Click on any picture for a large image. Click here to return to the Event Index.

Matthew Wright's 'All or Nothing' nostalgia FC is on display and we hope to see it on track soon	New owner of the Chi Town Hustler FC Paul Harris was joined by Dennis Priddle as well as members of Troy Martin's crew. Dennis was diagnosing supercharger damage from earlier today when an ally bolt came loose, went into the blower and bounced out. The resulting rotor damage was one of the issues why the car was unable to come back for a run in the afternoon. Crewman Tom Gray said 'We had teething troubles yesterday in converting the car from outlaw spec with 60 gallon/min fuel pump, 14-71 blower, MSD44 mag and direct drive to NHRA legal NFC spec. Then this morning we spotted the fuel leaking on our fresh engine and so we won't be able to run again this weekend'. Let's hope Paul will be back soon.
Nostalgia Cannonball racer Bob Glassup said 'We have had a great weekend and couldn't wish for better - we have a consistent car with nitro. After the 6.6s at the Main Event to run three 6.8s in a row showed we have a proper baseline from which we can build. Every time it has come back clean and we will be working on incremental changes next. The other great thing is we now have three pairs of consistent six second nostalgia cars. The fans' response has been fantastic'. On his run this morning, minor damage was sustained with a loosened blower snout and losing no.2 cylinder along with a pushrod. 'We might have been able to come back, but I don't want the team to be under pressure in this weather', he finished.	Nostalgia Cannonball racer Rob Elsom ran a pair of six second passes and was delighted to becoming acclimatised to driving the car. 'We have been tuning around the setup we needed to run quick, are getting a handle on it and it is behaving in the early incrementals. I have become more confident in the car and this has been an emotional rollercoaster for me, getting used to feeling it, wrestling with it and now finding out it's fine. John [Wright] is a star, like another dad to me and he and Lesley keep a steady ship in the team'. We'll next see Rob on track in 2019.
Austrian 'Doc Stinger' (aka Michael Mugrauer) owns a Mopar Garage and is only the second Austrian racer in history to have used nitro after Gerry Steiner in the 60s-80s. Doc siad 'We did far more than we were hoping for. Our expectations were initially just to fire the car up on nitro. We previously used methanol but then the engine broke at Dragstalgia 2014 on our third meeting and we have saved since to come back'. With nitro Doc ran a 6.9 and only lifted after the car started hopping at 1000ft, data indicating the terminal speed would have been around 208mph. 'There is no word to explain how much more powerful nitro is. Thanks to Wendy Baker, Paul Stubbings and their crew for helping us. We will be at Hockenheim and then back here in 2019. Doc is pictured with wife and back-up girl Sabine.	Nostalgia Cannonball racer Robin Read suffered engine problems which precluded him making a full pass. He said 'With the amount of power in the car it has been lifting the heads when running because of the high cylinder pressure. The water jacket has been pushing out core plugs with the pressure and that has caused fluid leaks.This engine has 7/16 inch diameter head studs which can be torqued to 70lb/ft but I have a new engine with 12mm head studs and these can be torqued up to 100ft/lb. Another contributor to the problem is running the supercharger at 15% overdrive rather than 1:1, which has given us 40psi maifold pressure. I always look at the positives and we know what the issues are, the bearings are clean and we hope to be able to try the new engine in this chassis at the pre Euro Finals Test & Tune'.
Nostalgia Cannonball winner Nick Davies ran a sequence of fantastically consistent passes from 6.21 to 6.23 at a new best speed for the car of 238.9. He said 'It's been a perfect weekend and I'm so glad we can retire the car by performing well and giving the fans a good show'. Nick is pictured with I.C.E. Automotive partner Rob Loaring and team members Martin Baldwin, Nigel King, Dave Read and Scott Barnes.	Slingshot Showdown racer Mark Bishop suffered engine damage on the burnout on his first run. Dad and crewman Kim said 'We went 100ft off the start line then the car stopped dead. We tried to turn the engine over in the pits and it was solid, so I suspect we spun a bearing. I hope there's not too much damage but the front crank pulley bearing looks as if it has moved. We'll try to come back at the Hot Rod drags or next year. The block is an old one, we had it in our altered and my Willys coupe and we may have been asking too much of it, we have rebuilt the engine but left the block and crank more or less untouched'.
Nostalgia Cannonball runner up Ramon is at his sole event this year and he was back on form, with a 6.37 in testing on Friday, with incrementals pointing to a 6.1. He said 'The new track is so smooth and we are having to find a new setup that doesn't give us too much tyre shake, like we had this morning with a 6.6. I was so proud to be part of the funny car lineup on Friday and we will definitely be back next year. The team are in front of the tow car, a 1941 Plymouth Special De Luxe which is new for this event.	Slingshot Showdown winner Joe Bond said 'The car has been awesome this weekend, we have a new Kobelco supercharger and fuel system on it and the test on Friday showed the indications were good. Then we ran an unbelievable 6.51/224 on Saturday which is one of the fastest alky slingshot terminals in Europe ever. The car is reliable so we are happy.
Nostalgia Cannonball racer Dave Grabham have a new short block Donovan Chevy of 509ci built by I.C.E. Automtotive. He said 'We had driver error yesterday when I launched in top gear, we thought it was too soft and changed the clutch settings and then had to change them back again after we discovered the mistake. But I was really pleased to go 7.822 this morning. Thanks to my team and we'll be back at all the SPR nostalgia events next year'.	Slingshot Showdown racer Magnus Larsson bought his show quality Competition Coupe along and ran a 6.9 in testing on Friday. But battery problems beset the team and he was only able to qualify eighth with a 14 second pass. An improved 7.14 this morning was not enough against Joe Bond and so the car went back to Sweden, hopefully to return next year.
