Editorial

It was pure coincidence that, following the reminiscences of Santa Pod in both last issue and this one, I should find myself standing trackside at what was once RAF Podington. Now, let me confess this; I love drag racing. But, more than that, I love what is now termed nostalgia drag racing. Not being old enough to have seen the likes of George Brown, John Hobbs and Mick Butler race ‘first time around,’ it is a huge joy to me to be able to see the older machines that the annual Dragstalgia event attracts.

But, out at the startline, watching John Hobbs preparing to run Olympus, my mind turned to what OBM readers have been telling me about the early days of Santa Pod. Now, of course, the site has turned from an old runway into an internationally renowned track with stands, banking and, since 2018, a concrete track replacing the asphalt quarter mile, once the fastest all-asphalt drag strip in the world. But anyone who was there in 1966 when EJ Potter ran his V8 Chevy bike would still be instantly at home at today’s ’Pod.

So afterwards I decided to have a poke around in the magical cave that is Mortons photo archive (I’m generally not allowed in there because I can be gone for days) to see if there were any photos of the early days of drag racing in this country. And I turned up the photo you see here.

Now, for the casual observer, it’s just a drag bike and an old van. But there is so much history in this one picture.

For a start, that’s not just any van borrowed from work for the weekend. As the name on the side proclaims, that belonged to Adlards, a Ford dealer in south London and – some of you will already be ahead of me – Adlards was the family firm of Sydney Allard, the man who can rightfully be called the godfather of British drag racing. His ‘Allard Specials,’ using both Ford flathead V8 and Cadillac engines, were successful in a number of areas; he won the British Hillclimb Championship in 1949, was placed third at Le Mans in 1952 and won the Monte Carlo Rally the same year.

Allard took an interest in all forms of motorsport and, when drag racing became popular in the US after the Second World War, he decided to get involved. In 1961 he built Europe’s first dragster, powered by a 354 Chrysler Hemi with a GMC 6-71 blower running on methanol. It was run at sprint meetings where it caused such a stir that Allard realised there was an audience for drag racing in the UK. He formed the British Drag Racing Association and then, along with Wally Parks of the National Hot Rod Association, he organised the 1964 International Drag Festival, a series of six meetings held in different parts of the country at old airfields.

The poster taped to the side of the Adlards van is advertising the first of those events, the British International Speed Festival at Blackbushe Airport on September 19, 1964 and so it’s most likely that is where this photo was taken. The motorcycle in this photo adds another piece to the story. It’s the Harley drag bike of Bill Woods, one of a starstudded team of American racers that came to the UK to compete in the drag festival, a team which included such names as Don Garlits, Tommy Ivo, Dante Duce and, running his twin-engined Triumph, Don Hyland.

Although the second International Drag Festival the following year would be hit by rain, forcing the organisers into bankruptcy, drag racing was here to stay in the UK.

Standing beside Santa Pod’s quarter mile as the sun began to sink in the sky, I could almost see Sydney Allard out of the corner of my eye, nodding in approval that the sport he was so instrumental in introducing to this country continues and still delights and thrills thousands of people. Santa Pod opened on April 11,1966, Europe’s first permanent drag racing venue; Sydney Allard passed away the following day, aged 55. Perhaps he felt his work was done.