Dragstalgia 2023 | Nostalgia Drag Racing at Santa Pod Raceway

Dragstalgia 2023

Words and photos by Carol Rule

Dragstalgia 12, July 2023, held at Santa Pod Raceway UK in association with the NSRA.

To give a short run down of race classes and entrants, some small snippets taken from the Santa Pod : 'Official Programme of the weekend':

Dragstalgia has fast become one of the most celebrated events on the Santa Pod calendar. Made up of some of the quickest Nostalgia drag racing vehicles in Europe.

The Dragstalgia weekend race Classes:

Cannonball is at the heart of the track action. Speed and consistency are the key here, where every run counts in qualifying, no shows will be allocated with the times from the slowest run in that season. Consisting of the quickest Nostalgia drag racing vehicles in Europe, from Nitro burning nostalgia funny cars, alterds, slingshots dragsters and the occasional rear engined dragster.

The Aussie Invasion: featuring John Willard with his 'Aussie Outlaw' and Paul Stephen with 'Double Trouble.'

The Wild Bunch, Nostalgia Drag racing club is now in its 27th great season. The idea of the founders, Roy Wilding and John Guthrie was that racers of slingshots ,alterds,funny cars and dragsters could compete on an equal playing field whatever their budget with a time trial kind of format. This has become a very popular format over the years and the club keeps growing with several new members joining the 40 members this year.

Old School Stockers : Drag bikes that were the Pro stock class in the 80's ,a mixture of authentic machines of the period or replicas that have been constructed to resemble them, with many of the new builds incorporating authentic parts from the day.

Nostalgia Super Stock: Now in its 13th year featuring classic American V8 muscle cars from the 60's and 70s featuring makes and models that are all instantly recognisable. From cars running a high 8 second quarter mile pass to those running in the 14's but all have a chance of winning as this is bracket racing.

Supercharged Outlaws: One of the oldest classes in the UK with some of the quickest and most entertaining teams . Cars must run faster than 9.90 to be part of the group but can come from any sphere as long as they run Roots or Screw type supercharger. Typically, street cars, alterds and front engine dragsters all competing to win a championship, closely contested.

Outlaw Anglia: This year had the highest numbers of entries ever. The club is now in its 31st year with a mixture of Ford pops , Ford Anglias , Ford Prefects and Fordston vans. The rules that were set back in 1992 still apply today; wheelbase must not exceed 101 inches , the windscreen angle has to remain as it came out of the factory all those years ago , no centre seat , driver must sit on the left or the right of the car and no flip up or funny car style bodies , simple but very effective, side by side spectacular racing.

Gasser Circus: Revamped in 2011 with the launch of a Championship focusing on recreating and paying tribute to the Gassers of the mid 60's on the dragstrips of America. Dragstalgia marks the midway point of the Gasser Circus season with it being round 3 of the Showdown. A class where differing manufacturers are represented both British and American, comprising a mix of Ford, Chevy, Austin, Morris, Dodge and Willys to name a few.

Willys Wars : A class open to all '33 to '42 Willys coupes, sedans and pickups from Pro Mod to Street cars. A 'heads -up class, no brackets , no dial-ins , no eliminations , bragging rights only!'

It was again another great long weekend for Dragstalgia even with the anticipated forecast for heavy rain and thunderstorms, which came in with a vengeance for several hours on Saturday!

Although the racing stopped to allow the weather to clear up, racing got underway again as soon as the chance came. Thanks to the Santa Pod crew who worked very hard to get the track back up and running, amazingly quickly after the deluge of rain had cleared up. Racing started again around 4.00pm and then went on late into the evening. ( Taking shelter in the media centre, standing and watching the rain, with the lineup of cars just outside, made for some unusual photography of reflections! Some images taken by other photographers in and around the pit areas were quite something! with perfect reflections of the cars in the water that had formed .)

With the Dragstalgia Beer and Cider Festival! Live music stage, which had a full music lineup, made for a very enjoyable event. The AC/DC Experience was great and could be heard across the camping area on Saturday night which made for a brilliant evening. Also a Vintage Fair, the Wall of Death ( where defying gravity on a 20ft vertical wall and captivating audiences since the 1920;s the Fox family could be seen riding on vintage Indian Scout motorcycles at high speed.)

Dragstalgia was also privileged and thrilled to witness and experience the magical power and grace of a very poignant moment. Looking to the skies above Santa Pod to welcome both the Sally B, the remarkable 1945 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the Battle of Britain Memorial flight, with two of its WWII Spitfires and the majestic Lancaster Bomber one of only two airworthy Lancasters left flying. Paying tribute to the airman who served during World War II.

Here is a montage of some of the images taken 'exclusively' for Nostalgia Drag World from across the weekends racing. With the usual burn out shots, Action: Up and Close - out on track, Sequenced photos, Back up Girls and general atmospheric images captured track side and around the pits. As a photojournalist I always think images speak louder than words and manage to capture the action and atmosphere of an event. The changing weather conditions produced some interesting light conditions! and added to the impact of some of the images. I really hope you enjoy looking through them.