Timeless Thrills: Dragstalgia 2024 Celebrates Iconic Machines and Legendary Racers

From July 5-7, Santa Pod Raceway paid tribute to the bygone era of drag racing and hot rodding with their 13th annual Dragstalgia event. Once more, the event proved to be Europe’s biggest and best Nostalgia drag racing event by assembling a vibrant array of over 240 machines from all over the country to race in various categories. 

The headlining class, named “Dragstalgia Cannonball,” puts nitro- and methanol-burning Nostalgia Funny Cars, slingshots, and Altereds together to race in a cannonball format. Additional classes included the Gasser Circus, Outlaw Anglia, Wild Bunch, Willys Wars, Supercharged Outlaws, Nostalgia Super Stock, and the Custom Car Invitational, not to forget about the two-wheeled machines represented by the Old School Stockers and the NSA Bike Shootout.

This year’s edition of Dragstalgia featured a few illustrious guests from the States, including Tony Thacker, who brought the famous “Dos Palmas” slingshot back to the UK, as well as Shige Suganuma and Chico Kodama from the Mooneyes company, who displayed a replica of the famous Mooneyes dragster. Both delighted the fans with warm-ups and show burnouts, including an unplanned 360° spin and an impressive save by Suganuma!

Another warmly welcomed guest was Randy Bradford, who brought his freshly rebuilt Fiat Topolino Altered to its first event since the devastating explosion at the NHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals in 2023. Randy was set to match race against none other than Nick Davies in “Havoc,” the UK’s notorious Fuel Altered, as part of the Dragstalgia Cannonball.

Off the strip, the event provided a lot of entertainment such as numerous live bands, a beer & cider festival, a show and shine Paddock with the best classics and hot rods from all over the UK, and a vintage fair, as well as the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame display.

After a sunny and exciting “Run what you brung” session on Friday, the event experienced a thunderstorm early Saturday morning, drenching the track. Thanks to the tremendous effort of the track crew, the track was dried in time to continue with the qualifying sessions.

The Dragstalgia Cannonball has no traditional qualifying as such – instead, three runs are made with the E.T.s added together. The final sees the two quickest face off for the win, third and fourth quickest for second, and so on. In the finals it’s been two of Europe’s best Nostalgia Funny Car racers paired up against each other: Tim Garlick against Tony Betts. Unfortunately, Betts broke after the burnout handing the win over to Garlick, who coasted to a 9.567 at 75 mph win. Earlier that day, Garlick ran a 5.945 at 236 mph, a new personal best. Nick Davies and Randy Bradford had a few exciting matchups in true Fuel Altered fashion with Davies coming out on top, as Bradford was a no-show in the last round. Davies also improved his personal best and reset his own record for Fuel Altereds in the UK with a 6.044 at 237 mph.

Patrick Hobbs in his Ford Falcon Gasser won the final of the Gasser Circus over Ray Turner in his ’56 Chevy Gasser named “Green Onions.”

Out of the nearly 70 entries in Nostalgia Super Stock, Jim Smith in his Dodge Challenger and Chris Tyhurst in his Chevrolet Chevelle made it into the finals. Smith with a 10.37 index ran a 10.405 at 127 mph to beat Chris Tyhurst (12.16) 13.781 at 72 mph.

Andy Hadfield roared to the finals with his Ford T-Bucket Altered against Nigel Rigden in his Topolino named “The Good Guys” in the Supercharged Outlaws category. Hadfield ran a 7.942 at 170 mph and defeated Rigden’s slower 8.788 at 157 mph.

Colin Miller won Outlaw Anglia in his “Flyin’ Fyfer” defeating Barn Levy in “The Barn Stormer” with a 8.336 at 143 mph vs. Levy’s 9.7107 at 114 mph.

Willys Wars saw Daniel Bates with an index of 10.09 run a near-perfect 10.094 at 130 mph to win over Shawn Hinden, who had an index of 10.96 and came up short with the posted 11.114 at 131 mph.

Old School Stockers Bikes saw Claire Rule taking the win with an 8.628 at 147 mph over Kevin Melling, who broke.

Due to the many weather-related delays throughout the weekend, not all of the scheduled rounds of the Wild Bunch could take place. So, places were awarded according to the competitor’s average difference to their dial-ins. The trophy for first place went to Dan Wilson in the “Antique Toy” for a third time in a row.

In the NSA Bike Shootout, Graham Sykes ran a 10.582 at 135 mph to defeat Ray Law, who ran a slower 14.41 at 116 mph.

Besides the winner trophies, Dragstalgia also rewards special showmanship trophies in numerous categories. The award for low ET of the meeting went to Tim Garlick, who ran a best of 5.945 in his “Apache” Nostalgia Funny Car. Simon Hayward and team “Houndog” Nostalgia Funny Car were awarded Best Appearing Car. Best Appearing Team went to Santa Pod Raceway’s track crew wearing Mooneyes hats and Revell uniforms that weekend. Aaron Windridge, racing in Supercharged Outlaws, won the trophy for Burnout of the weekend. The Driving job of the weekend award got handed to Joe Bond (Nostalgia Cannonball), who did a fantastic driving job during a spectacular wild ride in his slingshot. Wheelie of the weekend award went to Gasser Circus member Tony Pearson in his Bel Air named “Guzzler.” Backup girl of the weekend was Evela Romanowska (Paul Harris Racing Nostalgia Funny Car), who changed outfits for every run. The award “Moment of Dragstalgia” was awarded to Nick Davies and his new record of 6.044 in the Havoc Fuel Altered. The Spirit of Dragstalgia award went to Shige Suganuma and Chico Kodama with their Mooneyes dragster and display.

The mixed weather made it a challenging weekend for racers and fans, but especially for the experienced Santa Pod track crew. Kudos to them for giving their all to complete the event under safe and dry conditions. We’re already excited to see what surprises the 14th edition of Dragstalgia will have in store for us and are hoping for better weather in 2025.

This story was originally published on July 16, 2024.

The post Timeless Thrills: Dragstalgia 2024 Celebrates Iconic Machines and Legendary Racers first appeared on Drag Illustrated.