Barry Sheavills
Barry Sheavills has been part of UK drag racing since 1970 and there are not many four wheel classes in which he has not competed. A leading light for many years he has several firsts to his name – debuting the UK’s first purpose-built Super Gasser, running the first Alcohol dragster 5 at Santa Pod, the first Top Fuel dragster 4 in the UK and the first Top Fuel dragster 300 mph by a European. It is for his long career at the top of drag racing and his constant work in promoting the sport that he has been inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Barry Sheavills caught the drag racing bug after witnessing the Commuter Top Fuel Dragster smoking down the quarter mile at Santa Pod in 1970. Immediately, racing a Top Fuel dragster became his goal, but you have to start somewhere and he was soon shifting gears down the drag strip in his street driven Ford Cortina.
A Jag powered ’37 Austin Ruby came up for sale in 1972 and Barry along with his brother Dave snapped it up, debuting it as their first purpose built race car. It was already a well-known Competition Altered having been run by many teams since 1967 with the name ‘Stagecoach’. They took it in turns behind the wheel at first before Barry took over as driver with Dave twisting the wrenches. From that moment on the name ‘Stagecoach’ remained linked to Barry Sheavills.
In 1976 he moved up a gear with ‘Stagecoach II’ featuring a tube chassis, chopped ‘n’ channeled fibreglass Austin Ruby body and an injected Pontiac V8. This put him up into the Senior Competition Altered class and they raced it all over Europe running against the likes of Dorset Horn, Panic and The Devil.…
Dave Lee Travis (DLT)
Dave Lee Travis spent most of the 1970s driving a Chevrolet powered Escort called Tender Trap that ran 10s and a Top Fuel Dragster called The Needle that got down to mid six second runs at over 220 mph. As a Radio and TV presenter he was able to give drag racing a huge media profile; a major factor in broadening the sport’s appeal. He was a great ambassador for the sport and it is for this constant and never matched high level promotion of the sport that he has been inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
In the late 1960s Dave Lee Travis was broadcasting on the pirate radio stationCaroline North that was moored just off the Lancashire coast and the car cruises and shows held in his home town of Manchester during that time fired his initial interest in American cars. He did a spell as tour manager for Herman’s Hermits when the group played USA venues and he saw the occasional hot rod around the beach area whilst hanging out with Bobby Vee and Freddie Cannon who were on the same tour (how’s that for name dropping?). This increased his interest.
On returning to the UK his first drag race meeting was at Blackbushe in 1970. By this time he was broadcasting on Radio One. He had started to readCustom Car Magazine and others of the same ilk, being drawn by the customising aspect rather than any racing activity. He loved the radical nature of those involved and slowly became drawn into the scene. He was asked to open the Crystal Palace Custom Car Show in 1972 (he had walked the show in the previous year) and then started attending Santa Pod on a regular basis. He just loved the whole atmosphere. …
The Brachtvogel Family
From the early 1970’s to present day Frank, Phil and Alex Brachtvogel’s names have been associated with drag racing.They spent years at the top of two-wheeled drag racing, developing Top Fuel motorcycles in co-operation with Pete Davies and John Clift. They were innovative in their approach, sometimes leading the world. Their bikes became a classic route into Top Fuel for many of today’s stars – and they were British built. This, along with Alex’s dedication to improving the expertise and conditions of marshals, is why the Brachtvogels have been inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
There are many families involved in drag racing – quite a few inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame over the years. It is the sort of sport that requires total commitment if you want success, and that means the family too. The sport becomes your life and the Brachtvogel family members of Phil, Frank and the late Alex all fall into this category – making a difference to drag racing in the areas of drag bike riding, building and event organising.
Alex Brachtvogel was a friend of Mike Hutcherson and worked with the Houndog drag racing team for many years. So he was probably the first brother to become involved in the sport during the early 1970s – and with four wheeled machines too. As far as bikes are concerned it was Frank’s wife who was responsible for prompting the purchase of their first machine in 1978 – a 650cc Triumph followed by Terry Revill’s Kawasaki. Frank also decided he would like to buy the double Norton owned by Jonny Munn who was moving on to a new partnership with John Hobbs and the Hobbit. After three years Frank and Phil decided to focus their efforts on the Kawasaki, …
Tony Murray
The name Tony Murray crops up regularly in the history of drag racing in the North of England. Starting with the development of the Crosland Moor drag strip in the mid-1970s he remained a leading PDRC organiser until his untimely death in 1992. Whether it was digging holes for Armco barriers or acting as Clerk of the Course, Tony Murray was a true club man. Without his passion the establishment of a viable drag strip in the North might not have been achieved and it is for this that he has been inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
It was early in 1974 that the newly formed Pennine Drag Racing Club (PDRC) led by Steve Murty, embarked on work to re-configure a moor-top airfield near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, into the North’s first drag strip. As well as adding suitable barriers along the spectator areas of the quarter mile tarmac runway, there were large areas of grass and rubble to be cleared and levelled to provide pit and parking areas. A daunting amount of hard work was required to prepare for the eighth mile racing scheduled for early July that year.
Tony Murray had been involved in various forms of traditional British motor sport, both organising and officiating at club level. Being from the area, he was enthused by the club’s aspirations to help bring the new exciting sport of drag racing to Crosland Moor. He had become disenchanted with the established local motor clubs, whose outlook he viewed as too traditional. From the initial organised work party dates, he became the first worker on site in the morning and the last to leave at night; this from a man maintaining an engineering job by day. He took on the role of unofficial foreman for the work parties, and …
Carl Olson
An enthusiast for all types of motor sport, American Carl Olson started to visit drag race events as a spectator during the mid-1950s. He first drove a fuel dragster in 1964, but his greatest success on the strip came when he joined up with Mike Kuhl and by 1972 he was IHRA Top Fuel World Champion and a regular Top Fuel Dragster winner at NHRA events. He won the last Top Fuel dragster eliminator to be held at Lions. By 1976 he had finished his racing career and took a Vice President’s role with the NHRA.
Although he had previously ‘touched base’ with European drag racing via meetings with Alan Wigmore in the USA and advising Brian Taylor on introducing Europe’s first contingency sponsorship scheme, his first in-depth introduction to British drag racing occurred in 1989. Carl was by then NHRA Vice President for International Relations. He and fellow NHRA Vice President, Bernie Partridge were invited to attend an event at Avon Park Raceway on Long Marston aerodrome (now Shakespeare County Raceway).
His hosts were David Riswick, who had just taken up an operating lease on the track, and David Wilkinson of Blacktop Promotions, the company formed to promote meetings there. Wilkinson was also Chairman of the British Drag Racing Association. Carl and Bernie were asked to review the facility, spend a bit of time with the organizers and participants, and make recommendations regarding potential improvements to the facility and event conduct. Dave Riswick’s end game was for it to become an NHRA sanctioned drag venue but problems with the lease scuppered this dream
But Carl also had a growing relationship with the Swedish drag racing fraternity and, at the behest of Per Olav Forsberg, attended regular meetings of a group that went on to form the European Drag Racing …