Joan Cookson
You can read the Cookson Family members profile page HERE.
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Rod Pallant
You can read Rod & Anne Pallant’s members profile page HERE.
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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 …
Gerald Cookson
Gerry Cookson first became aware of Drag Racing when his brother in law David bought Hot Rod Magazine and showed it to him in the early 1960s. They, and Gerry’s wife Joan and son Jeremy, travelled together from their home in Sutton Coldfield to the 1965 Dragfest.
Enthused by the spectacle they saw, Gerry decided to build a slingshot dragster powered by a Morris Minor engine. The car was almost ready for the track at the same time that Santa Pod opened in 1966. Tuition in welding the chassis came from Ken Cooper, and Gerry did all his own work on the car. The slingshot, first known as Minor Leaguer, evolved into Trouble Shooter after new bodywork, engine and chassis changes to enhance performance.
In 1969 when wife Joan was pushing the car down the fire up road, the dragster’s push bar collapsed, resulting in the car going into the guardrail and rolling. Undeterred, Gerry built a new chassis as he had previously done. By 1973, using a 1071cc Mini Cooper engine with a Godfrey cabin blower on methanol, the car was recording times in the mid 10 second zone and had many wins in the Junior Dragster class. Gerry then built a Berkeley Sports and entered it in the Modified Street division. By the early 1990s he was racing a MG Midget which he won the Four Pot challenge with, and, in the early 2000s, ran at RWYBs at Shakespeare County Raceway forty years after his track debut.
Whilst Jeremy helped his dad prepare his car for racing, he soon joined the junior section of the Midlands Drag Racing Association and helped Gerry edit the club magazine, the original Fire -Up. Jeremy was soon writing race reports for various motorsport and drag racing publications. A job at a local …
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 …
Bob Phelps
Without any doubt the Phelps family – Bob and his son Roy, along with Santa Pod’s administrator Eileen Cattley – had a huge impact on British drag racing. They were involved from its very early days of the Drag Fests but really only became main players with the opening of Santa Pod Raceway in 1966 which they continued to run into the 1990s. They were personally involved in building many of the facilities at the track including the tower, barriers, and the famous Barn. Bob and Roy also ran their own stable of race cars. Roy also drove theGloworm Capri Funny Car and the Wheelie Stingray, which is still running today. The number of cars Roy Phelps ran over the years is huge and included the famous Top Fuel cars such asCommuter, Firefly, Asphalt Alleygator, along with Funny Cars Gloworm, Gladiator and Cannonball. The Phelps family not only ran their own cars, but helped many other teams with parts, as well as building their engines for them. They were also had a stable of Jet cars as well as the more traditional cars. Most of these cars were built and driven at some point by Allan ‘Bootsie’ Herridge who had a long association with the Phelps family
Most race fans will remember seeing a string of big name USA drivers coming to the Britain to race at Santa Pod Raceway. All these cars and teams were bought over by the Phelps family, usually with the cars staying here to be raced by British drag racers afterwards. The list of these famous names is huge and included Paula Murphy, Don Garlits, Gene Snow, Raymond Beadle, Don Schumacher, Sammy Miller, Tony Nancy, Al Segrini and Darrell Gywnn.
Santa Pod was by no means their …
Iris Page
The Page Brothers Clive, David and Gary began their drag racing career as crew members on Wild Bill Weichelt’s DosPalmos / Asmodeus dragster in the late 1960s. Having decided shortly afterwards to buy their own car they were narrowly beaten in a bid to purchase Freddie Whittles first Shutdown altered. Instead they ended up with the ex-Mark Stratton Hustler BSA pickup (for £250) which they re-christened Panic after the famous Stateside Fuel Altered. It ran a best of 11.78/120. Although Clive, Dave and Gary formed the nucleus of the team it was very much a family affair with mother Iris and sisters Janice and Carol all playing an active part, Iris also helping in the administration of the National Drag Racing Club.
