John Willard and Paul Stephen’s UK tour at Santa Pod Raceway has come to a close after the running of the venue’s hugely popular Dragstalgia event.
With both cars in containers and heading back Down Under now, the trials and tribulations for both racers at Dragstalgia may have not been outcome anyone wanted, but that’s drag racing. It was a bucket list tour, and plenty of goals were kicked, with record books rewritten.
At Dragstalgia, Stephen pushed out a head gasket in the Double Trouble altered during qualifying, unfortunately damaging the block, the team thrashed to make repairs, but burnt electrics were found ruling them out from continuing at the event.
“Well not the way we wanted to finish our Santa Pod adventures,” said Stephen. “But we have pushed out a head gasket, and taken a piece of my block. Ah well that’s racing, big thanks to my Pommie crew Dave, Paul and Mathew ,sorry we couldn’t go a few more laps. Thanks to John Willard for having us along on his dream. Most of all thank you to my beautiful wife for indulging me in this ridiculous passion I have.”
It was a similar story in the Willard camp, the Aussie Outlaw top qualified in a monster 30 plus car Outlaw Anglia field with yet another record setting pass at 6.71 seconds. Unfortunately, the blown Hemi came off a little worse for wear after the run, and Willard could not return.
A bittersweet moment though came when Willard was awarded the prestigious “Spirit of Dragstalgia” trophy.
Out of competition it did allow both the now tourists to soak up the amazing atmosphere Dragstalgia presents and mingle with the legions of fans that wanted signatures and photos in and around the cars.
Atlantic Oils was a major supporter of the tour, and Suzanne Lazar, the Drag Racing Sponsorship Manager for the company was honoured to be involved.
“Atlantic Oils is so proud of Paul Stephen and John Willard for transporting their prospective race cars to England to race at Santa Pod Raceway. Both of them certainly gave us many late and anticipated nights over the past few weeks,” said Lazar.
“A huge thank you to Rob Nixon from Essex, and Mick Taylor from Banshee Racing for going above and beyond to make both Paul and John not just feel welcome, but to help obtain crew, spare parts and any other assistance they needed.
“Personal best highlights were John who ran a new Outlaw Anglia class ET record with a 6.71, and Paul running a 7.2 in Super Pro ET.
“Atlantic Oils would like to thank John and Paul for allowing us to go on this journey with them and look forward to seeing both cars together again at the Atlantic Oils Easter Supercharged Shootout in 2024 at Mildura.”
Here are a collection of wonderful photos from across the tour, with a special thanks to Callum Pudge, Santa Pod Raceway photographer and event photographer Julian Hunt for providing these to us.
