Former NHRA museum executive director Tony Thacker is doing PR duties for the Rat Trap 50th anniversary tour which includes appearances at SPR and Hockenheim. Tony also set a new World of Speed museum up in Portland that has many innovative exhibits. In his native UK, Tony started as a journalist and, while he was working for the NHRA, arranged for several historic dragsters to be transported to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2008 for a cacklefest. More on Tony can be seen at his site www.tonythacker.com.

Funny Bike pioneer Pip Higham parted company from the Orient Express yesterday just after launching but fortunately he only suffered bruised ribs. 'The guys from the medical unit were fantastic, 100% meticulous and informative. I had the first Funny Bike in the UK which was the sister chassis to Orient Express built by Sandy Kosman. I had been heavily involved with Suzukis and went to the US to buy it in late 1978. Its debut was in May 1979 and I started with a GSX1000 engine with no power adder and output of 120hp to a 1385cc turbo nitrous setup giving 320hp. The Orient express is owned by Steve Watson whilst Nick Crocker owns my old funny bike and rode it here a couple of years ago'. Pip and Steve are assisted by Rob Meggitt on mechanics.

Former bike road racer Shelagh Neal is once again in the Methamon sidecar combination, which she raced at sprint meetings in the early days of the sport in 1961 and 1962 at Duxford. 'My original rider was Maurice Brierley who had a false right leg which is why the sidecar is on the right side. He rested his leg on it. My job was to engage first gear and then lie backwards on it, which wouldn't be allowed these days. The rider is now Chris Hillman who is an experienced biker.

The VW powered Dragwaye on which Dave Lecoq rode in 1970 to a 9.81 run is in orginal order, however current owner Terry Homan had problems in testing, coming off the bike at North Weald and suffering bruising.

Slingshot Showdown entrant Bob Hawkins has a new 8-71 supercharger to replace the old 6-71 which is now sitting atop the much shorter wheelbase Time Traveller I driven by son Tom. Bob said 'We rebuilt the nitrous engine on TTI to go blown methanol which should provide a lot more power. The blower is underdriven, whereas that on TTII is overdriven. We won't be able to race alongside one another but it'll be fund running each car'. Crewman Dave Williams, pictured right, is helping with the wrenches.

Gasser Circus organiser Nick Brooke-Langham said that class membership has expanded to 22, with new cars entering and current cars upgrading their setup. Nick himself has a new engine out of 2014 US visitor Dale Snooke with a C4 transmission and 3500 stall speed converter from JW Performance. Nick was winner of the 2014 Allard Award for Best Journalism and is working on a new project which we hope to hear more about in the future.

Ray Irish has replaced his Austin bodied pickup with a similar type of body from Willys. The 'Gas Junkie' runs a 355ci engine. The Gasser Circus was featured in a recent issue of Gasser Wars magazine, available from www.americanautomags.com.

Gasser Circus racer Brian Gibson is racing on both sides of the Pond with an appearance at the 2015 CHRR and a planned race at the Barona Antique Drags at San Diego followed by a return to the CHRR. He said 'Our other car is stored in the US by Dale Snooke who built my UK Identity Crisis Dodge Dart. We have a new engine with single carb which has run a 11.4s ET. Brian is pictured with crewman Jonathan Gibson'.

New Gasser Circus entrant Martin Bishop bought his Anglia in 2007 as an original car and built 'about 85%' himself over an eight year period. 'I boxed the frame rails and put a cage in . The back of the engine is tied into the cross bars under the roll cage. The engine is a blown 427ci BBC with twin Holley carbs making 665hp. The car is period correct apart from the calipers on the front and hidden MSD ignition system. It is also street legal. Zannetec completed the cage, fuel system and brakes. The gearbox is a manual Muncie four speed. I ran a best of 11.46 at SCR - with clutch slip'.

Chris Cockburn's roadgoing '41 Willys has Rover 3500cc power. Chris comes from Broxburn near Edinburgh.

John Dalrymple is at the track for the first time in nine months after an engine rebuild. He said 'We have gone from a 360cu to 410ci Mopar with a 6-71 supercharger and I now run the car with the Supercharged Outlaws and Willys Wars. Our previous best was 9.6 but we need to change the gearing to get a better time wih the blower. John will be keeping his ties with Pro ET in 2017 by crewing for Ady Randle's altered.

John Gumble owns a rare 1938 Willys Pickup which he shares the driving with Tom Margesson, who usually drives the Wild Child Super Comp dragster owned by Andy Williams. Tom said 'John and I share a workshop and he suggested I came to help him at this race. The pickup is manual so driving it is a lot different from the dragster. So I have got two drives without owning either car!' John said 'The pickup is original steel and quite standard. I imported it and took the body off to replace the suspension and do chassis work. The engine is a 350ci tunnel ram with twin Edelbrock carbs. Our best so far is 14.5 and we want to run 13s.'

