ago, mostly Custom Car titles. These are helping to fill some of the gaps in the archive and add a little more detail to some of the existing entries. Whilst their coverage of race meetings was quite frequent, the reports, although often a highly entertaining summary of the events and atmosphere of those times, were somewhat lacking in things like results and accurate timing data. Thirty years on there are fortunately now other resources online where these things can be double-checked, but there are occasional discrepancies and I'm happy for anyone to set me straight about any errors. Sometimes I'm faced with two versions of a result and, without a third source to check against, I have to make an editorial decision, and I'm not remotely qualified to do this. I'm spending a bit of time cross-referencing various dates and details currently, and correcting errors as they arise, hopefully before anyone else notices. Unfortunately the magazines weren't in great condition, but there were plenty of good covers and centrefolds, enough to enable me to wallpaper the back wall of my shed. There's a picture on the Facebook page if you want to see what that looks like, http://www.facebook.com/trakbyte I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, just so I know somebody bothered.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list and informed of when the site is updated drop me a line at chris@trakbytes.co.uk

The Latest Updates

I've added some details of the first BHRA shows in 1963 and 1964, also a little more detail to the first BHRA 'Big Go' in '64, this was the UK's first proper Drag Race meeting, the previous years attempt having failed due to lack of entries.
May 1965 has an addition of an advert from Kool Kams, the official journal of the BHRA, for a piece of American machinery that was left behind in 1963.
More show details in January 1967 where a very famous UK car made it's public debut. (Not unrelated to the vehicle mentioned in the advert above).
There's a couple of additions to the April 1969 entry at SPR, including a 'David Vs Goliath' match race, also details of what I think was Dennis Priddle's first class win in 'The Whistler' in May.
A couple of details to SPR's August Bank Holiday meeting in 1972, a meeting, it turned out, with many firsts.
The 1980 World Finals meeting at Santa Pod has received a major re-write, and I've sorted out the Funny Car elimination ladder which had somehow become misaligned and confusing. I've added some more times and speeds, but there are still a lot missing from the Funny Car qualifying list. If anyone can fill the gaps please let me know. Also in 1980, details of Dave Wilson's crash at York in September, which marked the end of the line for a historically important car.
There's a re-write of the eventful first Cannonball event in 1981, and I've added the results for all classes. Also in '81 there are details of how the UK racers fared in the second round of the Tor Line Pro Comp Championship at Mantorp Park in May. My thanks to Jerry Cookson for helping me find the date for this one. There's more on the '81 Pro Comp Championship in an addition to the SPR World Finals entry in September. This meeting also saw a memorable Santa Pod debut for a future German Top Fuel driver.
1983 sees the addition of the Pro Comp class details at Santa Pod's Summer Nationals in August, and some details of the British competitors at the LeMans Dragster Festival in September.
I've had another major Cannonball re-write with a load more detail from the 1995 event. Details from Top Alcohol, Pro Mod, FIM Competition Bike and Supertwins, as well as the Funny Cars.
I've added a few programme covers, SPR October 1969 World Records Preview All Stars Meeting (Grand title, dull programme cover), SPR Spring Nationals 1970 (equally boring), SPR BDR&HRA meeting April 1970 (A meeting that had eluded me so far, and a better programme cover) SPR Internationals July 1971 (Yawn) SPR Nationals July 1972 (Much better) The Cannonball 1991, some of these are very uninspired... I've gathered all these from a website devoted to British motorsport programmes which you can find here, https://www.progcovers.com/motor/index.html. There's also a scan of the cover for Santa Pod's Championship Meeting in September 1968 courtesy of Malc Dyer. If anyone has any scans of programme covers that I don't have in the archive, and you are able to send them, I would be very grateful.
The following updates have all been supplied by Clive Rooms:
1990 details from Avon Parks ACU Dragbike Championships in September, which included a European record for a Scandinavian visitor.
A couple of details from York in May 1992 including an appearance from Fireforce.
Details of the 'Saturday Night Special' season opener at Santa Pod in 1994
There's finally an entry for the 1995 Main Event at Santa Pod with details including a new European best in Top Fuel. '95 also has the addition of some Pro Mod details from the Avon Park Goodguys Shootout in June.
1996 has details from the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod in August.
Addition of the results from the third Avon Park Super Series in 1998, plus results from the Midsummer nationals at SPR, as well as a big update to SPR's New Summer Nationals in August, and details from the October meet (The detail being that it was rained out...),
From the above updates I have updated the Trakbytes Hall Of Fame files for Dennis Priddle, Allan Herridge, Sydney Allard, John Hobbs, The Pages John Hobbs and The Stones.

That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Latest News 20/3/21

Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. I know, it's about time too.

I'm sure you're not interested in why there has been a seven year gap since the last update, suffice to say that I've been busy, but I now find that I have the inspiration to continue from where I left off. Spare time is at a premium though so I can't promise regular massive updates. I'll endevour to do as much as I can, when I can. The amount of historical information available on the internet today seems to have increased exponentially since I last updated the site. What I'm doing here is an attempt to present a timeline of events and details over the years that is accessible to anyone who is interested. I have never claimed this archive to be the definitive version of events and always invited fans and racers to correct mistakes and add to the site. Any details you feel should be included, no matter how insignificant you think they might be, will be added as, for some reason, people seem to like reading this stuff.

I was unable to retrieve the sites previous mailing list, so if you would like to be notified when I update the site, please e mail me at chris@trakbytes.co.uk and I will add you to the new one.

Things have moved on considerably during Trakbytes fallow period, and I find that I'm having to re-learn how to do this. Please be patient and bear with me as I'm beyond rusty, and I'm sure there will be errors along the way. I am fully aware that the format of the site is looking quite dated by today's standards, but the combined constraints of time and budget prevent me from addressing this currently. I will just have to hope that you will accept content rather than style for the foreseeable future. (Curiously this is the exact opposite of what you will get if you meet me in person!)

Sadly there are a number of people from the Drag Racing fraternity who have passed on since I last posted. Among them Stu Bradbury, who was a valued supporter of the site, and Bob Keith, with whom I exchanged a lot of correspondence about the Dos Palmas dragster, and who sadly didn't live to see the completion of the restoration of the car. At some point in the future I intend to update the file on Dos Palmas to include it's re-discovery and restoration.

I am re-starting by adding some material I've had prepared, but never used, and by opening a file from regular contributor Clive Rooms which contains no less than 74 entries from between 1979 and 1999 that I'm pretty sure I haven't used yet. Details of those that I've added so far, and where to find them are, in the "Latest Updates" section below.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Clive, Jeremy Cookson, Nick Pettit, Simon Groves and John Hunt for their support and encouragement in getting me restarted. Thanks also to all those of you who have messaged to say you're pleased I'm re-starting the updates. I'll try not to let you down.

Finally, as I always like to say, please check out the Trakbytes Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/trakbyte if you haven't already. I post the odd picture and bit of info on there from time to time. If you feel up to it give the "Like" button a click, just so I know somebody bothered.