Although already identified, I can confirm that Colin Mitson drove the car in the Senior Dragster class with the number SD/37.  The car was another example of a unique approach to an engineering solution.  Chain Reaction was a sidewinder - meaning that instead of the engine being mounted in-line with the driver - it was mounted transversely.  Sidewinders had been tried without much success in the States and this car had been around for some time before I first saw it at Blackbushe in 1974.  The theory behind sidewinders was that they did not carry the extra weight of a conventional gearbox/ propshaft thereby reducing the mass of the car to enable it to run quicker.  Theory and practice can often be spectacularly divorced!  Needless to say, Chain Reaction was hardly a front runner, more of an also-ran.

Chain Reaction was powered by a 272 cubic inch (4.5 litre) Ford V8 and transmission was via a drive chain to the rear axle, hence the play on words in the name of the car.  Because of the manner in which the engine was mounted, an equally unusual exhaust run was required. The rear facing bank of cylinders had the headers exiting straight out the back of the machine.  The forward facing cylinders had the headers running off in pairs to each respective side of the car, exiting just in front of the rear wheels. When the car staged and revved on the line, strange vortices of exhaust smoke/surface dust surrounded the rear of the car.  Despite this spectacle the car was always slow off the line, gradually building up speed as it tried to get the better of its opponent at the top end.  This really was the car's achillies' heel as the weight saving gain with a chain drive, meant the car couldn't produce the power within the rules available for this class, as it only ran with a single carburetor.  The car never performed burnouts, perhaps a hint that either the transmission was fragile, too highly geared or that the power wasn't really there.

My marshalling duties always denied me the chance to get a closer look to see how the rest of the car had been engineered.  The car always appeared with the white painted steel wheels dressed in treaded circuit racing tyres as seen in the picture. The car's bodywork was painted a maroony red with flat gold letering (look at a bar of Cadbury's Bournville Plain and you'll get my drift). The car always looked to have a hint of similar construction to a circuit racer of the same period, so it would be interesting to know if this was built as a traditional 'rail' chassis.  It always amazed me that the scrutineers allowed the single roll hoop which was always just about in line with Mitson's helmet.  I lost track of the car after about 1975, so who knows if it still survives awaiting a return with the Wild Bunch historic racers?