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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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To start off this page of Pro Comp cars I have rifled back through the Archive. First up is a collection of the ReadSpeed Team's cars. This is Jim Read's beautiful Le Patron slingshot which I now believe to be the ex-John Woolfe Racing/Dennis Priddle 'Hot Wheels'car of 1971. This was taken at Blackbushe, the car sits next to the team's famous double decker bus. |
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As I have remarked before in these pages, the Blackbushe surface was notoriously loose even for the relatively modest power outputs of a 1970s methanol engine. No barriers meant great photo opportunities if you had a long enough lens. I think the car is burning out in this shot. |
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He must be really struggling to fill up the page I hear you say. Well I say it might be similar to the last shot but I just could not leave it out. The pattern of the tyre smoke suggests to me that the car is travelling faster and is rooster tailing it down the strip which was a fairly common occurrence at Blackbushe. |
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The next three pictures are of Jim Read's son Steve in his Pro Comp entry named Juara and were all taken at Santa Pod. I would put money on this car being Clive Skilton's Second Revolution fueller re-cycled for use in Pro Comp. |
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Steve Read has reached the bottom of the fire up road and is about to turn Juara onto the strip. |
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And here is Steve warming the slicks a little in a shot taken from the barn. |
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Jim Read's next car was rear engined and built by Dennis Priddle which was a very good way of stealing a march on virtually everyone. I was obviously very quick off the mark as I snapped this picture of Le Patron as it was called before it had even been painted. This looks like Blackbushe to me. |
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It was almost a shame to cover those those beautiful Priddle-made body panels but they did and this is one of at least three paint jobs the car had. This was taken at Santa Pod. |
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Le Patron is back at Blackbushe and the paint has changed. It's a great shame that no one has set up a website to record the ReadSpeed team as Jim and his sons campaigned a lot of cars over the years with great success. |
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Norm Weeldon and Tim Claxton's beautiful rear engined car at Snetterton. Although only powered by a small block Chevrolet, this car was extremely competitive and won the European Finals in 1979. |
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Steve Rose tells me that this is in fact a different Wheeldon & Claxton car. This has also been confirmed by Tim Claxton himself who tells me that only the engine, Lenco and Dennis Priddle built body panels were retained from the 'old' car. It is pictured here getting pushed back to the Santa Pod start line by large numbers of people. I seem to remember they were having trouble with the clutch dragging hence the need for a little extra manpower. The car was powered by a cast iron small block Chevy with 3 speed Lenco. |
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Tommy Svensson's 454" Chevy powered Blue Swede IV pictured in the pits at Santa Pod. This car was formerly campaigned as a fuel funny car when owned by Björn Andersson and Tage Hammerman and driven by John Andersson. I am indebted to former Top Fuel Dragster driver Pelle Lindelow for information on this and other Swedish cars on this page. |
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An unusual shot of Ollie Burns' Komodo Dragon flopper taken at Snetterton. |
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This is the ex-Cannon & Soares ex-Peter Crane Stormbringer Top Fuel Dragster now re-named Krypton. This car was campaigned by Dave Wilson (name sound familiar?) and Rod George. Dave has been in touch and he thinks this picture was taken at the 1980 May Day meeting at Santa Pod which was the first time he drove the car. |
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Krypton II seen in the pits showing off the beautifully formed front wing which looks very like the sort of thing that Pat Cuss used to do. Ian Coote has written in to say that he thinks this car was borrowed from Alan Ritmeisters following the destruction of the original (ex-Stormbringer) car at Pennine Raceway, this is confirmed by Dave Wilson. The team were in contention for the British Championship and needed the points. It looks like this picture was taken at Long Marston. Dave has identified the people in the picture as on the left Rod George, with his back to the camera is Steve Martin, on the right is Dave Fletcher (current crew chief for Cruz Pedregon) and next to him is Brian 'Superwrench' Rees. |
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This is a slightly dodgily exposed shot of the next Krypton car burning out in the pit lane at Santa Pod Raceway in 1981. This car was built by Dave Wilson, Steve Martyn (who co-owned it) and Dave Fletcher in 1981. Dave says the car ran five consecutive 6.9s at the August race that year and qualified no. 1 with Steve Martyn driving, it eventually got down to 6.0 with Dave at the wheel. The car has now done over 1,000 runs and is still as good as new with its original chassis and body. |
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Anders Lian's Pro Comp funny car literally hurling itself off the line at Santa Pod Raceway. My thanks to Olle Svensson for identifying the driver of this car. |
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John Grosland's Seaport Automotive sponsored funny car seen in profile at Santa Pod. It is a shame that the supercharger and bug catcher were covered with a blanket, but the shot still shows how far they used to project above the 'bonnet' in some of the cars of this era. |
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Torbjorn Strom's Stora Akeriet (a road haulage company) sponsored 426 Hemi powered dragster. Torbjorn is currently assisting Krister Johansson in his comeback in top alcohol dragster. |
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