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Mister Six - the Story of Drag Racing Legend Dennis Priddle Good News! Good News - the Mister Six books have arrived, as the picture shows.
Copies are available to order now, with shipping starting in the week following the November 17 launch at the British Drag Racing Hall of fame gala event. To order your copy, go to www.mistersix.co.uk Keith Lee
‘Mister Six: the story of drag racing legend Dennis Priddle’ is coming soon! An awful lot has happened since the last blog update. As my plans showed the book to be behind schedule, I decided to ignore the plan, as the only important thing is the end date. This is something I used to do when I worked in engineering design, which drove project planners mad, but I always got to the end date somehow in my own sweet way! So that is how it is with the book, and I have managed - with the much needed assistance of Annie - to get it all together in almost an orderly fashion, after a hectic thrash to finalise it in the face of some late developments in the story! I can now happily say that the book is complete - and has left the building. The layout was finalised, pictures all prepped and profiled, so that I could send it out for proofs to be run. This caused a minor panic, as the printer’s proof set somehow showed a different page cropping to my own copy! This was quickly rectified, and allowed me to make a couple of little adjustments in the process. What I have seen from the proof on the silk finish pages leaves me feeling very happy with the quality to be expected in the finished hardback book, which is enhanced by Darren West’s work on the cover design. I have now signed it off for the print run - and the nervous wait begins!
The final picture count has gone well over my initial expectations, by something in the order of a hundred photos! I had originally thought that 200-220 would be the figure. That has jumped to well over 300 in the final book. Page count comes out at the significant figure of 208 pages which, given the early liaison with Radio Luxembourg, seemed very appropriate. Total word count is in the order of 100,000 words. There is always more that could be written, but I have come to realise that there always would be, as I continue to hear more stories about Mister Six. I also know that it could easily become a work that never actually quite got finished. That is something which will resonate with a good friend of Dennis! Custom Car magazine included a two page preview in the current November issue. The following issue, due out at the beginning of November, will have two copies of the book, signed by Dennis Priddle and the author up for grabs by two lucky readers. Launch date for the book is Saturday November 17, at the Bench Racing session being held on the day of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame awards gala at the Oatlands Park Hotel, in Weybridge. The Bench Racing starts at 12 noon, and is a free to attend session, thanks to backing from US Automotive and Custom Car publisher Kelsey Media. All of the participants in the session have a link in some way with Mister Six. Steve Read is coming all the way from Australia, and Pelle Lindelow will be coming from Sweden to join an excellent assembly of British stars, including Barry Sheavills, Gary Page, Andy Craddock, Stu Bradbury and Roy Phelps. It promises to be a lively and enjoyable session. There will be a number of books available to purchase during this period, with the number being dependent on how many will fit in my car sensibly! Immediately following the Bench Racing, there will be a book signing session with Dennis and other legendary figures in the sport who feature in the book, so it will be a brilliant opportunity to have your book personalised. Copies will be £25.00 on the day, and please note that only cash payments can be accepted at this event. Books sales normally will be via mail order only, and will be £30.00 including post and packing, which will only be available currently to UK addresses. There will be no books delivered prior to the official launch, due to time sensitive information contained within it. The ordering procedure will be in place to accept orders by Monday 29 October. Information on ordering will be available by that date on my Keith Lee Images web site via a very appropriate web link: www.mistersix.co.uk Alternatively, you can email me direct on sales@keithleeimages.co.uk with your name, plus current delivery address, and I will send an invoice back to you. Payment will be via a secure PayPal button, which also allows payment by any credit or debit card (a PayPal account is not required). Dispatch will be in order of confirmed payment receipt. Please indicate if you would like your copy to be signed by the author, and I will happily do so. Some have already asked for Dennis to sign copies as well, but unfortunately this will only be possible if he is attending a pre-arranged signing session. The only current one planned is for the launch. Dennis does have an issue with his signing hand, which does not help. Next eagerly awaited milestone on the defunct planner is the only one that ever mattered - getting my hands on the completed books! Not long now....... The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: Keith Lee
