Triple R Racing
When Edward Turner designed the hemi-head Daimler 2.5 litre, (152 cubic inch) engine in 1959, never in his wildest dreams could he have envisaged that the modest 140 horsepower it produced would be increased by Team Triple R to approaching 2,000 horsepower, with world-breaking performances to match. It was used in the Daimler SP250; more about that later.
‘Team Triple R, the epitome of a shed built, British engine racecar team’
Team Triple R (Robin Read Racing) has been together for more than 44 years and includes Robin Read, Ella Chapman, Mark Evans, Bertie Hopkinson, Bill Mears and Damian Burke.
Mark Evans’s role is crew chief; he’s been involved since 1982 and aside from running his own successful company his contribution to the team, both in commitment and helping financially, has been significant.
Ella has been mixing nitro and packing parachutes since 1990. It’s a responsible job and yet is carried out without drama, hence she is called the ‘fuel and chute fairy’ because if you blink you’ve missed it!
Bertie is proudly an old school ‘handle-winding’ machinist, making bespoke parts without the luxury of Computer Numerical Control machining programs or equipment. ‘Billet Bertie’ at one time made most of the connecting rods used in Top Fuel motorcycles around the world. He also machined the first generation of billet cylinder heads for a Daimler, no mean feat!
Bill, for many years a start line marshal and area rep for BDR …
Motorsport UK
How times have changed. Sixty-five years ago, the first encounter between the Royal Automobile Club and the emerging American sport known as Drag Racing was awkward. Then, the RAC governed the UK’s four-wheeled motorsport and had rules and regulations for everything with which it was familiar. In America, Drag Racing, with its principal sanctioning body the National Hot Rod Association, was barely a decade old as an organised sport. To the RAC, it was an alien interloper when it arrived on Britain’s shores in 1961.
Drag Racing’s first public manifestation here was a dragster built by Sydney Allard, the London sportscar manufacturer and entrepreneur. Allard had raced at Le Mans and had twice won the Monte Carlo Rally, the only driver to do so in a vehicle of his own manufacture. Latterly, he had developed an interest in sprinting (for which the RAC had rules) and thought one of those new-fangled American dragsters might help further that interest. To comply with the RAC’s sprinting rules, Allard was obliged to fit an engine cover (a ‘bonnet’) and front-wheel brakes, which explains why the car, now housed in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, appears not to resemble the American dragsters on which it was based. Moreover, its design was culled from a 1959 American magazine and was already two years out of date compared to its transatlantic counterparts in the fast-developing sport.
By 1964, Drag Racing had overtaken sprinting as Allard’s prime interest and he collaborated with NHRA’s president, Wally Parks, to import America’s leading drag race stars to race on a selection of British airfields. RAC rules at that time did not countenance advertising on competition cars, and the RAC scrutineer at the opening event at Blackbushe in Surrey refused to allow the American cars to run while still adorned …
Phil Baimbridge
Phil Baimbridge’s upbringing saw his father pursuing grass track and speedway sidecar racing, as both mechanic and passenger, before moving onto four wheels in Hot Rod racing. For Phil, it was motorcycles that he enjoyed. His street bikes included a 3-cylinder Triumph Trident, and it would be triples that held a special fascination for him.
In 1983, Phil and a couple of friends bought a blown 500 Triumph competition bike and had a try at sprinting. That quickly led to Phil acquiring a Laverda engine, and he modified a chassis to suit the Italian 1,200cc, 3-cylinder motor. Initially run in the Top Gas class, when Phil first tried out drag racing at Long Marston, the bike was soon fitted with a nitrous kit to give it some more urge. This resulted in high 10-second times, running in Competition Bike, under the bike name of Bolognese Sauce. A blown Triumph was then bought and led Phil to experiment with nitro – which proved to be an explosive introduction, with the bike aptly called Tribulation.
The sport had made a move to Japanese motors, and Phil had planned to build a new bike, using Kawasaki power. However, when Eamon Hurley’s bike came up for sale, he saw it as a better way to make the initial transition. This provided him with two years of competition, and running a quickest time of 8.2sec. He also scored a victory at Drachten in The Netherlands. To progress, a new John Clift chassis was specified. At this time, Pete Davies was working on the first Puma billet bottom end, and Phil was among the first three racers to …
Tony Betts
Tony Betts first encountered drag racing early in the 1970s when he and a group of friends visited Santa Pod. In his late teens he ran a Morris Minor, painted hot orange, on the street and joined Romford’s Eastern Cruisers. Then he bought Minormite which ran 12’s at North Weald powered by a Jaguar 3.8 straight-six. This served him well but the quest for lower ETs and higher speeds had begun. Frank Bennet was selling his Phantasm Pop which Tony renamed Robopop, a play on the title of the 1987 film. Even during those early years he knew he needed something which kids could relate to and depicted the film’s character on the boot lid. His legendary sense of humour was also evident here with ‘Part Man – Part Machine – All Pop’ displayed along the side. Tony and Elaine had three young children and a tent in the pits which often flooded. He remembers his young son Dean crying his eyes out when a dragster beat him in the Competition Altered class. Elaine once asked what racing the car was like and at North Weald she lay across the behind the driver’s seat on a run – the blacked-out windows meant no officials could see her!
