Festival of Power, Santa Pod Raceway

Words and photos Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
Thanks to TSI Timers (Europe) for access to the timing data

The 2015 MSA British Drag Racing Championship kicked off with the season opener at Santa Pod with conditions improving over the course of the Easter weekend to permit a full series of eliminations on the Easter Sunday, despite Good Friday succumbing almost completely to the wet stuff and Saturday being a stop-start affair in cold and gloomy conditions.

MSA Pro Modified

Nine entrants made the call for the first round of the MSA Pro Mod championship, but before the first qualifying session was over the count was down to eight when Wayne Nicholson put the Lucky Devil Vette into the wall (the damage largely being confined to the front end and a rebuild is underway for the next meeting). Bobby Wallace, who was someway behind Nicholson whilst he was having his mishap, picked up the pace with a 6.5433/210.88mph from the nitrous Willys in the second session. Wallace wasn’t able to make the call for the first round of eliminations, handing a solo to the number eight qualifier Kev Slyfield who used the opportunity to run a 6.614/210.12 single, this being followed by a plume of smoke from the blown Thunderbird at the finishline. Slyfield would also benefit from a no show at the semifinal stage when Rick Garrett reported in broke after chucking a rod in the first round, and then, remarkably, have a third solo in the trophy round when scheduled opponent Philip ‘Bert’ Englefield’s blown 38 Ford Coupe was sidelined after taking out current champion Andy Robinson in a 6.532s/219.29mph to a 6.593s/223.40mph semi-final head to head that was the race of eliminations.