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David Riswick is the head honcho at John Woolfe
Racing |
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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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BSA Scout |
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Before his involvement with John Woolfe Racing, David Riswick served in the US Air Force based at RAF Upper Heyford. He soon joined a Northampton based drag racing team and was driving this 1930s BSA Scout. The car was built by Mark Stratton in 1965/66 and had a 265 cubic inch engine. The team called it 'Hustler'. Mark Stratton is seen driving the car here, his strange posture is due to the fact that he was trying to re-light his roll-up cigarette! |
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Hustler |
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For any aircraft buffs out there, the plane is an F101 Voodoo known as the 'lead sled' because it was quite a heavy plane. |
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And here is the team, from left to right Mark Stratton, David Riswick and Ken 'Tex' Blake. This picture was taken in 1967 on the flight line at RAF Upper Heyford by which time Mark had shoe-horned a 4.7 litre Chevy into the car. Dave had spent most of the year ordering speed equipment by mail order from the States. As a result the team won the Super Eliminator Trophy in August at the 2nd Annual Championship at Santa Pod. The winning ET was 12.4 seconds at 112 mph. The eagle eyed amongst you will spot the firing order written on the bulkhead. |
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In September John Woolfe, a semi-professional circuit racer, having heard about drag racing, decided to enter his mighty 7 litre Ford powered AC Cobra. Despite running a faster time he was somewhat bewildered to have lost to the "rather unusual looking" Hustler driven by 'Tex' Blake particularly when he found out it only had a 4.7 litre engine. As the picture clearly shows - 'He who snoozes loses'. |
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Chief Starter Brian Holmes is standing in the centre of the track with (possibly) Ian Denman to his right. |
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John Woolfe decided to sponsor the team to the tune of a brand new 7 litre Chevrolet engine, in Dave's words "We were all like dogs with five tails". An L-88 race ready 435 bhp 'rat motor' was duly delivered and installed in the Hustler over the winter of 1967/68. The car also gained a blue and yellow paint job and the familiar wolf head logo. Most importantly, it ran 10.9 at 131 straight off the trailer which was an historic advancement in those early days. Mark Stratton was the driver in 1968. |
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And just to prove it was blue and yellow -
here is a colour picture of the beast. Needless to say, with such an advance in
performance the car took the Super Eliminator Trophy at the August Nationals
meeting for the second year in a row. |
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Hustler II |
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Meanwhile, at Mark Stratton's place, plans were afoot to create another over the top project. This involved coupling the 4.7 litre lump newly liberated from the Hustler with another similar unit sitting in Dave's '57 Chevy that he had left in storage. The result was one of the first twin engined dragsters outside of the USA - Hustler II. |
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The engines were timed together to form a 9.4 litre V-16, this dramatic picture of the car seems to emphasise the unity of the engines. |
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John Woolfe had realised that Hustler II
was a candidate for the world record weekend to be held in early October 1968
and promptly applied to the RAC for an entry. John was subsequently strapped
into the car at RAF Elvington near York and proceeded to establish the outright
world record for the standing start quarter mile for cars with an engine
capacity in excess of 8 litres. |
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Here is John Woolfe preparing to make one of his runs in Hustler II. Mark Stratton is standing behind the car and is being waved away by the stewards who did not permit any sort of interference or assistance near the start line. |
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The transporter was a Fiat with a Bartoletti body originally built for the US Scarab Grand Prix team, then used by Team Lotus and Alan Mann Racing before passing to John Woolfe. |
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Whilst at this event another pivotal character in the history of John Woolfe Racing came on the scene - Dennis Priddle. Dennis had been trying to take the under 8 litre record in the methanol-burning Chrysler V8 dragster Tudor Rose. Tudor Rose was wholly owned by Rex Sluggett and had been hand built by Rex and Dennis. |
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Whistler |
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Hustler was retired over the winter of 1968/69 in favour of an all-new car. Mark Stratton was friendly with one of the marketing people at the Reliant Motor Company and managed to persuade him to donate a fibreglass body from the new version of the Reliant Scimitar known as the GTE (the 'E' stood for estate). Dennis Priddle is driving the car here which has been fitted with a deflector to reduce the amount of air entering the carbs. |
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For those of you who think the 'barn' has been at Santa Pod for ever - here it is in the process of construction in 1969. RIP the barn 2007. |
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Nothing like this had been built before and with John's help and encouragement the car became the state of the art in the sport. With great celebration the team named it 'Whistler' and the Reliant GTE made its first runs at Santa Pod in the spring of 1969. |
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Dave and Dennis were invited to race
Whistler in Sweden for their Second Annual Drag Fest and the car was a big hit
when Dennis drove it to victory in front of 15,000 Scandinavian spectators.
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In 1969 John Woolfe tragically lost his
life during the Le Mans 24 hour race whilst driving a Porsche 917 fitted with a
factory prepared engine. He had qualified the car in 21st place, but by virtue
of the running start had managed to grab 17th spot before the first turn.
John crashed into a barrier wall at high speed just past Whitehouse bend and was
thrown from the car. He died instantly. |
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While Dave and Dennis were in Sweden, they
were made very much aware of the Swedish invasion of the British drag racing
scene that was about to happen and this sparked off thoughts of running a top
fuel car for the 1970 season. |
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All of the above cars (except John Woolfe's cars) were built in Mark
Stratton's workshop. This is a rather poorly exposed picture of the workshop
at Pattishall (Fosters Booth) on the A5 near Weedon In Northamptonshire taken
circa December 1967. |
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Quartermaster |
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A plan was hatched to construct a top fuel
dragster and two other guys from Yeovil in Somerset, Tony Gane and Ray Prichard,
were recruited into the team. The idea was that Dennis, Tony and Ray would come
up with the rolling chassis and Dave would supply "the expensive bits".
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Quartermaster's power plant was the 354
inch Chrysler taken from Pete Millar's Crescent Coupe. The engine had been
built by Sid Waterman in California. |
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Quartermaster is pictured here at Santa Pod getting the final once over from Tony Gane prior to a run. |
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The car made its debut at the National Drag Racing Club's first major event at Blackbushe Aerodrome. This was the first drag race staged at Blackbushe since the 1965 Dragfest. Unfortunately the fuel pump drive broke on the line and the car was sidelined. |
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Tony
Gane and start line marshal Stu Bradbury are pushing the car into
stage. |
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A great leaving shot as Dennis Priddle
blasts Quartermaster off the line at Santa Pod. |
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This is a picture of the Corgi model of Quartermaster that Mettoy made in 1970 and which has now become a collector's item. |
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All material on this site is copyright |
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