British Drag Racing Hall of Fame announces new members for 2020

The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame (BDRHoF) has just announced the names of the new members selected for induction into the Hall of Fame in 2020. They are:

• Jeff Byne, 1978 ACU Motorcycle Drag Racing champion and record-setter who made a great comeback after a bad crash;

• Nick Davies, twice UK Pro Modified Champion and Fuel Altered racer who has raced, and beaten, some of the US legends in the category;

• Ian King, twelve-time FIM European Drag Bike champion, multiple record setter and co-owner of Puma Engineering;

• John Price, announcer at Santa Pod Raceway from 1981 to 2008, also at many other drag racing and hot rod show venues, and the face of drag racing on TV for a quarter of a century;

• Dave Wilson, five times FIA European Top Methanol Champion who made a success of running with blown methanol and injected nitro combinations.

Our overseas inductees this year are Pelle Lindelöw and Gunnar Elmqvist, who as P&G Racing became multiple championship winners in Top Fuel in the pre-FIA era and ambassadors for the category in Japan in 1994 and 1995.

Their detailed citations accompany this release and their names join those whose contributions to British drag racing are considered to have been extraordinary. The detailed citations can also be found on www.britishdragracinghof.co.uk.

Sadly the annual Gala Awards Dinner scheduled to be held on Saturday 21st November at the Oatlands Park Hotel, Weybridge, Surrey, has had to be cancelled owing to uncertainties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the hope and expectation of the board of the BDRHoF that normal service will resume in 2021.

On-going news about the Gala, sponsors and other events in which the BDRHoF is involved is regularly published on the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame website, www.britishdragracinghof.co.uk, www.eurodragster.com and also in our magazine HOFtalk distributed among our members and supporters.

Jeff Byne – a profile by Keith Lee

Jeff Byne’s drag bike career began in 1970, with a 650 Triumph. It was not long before he started modifying it; adding a supercharger helped move him up the ranks. The name Hurricane became familiar on the strips. By September 1972 he had dipped into the 9-second zone on a modest 40% nitro. In 1974 Jeff recorded the quickest time by a single-engined Triumph, 9.4sec, at the July International. It was a successful season – and also eventful. In August, Jeff clocked 9.38sec while shearing the rear-wheel spindle at over 120mph! He still came back out to win the event! A huge blowup at that season’s end destroyed the motor and damaged the chassis, but plans were already afoot for a new machine which would confirm his reputation as a top competitor in this era.

In May 1976, a double-engined 1500cc Triumph was debuted. Two motors are never an easy proposition, but a 9.6sec pass first time out, while qualifying for Top Bike eliminator, showed his capabilities. By October that same year, Jeff had recorded 8.70sec on the orange machine, becoming only the fourth rider to dip below 9 seconds. He ended 1976 as the year’s quickest double-engined racer.

The 1977 Jubilee meeting at Santa Pod was the first time that anyone had run eight-second passes through all three rounds of eliminations, as Jeff scored a memorable win.

A frightening 175mph crash at Easter 1978 thankfully left Jeff virtually unscathed, but the bike was badly damaged. A new chassis was required, and the following year proved to be a classic one on two wheels. John Hobbs set the quickest-ever time by a European rider with 8.07sec in July, which was virtually matched by Jeff in August before Jeff went on to run a new European best of 8.02sec the following month. This time would prove to be the quickest ever by a British rider in this golden era of twin-engined British bikes. To cap a successful season, Jeff won the ACU drag bike championship, also setting the fastest European terminal speed, at 181.8mph, during another elimination win in October.

Jeff was a determined rider on track but was also ready and willing to help fellow competitors who had problems, even offering to pull the two-speed box out of his bike to help a rival at one meeting, which is no small job.

Hurricane continued racing into the early 1980s to good effect, but the era of the twins had run its course. Jeff kept his record-breaking machine and, over 30 years on, made a welcome return to the track in 2014 to take part in Dragstalgia, after so many years of not riding any type of bike. He has been a regular participant since, as he shows off one of the iconic machines of the era.

It is for his formidable contribution to motorcycle drag racing throughout the sport’s formative years that Jeff Byne is hereby inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Pictures: Keith Lee

Nick Davies – a profile by Robin Jackson

It was youthful spectator visits to the dragstrip that would spur on the engineer and businessman Nick Davies to distinguished participation and intercontinental success. Passive attendance became active involvement with a 1993 foray into Super Gas, followed by a step up to Pro Modified two years later. If his association with doorslammers has defined his engagement with drag racing, it has been Nick’s ventures into more recondite regions that have fully stamped his prominence on the sport.

