Open Sport Nationals, Shakespeare County Raceway, England

Words and photos by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes

For some bizarre reason which we have yet to get to the bottom of, the traditional holiday weekend slot for UK national championship drag racing at Shakespeare County Raceway has been vacated and the 2009 running of the Open Sport Nationals took place the preceding weekend (although given the usual prefacing of ‘bank holiday weekend’ with ‘another wet and miserable’ perhaps this wasn’t such a bad thing after all). Despite the attractions of racing in Holland and Hungary on the same weekend, and the quick turnaround for a number of two wheeled competitors after racing at the NitrOlymp’X in Germany the previous weekend, the entry didn’t appear to be noticeably down, and, in contrast to the early May event (which took place over one of those infamous bank holiday weekends), the weather stayed fair for the latter two days of the event and all final rounds were completed with plenty of time to spare before the strict track curfew.

Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association

We’ve never quite got our head around the NFAA event structure, apart from knowing who ends up in the final and the bonus points awarded for best burnout, best appearing car and best appearing crew, but eight cars were in competition over the course of the weekend, with a ninth (the nitro Chevy Topolino of Bill Felstead and Jon Best) on licensing duties. The event winner proved to be Frank Bennett and the Relentless alky Topolino, producing a best over the course of the weekend of 6.793 at only 168 mph and soloing in the final round runoff when Dave Grabham was shutoff after the burnout with a small oil leak. The Bennett Family operation is now sitting on top of the NFAA points with three wins out of the three events they have attended so far this year, with the National Finals left on the official class calendar at the end of September, but a demo appearance at the European Finals a couple of weeks previously being the next focus for many of the class.