1964 Drag Festival Report Part 1

Story produced by Nick Pettitt Published by Eurodragster. 

The first round of the 1964 British International Drag Festival was held at Blackbushe Airport near Camberley, Surrey on Saturday 19^th Sept. Local clubs were called in to organize each round and the Surrey Centre of the British Automobile Racing Club in association with the Basingstoke Motorcycle Club handled this meeting.

Weather wise the day was cool and sunny with a constant cross wind, a good recipe for horsepower. Traction at Blackbushe was good but the strip was somewhat on the loose side creating plenty of smoke from the more powerful machines and bumpy enough to put the faster cars airborne near the finish line in full sight of the wind.

A fantastic crowd turned up which grew as the day went on to an estimated at 24,000 and the meeting kicked off at 11am with timed runs from the bikes. George Brown on his Vincent Super Nero clocked an 11.28/124mph which stood as top bike time of the meet but a sheared blower shaft put him out of the 751cc – 1500cc Class eliminations after lunch which went to American rider Don Hyland on his twin engined Triumph Parasite taking out fellow American Bill Wood’s Iron Horse Harley with an 11.34/128mph to a shutoff 12.92/76mph. The 501cc – 750cc Class went to Pete Smith on his Hagon-Triumph with an off form 13.75/103mph beating Bill Bragg on his Triumph Blue Peril also not running well at 16.90/98mph. Then Jack Terry on his Jap Special took out S. Woods’ Norton Jap in the up to 500cc Class 12.03/113mph to 14.11/92mph. Also at Blackbushe but not running was the wild looking slingshot bike Drag-Waye powered by Shorrocks blown VW engine. Howard German would return and run the bike later.

The cars also ran timed runs before lunch with eliminations in the afternoon. John Bloomfield in his 14 second Diva Special won the up to 2500cc Saloon & GT Class easily taking out Jim Gavin’s 17 second Ford powered Renault. Other cars in this class were a Cortina GT driven by Tony Kinch, Ian Grant’s 1500cc Ford powered Fiat 600, an Alfa Romeo Giulia and a Mini Cooper S. The 2501 – 6000cc Saloon & GT Class final saw a battle of the Jaguars as Reg Biss took out Norman Watt both running low 15s. Also entered was another Jag, a Buick 3.5 V8 powered Peerless Warwick, a Chrysler Valiant driven by Dick Jones, Doc Merfield’s Cobra V8 powered Cortina and John Bennett’s ‘58 Pontiac Chieftain driven by his soon to be wife Ann Palmer who’d only just passed her driving test.

The only entry in the up to 2500cc Sports Car Class was a Lotus Bristol and that was a nonstarter. The 2501 – 6000cc Sports Car Class saw nine entries, three Lister Jaguars and a C-type, Ron Barker driving George Abecassis’ Chevy powered Iso Grifo Bizzarrini, Jim and Sheila Tiller’s Ardun Mercury J2 Allard, John Chapman’s Mercury and two Shelby Cobras run by Bruce Ropner and Lord Cross. Two Lister Jags made it to the final with Ken Wilson beating Dave Beckett 13.37/110mph to 13.60/107mph.

An eight-car field made up the up to 3000cc Racing Car Class which was won by Ken Wilson in his BRM running 12.29/119mph taking out Chris Lawrence’s twin Mini powered Twinny Mini driven by Tony Kinch which clocked 12.77/108mph. The rest of the field was made up of a pair of Lotuses, a Bugatti Type 35, FJ Elva, ERA R7B and a Buckler Special. The 3001 – 6000cc Racing Car Class had just three entries, Ron Barker’s 21 second vintage Napier and Dick Soanes’ Cooper Buick which in the final beat Dave Hooper in the old-but revitalised Steyr Allard hill climb car with a 12.96/106mph to 15.63/88mph.

Eight British dragsters turned up, five in the up to 3000cc Class which was won by Alan Allard in the Works Dragon taking out Denis ‘Jenks’ Jenkinson driving Gerry Belton’s Dragon in the final, 11.42/125mph to 12.41/108mph. The other three dragsters in the class were John Harrison in the 2660cc Austin powered DD Atlantic, Leon Moss in Square One powered by a blown pre-war 1500cc Riley and Tony Densham in the blown 1500cc Ford powered Worden. The bigger class saw Nobby Hills, first time out with his Jag powered Houndog dragster driven by Les Hill, Allan Herridge with his supercharged straight eight Buick dragster and Alan Allard with the Allard Chrysler dragster which had a moment crossing the finish line when the chute failed to pop on an earlier run. Back in the pits they found the diff casing was broken putting him out for the day so the DD Buick and Houndog lined up to race, the Buick taking it with a 13.41 to Houndog’s 16.27.

