Eyewitness account of the 1964 Drag Festival by Derek Metcalf who had just finished building his first dragster powered by a 1991cc TR2 engine.
In time for the first Blackbushe meeting, were due a large contingent of American race teams which had been brought over by Sydney Allard and assembled for match racing some of the British drivers and their machines with very different set ups to the American cars. This was a six-round series of events. The very first International Drag racing event took place at Blackbushe Airport near Camberley, Surrey, Saturday 19th September 1964. Then, Sunday 20th at RAF Chelveston, Saturday 26th at RAF Woodvale, Sunday 27th at RAF Church Fenton, Saturday 3rd October at RAF Kimble, returning to Blackbushe for the last event Sunday 4th October.
We were involved at the very start, our experiences were as follows. Gerry Belton being the general secretary of the BDRA which had been set up by Sydney Allard, asked for volunteers to go to Southampton docks to meet the Americans and their machines off the old liner “SS United States” and tow them to Sydney’s showroom at Clapham. My wife Pam and I went with a friend in his Landrover all ready to get towing. We arrived just as one dockside crane was not strong enough to lift out the first trailer, after a few strong words by the crane driver a second crane was brought alongside. We all now realised we were in trouble not only with the size and weight but also they all had air brakes.
Being unable to shift them, Sydney realised he was in trouble as he had announced a publicity display at his showroom in Clapham the next day. There was one, a saloon car on an open trailer with cable brakes, we were asked if we could get this to Clapham that evening with our friend and his Landrover. This we eventually did at a moderate pace. Tom Lush Sydney’s right-hand man came looking for us in the deserted streets of London as the tow took longer than anticipated, but an American car was at last in the showroom. The next day Sydney went to a surplus yard, buying ex-army vehicles, having to insure them and fit tow bars. Taking the rest of the dragster’s straight to Blackbushe.
We had still not fired up the engine of our dragster until the Saturday evening before the last Sunday meeting. At 8.15pm brother Barry and Pam pushed me in the dragster round our estate, to our joy it started almost straight away, and I drove around the roads. I was somewhat relieved to find that I must have put things together properly, with the engine firing up and shattering the peace of our neighbourhood. It was hurriedly switched off and pushed back home into the garage before anybody could ask what was going on. Barry volunteered to act as mechanic on the Sunday, so with his assistance the last nut and bolt were tightened up, this was now 1am Sunday morning.
Finally ready to attend the last meeting of the festival at Blackbushe, Sunday October 4th, having snatched a few hours sleep from our 1am finish that morning. Borrowing a trailer locally we set off that morning for Blackbushe. As we approached the Airfield an Austin van came up behind us, it was Alan Herridge and John Harrison with their machines looking on enquiringly at our machine. It caused quite a lot of interest and speculation as to its performance. We were preparing for some practice runs wanting to see how the dragster behaved on the quarter-mile. Then to my horror an announcement was made to the effect that there would be no practice runs due to noise problems, however we did get to do our first run. At this time Don Garlits had a broken helmet strap, Pam always went prepared, producing a needle and thread mending it for him.
So imagine my feelings when I found myself on the starting line before a crowd of about 30,000 spectators. Sitting in a vehicle which I had made myself virtually on the kitchen table and which apart from a few minutes run on the road around my home, I had never driven it. As I lined up at the start, the lights changed, accelerating away clutching the steering wheel I had pulled the gears for the steering out of mesh going down the strip. I quickly put my hand under the scuttle, grabbed the column and steered by hand from there. After crossing the finish line while slowing I managed to re-engage the gears. I kept quiet about this, doing the second run the same way.
I had no intention of thrashing the machine, this was really the running in period. I considered it something of a miracle that I reached the end of the course at all and with the machine still in one piece. After one or two adjustments I made a second run and during this run I became more confident. I was the first British driver to pull a wheelie, lifting the front wheels some 18” clear of the track. We did only get the two runs in, then making for home feeling pleased that the day was such a success. Although I didn’t carry off any prizes, just to compete was a big thrill. The Blackbushe meeting was a real learning curve for us, as it was for the rest of the home contingent.
