Straightliners
Right from the start Straightliners have offered a
‘stepping-stones’ approach for new riders and drivers into the sport of Drag Racing and the driving force behind this organisation has been Trevor Duckworth. As a competitor, Trevor rode various motorcycles at events over the past 50 years, winning many club and national championships and breaking many FIM World Records. He has always endeavoured to find a way to help and encourage those wishing to start out in Drag Racing.
Born from the Streetfighters magazine class of motorcycle in the mid-1990s, Straightliners rose to prominence in the early 2000s where a much broader spectrum of fast race and street bikes was beginning to emerge and to take part in competitions over the quarter-mile.
The organisation has helped to bring public recognition in series which include Superstreet Bike, Ultimate Street Bike and Streetfighters, as well as American Super Street. Under Trevor’s guidance they have been very successful in running safe grass-roots motorsports events. Straightliners have also pioneered ‘Ten of the Best’ in which fast modified Japanese and European cars can take part in drag racing, as well as developing a handling course at Yorkshire’s ‘home of speed’, Elvington Aerodrome.
It may be a junior racer on their first powered bike or a more mature rider who wishes to test themself on their road bike in a safe racing environment. Straightliners events are also where the legends of the sport and their classic machinery can keep competing.
Although the organisation has recently found a permanent home at Melbourne, this has not stopped them continuing to stage events at numerous temporary tracks which have included Esholt Park, Smeatharpe, Campbeltown, Llanbedr, Dishforth, Woodbridge, North Weald, Waterbeach, Sandtoft, Sculthorpe, East Kirby, Perranporth and Kirkbride on the UK mainland; Jurby and the world-famous Ramsey Sprint, both on the
Ray Baskerville and Peter Miller
Ray Baskerville and Peter Miller started racing within a year of each other at Santa Pod, on home-built bikes, and made contributions singly and jointly to the evolution of the sport through their desire to explore new ways to advance development.
Amazingly, Ray had three Studebakers and a DeSoto before he was old enough to drive! On these old cars he learned many engineering skills, while his father drove the repaired cars. Hot Rod magazine filled Ray with ideas – and the 1964 Dragfest helped even more. His first race bike was a 500cc BSA single. Changing to an injected 650 BSA twin, he was among the first few Drag Bike racers to visit Sweden in 1969. Ray made his own barrels, and redesigned and built twin OHC heads for a twin-engined BSA. Unfortunately a technical issue forced a change to Triumph motors. The crankshafts were altered to 180 degrees, to run like a four-cylinder engine. He made a motor gear-coupling drive casing assembly which would see copies used on many twin-engined machines. The bike ran a very competitive 10.0sec/146mph on methanol. An early first in Europe was the adaptation of a car overdrive unit for use in a Drag Bike. In 1973, the cut-down Wade blower was replaced by a home-configured centrifugal supercharger, using the compressor rotor from a Holset turbocharger. This was belt-driven at 90,000 RPM, which proved to be a limiting factor!
Ray was also involved in a project to design and produce sintered iron plates to work in a conventional clutch unit which was intended to bring improvement to racers struggling to prevent clutches burning out.
Peter Miller, better known as Pete throughout the paddock, started racing in 1967 on a 500cc Triumph. He developed his racing skills, and race equipment, as he made rapid progress. …
The Huxley Family
Lest anyone doubt that Drag Racing is a family sport, the example of the Huxley family is a clear riposte to such a thought. Father of the clan Brian Huxley has enthused over all things American automotive from an early age and his continuing thirst for speed has spilled over to his three sons. Lee, Darren and Marc compete in three motorsport disciplines: drag racing, drifting and gymkhana.
Brian was a car enthusiast from an early age. Inspired by the ‘pin-ups’ he had seen in Hot Rod magazine while working as a paperboy, he converted his first car, a 1948 Austin 16, into a hot rod. There followed a pair of big ‘Yanks’, a 1937 Buick Straight-8 and a 1939 Oldsmobile, as well as several British classics.With the infancy of UK hot rodding in mind, Brian’s first foray into competitive motorsport was Jalopy Racing (Grass Track Racing) as it was known in the swinging ‘70s. Racing in home-built cars (bangers) with scaffold poles for roll cages, Brian built more than one race-winning Jalopy around the favoured Ford 100E saloon and van.
