BHRA First Big Go 1964
Story produced by Nick Pettitt and published by Eurodragster.
Pictures courtesy of Paul Hicks, John Bennett and Allen Friedrich.
Whit Sunday May 17th 1964 saw the first American style drag race in the UK when the British Hot Rod Association held their first Big Go at Duxford airfield. Competition Secretary Brian Sparrow had put a lot of effort into organising the event, helped by Vice Chairman John Bennett and Secretary Ted Jennings. They’d originally planned a drag race at Church Lawford in August 1963 but had to cancel it at the last minute due to a lack of entries. This time, thanks to co-promotion with the Allard Owners Club and the National Sprint Association, 57 eager competitors and an enthusiastic crowd of spectators turned up at Duxford to see what this drag racing business was all about.
Standing start races over the quarter mile were not new in the UK as they were sometimes held at end of sprint meetings or speed trials when the quickest eight cars or bikes would be paired up in a knockout competition. Also the July 1955 issue of Autosport reported a drag race at Shepherds Grove USAF base, as US servicemen indulged in their favourite pasttime while on duty in the UK. But the BHRA’s Big Go has gone down in history as the first full scale British drag race meeting.
Duxford was the perfect venue for a drag race with plenty of room to lay out the strip and shutdown area. Despite a delay due to not being able to gain access to the airfield until later than expected the event was a great success. Fans were seen wandering through the pits checking out the cars with a peculiar glassy look in their eyes wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ‘Moon’ and ‘Dragstar’ logos as the day was blessed with California sunshine. There was even a Christmas Tree starting system constructed by BHRA treasurer Peter Bartlett with five amber lights giving a 2 ½ second count down in line with the NHRA complete with red foul light. Unfortunately the bright sun was playing havoc with the red light sensor so it wasn’t used at this meeting but nobody was complaining.
No less than five slingshot dragsters were ready for action, the two newly constructed Allard Dragons powered by blown alcohol burning 1500cc Fords had John Hume in the Works machine while the first production Dragon was driven by both Ian Smith who had recently purchased the car and Allard PRO Gerry Belton. Tony Densham brought out the Worden, also blown 1500cc Ford powered, Allan Herridge was there with the mighty DD Buick, now sporting a blower in front of the straight eight and John Harrison brought along the new 2850cc DD Atlantic. Joining the diggers were two mean looking Altereds entered by the Wright brothers, Richard had his Cadillac powered Topolino there and John brought his Jag powered Austin, complete with Rolls Royce grille. John had been working all night on the car but disappointment struck when RAC scrutineer Fred Matthews wouldn’t let it race due to a partly exposed propshaft.
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John Bennett and Ann Palmer had their customised 370 cube ‘58 Pontiac there with Ann doing the driving and Peter Bartlett turned up with his newly acquired ‘57 Chevy. Bob and Roy Phelps had brought along their modified '59 Plymouth pickup sporting Fibre Glass Repairs logo and American decals which had to be covered up with masking tape and paper as advertising at RAC events was a strict no-no in 1964.
Dragons Hot Rod Club members Clive Lingard and Paul Hicks had come down from Manchester in Clive’s bright red, channelled and cycle fendered Model Y Ford Hot Rod and Ken Cooper had entered his ‘33 Ford Cabriolet Hot Rod but sadly was a non-starter. With the Allard Owners Club present a good selection of Allards were entered to race with even more parked in the spectator car park. Don and Stella Farrell were both driving there Farrallac, based on a much-modified J2 Allard and powered by a 331 cube Cadillac. Jim and Shiela Tiller were sharing the hot seat in their Allard J2 fitted with a bored and stroked Ardun Mercury flathead sporting eight Amal carbs. Then there was Fred Lock’s Old’s powered Allard J1, D. Mayston’s Mercury powered Allard K2, Keith Baker’s Allard Palm Beach and Mike Knapman who had entered a Ford Pilot but instead brought along his P Type Allard saloon. The rest of the entries were made up of a mixed bunch from racing and sports cars to standard saloons.
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The meeting kicked off with two timed runs for each competitor, then it was time to race. Eliminations were run for each of the 10 classes followed by Top, Middle and Little Eliminator where the whole entry was divided into three performance groups, irrespective of engine size or category providing some close races. This surprised some of the racers who hadn’t studied the regulations or were not followers of the American drag racing scene reported in the various American Hot Rodding magazines available in the UK at the time.
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Naturally, the Allard Dragons performed well and Gerry Belton won Top Eliminator, narrowly snatching victory over Stella Farrell in her husband’s Farrellac, Middle Eliminator went to Tony Kinch in his Lawrence tuned Cortina GT who shutdown Ann Palmer in the big Pontiac, while Keith Baker in his red Allard Palm Beach took Little Eliminator.
John Hume ran 11.92 to take low elapsed time of the meet in the Works Dragon. Dennis ‘Jenks’ Jenkinson had examined the Dragon at the Racing Car Show earlier in the year and sceptically wagered his well-known beard that it would not break 12 seconds. Loud and clear the commentators Les Brooks and Peter Groves announced Hume’s time, gloatingly looking forward to seeing a beardless Jenks to settle his bet.
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The meeting was completed by 6pm, everyone went home happy, even the RAC Steward enjoyed the days racing, his only criticism being that a few more marshals in the pits would have helped the smooth running of the meeting. Much was learnt by club officials about the running of a drag race meeting and the Big Go became an annual event returning to Duxford in 1965 then moving to Santa Pod in 1966 where it was run each year over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May until 1987. In 1988 the name was changed to the Fosters Lager Drag Meeting and it’s now known as the Main Event.
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