But everyone had come to see the American machines... TV Tommy Ivo came out first in the Valvoline Special Double A Fueller and was silently pushed up the strip, turned round then fired up returning to the start line breaking the silence with a deafening cackle and filling the Blackbushe air with the sweet smell of nitro. All eyes were on him as he came up to the line. George Wells leapt in the air with the flags as Ivo blasted off to a smoky 8.46 hitting 184mph. Made from a standing start the results turned doubters into believers as many thought the fast American times resulted from long rolling starts. Don ‘Big Daddy’ Garlits then followed with Swamp Rat and when the smoke had cleared the clocks read 8.28/191mph! the fastest speed ever turned-on British soil, leaving little doubt in anyone's mind as to validity and both drivers were cheered as they returned down the strip; the ice was broken...

One interested spectator was Stirling Moss. He was seen and photographed at Blackbushe checking out the American cars and talking with the drivers. He’d also helped out Mickey Thompson when he came over in 1963, allowing him the use of his high-tech London flat, his mechanics, a trailer and tow car.

Tony Nancy came out in his radical Wedge II rear engined Plymouth powered AA/Gas dragster. He’d crashed the ill handling Wedge I six weeks earlier and Wedge II was a new car just finished before the trip and this was its first fire-up. Unlike Wedge I this car was longer, had a solid mounted rear end and slots above the slicks to stop air getting trapped under the car. Tony was fast out the hole but eased off at the top end as he tested the handing of the new car but still ran a 10.21/126mph. Later in the afternoon he ran 9.57 and 9.41 bumping the speed up to 159mph. Bob Keith in the Keith/Goodnight/Williams AA/Gas dragster Dos Palmas clicked off a couple of mid nines hitting 161mph.

The A/FX cars came out four times as Ronnie Sox in his Mercury Comet and Dave Strickler in the Dodge match raced, both running high 11s over 120mph. NHRA A/Gas Supercharged champion George Montgomery brought out his powder blue, blown Chevy powered ‘33 Willys running 10.75/144mph and then a 10.65/137mph hitting one of the bumps and getting a bit airborne at the far end but the wind failed to kite him severely. The other Willys of KS Pittman and Chuck Stolze was powered by a blown Chrysler but never made a run. Having damaged the rear end at the US Nationals just before leaving on the boat to England their much-needed tools and spare parts were detained at the docks.

Dante Duce, as well as being US team captain and involved in the promotion of the event, had three cars entered. He made three runs in Carroll Shelby’s draggin’ Cobra running a best of 11.95/108mph then jumped in the Moonbeam Devin-bodied sports car fitted with the front blown Chevy from Mooneyes but blew the diff off the line. Duce’s third car was Tony Nancy’s 22 Junior slingshot but that didn’t come out at Blackbushe. Doug Church in the Modern Specialist rear engined Porsche dragster made three runs, the best being 11.57/114mph. He also had a race with Alan Allard in the Dragon which took the win 11.42/125mph to 11.67/114mph. Then Dante Duce in the Cobra took on Jenks in the other Dragon and Duce took the win with an 11.95/108mph to 13.33/94mph.

The Big Go of the day was the race between the two-nitro burning fuellers. This one really had the officials shook as they chased all the photographers back about 75 feet from the strip. They didn’t know what to expect and they were taking no chances. Garlits took it by over two car lengths with another 8.28/191mph to Ivo’s squirrely 8.58/184mph. What an end to a meeting and as the cars came back down the strip the fans leaped the fences to see them up close and they were all about to do it again at Chelveston the next day...

The weather was again sunny with a stiff cool breeze at the RAF training base in Chelveston. Unlike Blackbushe the strip was smooth, a bit too smooth producing poor traction. The Thames Estuary Automobile Club, the Stevenage Motorcycle Club and the RAF’s own Motor Sports Association were in charge, but their inexperience began to tell. Alerted by problems and long periods of down time experienced the previous day the BDRA got the ball rolling a bit faster and Wally Parks was in attendance smoothing out the kinks NHRA style. At Blackbushe the previous day during some down time Wally had commented, ‘if this was happening in the States, they’d be throwing beer cans by now.’  

The meeting kicked off at 10.30 and things were soon moving a bit better removing the threat of boredom for the near 20,000 spectators. A lack of control at Chelveston saw big gaps in paid admission due to a wide-open perimeter, only the honest paid to get in.  Once again, the bikes came out first for their timed runs then ran eliminations after lunch. Jack Terry repeated his win in the up to 500cc bike eliminations, this time beating Dave Lecog on the AJS Special, 12.74/84mph to 13.82/93mph. The 501cc – 750cc final results were a repeat of Blackbushe as Pete Smith took out Bill Bragg 11.89/106mph to 12.77/108mph, and in the 751cc – 1500cc Class Neville Higgins on his Vincent Jindivik took the win beating Ernie Woods’ Norton JAP 11.15/130mph to 12.17/110mph.

