Thanks to Paul Marston for sending in this update on Manston Raceway Park, Paul writes:
Before I start, I must say a BIG shout out to KYE KELLY RACING who last weekend took their NO Prep Kings 1980s Steel Roof and Quarters Trans Am to the Snowbirds at Bradenton Florida to compete in the Outlaw Pro Mod class. To say this is a class full of bears just does not do it justice.
It is a who’s who of Pro Mod drivers and the biggest Pro Mod field I have ever heard of. 66, yes you heard right SIXTY-SIX entries. You must qualify in the top 32 to run on Sunday. Kye’s car isn’t a state of the art Pro Mod, it runs a Reid cased TH400 with 80+ runs on it. It’s a No Prep car. Well, he qualified and ran the table, running a 3.59 to clinch the final. If you get a chance go watch it on U-Tube.
Still very early days, but we wanted to give people a flavor of what classes we want to run at Manston Raceway Park. As I have said before Manston Raceway Park is a grass roots No Prep style track. Let me just expel a few myths right here and now, just so people can get a better understanding. A lot of people here in the UK will never have experienced this style of racing before.
The track distance is 1/8th Mile. Which is a standard distance at a lot of No Prep tracks. No Prep does not mean that there is no track prep whatsoever, remember before the advent of Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway, a lot of the old dragstrips were No Prep and people ran some very respectable times.
The track will be cleaned and scrubbed, it WILL build up a usable amount of traction and rubber in, quite quickly. We are concrete out to about 150-180 feet then asphalt. This is not Santa Pod and never will be, however it will provide a decent surface where teams will have to learn to figure out power management. Which is the great challenge and leveler in No Prep, this is how a guy with not the most powerful car, can beat a lot more powerful entries, simply by being clever and using what he has, the most effectively.
We will be running under a sanctioning body and will tech cars in. More details will come on all of that, let’s get to the classes we will be running. To be clear, these classes are for cars only. These are the classes we intend to run at our events, however they will all be subject to a minimum car count. We will most probably not run all the classes at all the events. I will publish the classes that we intend to run at the season opener soon.
BIG TYRE
1/8th Mile Heads up. Flashlight start. Traditionally the fastest class, there are a lot of very capable big tyre cars in the UK. Big Tyre is exactly what it says, any tyre size goes, now you could run a small tyre car in big tyre if you wanted to double class. But you can’t do vice versa. This is also the class for all AWD Cars. I will publish more detailed rules, but in a nutshell, this is it. Other than safety there are no rules, as many power adders, no minimum weight, slicks, drag radial or treaded dot, run what ya brung and hope you brung enough.
SMALL TYRE
1/8th Mile Heads Up. Flashlight Start. This class is by far the biggest in the States ATM. It has just exploded; it has the biggest car counts. Small Tyre is a maximum tyre width of 10.5 inches, other than that it’s the same as big tyre.
TAILGATE
1/8th Mile Heads Up. Flashlight Start. This is a brand-new class to the UK, this is a pickup truck only class, hence the name Tailgate. (we might allow Jeeps) There are a lot of real nice and a few fast trucks out there. This will be a non-tube chassis class, unless enough full tube trucks want to run. In which case we will run them separately. We want street or street appearing trucks, back half is fine, front half is fine. If you are unsure, contact us. Slicks allowed, two power adders, no weight or tyre size restrictions. This could be a real fun class and if you double class you could run in maybe small tyre as well or big tyre.
FWD
1/8th Mile, Flashlight Start. This is a class we have decided to trial, as there are a lot of very good FWD cars out there now. So, if you support this class we will continue to run it. The rules will be simple, and we will post them as soon as they are finalized.
STICK SHIFT
This could be FWD and RWD, no 4WD, as the sign says, needs to be a 3-pedal deal. Any power adder, any size motor, any tyre size.
RWYB
As always test and tune, we do intend to have a timing system but this needs to be confirmed. RWYB will run at ALL our event dates.
Nostalgia Doorslammer – Heads Up 1/8th Mile Flashlight Start. Pre 1989 Doorslammers, all types English or American.
INDEX CLASSES
If there is interest in some index classes, most probably 6.50 (9.75 ¼ ET) and 8.00 (12.00 ¼ ET)
TRUE STREET
True street will be a full interior class, Taxed, Insured and a Mot, will have to complete a cruise. This class is Heads Up 1/8th mile eliminations.
DAILY DRIVER
This is same as above, but cars will return from the cruise and drive straight to the staging lanes and run 3 passes back-to-back. The winner will be the car that is the most consistent on their timeslip.
So, for us to run the classes you want, we would like to ask for help. Please contact us and let us know what classes you would intend to compete in. This will allow us to run what you want. You can register your vote by messaging us on our FB page Manston Raceway Park or our No Prep Racers Club FB page. Remember your vote counts and matters. Even if you intend to just RWYB, let us know.
Apologies for not posting this earlier, but it has been busy here, a lot to do. I must thank all the people who have stepped up with offers of help, support and advise, you know who you are, and I appreciate you very much. It will take all of us to make this happen. If you think you can help us out with equipment of just time. Please touch base with me, many hands make light work. Many thanks to Eurodragster for posting this.
