I think it’s fair to say the 2016 Santa Pod Main Event won’t go down as a modern day classic meeting but it will be remembered for the excellent sportsman racing and some stunning pro performances. Sadly there were a few very bad incidents as well but thankfully everyone involved is relatively okay.
The weather played its part with cold winds and low temperatures part of the weekend that not only kept the spectators cold but also the track. Thankfully it did stay mostly dry and the event was able to conclude on Monday.
The staff and track crew done an excellent job as always keeping the track in an excellent racing condition all weekend.
The Good…
Kevin Kent drove his fuel funny right through the 1/4 running an excellent 4.34et over the 1000ft. Bring back Funny Cars .
Ian King looks to be in another world this season running a stream of 5 second passes together with a new huge European record speed of 239.95 mph and fellow bike racer Steve Venables was also running constant 6 seconds passes with a speed record of 210.10mph.
Many others racers and riders run personals bests so well done to everyone.
The Bad..
On Friday super comp racer Paul Hudson gave the wall a good whack at 143mph but was thankfully okay.
Saturday seasoned pro mod driver Roger Johansson had a huge top end crash in his pretty black mustang and although he has some nasty broken parts it seems he’s going to be okay.
Finally SSB racer Jemma Venables had her bike flip up and over and took a few nasty tumbles herself but again is thankfully alright and will hopefully return soon.
For the images below I was trackside for the Thursday test and tune and for the Friday sportsman sessions but not for any of the 3 FIA days.
On Thursday SPR had asked Simon Bull if he could bring the Stripduster recreation and his 91 year old dad to the pod because of Harold being the first person to run down the 1320.
Simon is currently trying to get the recreation running and spent 2 days putting the car back together just for this brief trip so thank you Simon.
Harold’s daughter Jane was present and I got to meet her for the first time.
She told me that without the help from members of ukdrn with things like information and images the Stripduster recreation would probably have never happened.
It’s nice to hear stories like this once in a while to make the effort and input of everyone’s who had contributed to ukdrn over the last 20 years seem worthwhile.
The item was being filmed for BBC look east and you can see the clip about 21 mins in here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bthh9
On Thursday we got to see a few more test launches from the stunning bubblegum Capri nostalgia funny car.
Bob got some more set time and Dave Gibbons got to tip the can a few times. All are progressive very nicely.
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King Harold, Simon, Jane and Stripduster
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Anita got a test pass in on Thursday 
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Roger Johannson was running funny car style headers to try and generate more down force.
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Jemma had her hands full on Thursday.
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The awesome Red Arrows diplay was cut short because of low cloud
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Ian King flying on Thursday.
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Red Victor 3 made a vert impressive debut running down as quick as 6.3
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Steve Ashdown done fantastic for his first ever meeting
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Nice car.
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Young Nick Mugridge was trying dads car for size running an impressive 10.
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Scott Hauser looking and driving as cool as ever.
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Chris Hannons new bike looks like it has tons of potential.
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Some more photos.
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MORE LATER
The weather played its part with cold winds and low temperatures part of the weekend that not only kept the spectators cold but also the track. Thankfully it did stay mostly dry and the event was able to conclude on Monday.
The staff and track crew done an excellent job as always keeping the track in an excellent racing condition all weekend.
The Good…
Kevin Kent drove his fuel funny right through the 1/4 running an excellent 4.34et over the 1000ft. Bring back Funny Cars .
Ian King looks to be in another world this season running a stream of 5 second passes together with a new huge European record speed of 239.95 mph and fellow bike racer Steve Venables was also running constant 6 seconds passes with a speed record of 210.10mph.
Many others racers and riders run personals bests so well done to everyone.
The Bad..
On Friday super comp racer Paul Hudson gave the wall a good whack at 143mph but was thankfully okay.
Saturday seasoned pro mod driver Roger Johansson had a huge top end crash in his pretty black mustang and although he has some nasty broken parts it seems he’s going to be okay.
Finally SSB racer Jemma Venables had her bike flip up and over and took a few nasty tumbles herself but again is thankfully alright and will hopefully return soon.
For the images below I was trackside for the Thursday test and tune and for the Friday sportsman sessions but not for any of the 3 FIA days.
On Thursday SPR had asked Simon Bull if he could bring the Stripduster recreation and his 91 year old dad to the pod because of Harold being the first person to run down the 1320.
Simon is currently trying to get the recreation running and spent 2 days putting the car back together just for this brief trip so thank you Simon.
Harold’s daughter Jane was present and I got to meet her for the first time.
She told me that without the help from members of ukdrn with things like information and images the Stripduster recreation would probably have never happened.
It’s nice to hear stories like this once in a while to make the effort and input of everyone’s who had contributed to ukdrn over the last 20 years seem worthwhile.
The item was being filmed for BBC look east and you can see the clip about 21 mins in here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bthh9
On Thursday we got to see a few more test launches from the stunning bubblegum Capri nostalgia funny car.
Bob got some more set time and Dave Gibbons got to tip the can a few times. All are progressive very nicely.