The trip to Dragstalgia 2018 with Dennis was certainly pretty eventful for both of us, one way and another. Dennis was there as a guest of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, and took part in the legends signing sessions. He was also involved with a new nostalgia funny car team, which is run by his friend Paul Harris. Although the meeting would prove to be a tough one for the new participants, as they struggled to overcome a number of unexpected issues with the fuel system on the Chi-Town Hustler. It was good to see how well they worked with Troy Martin’s crew, who flew in with him, as he drove the car at this event. What hadn’t been expected, was for Dennis to jump in to help turn the car around. Given the way he thinks about problems, he proved to be a very useful asset, as they got to the bottom of the issues. There will be a behind the scenes feature on the team’s weekend in the next issue of Custom Car, as part of my Autofocus series. For my own part, I was very proud to receive the Spirit of ’76 award from Peter Crane, for services to the nostalgia drag racing scene, which saw me on the wrong side of the camera to accept the trophy from Pete! Back to the book, and writing is now complete, apart from more checking by Annie, plus some minor tweaks. It now runs to more than 93,000 words. The layout stage is now progressing, and it has thrown up something of a miscalculation. I expected to include at least 200 pictures, but on a first pass it looks more likely to be at least 270 pictures in the final work! The big news, moving forward, is that the plans for the book launch event will be announced first on Euro-dragster on this coming Monday, July 23. Meantime, I will leave you with a couple of memories of Dragstalgia.
The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: Keith Lee
A quick note to wish the subject of my book a very happy birthday, which he celebrates today, June 28. To mark the day, it is nice to be able to be able to release the front cover design for the first time, having just received it.
I am very pleased with what Darren West, of Power Race Graphics has come up with to make a fitting showcase for the book. The writing stage is heading towards a close now, having continued to grow in size, to a point where it is more that 90,000 words long! Then it is onwards with the layout. Look out for some exciting news about plans for Mister Six: the story of Dennis Priddle in the next week or so. The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: Keith Lee
I was amazed at just how much time has passed since my last blog update about progress on the book. It is very hard to remember that one needs to make people aware about the creation of this new book, while at the same time being buried in the nitty-gritty of actually working on it! My only excuse is that I have been very busy in moving things along on several fronts, and can now at last envisage reaching the end point. Although there is still a mountain of work to get through prior to publishing the book, it will be completed and ready to go at the tail end of 2018. Already, preparations are in hand for the launch of my book about the life and times of drag racing legend Dennis Priddle. Details about the book launch will be released in the next few weeks, and I am very excited at what we are proposing to do. Just a quick update on recent progress on the book front. It is still growing in size, and I am now in the happy position that I have surpassed my estimated word count by well over 5000 words, and still have more yet to add to that word count. I am now estimating that the final word tally is going to be in the order of 85,000 words, or more. That is a pleasing situation to now be in, especially when I think back to when I was struggling at around 10,000 words, and wondering what I had let myself in for. Annie has been proof reading a number of chapters that are completed, and I am happy to say that we have not yet fallen out over the rights and wrongs of what she has picked up so far! A fresh pair of eyes really is invaluable to highlight mistakes, and other issues, that somehow become invisible to the perpetrator! Give me a good pair of eyes over a computer spell checker any day. I have still been gathering information from various sources, and I particularly enjoyed an hour long video chat with Pelle Lindelow, who Dennis competed against in the early