Karsten Andersen & Per Andersen
On a trip from Denmark to Mantorp Park in the late 1980s, fellow Car Club members Karsten Andersen and Per Andersen noticed a Comp Eliminator dragster for sale. The rest is history. After alternating drives in the Comp Dragster Karsten and Per were invited to join the Top Fuel team of fellow Dane Jens Nybo. Jointly calling the shots, they tuned Jens to European series wins preceding the FIA era and then the first FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Championship in 1996.
Kim Reymond bought Jens’ dragster in 2002 and, tuned by Karsten and Per, took that year’s FIA Championship. In August 2003 there was a sign of things to come at Gardermoen in Norway when the team didn’t bother with the 4.8s but went straight from 4.9s to Europe’s first 4.7-second run, followed a few weeks later by the shot heard around Europe, Kim’s 4.645/317.56 in qualifying at the 2003 FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, although an injury sustained at the hit of the parachutes ended Kim’s racing career. In 2005 Karsten and Per assisted Swedish Top Fuel racer Tommy Möller to runner-up spot in the FIA Championship.
Karsten and Per started their own Top Fuel operation in 2006 with a state-of-the-art dragster imported from the USA and driven by Swedish Pro Modified standout Håkan Nilsson. Håkan set an ET record of 4.830 seconds and won that year’s FIA Championship before retiring. UK legend Andy Carter stepped into the dragster and Karsten and Per tuned him to the FIA Championship in 2008 and 2009, equalling Kim’s 4.645 ET then in 2010 setting his third quarter-mile record of 4.572 seconds, which will never be broken.
Karsten and Per shipped the car to America for several events with Norway’s Thomas Nataas in the seat before returning to Europe. American …
John and Lesley Wright
John and Lesley Wright have substantially influenced the direction of drag racing in the UK. In 1985, after racing a series of cars since 1973, John commenced his involvement with the sport’s organisational side. As Chairman of the Midland Drag Racing Association he helped overhaul the safety rules, race licence procedures and the introduction of log books for cars. In 1988 he joined Anthony Hodges as track manager at Long Marston. The track was renamed Avon Park Raceway in 1989 and in the same year John published Fire Up Magazine, which became an international journal of the sport. In 1991, with Ron Clark, John promoted the Pro Comp Classic.
He was an active committee member of the Avon Park International Racers Association (APIRA) and around the same time was a founding member of the SPRC, representing APIRA and sat on the RAC sub-committee. After a period working with Stu Vallance, Jonathan Lovett and Oyver Jacobsen, he commenced a successful period as crew chief for Swedish racer Viveca Averstedt which culminated in 1998 with two events in the USA running a best of 4.88 at 271mph – at that time, the quickest run ever by a European team. He went on to work with Alan Jackson, Knut Soderquist, Tony Betts and Smax Smith. Between 2002 and 2005, with Darryl Bradford, he owned and tuned the Wildside Top Fuel car. Following this from 2006 to 2009, he was crew chief and driver of the Chaos Fuel Altered, recording a 6.195, then Europe’s quickest Fuel Altered pass.
Lesley Wright (nee Digby) grew up locally to Santa Pod. She and Allan Herridge became partners during the period when Allan was track manager at Santa Pod, and her job was to hand out the pit gate money to racers. After Allan’s passing, Lesley joined the …
Steve Woollatt
Steve has successfully raced in the top tier of Drag Bike Racing for some 30 years – so far.
After going along with friends to watch the racing, he started out himself back in 1976, when he first had a go on track at a RWYB event, riding a Z1 Kawasaki, which ran low 12s times. It was the catalyst for what was to be the beginning of a long career in drag racing, as he started a full season the following year.
In 1977, Steve first came to note by winning the Street Bike class at the Santa Pod meeting in October. The following year saw him take five more Street wins, at Blackbushe, Snetterton and Santa Pod. By this time he had fitted the Kawasaki motor into a distinctive Egli frame. At the 1978 season ending Fireworks Meeting, Steve defeated two other well-known racers, by beating Brian Johnson and Pip Higham to win the Street Bike eliminator.
The desire to go quicker led to purchasing a part built blown Kawasaki drag bike, which was believed to be the first of its type to be built in this country. With help from Pat Neal, the Daytona Motorcycles sponsored machine was completed and running in 1979. Reliability on nitro was a major issue, and the pair decided something better was needed.
Come 1980, and they fielded their completely new entry. Steve was out there battling in Top Bike eliminator on the distinctive blue metal flake B.Fuel machine. The bike quickly hit the mid 9s bracket, and over a number of years of development it ran a best of 7.8s/175mph in winning on the final appearance in the Pro Fuel class in the late 80s..
