Lesley Wright, Chair of The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, is the latest recipient of the prestigious Peter Crane ‘Spirit of 76’ Award for outstanding contributions to Nostalgia Drag Racing in the UK. Presented over the Dragstalgia weekend, this proved to be a popular & well-deserved choice. 

Short of driving a racecar, Lesley Wright has done most things in Drag Racing during a lifetime’s involvement in the sport. As Lesley Digby, she cut her administrative teeth dealing with the pit gate money in that distant time when spectators were charged to enter Santa Pod’s pits. The tragic death of her partner, racing legend and Santa Pod track manager Allan Herridge, in 1983 did not lessen her involvement. She served as a committee member of the then-BDR & HRA, representing the interests of street classes.

In 1988, Lesley accompanied Al O’Connor and his car Al’s Gasser on a season-long tour of the United States to compete on the NHRA circuit, documenting the experiences, and of a further tour two years later, in the UK’s Fire Up Magazine. 

Exposed to the US bracket racing scene, she became a proponent of bracket racing in the UK in her role as a committee member of the newly formed Santa Pod Racers Club & sought and won sponsorship for the Super Gas Drag Racers Association. As SPRC Secretary, she drove forward the Club’s formation as a limited company and worked on revisions of the Drag Racing rule book with the Technical Committee.

In 1997, Lesley’s marriage to John Wright created a formidable partnership and she became a key motivating figure in the Wildside and Chaos racing teams, and latterly with Tony Betts’ Venom Nostalgia Funny Car team.

In 2006, Lesley was one of a small group involved in the founding of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame but did not maintain her involvement beyond the organisation’s formative seasons. In 2017, she and John were inducted, jointly and severally, into Membership of the Hall of Fame in recognition of their achievements benefiting the sport’s development in Britain. Subsequently she was invited to join the Hall of Fame’s committee of directors and advisers, in 2020 Lesley was asked to chair the organisation in succession to its founding chairman, the late Stuart Bradbury, and today invests that honorary role with the same vigorous energy and attention that she has dedicated to the sport of Drag Racing throughout her adult life.

The award was devised and founded in 2016 by Peter, who is a legend of UK Drag Racing for his own outstanding achievements at the 1976 10^th anniversary Internationals at Santa Pod (hence the name). He ran the first 5 second pass (5.97s) outside of America with the Crane & Edmondson Top Fuel Dragster ‘Stormbringer’ and beat visiting American legend ‘King Rat’ Don Garlits during eliminations. The ‘Spirit of 76’ Award is to acknowledge those involved in any aspect of Nostalgia racing from racers to admin, crew members and anyone else involved in running or shaping the nostalgia racing scene. The award is also in association with Santa Pod Raceway.