The 19th of September 2024 , the 60th anniversary of the 1964 first British International Drag Racing Festival at Blackbushe airport in Surrey.
Its said the event had a crowd of around 24,000.
In order to mark the day, a visit was made to the airport (alas, my friend from the British Drag Racing Historians had to bail at the last minute due to health issues) , taking along a selection of programmes of the Festival, as spread between these were signatories of Dante Duce, Tony Nancy, Ronnie Sox and Eamon Hurley, along with some completed-on-the-day results, and a selection of entry tickets and grandstand tickets.
The car had the recording of the Dragfest stereo LP (on CD) playing for good measure.
One could only imagine being at the event back in the day..........
Its probably fair to say it’s been 60 years since the programmes were last at the venue, and who knows when the sounds recorded back in the day were last heard at the airport.
Perhaps it’s a little bit sad doing the above, but it felt to me that the day needed a little nod, and a silent thank you to those that made it all happen.
1971 saw my first visit to the drags at Blackbushe, a mere 7 years after that ’64 Dragfest, followed by various visits during the ‘70’s.
As Denis Jenkinson wrote on his kitchen wall – “Aah nostalgia, the real thing”.
The photos show the airport today, simply as a record.
For 1964 related info (published today, 19 Sept 2024), see Nick Pettitt's article
https://www.eurodragster.net/eurodragst ... aspx?id=57