Slingshot Showdown runner-up Bob Hawkins cleverly disguised the mechanical problems he had experienced to run 6.86/193 after qualifying no.2 with a 6.72/203. 'The car had been running consistently well and the engine was ok after qualifying, but there was a burnt valve after the first round and cylinder no.2 had no compression, so we patched it up. The inlet valve went on the semi final and we ran a 6.61 with seven cylinders'. Bob is keeping the nitro load to 50% as the pistons are high-compression ones and nitro needs lower comp ratio.	The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame marquee was host to more legends of the sport, with a cackle of Bill Sherratt's and Ian Turburville's cars, who the BDRHoF are grateful to for displaying their aweseme sound and smell. A lot of memorabilia was sold and the BDRHoF looks forward to the gala on 17th November at the Oatlands Park hotel in Weybridge.
Wild Bunch racer Tom Bateman has this new car called Repeat Offender and he has been testing in the Custom Car invitational RWYB. His best ET was a 9.617/132, so a successful debut for Tom.	Matthew Wright has his mostly complete 'All or Nothing' Dodge Challenger nostalgia Funny Car here and we hope to see him running it on track soon. In the meantime, he has his turbine powered slingshot and is still shaking, or burning, out the bugs in it, but there is tremendous potential.
Pro ET and Super Street racer John Parker has his Nova in the Custom Car invitational RWYB and the car ran a best of 10.525/129.	NSA racers Gary Norman and Matthew Norman are racing the twin Norton engined Conquest 2 and twin Triumph Conquest, the same bikes campaigned by Dennis Norman in the late 60s and 70s. Dennis, now 93 years old, decided to remain at home with the high temperatures experienced at SPR this weekend and we send our greetings to him. Gary said 'The bikes' performance is improving every year, the main problem being lack of tyre spin at the start. We did get a little spin and the original Conquest blackstriped the track. We wanted to run the bikes side by side but there were only a single set of rollers as the other set's engine threw a rod'. Conquest 2 has a ram air system to force more into the engine at speed, and the team are considering airfield sprints as another opportunity to run them.
John Hobbs has attended each Dragstalgia, but it is his first time on the new concrete track and he was complimentary about the new surface after running 8.57/160 yesterday. 'We raised the nitro percentage from 45% to 50% for that run and the weather conditions and heat in the new track made it favourable. The bike is as it used to be and we rely on attention to detail and checking everything to keep the performances good'. The NSA are now pitted in the area normally used by Super Street bikes, and many riders spoke favourably about the additional space and quieter conditions.	NSA racer Jeff Byne has his twin Morgo Triumph bike 'Hurricane' and ran a best of 10.49/137. The team were very happy with the bike continuing to run well but were careful mechanically as parts are no longer available.
NSA racer Chris Emmens has researched the history of the frame of his Triumph-engined bike named 'Christalmethanol' and has discovered that it dates back to the 1950s when it was used in sprinting around the UK.	Chris Emmens also has this short chassied Triumph engined bike. Before this event Chris took it to France to race at the Run Cap Sud at P�chereau over the eighth mile and then drove directly to Santa Pod Raceway.
Jan Honee from the Netherlands is a regular runner at Dragstalgia and has run in the mid eights on many occasions, but this year he had engine damage in his single cylinder Jawa. 'We hurt a piston which damaged the bore and also destroyed the con rod. We were trying a new fuel pump and clutch and had run a 9.0 earlier with a great 5.8 half track time and the damage happened in the burnout'. Jan is out for the next year as all the parts need to be home built, and we hope to see him back here next year.	Colin Fallows has made runs on the Super Cyclops twin Norton and his best time was 12.2/124. The launch of historic bikes is not easy on the historic bikes' mechanicals but the top end speed shows the power of these venerable machines.
Colin Fallows has a total of three bikes here, and the second one, owned by Roy Webb, used to be raced by Jay Upton before he emigrated to Australia and becoming a star in Top Fuel Bike over there (he is currently racing and going quick). The engine is a supercharged Triumph, and we hope to see it go down the track soon.	Neil Baskerville has been working on recreating his father Ray's twin Triumph engined bike as a surprise for his birthday. The partly finished bike with composite rear, was presented to Ray when he arrived at SPR on Thursday.
Brian Gibson's 'Identity Crisis' '64 Dodge Dart ran a 11.16/117 on 11.01 dial and red-lit to Martin Bishop's 11.51 breakout.	Gasser Circus racer Steve Matthews ran a 11.20 on 11.10 but went out to John Grant's better 0.05 reaction and 11.85 on 11.67 dial.
Swedish Gasser Circus racer Kjell Andersson broke the rear axle on Friday but managed to get repairs done locally and returned to run a winning 9.53/140 on a 9.35 dial to defeat Ray Turner in round one.	Ken Brookes broke out in round one with a 10.30 on 10.32 dial, the win going to Tony Pearson's 11.35 on a 11.33 dial.
Gasser Circus organiser Nick Brooke Langham aka Nervous Nick, explained that the 007 number on his race car is in tribute to US racer Mike 'The World's Fastest Hippy' Mitchell who named his car 'Pussy Galore' and then explained to outraged NHRA officials that the name was a reference to the James Bond film character, quickly renumbering his car accordingly.	Outlaw Anglia racer Simon Barlow is running the new supercharged 540ci engine setup on the Fordson for the first time, and went a quickest of 9.35/139 on an easy checkout pass. It qualified him in the 16 car field but a fuel leak in round one put paid to any elimination wins.