The Photography of Kelvin Fagan

I began my photography career (aged 17) in 1975 working in an in-house photographic unit, at a research establishment a few miles from Cambridge. A friend of a friend, who had a long standing interest in drag racing, had bought a 500cc Triumph drag bike (but no one knew he owned it). After a near-fatal road accident on his road bike, his friends discovered his 500cc bike 'Acetone' in his lockup. One of these friends, Jay Upton who I had gone to school with, decided we should get organised and give this drag racing a go. I got the job of taking pictures, first at NSA sprints and then at BDR & HRA and NDRC meetings. Once at the track we discovered there were other people with an interest in drag racing from Cambridge and the surrounding area. I took pictures for these guys too. This included American serviceman Terry Bell with his bike 'American Dream'. Later I became friends with Terry Revill and did some photography for him when he had the double-engined Kawasaki. At the time he was writing for 'Superbike' magazine and with this connection I was able to secure a 'press pass' for most meetings. The landlord of a local pub in Irchester was a big Santa Pod supporter and most weekends the pub was packed with top names such as Allan Herridge the funny car driver. The walls of the pub were adorned with racing memorabilia, and on a couple of occasions I gave a slide show of my pictures in the back room of the pub!

Many of my pictures feature the Woollatt and O'Neal partnership. Pat O'Neal, an engineer, lived close to Cambridge and got involved in several projects with racers who lived in the area, all of whom I knew, and whenever Pat built a new bike, he would call on me to photograph it.

Jay Upton later emigrated to Australia where in 2004 he became Top Fuel Bike Champion. Some early pictures of mine can also be found on his own website (click here to have a look).

I stopped taking drag racing pictures in about 1981/82. In the early nineties I returned to motorsport photography with my interest in MGs. I managed to progress from 'club racing' to cover the 2003 British Touring Car Championship in full.

I'm not sure I could cut it as a drag racing photographer these days, as the racers' reaction times have got faster, mine have gotten slower! :-)