The foundations of Nick’s success lie at a racing venue of a different kind. In 1997 he joined forces with another future Hall of Fame member, Rob Loaring, to acquire the parts company Rooster Racing Equipment, combining it with a near-bankrupt ICE Automotive Racing Engines and transferring the new business from a farm building to a 2,500 sq./ft. facility at Silverstone circuit, where it still resides.

In 1999, the partnership won its first UK National Pro Mod championship, with Nick at the wheel, and retained the title the following season. At the same time, they played a pivotal role in the development of Super Modified Eliminator, a lower-cost but highly competitive doorslammer class that would enjoy success for a decade and which forms the backbone of Competition Eliminator today.

In 2004, Nick began managing and tuning a Street Eliminator entry for Steve Nash which, four years later, would be the first turbocharged car to win the class championship. Meanwhile, 2005 began the venture beyond the doorslammer bounds into blown, open-wheel territory with the construction of Havoc, at first propelled by methanol, later by a tip of the nitro can. Over the next several years, Nick campaigned Havoc in the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association series, setting the blown methanol speed record at 205mph in 2005, and later drove Lawrie Gatehouse’s Chaos Altered, this time with nitro in the tank. In 2013 he managed the construction of Tim Garlick’s Apache Funny Car, helping launch the Nostalgia Funny Car movement.

In 2015, following a famous Dragstalgia match race against Pure Hell, the legendary American Fuel Altered, Havoc switched to nitro. The upshot, two years later, was a four-race tour of America with Ron Hope’s Rat Trap Racing, culminating in victory at Bakersfield’s California Hot Rod Reunion, the only British blown nitro win achieved on US soil.

In 2011 Nick had managed, tuned, and driven Britain’s first turbocharged Pro Mod entry for car-owner Graham Ellis, earning a runner-up finish and the then-fastest speed by a UK Pro Mod, 239mph. This exercise would pave the way for ICE Automotive’s own turbo Pro Mod venture. Unveiled in 2018 and still a work in progress, the Pontiac Firebird has already set a UK speed record of 249.05mph, the first British mark to top 400 kilometres per hour.

It is for his exemplary racing successes in two classes, and on two continents, and for his engineering achievements at the forefront of our sport, that Nick Davies is hereby inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Ian King – a profile by Ian Messenger

Ian King is a record-breaking, multiple European drag racing champion. Ian has won twelve FIM European Championships – ten as a rider, two as Team Principal – plus two ACU British and one MCUI Irish Championships and has broken various British and European records and an FIM World Land Speed Record. He is the eighth, and only British member of the international MTC Engineering Top Fuel Bike 5-Second Club.

Ian built his first motorcycle at 13 and became a multi-award-winning constructor of custom bikes. He first encountered drag racing on a trip to Santa Pod with the Scouts. From 17 he raced his friends on their road bikes at `RWYB’ weekends, beginning his `formal’ racing career in the 1980s in the SuperBike-conceived Ultimate Streetbike series on his custom road-legal specials.

From Street classes, he progressed to Funnybike in the UK’s ACU series on a self-built turbo-methanol Suzuki before acquiring his first nitro project, a 2700cc nitro V8 Puma in 1997. However, before the unique project was completed, Ian received an offer he could not refuse for the unfinished machine and used the funds to acquire the Quarter Scorcher 5 Puma from Frank Brachtvogel in 1999.

Updates and improvements to the bike improved its performance over a decade into a state-of-art five-time FIM European Championship-winning machine. In 2010 Ian sold the bike and conceived an all-new, world-leading bike under the auspices of his company Puma Engineering. In 2012 the Gulf Oil-sponsored team secured the first of eight further FIM European Top Fuel Bike Championships to date.

Demonstration passes took the team to unusual places across the world. In 2006 he became the first to ride a nitromethane-powered bike in the Middle East at the Bahrain F1 circuit. In 2011 he visited India to perform on behalf of Gulf Oil International. In 2013 Ian performed burnouts in front of over 100,000 people at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, earning that year’s Goodwood Choice Award. Since then, the team has been invited back annually to the prestigious event.

In March 2014 Ian won the opening event of the USA Championship. In the final, his 5.878-second elapsed time conferred eighth and the coveted final place in the MTC Top Fuel Bike 5-Second Club.

