Dragstalgia

Santa Pod, Northants, July 9-11, Words & Photography: AF Photography

What a weekend. Due to the pandemic Dragstalgia didn’t go ahead last year and unfortunately there were still a few restrictions in place this year, but the event is now in its 10^th year and was not to be missed. From racing, static displays, the vintage hub, traders, a big screen drive-in movie and the Pod shop to browse through, there was plenty going on to keep everyone amused. I personally got there not long after the gates opened on Friday morning to make the most of the weekend. On track Friday was just Run What Ya Brung with many races getting plenty of runs in including some of the Nostalgia Super Stock guys and girls just before the heavens opened drastically calling a very wet end to the day.

            The Nostalgia Super Stock has now been a class at Santa Pod for a few years and every year it’s got bigger and bigger, for Dragstalgia there was a record 48 entries with 42 qualified, confirmed by club chairman and racer Don Scott. The Nostalgia Super Stock guys and girl race what’s known as bracket racing, where they predict what they think they will run and try to run as close to that time as possible, this sets the qualifying order, which in turn decides the elimination ladder for race day.

Saturday morning came and Nostalgia Super Stocks were out nice and early when the track opened, Gary Carr, James Oliver and Vic Parsons in the top three after round one. In qualifying round two Guy King moved up to the number one spot with a perfect 10.06 on a 10.06 dial in. Due to the rain on Friday the class missed a round of qualifying, so after two rounds they had their Eliminations round one on Saturday evening due to the class being so big. After round one the pack got thinned out from 42 to 21, ready for Sunday. Saturday night was as fantastic as always, with Super Stock racer and commentator Colin Theobald participating in a match race with Santa Pod CEO Keith Bartlett, with Colin taking the win followed by the traditional Cackle Fest and Fire Burnout closing the track action with the drive in movie, which was showing Le Mans 66.

Sunday morning arrived on the final day, with eliminations to continue until one is left. Round two of eliminations opened the track action with the numbers being halved again with a notable close race between Dan Williams and Jerry Raymond, with a win margin of 0.0012, or two inches between them at the finish line. In round three Guy King, Chris Layram, Stuart ‘Kiwi’ Thompson, Dan Williams, Dave Billadeau and Jake Cawthorne took the win light over their opponents, to go through to the next round. In round four Kiwi took the win over Jake Cawthorne for a bye into the final and Chris Layram and Guy King won their matches to meet, with Guy King taking the win into the final. The final came and although it was a good race, Kiwi took the win over Guy King, well done to everyone and thank you to everyone at Santa Pod for the great weekend!