Retro Rules! Dragstalgia ’22

Drag racing

As much as I love the awesome thrill of the ‘big show’ 300mph dragsters the meetings I really look forward to are the nostalgia events and in Europe the biggest is Santa Pod’s ‘Dragstalgia’.  These events are more relaxed though competition is still fierce with the teams aiming for ‘bragging rights’.  Such a diverse array of machinery harking back to the very early days of the sport they bring back such fond memories.

On Saturday the 9th I made the pilgrimage to the Pod to watch qualifying for this years offering.  When the early cloud cleared we baked in the sun as the Country enters a heatwave.  Brilliant for watching but awkward for photography, the harsh light meant a lot of post processing to bring out details from shadows and reduce glare.  I took hundreds of shots, here are just a taster.

The ‘Commuter’ dragster was built in 1966 and in 1970, driven by Tony Densham, became the UK’s first 200mph car. So famous, Corgi made a die-cast model, yes I’ve got one!
The biggest surprise and best kept secret was the appearance of this nitro Funny Car ‘The Cannonball’ driven by Ricky Gowan. I photographed this car winning it’s first race in 1981! The machine was originally Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme’s ‘Army’ Arrows from the U.S.A where it ran 5 seconds over the 1/4 mile
Steve Johnson leaves the line wheels up in ‘Motor Mouse’ a slingshot dragster
Be afraid…..
Race on! The Supercharged Outlaws compete for fun. Here Des Taylor in the ‘Thundergod’ altered takes on the quicker James Usher driving ‘Hemi Hunter’ slingshot
On the bike front Colin Fallows rode ‘Super Cyclops’ a twin engined Norton
‘Paranoia’ has been around in one form or the other since the beginning. Back with Alan Loten one of the original owners. The engine is a 3,800cc Jaguar straight six a popular choice for altereds ‘back in the day’
“There’s a very wicked ’55 Chevy looking for you” Keith Freeman’s supercharged ’32 coupe is a great copy of Milner’s hot rod from the film ‘American Graffiti’
Fellow wp blogger Niamh Smith of ‘Raceway Hussy’ https://racewayhussy.blog/ was one of 52 entrants in Nostalgia Super Stock (pre 1980 American V8s) in her Ford Fairlane

21 thoughts on “Retro Rules! Dragstalgia ’22”

  3. Ms Smith is from Española? Cool. That’s 90 miles north on where I live. Española was the low rider capital of the world in the 80s and 90s. Really fun photos. Super cool cars.

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    1. The car maybe from your part of the world Timothy but Niamh is from the UK. Interesting to know low riders ruled in Espanola, strange machines!
      Thanks for dropping by, glad you like these few shots, wish I could have posted more!

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      1. A Brit with Española, NM on the side of her car. That is getting pretty oxymoronic if you know anything about Brits and Españolans.

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      2. I looked up Hunter Motor. It was established in 1953. The Corpoarate filings show it desolved, but the is listing for a Hunter Ford and Mercury used car dealer in Española with a current inventory of 1 Chevrolet and 1 Ford.

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    2. Hi Timothy! Thanks for your interest in the sign writing! When we purchased the Fairlane it came with the original dealer documents which indeed showed it came from Hunter Motor Co in Espanola and was purchased by Epiminio Martinez. When having the car sign written we wanted it to look like an early junior stock car which was a dealer sponsored team, hence we went with the original history of the car. We also love that we had the original information so wanted to celebrate that! I’ve tried to find photos etc of the original dealership but unfortunately lucked out and have only been able to find when it was founded like yourself, as well as the address… I even joined an Espanola Facebook group to see if anyone remembers the dealership but I couldn’t seem to post on it

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      1. Thank you so much for the info. When I saw Española, NM on the car that was not be common. Henry Valencia, inc – Española might be the original location.

        https://www.google.com/maps/@35.9984032,-106.0851441,3a,54.9y,73.46h,96.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQ-Yq3xZChWDKJLEdIO_u_A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

        https://www.google.com/maps/place/Henry+Valencia,+Inc./@35.9983602,-106.0852856,325m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x87183c8da8179f2d:0x3cd04135778539db!8m2!3d35.9983333!4d-106.0841057

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      4. That photo might not have been up when you were looking. Or I’m in the right cyberspace, being in New Mexico.

        BTW one of our staff members who grew up in Española remembers Hunter Motor Co. She said the Ford Mercury dealer replaced Hunter Motor Co.

        I’m impressed you ended up with a car from Española. It’s fantastic and you and you boyfriend are into cars and racing.

        We have a dragstrip out here. I’ve thought about taking my wife’s Mazdaspeed 3 out and making a run. It’s a fast car for a factory street sweeper, but nothing like dragsters.

        I’ve had two Mazda RX-8s and now I drive a Mazda MX-5 RF. We still have a 66 VW Beetle, and my old Ford F-100 pickup. My daughter has a 1980 Nisson 280ZX she got for $100. She has it pretty well restored.

        I got my motorcycle license when I was 13 years old (I raced motocross and flat track in my teens), and I got my driver’s license when I was 15 years old. I have owned 33 different cars since I was 15.

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