Introduction
My first introduction to drag racing was at Santa Pod Raceway with my brother Jim around 1969/70. I was 6 at the time and I still remember those amazing days out and how much I couldn’t wait to go again, always waiting impatiently at the bedroom window for my brother to come and pick me up despite the travel sickness I always suffered on the journey.
Through my school days my passion for the sport never diminished and would often result in my school projects being about drag racing although no one else had a clue what I was always going on about.
The lack of media coverage was really frustrating back then and as a child I only got to see odd issues of “Hot Rod” and my only regular fix was the monthly Custom Car magazine and a subscription to the BDR&HRA so that I could receive the publication Drag Racing News.
Maybe that lack of information was a major factor in the birth of this site years later.
Drag Racing Online
In the early 90's and before the internet as we know it today I used to go on what were called Bulletin boards (BBS). You would dial up over your phone line with a modem and connect to one BBS at a time. They were similar to the modern day forum and I was always on the hunt for drag racing material.
These single pages were painfully slow to load with my 2400 modem so when faster modems were available I upgraded to a 14.4k Modem (V.32bis) and then to a lightning quick 56k Modem (V90) but at a hideous cost.
Back then I set up a UK drag racing bulletin board called Rush Hour but it never went live.
1996-2006
In 1996 I signed up for to my first real internet service provider which was the new commercially available internet as we now know it. I don't remember search engines back then but I do remember finding a few drag racing pages but none that featured any old UK drag racing material.
With the free web space I was given I made a really basic page and showed some old pictures that my brother and myself had taken called it the “UK Drag Racing Nostalgia Website”
This was online birth and first promotion of the UK Nostalgia Drag Racing Scene.
Around this time some other UK websites were around like Tony B’s, Gareth’s and Tog’s Drag Racing Page.
In 1997 a meeting took place at Santa Pod attended by Tog, Tony B and Sharkman and the idea of Eurodragster.com was born.
Eurodragster contained European links, news, driver and track information but way more importantly it was a website that brought the European drag racing community together in one place for the first time ever, I believe that Eurodragster.com played a huge part in the growth of European drag racing and changed the European drag racing scene forever.
In 1997 ukdrn.co.uk moved home and got its own domain name.
In June 98 I added a page to promote Nick Pettitt's Time Travel Videos, Nick is one of the UK’s leading drag racing historians and now has his own excellent website called time travel dvd’s.
Also In 1998 Nick Worsell contacted me and offered me some of his excellent pictures to show and these kept ukdrn.co.uk growing steadily, at this time other people started sending me material to share.
Below is a screen grab of the 1998/1999 versions of the ukdrn homepage, click for a bigger look.
Around 1998 another UKnostlagia site went online called "Trackbytes" this excellent site run by Chris Dosett was different to ukdrn because it offered written information and dates about meeting's, drivers and historic vechiles, this website is still online today (2011)
Over the next 2 years and as this site grew I also tried to develop my basic web building skills but looking at the 2000 version of the homepage it hadn’t come very far, click for bigger look if you dare.
In 2001 a new and exciting version of the website was built for me by Nick and Chris, this was the best version to date and featured the ukdrn logo for the very first time.
The screen grab below makes it look a bitstrange as it was taken on my current high resolution monitor.
Click for bigger
Around 2001 Alan Currans brought himself a scanner and started scanning his massive collection of pictures and launched the excellent Acceleration Archive, another UK nostalgia website that contains thousands of pictures, articles and features.
2006-2012
In 2006 and against many peoples advice I made the brave decision to open up a public drag racing discussion forum, I say brave because forums in general have a bad reputation and can sometimes do more harm than good withmany being shut down in no time.
With some tight policing, great moderators and a fantastic bunch of members including many famous names from the past the forum has become a massive source of information and pictures (12,000+) as well as a great place to meet old friends and reminisce from days gone by. Hopefully the forum has been a credit and a helpful addition to the growth of the sport and will continue to do so for years to come.
Photography
In my opinion nothing is better or more exciting to photograph than drag racing and so my two great passions fit perfectly together.
In the last 5 years I've learnt and taken my photography to a professional level and have been lucky enough to have work published in many major magazines whilst also supporting many club magazines and small racing publications.
My photography galleries can be seen under “Modern Day Racing” Click Here to View
2012 -
Today the website has a simple but hopefully easy to navigate look to it.
www.ukdrn.co.uk receives over 1.2 million hits every month and over 60,000 individual visits per month.
The forum always needs new members so this website can keep growing so don't be shy and take a look, I'm always ready and willing to help you if you're stuck.
Also if you have a old collection of negatives, slides or prints sitting around then please get in touch so we can preserve them forever.
Have a safe and fast 2012
Jon Spoard
To contact me please send an email Contact Here