He also put together a Mini and had a few outings in what were classed as single-seater, rear-engine specials.
After 10 years successfully competing on grass, in 1979 Brian moved into the sophisticated world of drag racing at the wheel of a self-prepared, Street-driven ’69 Ford Mustang Fastback called CanDo. At a cost of just £300, Brian successfully removed all ripples and dents as, earlier in its life, the vehicle had been backed into a 12-foot-long RSJ and forwards into several parked cars.
The Mustang received various upgrades as well as a pair of slicks, and ran flawlessly for several seasons at Long Marston, carrying Brian to the 1982 NDRC Street Car Championship.
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Martin Hill
When you hear the name Martin Hill, you immediately think, “Jet Cars”. With over 40 years’ experience with all things jet, it’s easy to understand why. This year the FireForce brand celebrates 35 years since the original FireForce1 Jet Funny Car debuted in 1989. But where did it all begin?
Born In Mexborough, South Yorkshire, Martin’s first job was as a coal miner at Barnburgh Colliery when he was 16. In his spare time, he loved nothing more than taking to the Yorkshire roads on his motorbike. It wasn’t long before Martin ventured into drag racing. Aged 19, he built his first competitive bike. Based on a Kawasaki Z1000, Martin highly customised and modified the bike until it eventually topped 130mph. During the six years of racing in the Street class of bikes, he became the second fastest rider in the country.
In 1983 Martin moved on to a new project that was to launch a career spanning 41 years. During his time racing bikes at Santa Pod, Martin had observed the Hellbender and Vampire Jets. His interest piqued and an idea formed.
In his parent’s backyard in Mexborough, he started building a Jet Dragster – the first of its kind in the North of England. In just 16 weeks, the car went from drawing board to racetrack with Martin building the car totally from scratch. It debuted in August 1983 at York Raceway and several runs later had reached speeds just shy of 200mph. Martin soon realised this jet, by design, was never going to go as fast as he wanted so the whole car was scrapped with only the Rolls-Royce Viper engine remaining. Of course, Martin then set to work building a second Jet Dragster.
Mr. Ree, as this second jet was called, while more stable and …
John Spuffard
John Spuffard has a long record of achievement in British drag racing. He drove in the Fuel Funny Car class from 1984 to 2015 with only a few years off during this period, which makes him the longest-standing Funny Car pilot in our history.
His early involvement saw him go to the Chelsea Cruises and in 1979, aged 21, he ran a 1972 Mustang Grandee in the Modified class. He helped Paul Manders with his Time & Motion Funny Car and decided he wanted one of his own. In 1984 he bought the Vega-bodied Komodo Dragon from Ollie Burn and named it Showdown.
When bought, the car had no running gear or rear axle. John had a 392-iron block and bought an axle from Ronnie Picardo. He took it down to Dennis Priddle’s workshop and Priddle mounted it in the chassis for him. He remembers going out for a beer with Priddle who gave him some guidance. One tip which he always followed was to have a good breakfast and then not eat for the rest of the day. Dennis said, ‘Drink fluids but don’t eat in case of something unfortunate happening.’ He also bought parts from Graham Hawes and also from Reg Hazleton, who lived and worked fairly close to him.
Around 1985 John was involved with Trevor Young. Trevor’s dragster was sold to Dennis Sheridan with the iron block and the Funny Car Donovan was installed. Further improvements in 1986 came from the ex-Nobby Hills Houndog Dodge Challenger body which had been burnt in Sweden and the first event out with this was in Zandvoort, Holland.
Later that year back at Santa Pod, the engine kicked a rod out and burnt the car down. After such a big fire early on in his career John wasn’t sure whether …