|
|
|
Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
|
|
|
This picture was taken at an NSA sprint meeting held at Duxford in March 1962. It shows 12 year old Pat Neal's first sprint bike which was a cut down War Department Corgi fitted with a 98cc Scott motor. |
|
|
|
Duxford again but now it is October 1964
and this is Pat's first match race. On the right is Ian Terry (son of 500 and
750cc record holder Jack Terry) on George Brown's 13 second 250cc Ariel
Arrow. Pat borrowed Laurie Nunn's 350cc alky burning Velocette. This race
broke all the rules as both riders were only 15! |
|
|
|
|
And here is some more history - George
Brown's son Tony blasts the famous Super Nero off the line at Santa Pod. |
|
|
|
Eamon Hurley heats the slick on his blown fuel 1180cc Kawasaki at Santa Pod in 1978. Eamon started dragging in the 1960s with a sprint framed Manx Norton called Manx Dragster which ran in the 12 second zone. He then progressed to a 1000cc double engined Manx (!) before running a blown fuel NSU rotary powered bike that ran in the low eights. |
|
|
|
|
Pat can't recall who the rider of this device was but says "he was brave". It features a 2500cc nitro burning Daimler V8 and was fitted with home made injection, clutch and transmission. It ran low 10s and proceeded down the strip in a series of swerves . . . |
|
|
|
Pat was racing a Pro Stocker in 1977 which he had blown up. Dick Talbot (in the blue jumper) lent Pat his John Clift-framed blown 750cc Triumph for the Fireworks meeting. He had cause to regret this largesse because in Pat's own words "On 70% I ran over the crank in the lights, Dick took it well . . ." |
|
|
|
|
Arthur O'Hare's street legal 1325cc Suzuki ran in Pro Street between 1979 and 1981 and got down to 10.1 seconds. The bike featured one of Pat's replica frames made from Reynolds T45 tubing, an early Kosman swinging arm and lockable rear shocks. Pat remembers Arthur was extremely fast on the lights and he won the Street Championship twice. |
|
|
|
Arthur warms his tyre against the Pod timing tower possibly at the 1980 Springnationals. |
|
|
|
|
And speaking of Pat's frame building skills, here is a picture of his 1980-83 Suzuki GS 1000/1100 Pro Stock frame. It was a faithful copy of the original frame but was constructed in Reynolds T45 tubing and had more head rake. It came with a Kosman Clubfoot swinging arm. Pat reckons he made about 13 of them of which most were bought by Henk Vink. |
|
|
|
Gorden Diggens' Queasy Rider blown alky
burning Kawasaki just completed. Gorden was an aerospace engineer whose
previous bikes included a 1500cc double Triumph timed as a four cylinder engine,
and a very quick 500cc Triumph supercharged 2 stroke using ports at the cylinder
base and all the valves in the cylinder head as exhausts. |
|
|
|
|
Ag McPhail's Jade Warrior device which featured a home made engine, blower and transmission. Note the 3" diameter exhausts, these stepped up from the 1¾" stubs to create an aerosol type vacuum at the transition. Pipes connected the vacuum point to the large undertray seen beneath the motor which sucked the bike to the track when the throttle was cracked. |
|
|
|
Ag gets a little heat into his Formula 1 slick. |
|
|
|
|
This is one of Henk Vink's last fuellers. It featured Sandy Kosman rolling stock, a very rare Fritz Egli front fork, Jos Smit engineering and a motor top half by Britain's best cylinder head porter Phil Manzano. |
|
|
|
Pat's initial thoughts were that this is
Graham Nash's 1385cc Pro Stocker with MTC block and header at Long Marston in
1983. However, Clive Banks has written in to say that he believes this was Paul
Mayhew's bike, Paul used it as an advert for his business Custom
Fasteners. |
|
|
|
|
Two pictures of Marion Owen's Boss Hog taken at the 1982 Miami Winternationals. It was powered by two 115" shovelhead Harleys on 85% fed by a 6/71 GMC Littlefield supercharger. Pat says "This thing was as big as an 18 wheel artic, made about 650 bhp and was responsible for body armour being specified in Top Fuel Bike. The unblown twin was faster." |
|
|
|
|
This is Phil Brachtvogel's first blown fuel bike just finished. It had a 98 inch wheelbase, Magnacharge blower and a lay-down Kawaski motor with the gearbox machined off and a Lenco two speed fitted instead. |
|
|
|
Phil and crew wait in the staging lanes at the Pod in October 1982. This was the longest frame that Pat ever made for a customer. |
|
|
|
|
Rod Pallant and family relax at Long
Marston on the qualifying day of one of the Transatlantic Bike Races held there
in the early 1980s (this may be 1983). Pat thinks the chap on the extreme left
of shot might be Bootsie Herridge's son. |
|
|
|
And here is a little something that Pat knocked up for Rod Pallant. A billet cylinder head for Rod's Kawasaki fuel single shown in an unfinished condition. It took 800 hours of work to complete, Elmer Trett had a good long look at it! |
|
|
|
|
Speaking of the late Elmer Trett, this is his Mountain Magic bike (#4) at Long Marston. This bike was at least 95% home built by Elmer and his family including cast crankcases, billet head, billet crank and three stage fuel injection. |
|
|
|
The great Elmer Trett smoking the slick at Long Marston. |
|
|
|
|
Brian Johnson oils up an early top fuel Imperial Wizard at a wet Santa Pod (1983?). He ran an 8.03 on the Saturday and topped that with a 7.87 second pass in eliminations on Sunday, his first foray into the sevens. |
|
|
|
This is some
picture! |
|
|
|
|
This is another NDRC meet at Snetterton this time in 1977. Extrovert Pro Stock rider Les Armes is trying out Pat's Pro Stocker (note the excess of safety gear!). |
|
|
|
. . . we stripped the bike at Snetterton. Jay Upton borrowed the motor and Les dropped his potent turbo engine into the chassis ready for the next meeting at the Pod. |
|
|
|
|
This is Les and Pat at the June 1977 meeting at Santa Pod with the 'combo' Pro Stocker. The rest of the competitors were not pleased . . . |
|
|
|
. . . because in qualifying Les laid a 9.8 second run on them. However, Pat's slick was getting a bit tired so on Sunday Les bought a new M&H which took him to victory in Pro Stock in a new record time of 9.7 seconds. |
|
|
|
|
This is The Dealer (version 1 with the stock gearbox and motor) at the Brighton Speed Trials (standing start kilometre) in 1979. |
|
|
|
The Dealer, version 1 again, about 1978 with Pat riding. |
|
|
|
|
The Dealer, 1980, second version just finished with a new frame back end and a 12" slick. It had a T C Christenson gearbox, Crower style clutch, and an external primary drive which meant an electric plug in starter. "The neighbours just loved us when we fired it up . . ." |
|
|
|
"Mr Woollatt checking the fit, a fag in the gob is mandatory when riding blown fuellers." |
|
|
|
|
This is a publicity shot taken for Motorcycle News, the bike was not actually finished but Pat recalls that Brian Johnson had done a beautiful paint job. |
|
|
|
Steve and the crew wait for qualifying at the 1980 World Finals at Santa Pod . . . |
|
|
|
|
. . . Steve's brother straightens his helmet, no visor problems with the F1 style Bell Helmet . . . |
|
|
|
. . . and launches it. |
|
|
|
PHOTOGRAPHIC
CREDITS |
|
|
All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Navigate through the |
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
