John Bennett
John Bennett joined the British Hot Rod Association in August 1962 and the following month turned up at the BHRA’s first get together with the most radically customised vehicle of the meet, a 1954 Austin A70 pick-up fitted with a Ford Zephyr grille, twin headlamps and reshaped metalwork all carried out at his Spa Engineering workshops in South Norwood.
John was interested in the organisational side from the start and at the end of 1962 joined a group of voluntary members to form the first comittee of the BHRA with John as chairman. Discussions began on the possibilities of organizing a custom show and a drag race in the UK. John offered his Spa Engineering workshops as an ideal location for a custom show and the first British Custom Car Show was held there in Easter 1963. John also began writing regular articles in the BHRA magazine Kool Kams about the more interesting goings on at Spa Engineering from fitting tail fins to Studebakers to chopping the roof on a Model Y Ford.
May 1964 saw the first drag race in the UK organized by the BHRA at Duxford Airfield and John entered his ’58 Pontiac Chieftain. Sharing the driving was John’s soon to be wife Ann Palmer who ran quicker times than John and from then onwards became the driver while John tuned the car and between them they got the times down from 17 seconds to 15 seconds. The Thames Estuary Automobile Club held a sprint at Graveley in August 1964 which wasn’t a drag race but they were timing two cars at a time and John came out as starter complete with Mooneyes stetson and flags to try and coax the die hard sprinters to race each other.
John soon realized that the growth of British drag racing …
Dave Grady
There can have been few people who have generated so much enthusiasm, or given the opportunity to so many to involve themselves in drag racing during his time in the sport. Dave Grady had such an infectious enthusiasm for participating in, organising and promoting drag racing that it was impossible not to be swept along with his ventures and plans. These were the driven visions of a man whose inner passion for all things drag racing were to make Dave Grady one of the most innovative operators in the sport.
Dave started his early strip career campaigning a Holden in Street Eliminator at Santa Pod and Blackbushe as early as 1973, and at Pennine’s first events at Crosland Moor near Huddersfield in 1974. His leadership qualities through heavy involvement with the cruising clubs of the late seventies – the Yorkshire Street Freaks and the Northern Street Confederacy – soon came to the fore. As a direct example, the number of converts dragged to Melbourne for the inaugural meeting for PDRC in 1977 was testament to Dave’s promotional capabilities.
Dave’s friendship and work with the late Glenn Jarvis to provide American style outlets for the emerging hot rodders and racers in the North of England led him to establish what became Superpower USA at Swillington near Leeds, and a more drag strip focused outlook.
Racing took over from cruising, and Dave’s trusty black ’57 Ford took on the mantle of High Spirits for Senior Competition racing at Melbourne. There followed some spells of intense hard work as PDRC Chairman and Publicity Manager, lifting the profile of Pennine to new heights and giving Dave the opportunity to communicate his enthusiasm for the drag racing lifestyle and its possibilities to a wider audience, from big money sponsors to the youngster walking the pits …
Rune Fjeld
Norwegian Rune Fjeld first raced in England in September 1978 running his Donovan powered, Pinto bodied Pro Comp Funny Car at Snetterton and the following weekend entering the International Meeting at Santa Pod where he qualified #2 in an eight car field. He made it to the final during eliminations but had to sit and watch Martin Hopp take the win after losing fire on the line. 1980 saw Rune in Fuel Funny Car and back at Santa Pod in September for the World Finals. Rune took top speed of the meet with a 239 mph charge in his Landlubber Mustang during qualifying then pulled the holeshot of the meet in the first round when he shutdown Allan Herridge with a 6.58 to Bootsie’s 6.28.
In 1983 Rune imported the beautiful ex-Al Bergler Motown Shaker ’82 Trans Am and brought it to Santa Pod for the Cannonball in July and the World Finals in September where he qualified #2 and reached the final against Tom Hoover but tyre shake cost him the win. The 1986 Cannonball had drama in the semi finals. Bill Sherratt was to race Rune but the Motown Shaker hadn’t appeared so Bill was signalled to fire up for a bye run. Then Rune and crew came hurtling down the fire-up road, the crew still fitting the spark plugs and strapping Rune into his car. They somehow managed to get it fired up and nearly hit the tow car as Rune bounced it round into his lane, burned out, raced and won with a 6.64 to Bill’s 6.9. Rune then met Tom Hoover again in the final and in a close race this time took the win.
The 1988 August Supernationals at Santa Pod featured the début of another imported car, the ex-Joe Amato Top Fuel Dragster, and …
Alf Hagon
Alf Hagon began his racing career on grass track bikes. His first competition machine was a 1933 350cc Rudge that he used for grass track racing in the summer, trials in the winter, and for road racing when Brands Hatch had been surfaced in 1950.
His first sprint was at Trent Park in 1949, again on a 350cc Rudge, but it was not until August 1958 that the sprinting bug bit when he was offered a ride on Gordon Colquhoun’s 998cc Moto-Vincent at Witchford when regular rider Charlie Rous was unavailable to ride. There he recorded quickest time of the day at 11.26secs, soundly beating Vincent legend George Brown. In between the years of grass track and sprinting Alf became a professional speedway rider and was, for 12 years, a member of a British first division team including the London based teams of Harringay, Wimbledon, West Ham and New Cross. Alf also rode for Leicester, Oxford and Poole.
In addition he rode for the Great Britain team on tour down under in the winter of 1958-59. In between all this short oval activity Alf began making bike frames, which a few years later led to a full-time occupation building racing frames for all his chosen disciplines.
Alf went on to build and run a 650cc Triumph-engined sprinter in a grass track-style frame and broke the national 750cc quarter-mile record with an 11.79. Next, he decided he wanted to compete with the big boys, but instead of using the then popular Vincent twin, he went for the lighter and more nimble J.A.P. engine in 1964. Un-supercharged, it was seriously down on power and suffered from a terrible vibration in testing at Silverstone. Abandoning his initial plan of running without a gearbox he fitted a Norton two-speed box and promptly won two …
The Murty Family
Stephen Murty was one of a band of keen motorcycle sprinters from the Calder Valley area of Yorkshire. Early drag racing ventures saw Steve progress to a crazy Hillman Imp engined two-wheeler contesting Competition Bike at Santa Pod in the very early seventies. The drag racing bug had bitten deep, but that brought about a realisation that drag racing was a Southern based sport, and Northerners had far to travel to compete.
Steve and several associates formed the Pennine Drag Racing Club, to promote and bring drag racing to Yorkshire. Negotiations with the landowner followed by much hard work from the new club, brought eighth-mile drag racing to Crosland Moor Airfield near Huddersfield, the former private aerodrome of Sir David Brown of tractor fame. In 1974 the club held two race meetings at this venue, featuring Clive Skilton, Dennis Priddle, Roz Prior and Ed Shaver in a great show of support for this new drag racing venue, until complaints from distant householders forced the venue closed by the ruling of Kirklees Council. The closure saw Steve embark on a long legal battle with Kirklees, which he was to win eleven years down the road.
Undaunted, drag racing was promoted and staged at Liverpool’s Aintree Racecourse by Steve and the PDRC during 1975, though Yorkshire still beckoned. Steve had long been in negotiation to find a permanent venue, which in 1977 was finally unveiled as the main runway at Melbourne near York, on farming land which had been a World War 2 RAF Halifax Bomber base, the home of Number 10 Squadron. Those inaugural meetings had seen the emphasis on bracket racing, and were contested enthusiastically by American motor sport starved locals, with guest appearances by some of the most famous racers in the UK on two and four wheels. Big …