Dave Collis had sold his beautiful Vauxhall Firenza, and it caught Tony’s eye in Bill Felstead’s garage. He bought the rolling shell and visited the 1987 Gatornationals in Florida. Soon a 454ci big-block Chevy was on its way to Britain. Tony named it Spirit of Frenzy and the family now enjoyed the luxury of a coach as a transporter. After a lot of fun in different classes, including Super Gas, time came to sell the car and Joey Carabott visited Tony in Canvey Island, Essex, to take a look. Tony insisted he …
Andy Willsheer
Laurel Wreath Image: Julian Hunt
Andy Willsheer first encountered Drag Racing when he visited Santa Pod Raceway in 1972. While he had read about the International Drag Festivals of 1964 and ‘65 which had brought leading American racers to the UK, it was BDRHoF inductee Brian Chapman working on the same construction site as Andy who encouraged him and his brother John to attend. What he saw, which he described as “highly entertaining” and the “intoxicating aroma of spent nitro”, would be the start of his addiction to a sport that has lasted over fifty years.
When the construction work dried up the following year, Andy and brother John took off to the west coast of America for a three-month holiday. Their bucket list of races included the Supernationals at Ontario Motor Speedway and the fabled 64-car Manufacturers Funny Car Championship Race at Orange County Raceway. California had everything they were looking for: cool cars, pretty girls and warm weather. With that in mind it’s little surprise that the trip was eventually extended to fifteen months, culminating in a cross-country road trip to New York in brother John’s ‘67 Camaro, before they and the car travelled back to the UK on the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner.
“Andy’s enthusiasm for US racing led to his inclusion among Car Craft Magazine’s
‘Hi Risers’ in June 1983″
Not surprisingly, that first US trip had a massive and lasting impact on Andy which led to regular trips across the Atlantic, usually taking in five or six NHRA National events per year. None of this would have been possible without press accreditation, which started with the Phelps family who were happy to give him a press pass, despite his obvious inexperience. This led to Andy becoming a regular photographer at Santa Pod, thus helping …
Syd McDonald
Syd McDonald – a name most within Drag Racing will know but less well known among the wider public. Syd is one of many people who work tirelessly behind the scenes and are vital for the successful running of events.
Syd started his working life at British European Airways (BEA) in 1960, continuing after BEA and BOAC were merged in 1974 to create British Airways. Given his later drag racing involvement, it was good fortune to find himself working with Brian Taylor who had begun there two years earlier.
Syd’s first interest was motorcycle sidecar racing. A neighbour, Wilf Barry, drag raced at Santa Pod and, in 1968, Syd and a mate went along for a look and ended up attending every meeting that year.
The following year Syd entered his Cortina GT, equipped with an Allard big-valve head, in the Production class and in 1971 won the Nationals racing in the class ‘Saloons up to 1500cc’. So many cars were entered that Dave Watts, the Race Director, split the class in two with the winner of each class advancing to the final in which Syd scored his one and only race win.
He also spectated at his first Blackbushe Drag Race in 1971, where Brian Taylor was doing the commentary. Syd didn’t even know that Brian commentated at Drag Races until then.
“…he was the perfect man for the job”
During his racing career Syd met Erica Bartlett who told him the British Drag Racing & Hot Rod Association was looking for a new Race Director. Dave Watts was going to work for Santa Pod Raceway, and one couldn’t work for the promoter and also be Race Director for the organising club. Syd spoke to Dave who said if Syd was interested, he should follow him around for six months and …
Keith Lee
Keith Lee’s interest in Drag Racing started when his father took him to Blackbushe to watch the final event of the first Drag Festival series in 1964. It made a big impression on the youngster – especially the sight of Don Garlits and Tommy Ivo in their fuel dragsters. It also introduced him to some unusual drag bikes, including a twin-engined Triumph and the unique Drag-Waye.
His first visit to Santa Pod was the new track’s second-ever event, and which turned out to be a slalom sprint, after an 80-mile drive there! The next event he attended included one of the wildest bikes ever to run there, in the form of EJ Potter’s injected Chevy monster.
Late in 1968, Keith set out to build a motorcycle-engined dragster to compete with, but plans were frustrated by facilities at home, which proved to be too small to allow the idea to progress. Instead, a tuned 500cc Triumph engine was shoe-horned into an old Lambretta scooter, to turn it into the most powerful scooter around. This was raced over the period 1971 to 1973, when he was already becoming involved in the reporting and photography side of the sport.