In 2018, Greek rider Fil Papafilippou took over riding duties on the Gulf Oil machine for the season’s FIM European Championship races. With Ian now serving as Team Principal, Fil has added two more FIM Championships to the team’s tally. In 2018 and 2019 Ian raced twice more at the US Final events, making the final on both occasions.

Ian also co-owns the world-renowned Puma Engineering. The company offers parts to construct all combinations of nitromethane drag bikes. Puma engines power many championship-winning bikes and recently propelled multi-US champion Larry McBride to the quickest (5.507sec) and fastest (264.96mph/426.41km/h) Top Fuel Bike run in history.

It is for his exceptional range of two-wheeled achievements that Ian King is hereby inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

John Price – a profile by Simon Groves

John Price first commentated at Santa Pod from 1981 to 1987. He then worked at York Raceway for five or six years but also resumed commentating at Santa Pod in 1990, continuing there, except for a year at Avon Park’s Super Series events in 1997-8, until his retirement from drag racing in 2008.

John began DJ’ing aged just 21, and it was his musical activities that would bring him to drag racing’s attention. He worked for Roger Squires, a mobile disco pioneer in the late 1960s/early ‘70s, presenting many gigs in his native London area, and then for a music management company whose clients included Alvin Stardust and the Rubettes.

At one of his gigs, John met Nick Shanley, then chairman of the National Association of Street Clubs. As a result, John was engaged to DJ at NASC Nationals events such as Knebworth and Bruntingthorpe, and at Gary’s Picnic when it took place at Santa Pod Raceway. During one of these events, he was introduced to Ron Clarke, promoter of custom car shows around the country.

At one of Ron’s shows in Leeds (which was badly weather affected – perhaps an omen of things to come) John encountered a group from Santa Pod Raceway. Dave Prior, who organised Santa Pod’s displays, asked John to host a Santa Pod show at Milton Keynes shopping centre. Santa Pod’s owner, Roy Phelps, then interviewed him for the position of track commentator, recently vacated by Brian Taylor, and John started the job in March 1981.

Many followers of the sport at that time will recall John masquerading as Captain Chaos – on roller skates! – to promote Santa Pod’s association with the film The Cannonball Run, the launchpad for the venue’s famous series of ‘Cannonball’ race meetings.

John’s car show engagements continued. In 1982 he served as Show Host of the London Custom Car Show at Olympia, which entailed him working on the Radio One Roadshow stand. As a freelancer not employed by Radio One, he could not resist wearing a t-shirt inscribed with the motto ‘I’m not famous’, much to the Radio One producer’s annoyance.

John’s only venture on to the track was to drive a Radio Luxembourg-emblazoned Mustang in a grudge match against Radio One’s Simon Bates – after which he promptly retired from racing.

John presented ITV Anglia’s drag racing coverage in the late 1980s, along with European races for Sky. Thus by the 1990s, he had become the face, and voice, of drag racing on TV. His Sky commentaries included many other motorsport disciplines too. Since retiring from the drag racing scene John has continued to inform and entertain the crowds at car shows just as he did from the commentary box at the dragstrip.

It is for the quality and enthusiasm of his commentary contributions to UK drag racing, at the track and via television, media, and car shows, that John Price is hereby inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Pictures: Simon Groves and Keith Lee

Dave Wilson – a profile by Simon Groves

Dave Wilson was involved in the Supercharged Methanol racing category throughout his career and five times became FIA European Top Methanol champion, adding several British championships and many race wins to his name.

His drag racing experience began with Rod George, whom Dave helped with his transmission. A chance to drive Rod’s Creeper dragster hooked him on the sport. Creeper was replaced by the famous Stormbringer car, previously the first to run a five-second ET outside America. Renamed Krypton, the car crashed at York, injuring Dave seriously.

The team regrouped and Rod sold his share. Dave partnered with Steve Martyn and, helped by Dave Fletcher, built a new Krypton. Steve drove the car in 1981, qualified low at that year’s World Finals, and finished runner-up.

Dave resumed driving in 1982, racing Krypton successfully until 1986. Attending the US Nationals, he learned how to run the car much harder. Back home, the improved power produced severe breakage at his first race. It took three years to repair and update the parts needed to get the car back on track. Dave upgraded gradually and by 1997 could run as quickly as 6.009sec.

