Syd McDonald was the Race Director at Santa Pod between 1973 and 1977.
The
racers gave him a number of autographed photographs when he retired,
Syd has
very kindly made this unique collection available for publication.
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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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Syd (in the very dodgy trousers) presides over a wacky bar stool race. Can anyone identify the competitors? |
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John Hobbs
performs a rolling burn out on his The Hobbit Top Fuel
Bike. |
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The late Allan 'Bootsie' Herridge doing one of the things he
enjoyed most (I don't know what the other things were). |
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A great shot of Brian Chapman on his incredible 500cc
Vincent Comet-powered Mighty Mouse. |
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Another man who did more than his fair share to shape modern Top
Fuel Bike racing was ace frame builder John Clift. He called his bikes the
Co-Respondent which gives some idea of the amount of time he spent on
them. |
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The picture shows
Dave Stone blasting off the line in the Stardust Funny Car wheels up and with
plenty of left lock on. Dave's father Dennis is directly behind the
car. |
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This is one of three pictures in the collection which are
unsigned. It shows Mickey Naylor burning out hard in his Medicine Man fueller. |
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Phil Elson put the old Gloworm funny car body on his
Sneaky T fuel altered and called the car - you've guessed it - Sneaky
Gloworm. |
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Bootsie Herridge drove a fueller as well as a funny car so I
suppose he had every right to give Syd two pictures. This shot shows him
warming those slicks in the Asphalt Alleygator. |
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The second unsigned picture in the collection shows Liz Burn burning out in the Liz & Ollie Pro Comp Dragster. This car was originally raced by the Kuhl & Olsen team in the US before being imported into the UK and raced by Clive Skilton. |
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The final unsigned picture shows Barry Bowles doing what looks a burn out but is not. The Blonde Bombshell was a rocket-powered device and that is steam you see issuing from the back of the car. |
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Ron Picardo burning out in the Highway Patrol Top
Fuel Dragster. |
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No collection of this kind would be complete without a picture
of Dennis Priddle. |
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This Pro Stock bike might not look all that fast compared to
today's machines but Les Armes was the man to beat back then with his
turbocharged Yoshimura-tuned Kawasaki. |
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Wild wheelstands like this must qualify Alan O'Connor's Al's
Gasser as the original Outlaw Anglia. |
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James Whiting's Silent Knight Austin A40 was one of a
few giant-slaying British-powered modified cars which used to grace the
strips. |
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And speaking of giant-slaying cars this picture shows John
Whitmore in his 1300cc blown 4 cylider dragster in the foreground, and the late George
Davie in his unique propane gas-powered Jaguar rail which he called
Pubcrawler. |
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Pat Cuss went from a short wheelbase slingshot dragster straight
to this state of the art rear engined Pro Comp dragster. |
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'Mighty' Mick Warne is pictured here doing a wheels up
launch on his blown Triumph. |
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Owen Hayward looks to be having a fairly exciting ride at the
top end in Nobby Hills' Houndog 7 flopper. |
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This is Roz Prior at the controls of the Maneater Top Fuel
Dragster. |
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This is the famous Page brothers' Panic Senior
Competition Altered. |
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The famous Wheelie Stingray was driven by Santa Pod promoter Roy
Phelps and fortunately is still running today in the hands of Ron Picardo and
his son Gary. |
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My thanks to
Roger Gorringe for permitting publication of his images. |
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All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
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