In 1971, the BDR&HRA initiated a system of area reps, to help promote local interest in the sport, and Keith volunteered to cover Berkshire and Oxfordshire. He had already got to know Peter and Erica Bartlett; and it was Peter who first encouraged him to start writing.
December 1971 saw the first issue of Drag Racing News published, and just a few months later Keith started writing the race reports and other features. This would continue for the next decade. At the end of 1972, the National Drag Racer magazine editor wanted broader race coverage than just NDRC events, and Keith was asked to …
Kathy Taylor
Above Portrait: Blackett Photography
Kathy Taylor’s interest in Drag Racing started in 1986 with the ‘ERICs’ (Essex Racing is Cool), a clique of friends including Steve Dodds, Rob Loaring, Brian & Julie Pateman, Jon & Jeanette Webster and brothers-in-law Ray & Kev Perkins. On Kathy’s birthday weekend they all went to the Cannonball race at Santa Pod and Kathy was allowed to drive the tow car for Rob’s Vendetta 2. At this time the towing lane ran down in front of the grandstand and, in Kathy’s words, she thought she was Queen Bee and was hooked. Gary’s Picnic weekends were enjoyed with her two girls in a trailer tent. However Kathy’s passion was always bikes.
She didn’t feel that the new Santa Pod Racers Club paid enough attention to the bike classes and started to write race reports for SPRC News and later Drag Racing UK magazine. She also had a couple of articles published in Motorcycle News. She crewed on four Super Street Bikes around the time that Ken Cooper was the guru. It wasn’t long before her outspoken views earned her a place on the SPRC Committee representing the bikes. One particularly well-fought issue was over the Club allocating points each year for an Overall Champion across all classes– but only for cars. She ensured that this system included the bikes and thus Mark Fisher, who had the same number of points as Ray Guy, was recognised as joint Overall Champion.
After a couple of years assisting in the signing-on office, Kathy became Race Secretary in 1998. ACU Steward Bill Robinson and MSA Stewards John Ledster and Geoff May were her much-admired mentors who gave her a wider understanding of the role. She studied and became licensed as a UEM Clerk of the Course & Sporting …
Jon Webster
Above Portrait: Blackett Photography
Jon Webster has been around the sport for what seems like forever. It was in 1984 that Jon first took an interest in racing, albeit illegal street racing in a modified yellow Morris Minor on an industrial estate in Essex until it was stopped by the authorities. Therefore a visit to Santa Pod in 1986 was required to race the Minor at RWYB events. Jon started his own business in 1988 and decided to sell the Morris Minor to help fund the start-up, sharing a unit with Rob Loaring in Southend. He first became involved with Pro Mod between 1988 and 1990 with local man Tim Cook, for whom Jon built his first full race car, a 7/8 scale ‘55 Chevy. He also worked with Dave Mingay, Alan Packman and Colin Taylor. Jon began work part-time for Hauser Racing in Higham Ferrers before moving to Northamptonshire to work full-time. During his time there he helped set up a rebuild facility for the constant flow of damaged ASCAR cars which raced at nearby Rockingham Speedway. He also built many Junior Dragsters which at the time were not part of mainstream racing. Thanks to the efforts of Jon and others, Junior Dragster became part of the national championship scene and, with growing numbers of racers, became the success it is today.
In 1995 Jon was offered an opportunity to move to the USA to work in the racing industry. Unfortunately, the deal fell through – in hindsight, their loss was our …
Kenny Coleman
Kenny Coleman’s first encounter with Drag Racing came in 1971 at Blackbushe Airport in Surrey with his childhood pal Dave Grady and Dave’s Holden Monaro. It enthralled Kenny, and he decided he wanted to be involved in Drag Racing from there on. As a mechanic by trade, he wanted to know what type of engines and what modifications had been made to cars such as Gary Goggin’s Corvette and the dragsters to make them run much quicker than Dave’s. If Kenny was impressed at Blackbushe, it was probably his first visit to Santa Pod in the summer of 1972 seeing Money Hungry, Go-Go-Gone and Maxine’s Toy that sealed his fate as he has been involved in preparing race engines and going back ever since.
Kenny has owned numerous race cars over the years and has supplied and prepared the powerplants for many racers all over Europe in many motor sport disciplines, including of course Drag Racing.
Kenny initially raced American Street cars which he delighted in tuning to extract maximum power from fairly stock components. His first encounter with competition cars came when he purchased Herb Andrews’ Viva Altered Pumpin’ Iron which had been Invader in an earlier life. Having experienced the wild handling of that car and survived a few visits to the fields at York Raceway, Kenny went for a doorslammer in the shape of Jim Briggs’ Wild Man Maverick, renamed Stampede.
