THE TEAM

John Wright

John Wright is a man who has served the sport of drag racing in many ways over a long period.

John got the bug in the late sixties and by the early 1970s started competing with Vendetta – a blown Jag powered Anglia.

Soon after, the Alan Herridge built Age Machine slingshot was purchased from Ollie Burn and re-named Rainmaker.  This was quickly followed by the rear engined Rainmaker II in 1976, which was campaigned for a year or so, until John prematurely retired from the sport due to other commitments.

In 1984, the bug caught again and having purchased parts of the original Vendetta, John combined it with the ex- Brian Monday Optimist from Ian Witham and raced again for a while under the Strip Lightning name.

John was an early member of the newly formed RAC Drag Racing Committee in 1985 and for seven years helped to set up the construction rules and race licence procedures.  During this time, with a stint as Track Manager, John helped Anthony Hodges establish the Hot Rod Drags and Bulldog Bash events.  As if that wasn’t enough, he also published ‘Fire-Up’ magazine with Jeremy Cookson as Editor, progressing it from an MDRA periodical into European coverage with special features from the USA and Australia.

John moved upwards into Top Fuel in 1990, working as the clutch technician on the Vallance & Lovett McGee car, setting the scene for the future.

In 1991, John achieved the distinction of being joint promoter with Ron Clark of the highly acclaimed Pro-Comp Classic event at Avon Park.

A Fuel Altered test driver spell with the (then) new Mob ’23 ‘T’ followed in 1992, before moving in 1993 to Top Fuel to work with the Viveca Averstedt AA/FD.  The Averstedt’s held a top 3 position in the FIA European Top Fuel Championship over the next 4 years, in which John played his part, culminating in Viveca’s best ever pass of 4.88 at 271 MPH in the USA in 1998, a full 5 years before it was replicated in Europe.  During this period, John assisted with Al Jacksons move from Alchohol to Fuel Funny, giving input to Smax Smith, the CBD Team and Tony Betts in his Fuel Flopper.

In 2001, John was working on the Canto Consultancy Top Methanol dragster with Darryl Bradford driving and then he decided it was time to set up his own Top Fuel Team.

The Wildside Racing Top Fuel rail duly appeared in 2002 entering the British rounds of the FIA Championship, as well as promoting the profile of the sport with appearances at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Autosport Show and the Birmingham Science Museum.  In 2005, after huge personal investment and with backing from Lee Child, John Woolfe Racing, Royal Purple and Flint Insurance, the car was uprated and showcased at Shakespeare County events.  John believed that ‘if you can’t win – be spectacular’ and the resulting pictures of the team’s misfortunes went worldwide.  John and his ever-supportive wife, Lesley, realised that the cost, complexity and commitment needed to be competitive in Top Fuel Racing as it is today, was getting beyond the means of privateers without substantial sponsorship support and they reluctantly decided to sell their operation - but with a notion of doing ‘something different’, such that they could still enjoy the sport.

Subsequent to this decision and in short order, Lawrie Gatehouse approached John and Lesley to see if John was interested in driving Chaos – the new AA/FA being constructed to run in the growing NFAA Class. The answer was a resounding ‘yes’- in about 1 second flat !

This biog was condensed from unpublished data compiled by Andy Barrack, for which, many thanks.

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