Willys Wars racer Damien Bacon has a '41 Pickup with 355 SBC, Edelbrock carbs, 6-71 supercharger and TH350 trans. We have run the car for five years and our best is 11.4 to date'.

Ian Merryweather has his new Banzai altered here which was the subject of an excellent recent Custom Car feature. The car was formerly owned by Patrick Pers and Ian has rebuilt it to a very high standard. He said 'We ran in the eights at Shakespeare County which was better than we expected and it went very well aprt from my visor getting steamed up'. To match the car Ian has a cool shirt made by Promenade T-shirts of Isle of Man.

Richard Warburton's street legal Willys 41 Coupe has resolved gearbox issues suffered at the Nostalgia Nationals. 'We had one break with internal clutch damage and the spare was no good so we acquired a race spec C4 box through Valley Gas Speed Shop. Rachel fitted it in three hours and we tested by driving 120 miles on the road. The only problem in the installation is we had to notch the transmission tunnel which was designed for engine and gearbox to go in one'. Richard has covered 12000 miles in the four years he has owned the car which outputs 275hp plus 125hp nitrous shot. Rachel has done all the mechanical work, including fitting a new grille, radiator, water pump and fuel system. Richard said 'The only power tool I am allowed to use is a kettle.'

Eurodragster.com sponsor Tig Napier has a rare right wheel drive '68 Plymouth Barracuda. He said 'The factory created 165 right hand drive cars imported into the UK in the late 1960s and sold through Warwick Wright Ltd in the UK. Around 65 still exist and three of those were at the Nostalgia Nationals.' Tig ran a 14.90, 14.88 and 14.69 to qualify 14th in the 32 car field.

Nostalgia Super Stock racer Jack Bishop in the Jim Smith Barracuda had a head gasket go and were working on it in the pits.

Multiple National Champion Brian Huxley is here in Nostalgia Super Stock in his roadgoing '65 Falcon. He said 'It is a Falcon Futura which I bought four years ago from Tennessee. I bought it on Ebay based on photos and whilst the colour was described as Ivy Green it was fair to say it had a patina on it when it arrived. The engine is a 302ci and had a manual box which I replaced with a C4 auto. It also had a nine inch rear and so I guesssed it had been raced. I then found it had offset wheels and was sure it had been on the track. My best in it is 16.3 and I have dialled in 16.5 and run 17s this event to go 32nd. Without a transbrake I have to be careful off the line'.

Ian Coulsell, father of Wild Bunch racer is joined by son Louis and Steve and Jackie Young in racing the wittily named 'Adventure Before Dementia' dragster. Ian said 'The car comes from 1976-77 and was built by Mick Pierce with an Alfa Romeo engine that ate valves. I bought it and quickly sold it when my family arrived and thirty five years later someone contacted me to say they had it in their garden and did I want to buy it. There was no engine in it so Steve built a Pinto engine with Kawasaki Z1 carbs and custom manifold and VW transaxle with Ford aluminium uprights. we ran a 13.0/106 which we are really pleased with'. Steve is well known for being a leading light in the NDRC back in the day, commentating and being part of the organisation of events.

Neil Ward has brought his nine second dragster after a break of 3-4 years. He said 'We ran a 9.47s yesterday without nitrous. The second run was very wayward and I found that the diff was chipped so we are not going to risk it any more. We blew the engine and gearbox up two years ago and having replace those, the car is for sale as I am planning to build a blown methanol car. We hope to run once again this year but the focus is on the new car and Dave and Steph Milam have been a great inspiration as this used to be their chassis.' Neil's blog will soon be relaunched and we will let you have details as soon as we hear them.

Italian Pro ET racer Luca Govoni usually runs at Rivanazzano where the entry is increasing each year, the recent Wide Open race under the auspices of MSTO having an entry of over 100 with 26 in Super Pro and 28 in Pro ET.

Roy Wilding is here with his blown Hemi slingshot. Last night he came to the rescue of Randy Bradford who had a mag drive failure when attempting to start the engine in testing last night. He said 'We went back to Birmingham helped by Stewart Bassett of US Automotive, picked up a spare mag drive and donated it to Randy's team.

US Fuel Altered racer Randy Bradford said 'It's great racing at Santa Pod and we love the atmosphere and music. This is our second visit to the UK after the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2004. We're grateful to Roy Wilding and Stewart Bassett for their help. The end of the shaft broke off, they brought the parts to us, we had to modify them but they work fine.' Randy went up against Nick Davies and ran 6.50/219 to Nick's 6.71/223 lose-out in the second of the US v Europe match race.

British Drag Racing Hall of Fame signing was well attended and we saw several legends including (from left) Al O'Connor, Rodger Attaway, Brian Sparrow, Gerry Andrews, Bob Muravez, Russ Carpenter, Peter Crane, Roz Prior, Gary Page and Nobby Hills.