In early 1972 they decided to build a completely new car. The new Panicaltered featured a Roland Pratt chassis with a JWR 427 ci Rat motor and Fibreglass Applications Topolino body. Dave won several Senior Altered titles and took the car to its first nine-second clocking in October 1973. After switching to a Model T Body Dave won the first event in the new Pro Comp class in 1975 and after a switch to injectors that year the car ran a new Senior Comp record of 9.17.
Clive drove in a few meetings in 1975 and younger brother Gary started racing in 1976 having instant success by winning the Senior Comp title on both days’ eliminations at the legendary 10th Anniversary Spring Nationals. In 1978 a blower was fitted and the wins became regular. The first seven-second run came in August 1978 and by Spring 1979 the altered was running 7.1s. Panic was now officially the quickest ever British Pro Comp car and the quickest British Altered; it was also only three tenths of a second off …
Dave Page
The Page Brothers Clive, David and Gary began their drag racing career as crew members on Wild Bill Weichelt’s DosPalmos / Asmodeus dragster in the late 1960s. Having decided shortly afterwards to buy their own car they were narrowly beaten in a bid to purchase Freddie Whittles first Shutdown altered. Instead they ended up with the ex-Mark Stratton Hustler BSA pickup (for £250) which they re-christened Panic after the famous Stateside Fuel Altered. It ran a best of 11.78/120. Although Clive, Dave and Gary formed the nucleus of the team it was very much a family affair with mother Iris and sisters Janice and Carol all playing an active part, Iris also helping in the administration of the National Drag Racing Club.
In early 1972 they decided to build a completely new car. The new Panicaltered featured a Roland Pratt chassis with a JWR 427 ci Rat motor and Fibreglass Applications Topolino body. Dave won several Senior Altered titles and took the car to its first nine-second clocking in October 1973. After switching to a Model T Body Dave won the first event in the new Pro Comp class in 1975 and after a switch to injectors that year the car ran a new Senior Comp record of 9.17.
Clive drove in a few meetings in 1975 and younger brother Gary started racing in 1976 having instant success by winning the Senior Comp title on both days’ eliminations at the legendary 10th Anniversary Spring Nationals. In 1978 a blower was fitted and the wins became regular. The first seven-second run came in August 1978 and by Spring 1979 the altered was running 7.1s. Panic was now officially the quickest ever British Pro Comp car and the quickest British Altered; it was also only three tenths of a second off …
Angus MacPhail
One of the important areas of Drag Racing to acknowledge is innovation – and thinking outside the box. In the mid 1970s, three bike racers got together to form a racing team, known as McCoy Dynamics. All three made their mark on the sport and set world records at Elvington, with spectacular performances on two – and sometimes 3 wheels.
Angus ‘Ag’ MacPhail is someone who is definitely able to think laterally. After a spell riding a miniature Ariel two-stroke, he built his version of a three wheeler, which featured the Triumph engine and gearbox positioned between the rider and passenger. He next built a novel Ford powered three wheeler, which featured the rider prone, in front of the engine. When three wheelers were banned from competition – due in no small part to the performance of Ag, he remodelled the bike as a two wheeler, with wide slick, to mutterings that it would never work. It did!
The McCoy machine was effectively a test bed for the unforgettable Jade Warrior, boasting a monocoque chassis, one-off 2 litre supercharged motor, torque converter transmission – and a very effective exhaust-driven ground effects system. Helped by Mick, this most unusual machine eventually broke into the seven second zone in 1985, running on straight methanol, which was a brilliant achievement.
Mick Hand was very much at the heart of the group. He and Angus would bounce ideas off each other in the search for ways to advance performance. Mick’s own bike of choice was one of the early Japanese engined entries – a diminutive twin cylinder blown 250 Honda. Small it might have been, but it was the sharpest, noisiest bike on the strip, and set a world record in 1971. With massive boost, the bike eventually got down to 9.08s/158mph after extensive …
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 …