SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway, England

Worth Waiting Out the Rain

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

The third event of the 2015 MSA British Drag Racing Championship had the eliminations fields waiting patiently for the rain to clear on Sunday. Once it did, the action on the track delivered some tight and competitive side-by-side passes with a series of personal bests cracked over the weekend.

MSA Pro Modified

Rick Garrett and his 1941 nitrous-injected Willys Coupe occupied top spot after three rounds of qualifying and overcame Bobby Wallace in the quarter final stage, but failed to progress beyond the semi-finals when leaving before the green and handing the win and final spot to Phillip 'Bert' Englefield. Englefield had earlier lowered his personal best mark with a 6.340 run against Jean Dulamon's 6.384. Reigning series champion Andy Robinson only just made the cut for raceday after damaging his primary motor in pre-event testing on the Friday, ending up in seventh spot on the ladder, but was able to hold off Roger Moore's 6.463s with a 6.210s/232.88mph run; the quickest and fastest pass of the event. The final pairing in the quarter-finals saw Kev Slyfield progress with a 6.428s to overhaul Chris Isaacs's 6.748s. Slyfield defeated Robinson in the semifinals with a consistent 6.448s run whilst Robinson slowed to a 6.525s.

The trophy round would be a re-run of the Easter meeting, and Slyfield's '57 Thunderbird prevailed again with a 6.534/219.05 run over Englefield's 6.556/221.44 mph from his '38 Ford Coupe in an all supercharged finale. With two event wins out of three, Slyfield has started to stretch his lead in the points at the halfway point in the year.

Nostalgia Fuel Car Challenge

The early withdrawal of Adam Gleadow's revamped '34 Ford altered left the NFCC with two cars duking it out and we suppose honours ended up roughly even with Tim Garlick taking the win light in the final runoff with a 6.3894/220.86 from the Apache Firebird (Garlick having earlier run a new Personal Best of 6.1564/222.44) when Nick Davies jumped too early in the Chaos Topolino, Davies not holding off the loud pedal and carding a 6.0818/215.87 to set a new best ET mark for altereds in Europe. Both teams are nudging ever closer to that 5-second zone and might get there before the end of the season.