All of the pictures on this page were contributed by Jeremy Cookson,
I am grateful to him for the opportunity of reproducing them here.

Click on any image to get the bigger picture

MARAUDING VIKINGS INVADE THE PARK
‘A shipload of marauding Vikings descended upon Avon Park and, for entertainment of the woad wearing masses, fought among themselves.’  That was the opening sentence in Fire-Up magazine’s photo report of the 1990 September ACU Drag Bike Finals where ten Scandinavian teams were brought over from Sweden in a joint sponsorship venture by HOG International and Back Street Heroes magazine.
In this series of photos by David Brook top man was Anders ‘Charley’ Karling who, not only dominated the meeting with a win against Goran Carlsson, but also set a new European record of 8.32 seconds.  It’s interesting to note that from the captions to the photos supplied that three riders are still very much active in the FIM Super Twins; Anders Karling, Ulf Nylon and Per Bengtsson.  The Twins made a welcome return the following year with Karling now firmly in the sevens but he lost in the final to fellow Swede Lars Wahlberg.
Clockwise from top left : Anders Karling, Klas Jansonn, Ulf Nylen, Harry Raikkonen, Tom Eret, Tom Eret and Jorn Jacobsen.

SUPER CUP VARIABLES
Drag racing in Sweden always throws up some interesting variables and 1993 was no exception.  Take Per-Ola Soder’s Volvo 480 Super Comp racer for instance or this classic Volvo 142 of Peir Ericsson and Kenneth Nordlund’s Ford Taurus.  All were winners in their respective Super Cup Series classes and all were national Swedish champions.
These photos are by by Christina Lidstrom.
Clockwise from top left : Per Ola Soder, Per Ola Soder, Johnny Brostrom & Mats Johansson, Peir Ericsson and Kenneth Norlund.

THE DAY BRITISH SUPER GAS VENTURED TO SWEDEN
We’ve all heard of Sweden’s Mantorp Park, but what of Karlskoga an eighth mile track situated on a road course?  Not many people knew about it but they soon did after reading extracts from Brian Pateman’s story in Fire-Up magazine after taking the Quartermaster Super Gas Pontiac Firebird across the water.
The purpose of the trip was to raise the profile of the class in Sweden; 1990 being the first year the class was run by the SHRA.  Organised by international race director Mike Luff, Brian and his family made the 175 mile trip from the centre of Gothenburg with Carlo Gandolfi and the SPR wheelie Stingray for company.  With over 130 cars entered, Brian's first qualifier was a 6.58 followed by a 6.31 which was good enough for the top qualifier’s slot and a bonus of 500 Swedish Kronor for his efforts.  Making his way into the final, the Quartermaster Firebird ran faultlessly beating a blown ‘66 Nova in the final, 6.49 to 6.54.

In summing up his visit, Brian wrote that in the nine years or so he had been involved with the sport, the 1990 season was the best by far.

DRAG RACING SHOWS
The marketing strategy of any enterprise these days is selling your product to a crowd, and that’s exactly what we did when Avon Park’s John Wright and Mark Rumbold attended the BRSCC Racing Car at London’s Olympia in 1988. Nobby Hills very kindly loaned us the Houndog teams 5 second 3000 hp nitro burning Corvette Funny Car for the occasion while Doug Doogood of DD Productions fame cut an A-Z of Drag Racing Guide for the video presentation.
With a very tight lead up time to the show the weeks before was made even more stressful for me having just printed over 2,000 fold-out track calendars only to have the name changed from Long Marston International Raceway to Avon Park Raceway.  As you can imagine the show was packed with race fans and celebrities like Jimmy Nail and The Bill’s Eric Richard (pictured).  Meanwhile downstairs in the Champions’ area Barry Sheavills had his Top Alcohol Dragster on display with the Martini Lancia Rally Car, Silk Cut Le Mans Jaguar and Aston Martin, while upstairs on the company stands you could find Geof Hauser’s Pro Mod Ford Sierra along with contingency sponsor, Rooster Racing.

CELEBRATING HENRY’S FINEST
Before the invention of Outlaw Anglia as a class, Avon Park held a day in 1992 dedicated to Henry’s finest English Ford; the humble Pop. Although the turnout was small the day attracted some quality piece’s from our hot rodding heritage like this motley crew.  Although I can’t name them all I can identify from left to right Roy Wilding’s Custom Chrome Pop, Pinball Wizard, another street Pop belonging to APIRA’s Richard Warburton, the blown 392ci race Pop of Frank Griffin, and the most famous of all at that time, John O’Sullivan’s Mr Mopar.

NITRO IS NOT SO FORGIVING
This is the day when Danish Top Fuel rookie Stig Neergard found out the hard and expensive way just how unforgiving nitro can really be at the 1994 Hockenheim Nitro Olympics.  As you can see from the crewman standing by the wall, this explosion happened on the burnout when an intake valve hung open pumping raw nitro into the cylinder with devastating consequences.
Photos courtesy of
Martin Grosse Gelderman
and Remco Schellings.

BENT ON SUCCESS
Although drag racing has prospered for years in the small isle of Denmark, there were only two full time Nordic Pro Stock teams in 1994, and one of them belonged to Manly Racing.  Sponsored in some small way by BP the teams ‘88 Chevrolet Camaro had been campaigned on the Nordic tour before but with the help of a 500ci motor from Michael Malmgren, the team with driver Tonny Jantzen finished well up the order with regular 7.4s and 7.3s to their credit.

DRAG RACING AT THE NORDSCHLIFE
Besides Hockenheim, eighth mile drag racing was staged quite successfully on the start and finish straight of the F1 circuit at Nurburgring, all 220 yards of it.

Although the events were largely confined to the German national series for Pro Street and Competition Car, at this particular event (the All-American) organiser Kai Liebig had all the cars line up for driver presentations while they waited for the track to dry out.  On the left we see Swiss street racer Urs Embacher launching his heavy ‘71 Pontiac Station Wagon ‘Hawaiin Tropic’ away from the line against a German-owned Chevy Vega.  Chevy’s were and still are all the rage in Germany and this 5 litre Nova was once the pride and joy of Olav von Speckelsen.

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Jeremy Cookson together with his parents
Gerry and Joan were inducted into the
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2018
click here to read their citation