1980 thunderbird pro mod drag car9/7/2023 ![]() ![]() Very soon the Scandinavians became dominant and great racing ensued, big crowds and brilliant atmosphere. Quite often they would then sell their machines. In the early years many of the U.S.A’s top teams would come over to compete. Nearside Dennis Priddle v Allan Herridge in a Top Fuel shootout 1980 Al O’Connor working on the Gasser in the Santa Pod pits Two legends in the sport. Everyone has their own favourite, one of mine was ‘Al’s Gasser’ a Chevy powered Ford Pop which was wild, it would run 10 seconds no mean feat in the 70’s. Both ran 8 second passes Tom Vivian and ‘Tomfoolery’ his blown 750cc Triumph, not much comfort there!Īs today there were many different classes with lots of wonderfully diverse machines, from street cars to altereds and dragsters. Far side Brian Chapman’s ‘Mighty Mouse’ a 500cc blown Vincent single verses John Lloyd and ‘Freight Train’ 3 Kawasaki 750cc triples. The big variation in bike power plants is shown here. Eventually more racers turned to the ‘ujm’ universal Japanese multi, Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki all producing big capacity 4 cylinder 4 strokes all capable of huge power. Perhaps the most successful motor was the Triumph, usually matched with a supercharger (blown). These machines would range from a 350cc Honda to 3 750cc 2 stroke Kawasaki triples, 9 cylinders! Car engines were used, almost everything would be tried to achieve more power and faster runs. The drag bikes were so much fun back then. ![]() The track at Santa Pod was nowhere as good as it is today so the machines used to perform huge 1/8 mile burnouts to get some rubber down to aid traction on the launch, super entertainment! The late,great Allan Herridge known as ‘Bootsie’ burns out in ‘Gladiator’ Nitro funny cars were very popular, a big number of entrants came to the International meetings. The late Lee Anders Hasselstrom in his fuel Funny Car sponsored by the Swedish Air Force ‘Stardust’ a popular Mustang bodied funny car No 5 frames a second burst shots then or auto focus, I would focus on a certain point and hope for the best! Then the film was sent for developing and I would hope to have some decent images, all very expensive. I have scanned the old prints and tried to improve them on the computer. They were taken with a Zenith ttl 35mm slr and cheap 200mm zoom lens. The times and speeds achieved today could never have been imagined back then but as with everything technology moves on, who would have dreamt of PC’s or digital photography in the 70’s! In those days a Top Fuel (nitro) car would run the 1/4 mile in about 6 seconds with speeds of 200mph. ![]()
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