18th February:
Our stories about Ford Anglias of Yesteryear in UK drag racing and hot rod pioneers today features 1960s and 70s Anglia team Marshall Dickson Racing (first published in 2014).
John Dickson with Roger Marshall built one of the first Ford Anglia E93A-based Competition Altereds which they ran between
1968 and 1976. They also worked alongside John's brother Tony who imported and ran the UK's first Pro Stock car. John had a parallel role
as a writer of race reports for many of the motorsport press titles current in the early 1970s. John's wife Carol-Ann also got involved in
maintaining Santa Pod Raceway. Later, their names became synonymous with Marshall Dickson Performance, the speed parts business run not by
them, but by John's late brother Tony between 1979 and his death in 2002. Roger and John remain great friends after over 60 years, despite
living 150 miles apart.
John and Roger were interviewed during Dragstalgia 2014; we thank Dave Riswick of Eurodragster.com sponsor John Woolfe Racing for helping to arrange the interview and John Dickson for supplying
archive photos and material. We have added 25 additional photos, kindly provided by Nick Pettitt, to the gallery including shots of Tony Dickson's Money Hungry.
The story of Marshall Dickson Racing is at this link. You can see our list of Pioneer stories at this link or by clicking on the link in the main menu.
Junior dragster rules changes proposed.
18th February:
Many thanks to photojournalist Stefan Boman from Sweden for allowing us to run his story, published in the Bilsport web site, about a proposal for changes to Junior Dragster rules in Scandinavia. Often such proposals are kept in the racing community but in this case the proposer Lennart "Lelle" Olsson, who is behind Nitroz Motorsports (a key part of drag racing organisation in Scandinavia) has chosen to go public:
It may have been a good idea to hold back engine costs from Briggs & Stratton when the class was introduced 30 years ago. But over time, it has evolved to require expensive special parts where a new engine for Jr Modified costs over 50,000 kronor (£4,000) in the US.
There are lots of good, working technology from motorcycles, snowmobiles and not least go-karts that are not only cheaper but also easier to find both as new and used at home. The proposal is that you are allowed to use these as well, just as you are allowed to continue driving with a traditional driveline if you choose, says Lelle.
As every racer knows, the competition rules in Jr Dragster are that everyone competes using the handicap system where you set a dial-in time on which competition is based. Driving under your dial-in is a breakout and means that you lose even if you were first over the finish line. This way, everyone can compete on equal terms, no matter how fast your dragster is.
The Finnish Hot Rod Association today published the following 
Trevor Duckworth of 