eighties. Recently I bought a stack of well over 100 old magazines for the princely sum of 1p! That was the easy part. The bad news was that they were in Northampton, a 320 mile round trip away, and available for collection only. My thanks to old friend Ian Messenger, who lives somewhat closer, and drove there to collect them, before parcelling up the near 30kg of magazines to send them to me. The only down side is that the particular information I was hoping to find was not in them! Still very useful reference items to have though. Picture editing is also now ongoing with a vengeance, and I have had some marathon sessions, working through more than 350 images to clean, restore and basically correct them, so that the ones eventually chosen will not need too much work to make them ready for insertion into the story, as and when they are needed. On this score, I must thank Acceleration Archive host Alan Currans for his help in procuring some additional images for inclusion, along with some of his own photographs. Roger Philips, Peter Quinn, Andy Wilsheer and Dick Parnham have all kindly helped out on the picture front, for which I thank them. Regarding the book publication, I have now chosen a printer to work with, so that I can iron out any likely issues before they cause problems - I hope! Allied to that, I have been busy familiarising myself with the vagaries of a Desk Top Publishing program to do the layout of the book, having already discarded one program that I could see both it and I would be struggling to produce a book with. This will be the crucial part in making the story come alive, with the right pictures - and plenty of them to illustrate the story. There are still a few more pictures that I am tracking down, in order to round out this publication, which is still evolving as I write. Dennis himself has had a couple of health issues to deal with over the past few weeks, but is happily now pretty much back to his old self, and very much looking forward to his upcoming trip to Sweden, where he will help celebrate their 50th anniversary of drag racing. He went over for the 30th anniversary, and having been so instrumental in helping popularise the sport in Sweden, especially with his appearance driving Tudor Rose at that very first big race in 1968, it is fitting that he will be there as a guest of honour next month. My dilemma will be whether I need to hold some space in the book to add in details of the anniversary appearance, as I have to stop at some point if I am to meet my intended deadline. Lots of news being readied to release before long, so I will be back a lot quicker with the next update.
The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: Keith Lee
Time for another update on progress with the Mr Six book, which is now starting to move forward apace. The important news is that I have been busy doing the real work of actual writing, and making real inroads into the task of actually getting to put some flesh on the proposed chapters. It is hard to do a lot of writing at one hit, as there are always new queries to resolve along the way. It was a real pleasure to be present when Dennis met up with his old friend Andrew Hares again, after more than four decades. They had a lot to catch up on, and shared a few amusing stories with me, which included a brush with the law on their way back from Sweden with Tudor Rose. Unfortunately, not long after our meeting, Andrew suffered a heart attack. Happily he is now recuperating, following a major heart bypass operation as I write this. Dennis has kept me updated with his progress, and I did talk to Andrew by phone just a couple of days ago. We wish him a speedy return to full fitness.
There have been a number of conversations with notable figures since the last entry, which have been very enjoyable, as well as useful for the book. Apart from more time spent with Dennis himself, they included Barry Sheavills, Roz Prior, Gerry Andrews, Stu Bradbury, Tracey Boden, Mike Matthews, Pip Higham, Roy Phelps, and none other than Mr Sixes old rival - Clive Skilton. More team member chats included Chris Powell and Edwin McKnight, to add to the list. It was good timing to go and visit Chris when I did, as he had just got his new roadster back after some trimming work had been completed, and he fired it up for me in the garage. The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame held their annual presentation gala event on November 18th. Dennis was one of the invited panel in the enjoyable bench racing session held during the afternoon. Following this I got the chance to have a talk with well known American racer and tuner, Dale Emery, who was with Raymond Beadle when they raced against Dennis in Funny Car eliminations at Santa Pod in the late 1970s. It was also a great opportunity to meet up again with a number of other faces from the era.
