All of the pictures on these pages were taken by readers of
The Acceleration Archive who have kindly agreed to share them with us.
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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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This page is mostly devoted to pictures submitted by Tim Claxton who raced in a number of classes in the 1970s and '80s. |
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Left : Tim bought Rocky II from Alan O'Connor in 1975. |
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This is Freddie Whittle's immaculate Shutdown AA Fuel Altered. This car has a lot to answer for because it got me hooked on those Awful Awful Fuel Altereds and I am still addicted to this day. |
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Mike Hall campaigned Shutdown for a while and this is him with the car in the pits at Silverstone. |
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Time for some Funny Cars starting, very appropriately, with Santa Pod's own Gloworm Ford Capri-bodied car. This was the very first funny car ever seen in the UK. |
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A nice image of the late Allan Herridge seated on the front wheel of Santa Pod's Gladiator AA/FC. |
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Funny Car racing really kicked off in the UK in 1973 when Don Schumacher and Paula Murphy brought their floppers over and absolutely amazed the Santa Pod crowd (including me!). |
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Another US driver who came over was the late Tony 'The Loner' Nancy with this early example of a rear engined Top Fuel Dragster. |
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Anders Lantz's beautiful Plymouth 5 window coupe at Santa Pod. It was classified as a Street Altered in Sweden but was so rapid it had to run against the Competition Altereds. |
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Pat Cuss built and drove this retro styled slingshot which he called Ratcatcher. |
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The famous Stripteaser Jaguar-powered Minivan altered of Bob Messent and Roger Bishop. This is another car still racing with Andrew Gibb at the helm. |
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This outrageous device was built by Mark Stratton and mated a Bond Bug bodyshell with a Top Fuel engine to create what must be the zaniest Fuel Altered ever built. |
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Sneaky T was Phil Elson's rather more conventional take on an AA/FA. |
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Tim snapped this picture of Björn Ardin's Pro Comp Funny Car at Mantorp Park in 1980. |
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This is Tim's 1981 ride - a 354 inch altered called Coyote. |
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The debut of the Wrangler-sponsored Pro Comp dragster which was driven by Norm Wheeldon. |
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Tim made a number of trips to the US and here are some of the pictures he took starting with Orange County International Raceway in 1982. |
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A rather distant shot of Al Segrini burning out in his Brut-sponsored flopper which ran a best of 5.91/245. Al was one of the first people in the US to attract a major non-automotive sponsor into drag racing. |
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Joe Pisano's Dodge Omni ran a best of 6.00/240.64 in 1982. |
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Don Prudhomme's Pepsi Challenger was a truly amazing car. It laid down a then-staggering 5.63 second pass at the 1982 US Nationals which was almost two tenths quicker than anything run before. This pass was no fluke as he ran again in the sixties and one in the seventies. Top speed for the year was 257.14 mph. |
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The unmistakeable colour scheme of Shirley 'Cha Cha' Muldowney's Top Fuel Dragster. |
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The late Scott Kalitta's Top Fuel Dragster. |
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Warren Johnson was dubbed 'The Professor of Pro Stock' and for good reason. He went on to achieve 97 career victories and 6 championships. He was the first man to exceed 200 mph in a Pro Stock, and was ranked 7th in the NHRA's Top 50 drivers 1951-2000. |
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We now go back in time to 1978 with Tim clicking away at the late lamented Ontario Motor Speedway. |
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Take four 425 cubic inch Buick engines, install in a somewhat modified Buick Station Wagon and you get 'TV' Tommy Ivo's Riviera Wagon Master. It was the first car banned from competition by the NHRA and so it became an exhibition car. |
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Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme finds time for a quick cough and a drag whilst suiting up for another pass in his all-conquering Army-sponsored Plymouth Arrow flopper. |
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This picture was taken at Bakersfield in 1986. |
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The next set of pictures were taken at Pomona, year unknown but possibly 1987. |
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The famous Chi-Town Hustler of Farkonas, Coil and Minick sporting what looks like a Plymouth Arrow body to me. |
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I think this is Bob Glidden's 1987 Pro Stock. This was a fantastic season for him - he qualified number one in all 14 rounds, won eight times including the last five, exceeded 60 national career wins and took his eighth Championship. |
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Roland Leong's famous Hawaiian Funny Car pictured at OCIR in 1983. |
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I was intrigued by this very distant shot of a Top Fuel Bike which Tim had captioned 'Russ Collins'. Upon closer inspection I could see that the bike was rear engined. Russ Collins was most famous for his triple Honda-engined bike and I had certainly never heard of this machine. |
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What might have been . . . |
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Click here if you would like to read about Russ' illustrious and highly innovative racing career. |
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All material on this site is copyright and |
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(First posted on 22 November 2013) |
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