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The Easter weekend saw a new name on the title with LA Racing Parts joining B & H Automotive as main sponsors (along with associates RPM magazine, Eurodragster.com, Embroidery Solutions, quartermilehigh.com and WRE), new rubber under (some) arches, new faces and new cars. But the same exciting brew of insane street-legal performance, variety of cars and low, low ETs. Yep, the Street Eliminator UK cars were back in action at Santa Pod’s Thunderball event.
A range of effects from the inevitable impact of the recession to the much happier arrival of daughter Amber Rise for Martin & Julie Taylor (congrats guys) produced a smaller field than is usual for this successful class. On the ‘missing’ list were the returnees of Ray Tucker, Andy Frost and Jerry Charles who were sidelined with damage before the weekend even started. Also notable by their absence were former champions Steve Pateman, Steve Nash and Ian Hook.
However it was good to see the new faces and new cars of rookies David Murdoch (’33 Willys) and Mark Todd (Firebird), two welcome additions to the B&H Automotive/LA Racing Parts Street Eliminator UK line-up.
The field of eight was reduced to seven as the limited qualifying time left David Murdoch unable to meet the 13.50 cut off whilst Jon ‘Moose’ Holingworth qualified but was unable to continue after problems on his first pass in the twin-turbo Cortina. When the smoke cleared the remaining field was headed by Colin Lazenby in his mega-motored ’56 Chevy with an 8.54 at a stunning 185mph. In number 2 spot was Jeff Meads (now running MT radials on his Pop) with an 8.85.
In round one of eliminations Meads and Lazenby went through courtesy of byes. Mark Todd took a maiden win over Mats Andersson and the blown Ford vs blown Chevy match-up went the way of the Blue Oval as Alex McIntosh put Bill MacDermid’s Camaro back on the trailer.
The semi-finals went the way of the nitrous cars as Lazenby resoundingly beat Todd and Meads eliminated the Mustang of McIntosh by just three tenths in a tight race.
Both Meads and Lazenby saved their quickest passes for the final but Meads’ improvement to an 8.56 wasn’t enough as Lazenby powered to an 8.27/184mph win.
The class returns to Santa Pod for the Big Bang on April 25th and 26th but with just a couple of weeks between races those teams with damage are going to have to work hard to be there perhaps leaving the way clear for Meads and Lazenby to stretch their points advantage further. Stay tuned for more info!
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