One item that I have begun looking at more seriously, is the initial process of selecting which pictures to include. At last count I had totted up over 150 likely ones, with many more still to be added. Rest assured that the finished work will not be short of visual treats to accompany what is shaping up to be an entertaining and informative read, even though it will keep me busy cleaning up and repairing a lot of these old memories! Time is not always kind to old pictures; but time spent, helped by long years of experience in computer imaging should help to bring out the best of these important mementos. There will be a good percentage of previously unseen images included in the book, which I feel is very important. Some of the iconic shots of the cars also must be included, as they are well loved memories of the era for those who remember the excitement of the times. One of those unseen shots has come from someone who has been spectating at Santa Pod since the beginning. Bob Sargent has kindly sent a picture of the first Tudor Rose race against Commuter to use. I have had some interesting chats with Mike Collins in recent times, with a view to adding to the book. It was Mike who christened Dennis ‘Pretty Boy’ Priddle, and Rex was ‘Sexy Rexy’! One of drag racing’s most colourful characters, going right back to the early days, Mike still doesn’t look or act any different from when I first remember chatted to him, back in 1967. I have been chasing up details of some of the cars that came out of Dennis Priddle Racing, which has proved quite entertaining, with the odd surprise in the process. Sometimes you make choices that you wish you hadn't. If I had known how much effort was going to be involved in tracing the history of the old cars that were built by Dennis, then I might well have skipped that idea for a chapter in the book! There is a lot of incorrect information floating about concerning old race cars, often started by those with no knowledge of the history, that it ends up totally skewing reality. It does not make it easy finding out the truth of the matter, as the cars evolve. I am pretty confident that when/if I ever get to the end of it, that it will answer some of the questions - but due to the passage of time, and other factors, there will no doubt be the odd gaps. It has proved to be both interesting and entertaining though, talking to those involved in the ongoing history of the cars. Finally, the burning question that people have been asking, is when will the book be published? When I had the advertising flyers produced back in July, they said ‘Planned for publication in 2018.’ With where I am now, it will definitely be completed next year, with publication in the latter part of 2018. I do not want to unduly rush the process, as it has to be right. The layout and printing stage needs adequate time spent on it, to do the subject justice. The finished work will be in full size hardback format, and very fully illustrated. I am expecting the book to contain at least 200 pictures to accompany the tale of Mr Six - the story of drag racing legend Dennis Priddle. Happy Christmas to all drag racing fans - and more updates on progress will follow in the new year. Until then, please join in with the discussion group on facebook. The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/398554693879332/ Keith Lee
Time is marching on quickly. Hard to believe it is six weeks since Dragstalgia. If only the to-do list was decreasing at the same rate! The Dragstalgia weekend was excellent, as always, made all the better by the company on route this year - and the amazing breakfast baps that Dennis prepared to keep us going on the journey - and in my case for the rest of the day! It was a full-on weekend for both of us over the 3 day event, with no shortage of old friends and fans getting a rare opportunity to chat to Mr Six on his first visit to Dragstalgia. This event will act as a fitting cut-off point point for the book, with Mr Six able to enjoy watching the current 6 second methanol slingshots of Bob Hawkins and Doug Bond fighting it out on track. One thing Dennis looked forward to was watching old team member ‘Star’ racing his beautiful roadster in the RWYB section. It ended up in an unusual role reversal, as the car suffered an electrical connection problem at one point. “It was strange having Dennis acting as gofer for me, instead of the other way round. He was off, got the parts needed, and fixed it in a flash for me!” Thanks to Darren West of Power Race Graphics for quickly coming up with a great A5 flyer design to help promote the book. They were very popular, with more than a few now also adorned with autographs over the weekend! I was going to do an interview with Dennis on Nitro FM during the rain hold on Saturday, but Darryl Bradford hot-footed it over to take the opportunity for a face to face chat with him on air. That allowed me to enjoy the exchange, and get a couple of pictures. Apologies that we had to finish early, due to the imminent special British Drag Racing Hall of Fame award presentation to Stu Bradbury. After that came an interview with Colin Theobald, the other half of the dynamic commentator duo, for the event video, before Dennis was off to the first of the legends signing session.
A slightly nervous Ian Turburville got to fire up his slingshot during the weekend; not surprising given his audience! The dragster is now fitted with the Donovan block No 144 that Dennis originally used in the Mr Revell dragster, and it was appropriate that he was on hand to watch proceedings.
