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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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National Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, 30 September 2006 |
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The Santa Pod weather was on its best behaviour on the first day of this meeting (to start with anyway) as evidenced by the driver of the Ramraider Wild Bunch slingshot while waiting to fire the engine. Peter Yates was in the seat for this meeting. |
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'Crazy' Chris Hartnell is renowned for his wheels up launches and I have been trying to capture a decent image of him all year. |
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It may have been almost the end of the season but the track preparation was giving plenty of grip as this unknown bike rider is demonstrating. |
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Ian 'Turbo' Turburville has been dialling in his superb 2700cc Harley Mr Spokehead during the season and this 7.655 second 182.90 mph run was a personal best. |
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Ritchi Smith's very tidy Vauxhall Ventora Super Gas entry is using all of its 355 cubic inches to make all that smoke. |
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Brendan Clancy is another Super Gas runner with his 427 Chevy Nova which he calls Dublin Up. Brendan ran 10.103/121.99 on this pass. |
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By a process of elimination I have concluded that this beauty positively hurling itself off the line is Mick Payne's 500 cubic inch Artful Dodger which was running in Super Pro ET. This run netted an 8.284/161.99 card for Mick. |
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What can you say about Chris Orthodoxou's stunning 9.9 litre Apocolypse Dodge Viper? Well how about 7.963 seconds and 169.86 mph. Top Fuel Dragsters were going slower than that when I first pitched up at the Pod . . . |
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The Street Eliminator class is becoming highly competitive and tremendously entertaining. This is Alan Simms 572" Vauxhall Cresta. Unfortunately this run had to be aborted despite the promising burn out. |
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Matthew Wright's All or Nothing Chevy pick-up truck also uses a 572 inch lump and ran 10.260/136.89. |
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Moving on up to the Super Modified class and this is Graham Ellis on his way to an 8.184/135.56 clocking. Take a look at the larger picture and see how that Hoosier slick is really digging in. |
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The welcome return to the strip of an iconic name in UK drag racing - that of Motor Psycho. Adam Gleadow was performing licensing passes in his 517 cubic inch injected alky-burning big block Ford Coupe Competition Altered and this pass was just a launch. Adam's reaction time on this run was a super sharp 0.022 of a second. |
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John Everitt boils the slicks on his The Alien altered. This run was 8.284 seconds at 162.99 mph which is none too shabby. |
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And speaking of blown altereds, the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association was out in force with 6 cars entered split equally between nitro and methanol-burners. |
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Frank Bennett was racing Venom and ran 7.462/181.36. This picture shows him launching with the butterflies wide open. |
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Joe Bond is still getting to grips with his methanol-burning Nuthin Fancy Topolino-bodied altered. I think that must be Joe's dad Doug protecting his ears in the background. Joe rolled the beams just as the lights ran which resulted in a cherry by the narrowest of margins (0.01 of a second). Undeterred, he charged on to 8.338 seconds and 160.65 mph. |
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NFAA supremo Lawrie Gatehouse owns this immaculate nitro-burning car which is driven by veteran racer John Wright. Unfortunately it suffered mechanical problems on the run and rolled to a halt. |
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Clayton Round has been charging hard this year in Rebel T and he kept this up with a fine 7.202/183.65 clocking which was low ET of the round. Not bad by any standards but a really cracking run on methanol. |
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This was Martin Hill's only run of the weekend in the Fireforce 3 jet funny car and resulted in a 6.673 second pass at 238.02 mph. |
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The captions on the 2006 pages have
been compiled by
extensive |
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All material on this site is copyright |
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