In 1999 Dave teamed up with the Redstone & Gleadow team who had imported a car named Nemesis from Finland. The team joined that season’s FIA European tour and clocked fives, qualifying no.1 and winning an event. Such success attracted team sponsorship from Lucas Oil Products. In 2001 Dave bought the car from Barry Redstone and, sponsored by American Car Imports, Air Sea Logistics, Sony PlayStation, and 76 Racing Fuels, formed a two-car team with Wendy Baker.

Increased sponsorship from Antony Cohen (American Car Imports) enabled Dave to buy a complete Bob Meyer car in 2002. Following a US debut at Pomona, he set new ET and speed records in Europe while finishing as FIA Championship runner-up. In 2003, driving a new Brad Hadman car, he became the first racer outside the USA to clock 5.50s, 5.40s, 5.30s, and 5.20s and to exceed 260 and 270mph. This form delivered five consecutive FIA Championships from 2003 to 2007, a period of dominance producing 14 event wins, 49 round wins and 19 number one qualifiers. On another USA trip, Dave became the first European to win an NHRA “Wally”. But did he rest on his laurels?

With Silverline Tools’ backing, in 2008 Dave changed his engine combination from supercharged methanol to injected nitro, a major move in terms of engineering, parts, and tuning. In only his second A/Fuel year he finished second in the FIA championship and set the European ET record twice, later achieving a career-best of 5.2605sec at Tierp in 2012. Dave’s last event victory came at the 2015 Main Event.

Dave leads the all-time FIA Top Methanol table in championships (five), event wins (18), round wins (96), and low qualifiers (30). It is for his excellence in racing performance and for challenges overcome that Dave Wilson is hereby inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Pictures: Simon Groves (portrait), Rose Hughes (action)

Pelle Lindelöw and Gunnar Elmqvist – a profile by Jerry Cookson

In a 25-year career, lifelong friends Pelle Lindelöw and Gunnar Elmqvist enjoyed one of the longest drag racing partnerships outside America. It began during the sport’s earliest days in Scandinavia, with a chance meeting of old school friends in 1970 at Sweden’s Mantorp Park. Pelle had never witnessed a drag race but was instantly hooked by the speed and power. Pelle, Gunnar, and another friend, Janne Rosquist, found they shared a passion for the Renault 4CV. Having hot-rodded their little French cars with modified engines, they embarked on an inspirational road trip to England for Santa Pod’s 1972 International meet.

Impressed by the smaller-capacity vehicles, Pelle and Gunnar decided to buy another 4CV and convert it into a race car with a modified R16 Arne Berg engine. Following its debut in 1974, the pair became the team to beat in the Competition Altered ranks, defeating every American machine in sight.

British fans first saw this amazing little car at Snetterton in 1975, but the pair hadn’t bargained on the might of that staple of British Comp Altered teams, the trusty Jaguar, in particular, the one campaigned by a certain Barry Sheavills, known as Stagecoach.

After a move to an injected 454ci A/Gas Dragster produced a nondescript couple of seasons in 1977 and ’78, Lee Anders Hasselström convinced Pelle and Gunnar (P&G) to take the Top Fuel challenge.

A year later P&G were proud owners of a new Kjellin Brothers chassis powered by an ageing iron-block Chevy. After breaking into the 6-second, 200mph zone, driver Pelle rolled the car on the short Mantorp Park track. Armed with another Kjellin chassis the team were soon deep into the mid-sixes.

1983 was a significant year. The team secured its first major sponsorship from Clarion Car Stereo and began clocking regular low sixes, eventually dipping to a 5.95sec.

Helped by Jarmo Pukkinen, Pelle purchased the ex-Dick LaHaie Miller Beer dragster, considered at the time the first ‘real’ Top Fuel Dragster in Scandinavia. With hired help from US Funny Car racer and tuner Gary Burgin, P&G Racing quickly became one of the European scene’s most feared Top Fuel entries, leading the way with numerous national records and championships.

The tide turned again in 1991 with the acquisition of the ex-Kenny Bernstein Budweiser King dragster and came good in 1993 as Pelle dominated the class, winning four out of six races and the ETFA Challenge title. As reigning champions, the team was invited to Japan by the NHRA in 1994 and ‘95 to represent Europe against racers from America and Australia at Fuji, enjoying great success.

Over the next two years, however, further European success proved elusive and, with Pelle now suffering back problems, the pair reluctantly decided to retire the team.

It is for their achievements in rising from humble beginnings to the sport’s highest international echelons, accomplished in a good-natured spirit throughout, that Pelle Lindelöw and Gunnar Elmqvist – P&G Racing – are hereby inducted into membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Pictures: Jerry Cookson collection