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SANTA POD RACEWAY, 19 MARCH 1972

 

 

The bike on the left is Norman Hyde's Roadrunner III powered by a 741cc blown Triumph.
I am far from certain, but the right hand machine could well be R Carter's 875cc Hillman Imp-engined machine.

 

No problems with ID here - this is the iconic Alleycat Fordson van campaigned by the team of Malcolm Beakhurst, Steve Gillian, Chris Wilson and Malcolm Watts.  Alleycat was powered by a Jaguar lump.
 

 

An unlikely contest on the face of it perhaps so probably a qualifying session.  Dave Stone is driving the Stones' team's Senior Competition Altered which would later become known as the legendary Tee-Rat.
The dragster is Geronimo driven by John Siggery.

 

 

This is Tony Anderson at the wheel, or should that be butterfly, of his 2994cc supercharged V6 Ford-powered dragster which he called Trouble, probably for good reason . . .

 

 

CC/MSP2 is Bill Marshall's 4700cc TVR.

 

 

Thom Marshall's 5700cc Plymouth Barracuda seems to be suffering a bit as it approaches the top end.

 

SANTA POD RACEWAY, 16 APRIL 1972

 

 

Clive Skilton debuted this UK-built rear engined dragster called Revolution 3 in 1972 in order to become the first European driver into the six-second zone.  He failed because Dennis Priddle beat him to it - that's drag racing!

 

The legendary Dennis 'Stormin' Norman on board his supercharged twice Triumph 650cc-engined bike he named Conquest.

 

 

Stu Bentley rode another blown bike with two 650cc Triumph lumps, he called his machine Centaurus.

 

This is Bernie White on Endeavour his supercharged 500cc Triumph.  He is busy warming the slick in the time-honoured way before rolling burn outs became the norm for fuel bikes.
Bernie is still riding (2011) his 1928 Douglas at NSA meetings.

 

There have been a huge variety of power plants installed in bikes over the years.  Maurice Castle's machine sported a 1300cc Ford lump.  Why not?

 

A very serious looking Norman Hyde launches his 741cc blown Triumph Roadrunner III for another blast down the quarter mile.

 

This car was originally built by Mark Stratton and campaigned by the John Woolfe Racing team usually with Dennis Priddle at the helm.
By the time this picture was taken the team had much bigger fish to fry and the car had passed on to D Rogers who kept the Sizzler name which the car had when sponsored by Mettel toys.  Power was provided by a 7000cc Chevy  mill.

 

 

Now for two of the truly iconic competition altereds of the early 1970s.
First up is the Jaguar-powered Minivan of Roger Bishop and Bob Messent.

 

And here is another shot of the Alleycat Fordson van which was also Jaguar-powered.  Alleycat was campaigned by the team of Malcolm Beakhurst, Steve Gillian, Chris Wilson and Malcolm Watts.

 

 

 

This is quite rare picture of 'King' Harold Bull's double engined Stripduster rail which sported two 1000cc Austin/Morris engines.
Harold has pulled a slight hole shot on his old rival John Whitmore in his blown 1300cc Drag'n'Fly dragster.

 

 

MARTLESHAM HEATH, 30 APRIL 1972

 

 

This is Pete Skinner driving his 3800cc Jaguar-powered Midas Mist altered.  The body is believed to be from a Buckler kit car.

 

 

You used to get a few circuit racing cars turning up at the drags in the early days.
Nowadays not even a Formula 1 car could cut the mustard.

 

Cliff Jones and Mike Treutlein's Crescent Coupe Fiat Topolino-bodied competition dragster.  The car was powered by a 5 litre Chevrolet.  There is an article about this car written by Mike Lintern and originally published in Custom Car magazine which you can read by clicking here.

 

This is probably Mike Aitken at the wheel of the TVR.  No ID for the Mustang but the meeting report mentions Ivan Fryer and Dave Quijada both driving 'Stangs.

 

 

No ID for the Camaro but again the meeting report says Jim Read was there driving one.

 

Mike Aitken again and another
of the mysterious Mustangs.

 

My thanks to Clive Rooms and Jon Spoard's Event Entry Lists
on his UKDRN website for information for the captions on this page.

 

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(First posted on 17 February 2011)
 

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