The Diva which won the up to 2500cc Saloon & GT Class at Blackbushe was now being driven by Doug Mockford and it again took the win taking out Ian Grant’s Fiat 600 with the 1500cc Ford in the back, 15.93/93mph to 17.02/79mph. The other competitors in the class were as at Blackbushe with the addition of a Sunbeam and an Austin Cooper, both running 17s. The 2501 – 6000cc Saloon & GT Class was somewhat depleted with only one runner, that being Dick Jones in the Chrysler Valiant running a string of 16 second passes at 85mph. Dick was an American who in the States drove for the Ramchargers Team.

British hill climb champion Peter Westbury in his Lotus BRM took the up to 2500cc Sports Car Eliminator with a sizzling 12.18/124mph. The only other runner in the class was GS Dixon with a Lotus Ford whose best was 14.70/93mph. The 2501 – 6000cc Sports Car Class final saw the Lister Jag of Ken Wilson shutdown TB Gibson’s C-Type Jag, 13.09/111mph to 13.67/108mph.

The Racing Cars were amalgamated into one class at Chelveston. In the first round Peter Meldrum in his Lotus FJ powered by an Allard Dragon motor was beaten by Gibson’s single seater Frazer Nash, the Lotus being off colour just at the crucial time, but that’s drag racing. Ken Wilson in the BRM beat Twinny Mini after Tony Kinch had to coast over the line with a broken gear linkage to the rear engine. In round two Ken Wilson faced Peter Westbury’s incredibly quick 4-wheel drive Ferguson-Climax P99 but we were denied what could have been a fine dice as a fault on the Ferguson forced Peter to shut off. In the final Ken Wilson took the win against the Frazer Nash with a 12.24/122mph to 14.39/96mph. Earlier Peter Westbury with Tony Rolt doing the tuning came out in the Ferguson to record best time of the day for the British entries with a stunning 11.02/127mph!

Amalgamation was again necessary for the British dragsters which were down on numbers. The big Allard Chrysler was still out of action, the broken diff casing proving irreparable in time and there was no sign of Houndog, the Worden or the Belton Dragon, leaving a field of just four dragsters. Leon Moss in Square One shut down John Harrison’s DD Atlantic then Alan Allard in the Works Dragon took out Allan Herridge in the DD Buick. In the final Allard took out Moss with a time of 11.26/129mph to 14.70/90mph.

Tommy Ivo came out for his first run of the day in the morning finding it hard to hook up on the smooth slippery surface recording 9.24/142mph. Then Garlits did a better job running 8.63/187mph but was still down on his Blackbushe times.

Tony Nancy had trouble keeping Wedge II aimed between the finish line marker boards but still ran a respectable 9.31/162mph. Bob Keith ran a 9.52/157mph also finding the track surface a bit tricky. George Montgomery did two strong runs in his Willys, the best being 10.67/136mph but sadly with no parts or tools KS Pittman was still unable to make a run in his Chrysler hemi Willys. Ronnie Sox and Dave Strickler were racing each other, both running consistently as ever and Doug Church made a couple of runs in his Porsche dragster, best being 11.36/118mph.

Dante Duce took the challenge from one of the British Cobra drivers but just as the cars lined up Duce shut off with a burst water hose. He didn’t make any runs in Moonbeam either despite Mike Glennon staying up all night working on the rear end it wasn’t ready, so Duce elected to fill the gap in the meet with a run in Tony Nancy’s 22 Junior slingshot. He’d already run the car at Monza for demo runs at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks earlier, but Nancy became concerned when Duce had trouble firing the car up and had a brief word on the start line prior to the run. Duce then had trouble getting lined up and took off before waiting for the go signal from his tyre-wiper. The impending hint of trouble proved itself just after leaving the line when it was all too apparent that Duce was in trouble as the machine veered from his left-hand lane to the right, possibly caused by a cross wind on the slippery surface. Duce lifted briefly but then got back on it heading straight for and hitting the timing equipment which included a panel board weighted down with several buckets of sand and car batteries between the lanes sending him into a triple-roll. The chute came out straightening and slowing the car, bringing it to rest on the grass on the right-hand side. Despite all this there’s still a time on the results sheets of 9.46/146mph. Duce emerged shaken but unhurt, sadly the dragster was a near write off.

The accident fairly well capped the day’s action and following a clean-up and resetting the ET clocks only a few more runs were made but no-one went home as these included the end of day Garlits/Ivo matchup. Garlits was again ahead with an 8.74 to Tommy’s 8.98, no speeds were recorded. Then it was time to pack up and head north for round three with a stop off in Leeds where the American cars and bikes were put on display for a few days including the smashed 22 Junior to show the public the strict NHRA safety requirements for driver protection.