In a year of Drag Racing anniversaries – Santa Pod’s 60th and, in America, NHRA’s 75th – the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame reaches its own, special milestone.
In 2006 a group of Drag Racing insiders met at a service station on the M1 to pursue their belief that it was high time the early movers and shakers of British drag racing should be recognised for their accomplishments. The chosen vehicle was the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame. The founding chairman, Stuart Bradbury, continued to serve until his death in 2020 and was succeeded by the chair’s present occupant, Lesley Wright.
A panel of selectors meets early each year to choose a new intake of inductees judged worthy of membership. Ninety-four individuals, families, teams and organisations have thus far been honoured. Six more will be announced at Dragstalgia to join them before formal induction at the Hall of Fame’s Gala on 21st November.
Until 2012, formal inductions took place at the Santa Pod Racers Club’s annual dinner and dance. In 2013, an independent ceremony was held at Santa Pod during the European Finals. Later that year, a benefactor in the person of Geoff Stilwell, longtime drag racing enthusiast and former Pro Stock Bike competitor, offered to help the Hall of Fame enhance its activities. The result was the Gala & Awards Dinner held each year since 2014 (2020 – pandemic year – excepted) in a trio of hotels situated west of London. The location had originated entirely by chance but would prove convenient for the succession of legends and notables from America who would arrive via Heathrow and Gatwick airports to celebrate and honour British drag racing. Don Garlits was the first, in 2014, with Connie Kalitta, Ed McCulloch, Ed Iskenderian, Steve Gibbs, Don Schumacher numbered among the luminaries who came in the next few years. The Gala will have a new home in 2026, moving north to a more central location at Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth, near Coventry.
In 2016, the Hall of Fame was incorporated as a limited company, British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Ltd., and the new BDRHOF Benevolent Fund was given charitable status to aid those involved with the sport who encounter life difficulties. The company’s directors, advisers and selectors and the charity’s trustees all serve in a voluntary capacity, pro bono.