Eyewitness account of the 1964 Drag Festival by Gary Goodnight, part of the American team running the Dos Palmos AA/GD.
From Chris Dossett's Trakbytes website...
In 1964, I was a member of a group of American drag racers on an exhibition tour that introduced drag racing into the UK. The tour was sponsored by NHRA and the old British Drag Racing Association. The tour was organized by Sydney Allard working with Wally Parks and sanctioned by the RAC. Allard, Parks and NHRA used the tour to introduce and promote drag racing in the UK. That group was the first United States' Drag Racing Team, and the team was comprised of:
Don Garlits AA/FD (what else can you say?) Dodge powered
Tommy Ivo AA/FD Chrysler powered (yes, TV Tommy)
Tony Nancy AA/GD Plymouth powered. Tony brought over both his gas cars, 22jr and the Wedge (one of the early successful back-motor cars. I think he later crashed the Wedge in Ohio when it decided to fly). Both were gorgeous cars, typical of Tony Nancy and of Steve Swaja's body designs. The Wedge ran strong, but spun bearings in its Plymouth wedge engine on a regular basis. Dante Duce asked Tony if he could take 22jr for a pass (at Chelveston if I remember right) and drove it straight into a big timing light battery in the middle of the track at the finish line. He wadded the car into a ball but walked away. I had a great picture of Tony berating a very sheepish Duce on the way back to the pits.
Goodnight, Keith & Williamson AA/GD Dos Palmos 400" Chevy mouse motor (my car, later sold to a group in Leeds)
K.S. Pittman A/GS '33 Willys (One of the wild supercharged gas coupes)
George Montgomery A/GS '33 Willys (Another famous gas coupe)
Ronnie Sox & Buddy Martin A/FX Mercury Comet 427" sohc Hemi Mercury (Factory Experimental, predecessors to the Funny Car)
Dave Strickler & Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins A/FX 426" Hemi Dodge (yep, they were partners then, with Dave driving. Both the AFX's ran 4 speeds that the guys power shifted so smoothly that the locals thought they were running automatics).
Doug Church's little rear engined Porsche powered dragster
Moonbeam Dean Moon's Devin bodied sports car with a crank-driven blown small block Chevy.
Don Hyland's twin Triumph Parasite bike and Bill Woods’ Iron Horse Harley.
When we showed up, no one but a handful in the UK knew what drag racing was. We raced at Blackbushe, an old WWII airstrip (Really? That's what Wally Parks said) near London, RAF Chelveston, RAF Woodvale near Southport, another RAF base near Tadcaster (my memory's failing on the actual places-Church Fenton). We also placed the cars in shows in Leeds and Manchester. There were large crowds, brought out probably more by curiosity than anything else.
The cars were shipped over on the old S.S. United States liner. When Mr. Allard and crew arrived on the docks to tow them away, they found these enormous enclosed trailers that were stuffed (sorry...filled) with the cars, tires, engines, superchargers and tools. The tow cars were Cortina's and the like that didn't have enough horsepower to get the trailers to turn a wheel. Mr. Allard then disappeared, and reappeared with a fleet of like-new military lorries and started welding on hitches. He evidently had gone to a surplus yard and gotten them for around 200 quid each. We were in love with the lorries. We were told they had Rolls engines and they had 5 speeds forward...and 5 speeds reverse! They also had a roof hatch with a gun ring on the passenger side, and we liked to ride through the race day traffic jams sticking out of the hatch and checking for birds (a new word we had just learned... but we knew what they were, especially by the time we left for home). I guess we were here for 6 weeks or more and had a lifetime's experience.