I have had a number of long chats with Dave Riswick in the past month, which has provided a lot of very useful first hand information, given the long association that the John Woolfe Racing boss has had with Dennis over many years. Those early trips to Sweden were pretty hairy, but then towing a race car with an E Type Jag was always going to be an exciting proposition! Starting the Facebook page has proved to be an interesting exercise, and has opened up some unexpected avenues, including making contact with a very early team member in Andrew Hares, who happily I noticed requesting to join the group. It has been many, many years since he and Dennis lost contact, so it was good to be able to put them in touch again. Looking forward to sitting down with him in the near future to talk over some Tudor Rose adventures. My intentions for picture content were initially pretty well focused early on, given my own collection of images and those taken by Dennis, plus a couple of other sources. However, I have more recently changed tack in this respect, with additional input to be incorporated that will add greatly to this story. More on this development, and the people involved, in a future blog. The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/398554693879332/ Keith Lee
Dennis Priddle will be making his first visit to Dragstalgia next weekend. Europe’s first six second drag racer, and a member of both the BDRHoF and IDRHoF, Dennis will be taking in the atmosphere at this great nostalgia drag racing event over the 14-16th July. He is particularly looking forward to being able to watch one of his old team members, Brian Savidge, in action during Friday’s RWYB session in his beautifully prepared black 32 roadster. His own racing career started more than 50 years ago, and exactly 40 years back Dennis was in the hot seat of the well loved Olavi Knuutinen Monza funny car that he had just completed building down in Somerset. He was busy setting records, and had some fierce battles with the late Bootsie Herridge in Sweden and at Santa Pod during the month of July in 1977, which were a major highlight for race fans. All these years on, Dennis might also get to see that self same Monza body still in action at Dragstalgia in the hands of Wild Bunch racer Phil James. The Slingshot Showdown will be something to catch his attention at Santa Pod, as it was in this class that he set a World quickest elapsed time of 6.04s in his Mr. Revell dragster - a mark that remained unbeaten for so many years. I will be chauffering Dennis to the event, so I will have an expert navigator in the passenger seat! During the weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, Dennis will be joined by a number of other drag racing heroes in the signing sessions organised by the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame. Keith Lee
Realisation set in a while back as to the scale of writing this book, and it has proved a little daunting, to be honest. That has not stopped me scouring for more information to add to the story over the time since my last blog entry, which seems a long while back now! Happily I have pulled enough information together to now know how the chapters will sit together - so they just need filling in now! Well, it sounds like a plan, anyway. By not rushing things, it has allowed memories time to focus back on events that might other-wise have been missed. The most enjoyable part of the whole process has been the interviews, which in reality are very often more a case of long conversations that meander across shared recollections of past events. Among those visited was a member of the super crew, Barry Dufty, who filled in some useful areas of the story, as he played an important part in the team over many years. A number of the stylish paint jobs on Priddle cars were carried out by Jeff Glasser, helped by his better half, Ro. A session with him and Dennis a while back had us all in stitches, and his contribution to the book will be a very memorable part of it, given his natural wit. Tracking down the history of some of the cars built by Dennis is proving to be an interesting excercise. The quality of the builds meant that they have been very long lived items. One thing the team shared was a total commitment to quality, which is unsurprising given the fact that most of the people involved worked at Westland - an aviation company with a long and distinguished history. It is a company that I have learned a lot more about over many hours spent with Dennis! It was great to catch up with Steve and Heather Read during a long distance chat. Steve is still campaigning in the Australian Top Fuel series, and remembers well his times helping out Dennis whenever he was available at the races - and of course driving the first rear-engined dragster that Dennis built. Annie and I enjoyed a great evening recently with Dennis, meeting up with Donna Garlits. There were some interesting and amusing stories that came out during an entertaining time, that flashed by all too quickly before realising that the landlord was waiting to go to bed! Thanks to all those who have helped out so far along the way. Annie has been ever busy finalis-ing the timeline, and sorting documentation. The ever helpful Jerry Cookson has supplied some useful reference material to fill in a number of gaps, as has Dave Grabham. There are a number of people that I need to speak to, in order to produce a well rounded account of the life and times of Mister Six, and I am currently looking forward to a few sessions with Dave Riswick, head man at John Woolfe Racing. I am very pleased with the new heading produced by Darren West of Power Race Graphics. He has also agreed to produce the book cover graphics, which will ensure it is an excellent job. Finally, in addition to the blog, I have just started a new facebook page to act as a discussion page. The facebook group, ‘Mr. Six - the Dennis Priddle story’ can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/398554693879332/ Keith Lee
