All of the pictures on this page were  contributed by Jeremy Cookson,
I am grateful to him for the opportunity of reproducing them here. 

Click on any image to get the bigger picture

EUROPE’S FIRST JUNIOR SLINGSHOT!
Looking every inch like an American nostalgia front engined Top Fueller, Germany’s Bernd Seminati debuted this nitrous assisted B/Class racer at Hockenheim’s Nitro Olympics in 1993 where it was highly regarded as Europe’s first Junior Gas dragster.
With motive power from a 350ci Chevrolet small block pumped full of methanol and nitrous from its twin plate bottle set-up, Seminati’s dragster had been accepted by the German organisers as an entry in a special Pro Comp Invitational Challenge race, but failed to show it’s true potential.

Twelve months later, Seminati made a welcome return to the German Formula One track where again he qualified for the Invitational Challenge, but came up short in round two against 1993 British Top Alcohol Champion, Rob Turner.  Seminati performed a bunch of crowd pleasing burnouts resulting in a best ET of 8.21 seconds at 160 mph.
Adding to the nostalgia flavour, Seminati wore a traditional sixties Top Fuel breather mask and a helmet styled on one worn by Don Prudhomme.

EUROPE’S FASTEST ‘KAFER’ BUG
Long before the ‘Outrageous’ VW Beetle Funny Car owned by Brian Burrows and raced by Paul Hughes, the quickest and fastest Volkswagen ‘Kafer’ Bug outside of America belonged to a very proud German enthusiast named Roland Jutting.  In the seventies and eighties Jutting, a former Rallycross and circuit racer, amazed all before him as his incredibly quick 2.7 litre ‘Sonax’ sponsored Beetle bounced records like they were going out of fashion.  Some stood for ten years or more as this stylish Beetle pounded the paved tracks of Europe in ten seconds or less at 180 plus mph.
Based on a ‘78 Type IV engine with twin screw type superchargers, variable boost controls and nitrous, it pushed out a staggering 500 horsepower at the wheels which, for its time, wasn’t bad for a little air cooled 2.7 litre (170 cubic inch) engine.  A Hewland 5 speed transmission taken from a Formula circuit car provided the necessary gearing, but even though the whole concept was cloked in a one piece flip style carbon fibre body hinged at the front, the only stock item that remained was the floor pan, and even that was formed with a specially constructed chromoly chassis from a Formula Vee car.
Jutting and his Sonax team raced all over Germany and Europe promoting the VW concept, but the most spectacular challenge of them all was against a German Air Force Phantom jet fighter. The result - a two out of three victory for the bug.  Now how’s that for German ingenuity!

KICK THE MIG
We’ll stay with the jets versus drag cars theme, for the annual ‘Kick The Mig’ competition.  A regular feature in the early nineties, this ground to air challenge was part of a huge American festival featuring drag racing, American cars and an open air pop festival.
The venue was the old Russian Air Force base situated in the German Republic of Gros-Doelin near Berlin.  Its wide open tree lined concrete runways were ideal for this form of match racing and proved quite popular with those who attended as they clung on to any form of weighted object they could find in the wake of the Mig’s jet wash.
The show attracted a huge entry of both cars and bikes including the Top Alcohol Funny Car of Peter Kruse, and Peter Schofer's Competition Class dragster.  Powered by a 514 ci Keith Black, Kruse had taken on a Russian Mig-29 once before and come away with a 2-nil victory in favour of the Valvoline-sponsored Oldsmobile Firenza.

DENMARK’S STREET STARS
Although not quite such a hot ticket as the rest of Scandinavia, sixty five teams showed up for the 1991 Danish Nationals held at Lintorp Dragway for a share of the £2,000 prize pot.  One of the leading street car exponents was Copenhagen’s Rene Hersland.  Qualifying for a 16 car shootout, champion Hersland drove his 499 ci Hemi Cuda into the number one spot and the final to meet Leif Anderson’s Coca Cola sponsored ’59 Plymouth Station Wagon.
With half the population driving around in American iron, Leif’s wagon almost hauled the mail across the finishing strip but it was all Hersland for back-to-back wins.

VIVECA’S PRICE OF STARDOM
Not long after the Valvoline deal was signed, Sweden’s Top Fuel starlet Viveca Averstedt, along with Mickie Kagered, agreed to put their cars on display to help promote Mantorp Park’s ‘94 Sko Uno Drag Festival during one of Scandinavia’s biggest motorsports shows in Stockholm.  Also flying the flag for a new sponsor for Optima batteries was Peter Lantz who mounted a huge display with the dragster’s tow rig as the back drop.  During the show Viveca also tried ‘little Al’ Unser’s Galles Motorsports Lola Indy Car for size!
It was quite a year for Viveca and husband Hakan with loads of personal appearances and race events as part of the Valvoline deal.
It also meant plenty of photo shoots as this signed copy will testify.  In fact it very nearly replaced the original photo used on the cover of issue two of European Dragster.

MORE SWEDISH PUBLICITY
Here’s a few more publicity shots, this time for Top Fuel racer Pelle Lindelow to launch his association with Clarion Car Stereos outside the Swedish Houses of Parliament.  Pelle was also involved in the NHRA Drag Racing Tour of Japan in 1994.  This shot was taken just days before the PG Racing Top Fueller was crated up for its long trip to the orient.

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Jeremy Cookson together with his parents
Gerry and Joan were inducted into the
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2018
click here to read their citation