|
|
|
Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
|
This is the first page of a trilogy which will transport you back in time over forty years to study the rapid rate of development of Top Fuel Dragsters which took place in the early 1970s. We will follow the fortunes of the quickest and fastest cars outside of the USA. Santa Pod Raceway had been in existence for only five years and thus drag racing in this country was still very much in its infancy. As you might expect things were very different back then and the fans' expectations were modest compared with today. Nobody outside the USA had run under seven seconds at that time, and there were precious few cars capable of running in, or even close to, the seven second zone. A seven second run was the highlight of a meeting. The rear-engined Top Fuel Dragster was unknown in Europe, all the cars being front-engined, or slingshots as they were known. Back in those halcyon days clip on starters for fuel cars had yet to put in an appearance. Instead, the cars were pushed down the fire-up road by a support vehicle fitted with a stout piece of wood to protect the front bumper. The driver of the dragster would let the clutch in when sufficient speed had been built up and the motor would burst in to life (or very often it wouldn't!). Where was the fire-up road you might ask? It is still there staring you in the face, it is the safety area in front of the grandstands which is currently used by photographers and support vehicles which now travel in the reverse direction to yesteryear in order to go and retrieve their charges from the top end. If, like me, you were a young man standing on the banking way back then, you would have experienced a feeling of great anticipation mixed with excitement the moment a Top Fuel Dragster so much as appeared at the top of the fire-up road. It always seemed to me that they stayed in that position for an awfully long time, but that was probably impatience on my part. Eventually, the dragster would start to move off and you would hold your breath wondering whether it was destined to burst into rude life or just arrive at the start line in silence. Back in those days the start line area was quite different to today's arrangement. The storage building at the bottom of the strip was constructed a few years back and replaced an open fronted building used by spectators which was affectionately known as 'the barn'. This was great place to watch the racing and anyone who has enjoyed this can testify that drag racing should never be called 'straight line racing'. Burn outs today take place starting just slightly behind the start line gantry using water to get the tyres spinning. In 1971 the top cars used what they called 'the bleach box', bleach was used instead of water because it produced more fan-pleasing tyre smoke. Amazingly by today's risk-averse, health and safety obsessed thinking, the burn out commenced right in front of the barn. It was quite an experience standing right behind a fueller when it let rip I can tell you. So, who were the top drivers way back in 1971? Dennis Priddle driving the Hot Wheels-sponsored car and Clive Skilton in the Castrol-sponsored 2nd Revolution were without doubt the pre-eminent drivers and there was certainly quite a bit of rivalry between them. However, Santa Pod's own Top Fuel cars Firefly (driven by Tony Densham) and The Commuter (Allan Herridge) were also in on the action, as was Mike Hutcherson driving Nobby Hills' Houndog dragster. We shall also be taking a look at a couple of the B Class gas-burning dragsters namely John Siggery's Geronimo and Bill Weichelt's Asmodeus. I cannot guarantee that all of the pictures were taken in 1971 but they are all of the un-published pictures of the cars in Roger's superb collection and I wanted to make every one of them available for you to see. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
DENNIS PRIDDLE AND THE HOT WHEELS-SPONSORED FUELLER A new AA/FD was built for 1971 sporting a 392 inch Keith Black Chrysler Hemi which may just have helped in attracting sponsorship from the Mattel toy company. This is a brief summary of Dennis and the team's season. Dennis lost out 2 to 1 to Clive Skilton at the Easter meeting at Santa Pod despite running his best ever terminal speed of 196 mph, his elapsed time in the final race was 7.73 seconds. A further defeat followed at the Whitsun Big Go when Skilton beat him two nil. Dennis was suffering with handling problems at this meeting which were subsequently traced to a half inch buckle in one of the rear wheels! However, things were looking up on the performance front when Dennis made a storming 7.30 pass at the NDRC's Elvington meet in June. But it was business as usual at the International meeting in July at Santa Pod when Clive Skilton's winning streak continued. The NDRC held a meeting at Blackbushe Aerodrome on 8 August which was sponsored by Radio Luxembourg. Dennis laid down another very low ET of 7.35 seconds on this un-tested surface. He improved on this time at the August bank holiday meeting at the Pod with a blistering new European ET record of 7.22 seconds while racing Tony Densham in Firefly. An attempt at a six second run on his third pass ended in disaster when two rods exited through the block. Dennis was back in action at Santa Pod on 10 October and improved his European ET record with a superb 7.13 second pass at 203 mph which was his first 200+ mph run.
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CLIVE SKILTON AND THE CASTROL-SPONSORED 2ND REVOLUTION He carried on in 1971 in the same vein when he followed up the first seven with the first 200 mph run at Santa Pod when he clocked 7.39/203 at the BDR&HRA's Easter meeting which he went on to win. He then ran 203 mph again at Whitsun Big Go meeting which he also won. Clive was back on 200 mph form at the Santa Pod July International which, once again, he won with a superb 7.35/201 effort. This was an eventful meeting for the team because Clive had pulled a gigantic wheelie during qualifying on Saturday which necessitated suspension repairs, and he was helped by Dennis Priddle losing traction in the final run. The Northern Speed Trials and Official Practice Day for the records weekend was held at Elvington over the weekend of 17 and 18 July. The ISO made special arrangements for Clive (and Bill Weichelt) to make record attempts as both drivers were expected to be in the USA when the actual event was held in October. Skilton was gunning for the standing start World quarter mile record which he took at a stout 7.3 seconds. This achievement was not without trauma as, after a strong first run, his engine started leaking oil on the return run (all World records are the average of two runs in opposite directions). He finished up triumphant if rather oily, and after this experience he resolved to go the rear-engined route for 1972. Well at least he didn't have his car sawn in half by exploding clutch plates like Big Daddy Don Garlits! For some reason you do not see many shots of 2nd Revolution so it is a pleasure to bring you this collection of Roger's pictures.
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
TONY DENSHAM AND FIREFLY
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ALLAN HERRIDGE AND THE COMMUTER
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
'MOVIN' MIKE' HUTCHERSON AND NOBBY HILLS' HOUNDOG I thought you might like to see a picture of Mike albeit not in the 1971 car.
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
JOHN SIGGERY AND GERONIMO
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
'WILD BILL' WEICHELT AND ASMODEUS As noted previously the Northern Speed Trials and Official Practice Day for the records weekend was held at Elvington over the weekend of 17 and 18 July and Bill Weichelt drove Asmodeus to a new British and European record of 17.7 seconds for the standing start kilometre. Bill's last appearance in the UK was at an NDRC event at Blackbushe on August the 8th, he then returned to the US with the car.
. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Clive Skilton certainly had the better of 1971 but he could see that Dennis Priddle was coming up fast on the rails (pun fully intended). Both men decided that a new car was needed in the hunt for that elusive and all-important first six second pass. Both of the new cars were to be constructed here in the UK, Skilton would go the rear-engined route which was proving highly successful on the other side of the pond, Priddle would stay with the tried and trusted slingshot configuration. To find out which of them went in to the history books you will have to wait for 'The Class of '72' coming to a web site near you. |
|
I am indebted to Chris Dossett and his superb Trakbytes website |
|
|
|
This page is dedicated to the memory of |
|
All material on this site is copyright |
|
(First posted on 4 December 2014) |
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