Just in case anyone should get the wrong impression that I am not keeping busy on my book project; I have just had another long session with Dennis Priddle, to add to my ever growing armoury of background information on his drag racing career, as the most important part of the preparation for the book I am writing about him. We did not get off to the best of starts initially, as just before the announcement of the project commencement, Dennis was laid low by a particularly nasty bug, which totally floored him; but he has made great efforts to feed me with a lot of excellent material,despite not feeling up to the task. Having now spent many hours together, one thing is sure, that however much I thought I already knew about Dennis was just a tiny amount indeed, as he comes out with a detailed account of his life and times. I have also started talking to some old team members - to capture their important contributions to the story of a highly successful drag racing career. First session was actually with Brian Savidge - or Star as he is often better known. A long time member of the team, and someone who I still stop and have a chat to at the drags, we had a great afternoon going over old times. He was lamenting not having taken hardly any pictures back in the race days, but he did come up with a couple of excellent mementos for me to see. Tony Gane was next on the list, as it was Tony who was pretty much the man responsible for getting Dennis into the sport. It was on and in Tony’s machines that he experienced a first foray into drag racing. Mentioning photographs, or apparent lack of earlier, I obviously have an extensive collection of my own to draw from, but have also been promised use of other images from some old friends, who are always very supportive - in particular the ever helpful Brian Sparrow. The icing on the cake for me came last week. When visiting Dennis, I was handed some amazing old colour slides - all previously unpublished - which will make this story truly come to life in a visual way. They need work to restore them, due to the ravages of time, but that is nothing new for me to play with - and it will be well worth the effort! More on these in a future update, but suffice it to say that I am more than pleased with this unexpected bonus. There are still some more pictures to track down, but now I will be in the happy position being able to choose the most fitting images to fully complement the story of this country's top drag racer. A lot of ground has to be covered to do the subject justice, which has been greatly aided by Annie's invaluable research work on the time line of events. She too is struggling with health issues at the moment, but has made excellent progress on this lengthy exercise. There are quite a number of other people that I want to talk to as the book progresses, in order to tell the full story of Mister Six. The problem is going to be in knowing when I have finally exhausted the man himself’s seemingly endless capacity for coming out with yet more stories to add!
Keith Lee
Thanks to Alan for again offering to host a blog on his excellent site, which will highlight some of the items turned up along the path as I take up the challenge of writing this long overdue book on a true legend of the sport, Dennis Priddle. 2016 was a memorable year for Dennis, more than 30 years after he hung up his firesuit. One of the first inductees of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2006, a delighted Dennis flew to Florida where he was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in March 2016. Following an enjoyable trip to the European Finals at Santa Pod, he capped the year off by being re-presented with the IDRHoF award at our own Hall of Fame gala last November. The standing ovation he received was a measure of just how highly regarded he is. It struck me that I really must persuade Dennis to let me write the story of how he left his mark on the sport, having known him for so long. He made a massive contribution to drag racing, with a number of memorable cars during his illustrious career. He will always be known as Mister Six, as his sleek slingshot dragster was named after becoming the first six second racer in Europe back in 1972. More to follow as the story unfolds. Aided by my better half, Annie, it will be an interesting ride given the characters involved, in reliving and pulling together this story of a true drag racing hero. Keith Lee
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