Almost thirty cars came through the gates of Santa Pod for Dragstalgia and were blessed with hot and sunny weather for the event. It was also the weekend to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Outlaw Anglia class. Four qualifying sessions were planned starting on Friday and what a start to the weekend, which saw Colin Millar record 6.985 his first six-second pass to become the second UK Outlaw Anglia in the sixes. The hard work of Colin, Lynn Purvis, Aaron Springford and support from Jedd Guy finally paid off. Unfortunately Millar suffered engine damage in the last qualifying session and was out of the show. Also out of the show was Rob Brindle with engine damage on Friday. His car had a new paintjob, looking very nice.
There were a few racers who ran personal bests in qualifying. Ben Rushforth 8.440-160.77, Barnaby Levy who was racing for the first time since 2018 with his sons 8.887-146.17, Mark Bracking ran his first 9sec. 9.709. and Spencer Tidswell 9.643-140.70. Simon Barlow was back with new parts and was looking for a baseline for the car qualified fourth 7.684-183.57. Nathan Barlow was back after three years. Reigning Champion Jedd Guy, making his first appearance was still awaiting parts and managed to freshen the motor and ran 7.009 for second spot. Next up was Paul Hensher who ran 7.512 and damaged five pistons and was out of the show. Fifth was Ben Rushforth who won Best Appearing Car award of the event. Phil Middleton did his usual long smoky burnouts UK’s answer to Sweden’s Freddy Fagerstrom 8.480-160.17 which was a new PB for Phil. Ben Kennedy burnt the midnight oil on Friday night finishing 2-30am Saturday morning working on his new engine.
There were some newcomers to the class, Paul Watson who has raced several bike and car classes, drove his street legal Pop to the track and was worried when he could not find a garage with super unleaded. Andy Haley was crewing for Watson and was trying different carbs, always a racer and doing rolling burnouts on street tyres (tyre depth gauge in the toolbox?) he went on to win the trophy for “Best First Round Reaction Time”, Ben Montgomery in a beautiful green paintjob and was creeping up on the tune up in qualifying. Lee Taylor in a stunning pick up, built by him and Andrew and Rob Chilton.
Into the eliminations and Rob Nixon ran 9.496 p/b. Kennedy also 9.861 p/b and Wayne Power 9.964-135.72 personal best figures. Into the quarter finals and Ronnie Mercer beat Garry Hill. Guy with no nitrous beat Middleton. Nixon had a bye run. Rushforth put a holeshot rt118 over Simon Barlow rt332. But Barlow powered around to take the win light 7.81 to Rushforth p/b 8.411-161.32. In the semis Nixon left before the tree against Guy and Barlow was a no show in the other semi. Guy won the final 7.068 against Mercer 8.702. Which brought an end to a great weekends racing, here’s to next year.
Behind the scenes saw Rob Nixon winning the “Most Consistent ET during qualifying rounds” with an amazing 0.04 difference, Rob was emotional as this was his first trophy in drag racing for 42 years, Nostalgia Nationals were never finished so it was decided to draw names and 2nd place went to Shane Bird and first place went to Martyn Payne, well done everyone
Report by Steven Moxley