This year sees the 60th anniversary of the 1st British International Drag Festival and I've done a race report for each of the three weekends...
Find more stories like this here...
British Drag Racing and Hot Rodding Photo Galleries...
Andrew Stawiarski sent me a package of photos from 1976 - 1999 including many of bikes taken mainly at Santa Pod with a few from Long Marston and North Weald...
more to follow...
Maurice Takoor met John Bennett in 1963 and became a member of the BHRA. He also became photographic editor on Drag Racing & Hot Rod magazine and later worked with John at Spa Engineering.
From 1968 to 1978 Maurice along with John Hill worked as the tech crew at Santa Pod.
In the early ‘90s Maurice organised a 30th anniversary BHRA Meet which was well attended and led to the forming of the BHRA Pioneers Club open to anyone who was involved in drag racing in the 1960s.
Maurice has amassed a huge archive collection over the years which I have scanned and sorted into the galleries below...
Further down there are many galleries featuring Brian Sparrow's photos and memorabilia. Here's some more from two recently found photo albums along with Brian's programme collection including Sprints, Speed Trials and Speed Hill Climbs from 1954 - 1965...
Antony Billinton's photos were mostly taken by either Tony Densham, Peter Billinton (Antony's dad), Susan (one of Antony's three sisters), or by Antony himself. Tony owned a nice Hasselblad camera and Peter had an Asahi Pentax which Antony still has today. They developed a large portion of the black and white photos in their own darkroom at 8 Tate Road Sutton.
The photo collection includes detailed shots of the Worden, Commuter and Firefly dragsters along with build up shots of Santa Pod Raceway, the timing equipment and many of the other cars and bikes running during the 60s and 70s.
There are nearly 2000 images in the collection and I will be splitting them up into galleries and publishing them as I go.
All of Antony's photos are copyright and should not be reproduced without permission...
more to follow...
Paul Bambrick took some great photos in the late 70s and early 80s. Here's his gallery...
Here are most of the British Drag Racing Association newsletters from 1965 and 1966 taken from Derek Metcalf and Chris Pattison's collections. If you have anymore please let me know...
Derek Metcalf was one of the first racers to do a story for the Pioneer Series published on Eurodragster. Since then he has given us some fantastic photos and memorabilia from 1964 - 1968...
Chris Pattison won the Works Allard Dragon in a competition in 1965. This is his gallery of 1960s memorabilia...
Colin Gill took some great pics from 1969 - 1978 at Woodvale and Santa Pod...
These slides were recently found and scanned by Andrew Hurdle. They were taken by Ronald Barker, who was Technical Editor of Autocar magazine at the time...
Dave Dick lent me around 1000 slides and negatives from the late 70s and early 80s, mainly from Custom Car Shows and Rod Runs. Back then Dave got to borrow some of his dad's top of the range cameras, creating some quality images...
John Hunt ran a Daimler V8 Dragster in the early 80s. He also took some great pics in the 70s/80s and kept plenty of timing tickets, rule books, newspaper cuttings and other memorabilia, enough to fill 12 galleries! Not only that but he wrote his story for Eurodragster which can be found here...
I used Brian Sutton's slides and cine film in my first Time Travel Video back in 1995. These are his slides from 1965 - 1969...
Marty Babb ran several dragsters from the early 70s to the 80s and managed to get some great start line shots...
These are Glyn Jones' pics from New York Raceway 1979 - 1980...
Robin Acock started Drag Racing in an H/Production Austin A40 in 1970 then got Harold Bull to build him a Jag Slingshot which he called Cthulhu 2 and ran until 1976. Here's his pics from 1969 - 1970...
here's a short film of Robin's Cthulhu 2 slingshot at Snetterton 1974...
Here's Pete Crane's archives including photos, letters, magazine reports and timing tickets from 1960 - 1980...
Pete Crane archives 1960 - 1974
Pete Crane archives 1974 - 1980
Some of Paul Rees' pics from the early 70s taken at Santa Pod and Silverstone...
Paul Rees pics 1971 - 1974
The Southern Roadsters of Portsmouth were formed in 1969 and this is the programme from their 5th annual Rod Run at Beaulieu in 1976 which includes a history of the club and features on some of their cars...
Southern Roadsters Rod Run 1976 programme
My pics from Beaulieu 1976
The British Drag Racing & Hot Rod Association brought out their first News Sheet in June 1970 after the demise of Drag Racing & Hot Rod Magazine. In August 1970 it was given the title Kool Kams, the name originally used for the journal of the BHRA and ran until November 1971 when it became Drag Racing News...
News Sheet no1 Jun 1970
News Sheet no2 Jul 1970
Kool Kams Aug 1970
Kool Kams Sep 1970
Kool Kams Oct 1970
Kool Kams Nov 1970
Kool Kams Dec 1970
Kool Kams Jan 1971
Kool Kams Feb/Mar 1971
Kool Kams Apr 1971
Kool Kams May 1971
Kool Kams Jun 1971
Kool Kams Jul 1971
Kool Kams Aug 1971
Kool Kams Sep 1971
Kool Kams Oct 1971
Kool Kams Nov 1971
The National Drag Racing Club was formed at the beginning of 1970 and was initially made up of racers and members of the Drag Control & Timing Association. The Club News ran from February 1970 to 1971 when it was replaced by National Drag Racer Magazine...
NDRC Club News 1970 vol1 no1
NDRC Club News 1970 vol1 no2
NDRC Club News 1970 vol1 no3
NDRC Club News 1970 vol1 no4
NDRC Club News 1970 vol1 no5
NDRC Club News 1971 vol2 no1
Bruce Eggleton built a T Bucket, ran the Pony Express altered and had a '57 Chevy convert in the 70s. He also took some colour photos at the 1964 Drag Festivals and the 1965 BHRA Big Go...
Bruce Eggleton pics 1964-65
Here's some b&w photos and colour slides I got off Ebay.
I don't know who took them but they came from Steve Warner's collection...
Ebay pics 1960s
Ebay pics early 70s
Martin Clark snapped some great b&w and colour pics in 1965 visiting Graveley, Duxford and Woodvale...
Martin Clark pics 1965
Gary Morgan started taking pics in 1975 at the Drags, Rod Runs, Custom Car Shows, Van Runs and more Van Runs...
Gary Morgan pics 1975
Gary Morgan pics 1976
Gary Morgan pics 1977
Gary Morgan pics 1978
Gary Morgan pics 1979
Gary Morgan pics 1980
Gary Morgan pics 1981
Gary Morgan pics 1982
Gary Morgan pics 1983
Gary Morgan pics 1984
Gary Morgan pics 1985
Gary Morgan pics 1986
Gary Morgan pics 1987
Gary Morgan pics 1988
Gary Morgan pics 1989
Top Fuel racer Andy Craddock took some pics at the Drags from the late 60s and 70s...
Andy Craddock pics 1968 - 1977
Graham Fermor's pics from the Drags and Rod Runs including some build-up shots of his Witch Hunter Ford Pop...
Graham Fermor pics 1974 - 1978
Dave Coleman's pics of his Austin A60 pickup that was originally customised by Roger Hamilton in 1977...
WOM 749J Austin A60 pickup