All of the pictures on this page
were taken by ex-Pro Comp funny car
pilot
Timo Aartomaa who has very kindly allowed me to reproduce them
here.
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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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The ex-Keeling & Clayton California Charger was to my eye one of the best looking funny cars of all time. Here it is at Räyskälä. |
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The beautiful California Charger again at Räyskälä this time burning out. |
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The Aartomaa family are a talented lot, this is Timo's sister Jaana - and she drove the car. |
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Timo Aartomaa (left) and Steinar Stolen. Steinar seems to have lost his roll of lino. |
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This picture is called 'Late night for Steinar's team' - says it all. |
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Dave Stone in the foreground with his father Dennis behind in the cap. |
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Gerry Andrews sits in the Hemi Hunter II Pro Comp dragster, Dave Stone is in the striped jacket. |
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Dave Stone gets down for a close up look at the 481 cubic inch Rodeck engine in his Stardust funny car. |
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And this is what Dave Stone was peering at in the picture above - a great big hole in the side of his 481 Rodeck block. When he started the engine it exploded so badly that the corner of the block came right away exposing the cylinder sleeve and the piston. Might have been a bit expensive that . . . |
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I used to travel from north London to Santa Pod (about 60 miles) and always found sights like this very depressing indeed. |
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Timo, on the other hand, had a 100 mile journey to Turku, a ferry ride to Stockholm (£200), a 380 mile run from Stockholm to Gothenburg, the ferry ride to England (£1,000) and then a further 100 miles to the Pod. All in all at least 48 hours travelling. He tells me on two occasions he visited Santa Pod and never started the engine. |
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There is an expression to describe what these valiant souls are trying to do - it involves breaking wind and very noisy meteorological phenomena and I will not repeat it here. On days such as this they used to run tow cars etc up and down the strip to try and clear the standing water. |
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On a brighter note this is top American driver Gene Snow launching his Snowman fuel funny car off the line at Santa Pod. |
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One of the great characters of UK drag racing - Ron Picardo in The Force fuel funny car. |
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Top Fuel Dragsters now and Pelle Lindelow in the near lane goes up against Kent Persson. |
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Nobby Hills' Houndog 10 fuel funny car
prepares to race Satan's Sledge driven by Chris Filsell. |
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A nice close up view of Houndog 10 which was driven, as always, by Owen Hayward. |
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More fuel funny cars - Harlan Thompson in the near lane versus Rune Fjeld, two of the great names of the 1980s. |
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Harlan Thompson gets a little heat into the slicks of his Protector-sponsored car. |
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Jim Read starts his burn out in his Dennis Priddle-built Le Patron Pro Comp dragster. |
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Slicks nicely lit up he passes lucky old Timo who got to stand in the fire up road. Envious? Who - me? |
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All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
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