Eric Teboul
Eric Teboul was born in 1962 in Clichy, a suburb of Paris. Little did his parents know at the time what their boy would achieve on two wheels. Eric’s first motorcycle was a 50cc moped that his parents bought him to ride to school when he was 14. When he turned 16 it was replaced by a Yamaha 125. By the age of 18, Eric’s love of bikes was starting to show and he now owned several, including a Kawasaki 400 KH, Honda 1100 GL and a HONDA 1000 CBX. The Honda 1000 CBX still sits in his garage alongside the Rocket bike that would carry him to glory.
Eric first encountered drag racing bikes through helping his brother Philippe Teboul, better known to us as Bob Feeler, a stage name dating from his time in a band. Eric helped his brother build his first bike for the Top Fuel class. The bike then became Eric’s, while Philippe went on to race not only bikes but cars as well. In 1985 Eric debuted in Top Fuel, running on methanol before switching to nitromethane. He would later hold both ends of the European TFB record at 6.48sec/216 mph.
Eric had started to build the famed Rocket bike in the same year, and it was at last ready to test in 2000, once he had secured all the correct certification from Aerospace welding control. Test runs were held at the Orgères track in the Loire Valley in 2001 producing an eighth-mile, 4.5-second shakedown pass. As Eric and the Rocket bike became as one, the catalytic pressure became higher, the personal bests started to flow and markers were set.
Over Santa Pod’s Easter weekend in 2003, Eric clocked 3.889sec/226mph over the eighth-mile on the way to a slowing 6.17/181.26 at the quarter, but …
Rod & Anne Pallant
Rod started his involvement with Drag Racing in 1974 when he set up a Harley Davidson dealership. He saw an ex-Pete Grey Harley race bike advertised for sale by Jerry Mitchell, and the pair ended up running the bike together that same year. This would quickly be followed by the first twin-engined bike that Rod would race. He bought a lightly-raced, supercharged Triumph constructed by Barry Townsend, who also joined Rod in his race team. The 500cc motors were soon replaced by a pair of 650s, and the bike received a new chassis from John Clift.
With ambitions to go quicker, a very much revised twin-engined bike was first shown in early 1978 at the Custom Car show, when the familiar LA Hooker name was first launched for Rod’s bikes. Power came from a pair of RPM special Kawasaki motors, with the whole plot being force-fed by a rear-mounted supercharger. Not being too happy with how this arrangement was performing, they ditched the blower for the following season and a Hilborn injection system was fitted. This combination was raced over three years. During the final season with the bike, Rod also came out on the amazing V8 Rover-powered monster – Heavy Metal – which was Barry’s idea. The unblown, black heavyweight contender had some nitro tipped in for the first Transatlantic International meeting at Long Marston and it saw Rod ride the monster into the 8-second zone. There was actually a rear-engined version being built – but while the bike was having bodywork built by John Harpum, the engine and running gear were stolen!
Twin-engined bikes created a lot of work to keep them running, but Rod was not done with them. Inspired by the Carl Ahlfeldt-built Orange Crush, Rod …
Roger Gorringe
What turned Roger Gorringe onto Drag Racing occurred in 1965 when the film Bikini Beach was shown in his local cinema. The rather cringe-worthy movie showed just a few minutes of drag racing with glimpses of Don Garlits and Tommy Ivo. Roger was blown away and the experience impacted the rest of his life. He delivered newspapers before school and in the newsagent found Hot Rod magazine which he bought each month, then subscribed to for many years. It was not until 1968 that he first saw drag racing in the flesh at Santa Pod Raceway. There were many Jaguar-powered Altereds and some US V8-engined vehicles. He remembers waiting all day just to witness a handful of Dragsters running 7-second to 9-second passes, thinking to himself, what an experience!
Eventually getting trackside at Santa Pod in 1972, Roger snapped transparencies of the action with a 35mm Zenith camera and a Soligor 400mm lens. Some shots were used by a photo agency, although he never received proof of their use. In 1974 his name first appeared in print alongside his black and white photos used in Drag Racing News, a monthly publication delivered to all members of the British Drag Racing & Hot Rod Association. Naturally, he was chuffed to bits. Roger bought and took over this publication in 1978 as publisher and editor when Track Manager and Editor Dave Watts retired. Having had absolutely no experience in that world, he struggled through, typing the content for it to be made into copy, then cut and pasted onto layout sheets ready for the printer to work his magic. The magazine ran under his ownership until closing in 1989 when costs were getting too high. After this, he freelanced for Fire Up, European Dragster and Drag Racing UK magazines, among …
Roy Wilding
In 2019 BDRHoF inducted member Peter Crane selected Wild Bunch and Supercharged Outlaw racer Roy Wilding as recipient of the ‘Spirit of ’76 Award’ for his unyielding dedication, outstanding achievements and contributions to the UK nostalgia drag racing scene. Peter wrote, ‘Roy Wilding has become one of today’s established and more well-known drivers from all walks of British drag racing and has been involved with just about anything and everything.’
But 39 years ago, Roy’s hobby didn’t just start with Drag Racing because it started with the ‘glitz and glamour’ world of customising and cruzin’ in the late seventies; a hobby that way back then was sweeping the nation. Local custom car shows were springing up all over the place, and in Roy’s back yard; Birmingham’s Bingley Hall and the National Exhibition Centre spring to mind. Roy would enter his blue mirror flaked MGB 1600cc Ford Popular into shows such as this as a small, economical street rod for the car mad Brummies to admire and with considerable success. It didn’t take long for his V6 Pop to start straying on to the straight and narrow by finding its way to his local drag strip at Long Marston Airfield.
From that point on, his back seat driven V6 Pop competed in the NDRC and NDRA Street classes. This also led to Roy obtaining his first sponsorship deal with Custom Chrome, makers of the world-famous Cherry Bomb exhaust. Then it was the BNDRA’s ‘90’ classes for street cars at Avon Park leading to numerous eliminator wins with the purple Pop settling for a best ET of 14.9 seconds at 98 mph. Incidentally the Pop is still touring the roads today.
Roy’s competitive spirit had now begun. A few years on after building his first slingshot dragster Roy took under …