Thank you to everyone who attended the 2023 Season PRO ET awards bash, so many kind words of thanks and support for our first attempt at organising this event, 136 guests made the effort worthwhile. Thank you to the following sponsors whose generous contributions made it possible to put on this event for PRO ET:Maverick Diagnostics, Nemesis UK, B & H Construction, SG Commercial Vehicle Repairs Ltd, Bean & Ballantyne Properties,SIB Plumbing, Buddy’s Paint Shack, Supercharged Outlaws, CSK Building Ltd, Team Nova Scotia, RMC with RDR Carburettors, Three Brothers Brewery Limited, Hauser Racing, Tig & Cath Napier, Independent Scaffolding, UK Scaffolding (SE) Ltd, Jon Turner Upholstery.
The evening kicked off with my usual pit ramblings only this time a very nervous speech in front of way more than the usual bunch of racers who exchange words of friendly abuse! If I forgot to mention anyone, sorry my pages of speech became a blur. So, the nominated awards voted for by anybody who read our Facebook post and racers WhatsApp group were up first:
So best rehearsed plans by John & Kim Bean and Debs and I went straight out the window as we planned to kick off the raffle by asking each winner to pull a ticket out of the box as they were presented a trophy, Whoops!! I forgot that almost immediately, sorry team. Anyway, we got sort of back on track after a small oil down and random members of the audience started receiving their prizes as kindly donated by Pete Dodd, Warren Watts, Belinda Bull, Team Nova Scotia and the PRO ET Sponsorship Scheme. We then went into the buffet before the second round of awards.
Over the years of watching and now participating in PRO ET with such large numbers of regular entries I decided that it was a massive achievement to make it into the top ten final standings. This year was no exception 63 teams listed as getting points and 50 plus gaining points from more than two events. Extra trophies were needed and once again Elaine Southworth at “Cool Art and Engineering” was contacted and her imagination was put to the test 18 bespoke trophies all handmade coated and posted within the time frame and as a side addition to the trophy a framed photo handpicked by ourselves from julianhunt.net, big thank you Julian & Claire for the picture tweaking to make the pictures more personal to PRO ET. So, stand up Colin Theobald and show me how it’s done as each racer 10-1 walks up to a nominated song played by the DJ and Colin tells it how it is and pulls no punches. I think he knows us better than we do, a familiar face greets each racer with a smile and hug as opposed to the usual “get into the pairing lanes now.” Thank you, Caroline, for agreeing to hand out the top ten trophies.
Then more organised chaos as the remaining raffle prizes are handed out with Colin doing his best trying to keep us rabble in line. Thank you, Colin. So, it was time for the party and everyone to talk some sh*t and before we knew it the event had finished. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed their evening, all tips for improvement would be gratefully appreciated before next year.
Can I please congratulate Sammie & Tom Watkins new addition to the family, Ernest-Eric Walter Watkins born 05.26am on Sunday 28th January weighing 6lbs 15oz I guess he was just a bit shy to arriving in front of 134 people! May we wish you all the best from PRO ET.
See you all at Easter! Brett & Debs Team Nova Scotia
Thanks to Graham Watkinson for his help in coding today's update.
Swift snippets.3rd February:Happy Birthday for today to Super Pro ET racer Daniel Giles, 8.50 Bike racer Stacey Reed, Sportsman ET racer Steve Mellors, former 9.50 Bike racer Dave Bowe and Outlaw Street racer Paul Knifton. We hope you all have a great day.Norm Wheeldon.
2nd February:Nigel Charman has written to eurodragster.com with much sadness of the sudden loss of Norm. He was taken ill in the early hours yesterday and passed on later in the afternoon.
This has been a great shock to us all and our thoughts are with his partner Mary at this very difficult time.
Norm was involved from the 70s to the present day in drag racing at a high level with a very high standard of fabricating, constructing as well as driving the cars. In the past few years, we built the cars under the Wheeldon and Charman name which we intend to continue in the long term, I know this is his wish. However, at this present time as you can imagine this has come as a great shock to us all, so can I please ask you to respect Mary's privacy. Rest in Peace.
We at Eurodragster.com send our deepest condolences to Norm's partner Mary, teammates and friends Nigel and James Charman, and to Norm's many racing friends and colleagues.
Pioneer Stories - Wally Parks' involvement in British Drag Racing - Part 5.2nd February: You can read the fifth and final part of our excerpts from NHRA founder Wally Parks' memoir by clicking here.
This part includes the letters Wally wrote to his wife Barbara with some of his humour and affection finding their way into them. "I’m sure you’ll flip over this place – it’stoo much! This coming weekend up at Southport is supposed to be the real cold one. Ibought some pyjama’s so I can wear the bottoms under my pants if it’s really that cold.
"Last night I had dinner with the Allard’s at their home. Mrs Allard is a really nice person and had cooked us a meal that I expected was typically English. We had roast beef, oven-brown potatoes, carrots, green beans, some sherry, apple pie with cream and coffee in another room. It was delicious and the company was most enjoyable. I seem to be getting a lot of wrinkles over here. Don’t know what it is, but this country must age a person more rapidly. We are really making history over here.."
The story was produced by Richard Parks, photos, images chosen by Nick Pettitt and John Hunt and published by editor of Eurodragster.com Simon Groves. We all thank Jim Miller of the American Hot Rod Foundation for scanning the photos and adding captions.
Unusual Car Sale UK sponsor Street Weekend 2024.
2nd February:Unusual Car Sales UK admin Nigel Taylor has announced that Unusual Car Cales UK are the proud sponsor of this year's Street Weekend 2024, with some members clubbing together and donating £20 each into the prize pot, which is looking like a fair bit already.
Nigel explains we understand people and companies would like to get involved but can’t afford to offer big prize money. So as Unusual Car Sales UK is a big follower of British drag racing, we have come up with this idea where those people and companies will get a mention on our site. The site has a following of 37,000 and over people for contributions of £20 into the prize pot.
Unusual Car Sales UK Kenzie Taylor will be following the Street weekend antics and no doubt he will have his camera with him (Kenzie has had some good teaching from Santa Pods own Callum Pudge) so will represent Unusual Car Sales UK and will witness who wins what and where.
If you would like to get involved in the contributions, please head over to the Unusual Car Sales UK Facebook page click here. New members will need to answer all the application questions to join the site, if you are already a member then look out for the Street Weekend 2024 posts.
If you need any information, please contact Nigel via the Unusual Car Sales UK Facebook page.
2nd February:FIM-E racer Samu Kemmpainen has contacted eurodragster to confirm a new Top Fuel bike which is on display at the MP-24 Motorcycle Show, Helsinki being held from 2nd-4th February. elements of the powerplant on the new bike will be displayed on the Honda 6P48 stand.
“This year we will test at local tracks as the bike is new and different to what we have used before. Maybe Tierp if all goes well, we still have the twin bike if needed. We will race FIM soon when the bike is fast enough and we have more spare parts. the bike was made here in Finland by our team, good friends and sponsors”.
Samu has been working 22 years at Honda and it was easy to a pick name for this project.