Steve was then offered a ride on the fuel bike of fellow rider Phil Baimbridge, which …
Lawrie Gatehouse
For over half a century Lawrie Gatehouse has contributed much to drag racing in the UK. His story started with sprinting a Triumph Bonneville, however things changed after his first contact with drag racing at the Blackbushe DragFest meeting in 1964. He had learned of the American racers coming over and was ‘amazed and dumbfounded’ at what he witnessed. He became one of drag racing’s regular photographers contributing to magazines like Autocar, Motor, Autosport, Custom Car and National Drag Racer. He then took a few years away from drag racing to start his own company – Process Systems International. His training as a professional mechanical engineer provided the foundations for business success and this gave him the resources to return to the sport with some bold new ideas.
He initially sponsored a few teams but in 2004 he renewed his acquaintance with Ollie Burn, whom he knew from the 1970s. Ollie inspired him to get more closely involved with a class that he always had a passion for – Fuel Altereds. Lawrie conceived and formed the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association (NFAA) with the prime aim to put on a show like it used to be when he was in the US. The first meeting for the NFAA was Easter 2005 and, later, as many as fourteen teams competed, with Lawrie providing run money to contribute to the teams’ running costs.
He then turned to race car ownership and had the legendary Chaos Fuel Altered built from scratch in twelve weeks at the start of 2006. John Wright was the original driver and crew chief, experiencing the car’s evil handling. It usually ran mid to high sixes, but got away from John at Shakey and a new chassis was in order – with which John recorded even quicker runs. Gary Page …
Pip Higham
Pip Higham’s first introduction to Drag Racing was in 1964 when a round of the ‘International Dragfest’ took place at Woodvale. After crewing for Fred Whittle of ‘Shutdown’ competition altered fame at early UK drag races he switched to two wheels and in the early 1970s was competing as a rider with a selection of his own machines, a Rickman Triumph, a Honda and a triple Kawasaki.
There followed a series of giant killings with a Suzuki GS750 during 1977 as he made a name for himself in production drag racing and record breaking at Elvington the following year.
The quest for more performance saw the development of a Suzuki GS1000 followed by a GSX in subsequent years – racing across Europe and ultimately America, during which time he also campaigned a turbo-charged Suzuki ‘Funny Bike’ alongside his regular stable.
The background for all this success revolved around Pip’s own business, the ‘Village Bike Shop’ in Manchester where he provided a service for those who wished to go that much quicker than the rest. Built following the successes of his previous Street class rides, where Pip had become first European into the 10 second bracket and then the first rider ever into the nines, ‘The Deuce’, a VBS development producing 160 bhp from Pip’s own tuning parts, ran in the 9.0 second bracket many times at terminal speeds up to 154 mph for the quarter mile. With backing from Heron Suzuki GB, Texaco and Superbike Magazine, he did more than his fair share to establish Pro Stock Motorcycle racing in Europe.
The Brighton Speed Trials saw Pip take ‘The Deuce’ GSX1100 to an incredible 160mph through the beams. In the course of its competitive life this bike saw racing at Santa Pod, Brighton, York, Le Mans, Paul Ricard and Monza …
Stuart Bradbury
Few personalities in British drag racing are as well-known and respected as Stu Bradbury. For years he served as Chief Starter at Santa Pod Raceway and subsequently became Founding Chairman of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, which has since achieved international acclaim. He discovered drag racing in 1964, not at one of Sydney Allard’s International Drag Festival events, but at a famous stately home, Woburn Abbey. Performing in a pop group at a function there, he stumbled across a display organised by the British Hot Rod Association, then a sparse group of enthusiasts with a dream of organised drag racing in the UK. The hot rods and dragsters on show struck a chord with Stu and he joined the club, beginning a love affair with drag racing that has lasted over fifty years.
In 1965, Stu and his parents provided accommodation to club chairman John Bennett while a permanent drag strip was being developed on Podington aerodrome, a disused wartime base located near Stu’s Wellingborough home. Stu himself lent a hand building Europe’s first permanent drag racing venue, christened Santa Pod Raceway.
Santa Pod opened in 1966. Stu spent non-race weekends digging and painting, while his first race-day job was crowd control. The following year he was promoted to Deputy Starter and then Chief Starter in 1968. Stu encountered his first American racers when the ‘American Commandos’ team visited Santa Pod in 1966, and Scandinavian, Dutch and even South African entrants followed. Stu controlled the line when Don Schumacher and Paula Murphy brought over their Funny Cars in 1973 and when Don Garlits made his historic appearances in 1976 and 1977. Many other US stars he started included Tony Nancy, Raymond Beadle, Gene Snow, Don Prudhomme, Sammy Miller and TC Christenson.
He even spent time on America’s NHRA …