One other thing that sounds weird now. At that time, the FIA (or maybe the RAC) didn't allow advertising on race cars, and we had to get a special ruling since our cars were covered with sponsor's logos. That sure changed things for racing over here. Mr. Allard had always had a fascination for American V-8's, if you remember his Cad-Allard sports cars of the early 50's. He had built a crank-driven blown Chrysler powered dragster that was beautifully built and ran well in spite of the lack of parts in the UK at that time. There were some interesting British cars at the meets. One of them was a four wheel drive Ferguson F1 car that was really fast for a non-drag racing car. And there was a Lotus 19 with a little 90c.i. BRM V-8 with sliding vane injectors that was fascinating but extremely annoying. It would buzz up to about 14 grand warming up. The vane injectors didn't like to idle, so the driver, a British hill climb champion whose name I can't recall, had to wing it constantly to keep it cleaned out. He got teased mercilessly about driving that noisy damned mosquito...but it could run!
The starting line on the first race day (Blackbushe) was congested with race officials who were either very important or just wanted to be close to the race cars, and we were getting frustrated with the time it took to weave through them and stage. In those days, we pushed the cars out and back down the strip toward the starting line to fire them, even in the States. Ivo had weedburner exhausts, low, swooping headers that ran out level almost at ground level (zoomies were just coming in). He lit off, came easing through the crowd of officials and cleaned it out with a huge rack of the throttle. I think he set about 10 official's socks on fire, and we had no trouble getting to the line after that.
We had dropped the boost on our little car to where it would perform adequately, but with no more stress on it than driving to market. Not the fastest, but during the week while Tony was putting new bearings in the Wedge, we were all over England or off to the Continent. Too much fun! That's when English bitter became one of my weaknesses.
I always had the desire to return to England, and when the opportunity came for me to move over, I took advantage and left for Yorkshire. Maybe one of these days I'll wander by Santa Pod or York Raceway to see what changes you've made after all those years.
I keep remembering more war stories as I read your UK drag racing pages. Like travelling through traffic in the team bus with Strickler rolling cherry bombs out the roof vent off the back of the bus and under the following cars...or on a night out on the town with the motorcycle guys in their little van and the windscreen exploded...or Ronnie Sox biting into a pork pie from one of the concession caravans thinking it was a fruit pie like we have in the States, choking and looking for someplace to get rid of it and spitting a big mouthful into their pot of tea water. Pandemonium! Or Garlits in his little Mini, racing us across a field at Blackbushe and tearing a hole in his petrol tank. We all wheeled back into the hangar where we were garaging the race cars (which was also in use by some small company), Don whipping off the gas tank and welding up the tear. The company was still evacuating the building in terror when Don bolted the tank back in and we all took off for London...across the field again...
Or arriving in Leeds for a car show with no rooms and having to sleep in Ivo's trailer. It was freezing, and I pulled on Ivo's fire suit to keep warm. Ivo's about four feet tall and I'm 6'3"...or Ivo taking a ride down the quarter mile in a motorcycle side car with a one-legged guy...or the stunning lady at a banquet in Ilkley who asked if I would knock her up in the morning (she must know by now that in the States that means 'make me pregnant'). I did my best, but got no reports back...or on the S.S. United States, Jenkins disappearing every night until we asked him where the hell he went every night. The first class section was completely isolated from the rest of the ship and we were the next class down. But Grumpy had found a freight elevator at the rear of the ship that went clear to the bottom hold. He could then walk the length of the ship to the front freight elevator and come up in first class. He had spent the trip rubbing elbows with the Captain. At least that was his story. The rest of us were tortured by a 3-piece Meyer Davis orchestra playing "Nearer My God To Thee".
Classic Ugly Americans. And on, and on, and on. I need a nap before I head back to the pub again. There's a lady there that's asked me to knock her up. I'll do my best.
Cheers. I'm off.
Gary Goodnight, UK.
Surviving 1964 American Team Members...
Sixty years on, those American racers who are still with us are Don Garlits, Tommy Ivo and Don Hyland.
Those we've been able to find out about who have unfortunately passed are...
Tony Nancy 11th Nov 2004,
KS Pittman 31st Jan 2010,
Ronnie Sox 22nd April 2006,
Buddy Martin 8th July 2002,
Dave Strickler 6th June 1985,
Doug Church 2012,
Bill Grumpy Jenkins 29th March 2012,
Dante Duce 1st Feb 2008.
Bob Keith summer of 2015.
George Mongomery 24th August 2023.