Hockenheim in Germany, and two weeks later the Finals at Santa Pod. In the week gap between those two events you can do non race related stuff.
Mark:
Michael.V has been here, seen it, done it, and makes a good suggestion. The FIA dates for 2021 have recently been announced. Hockenheim's NitrOlympX (FIA Round 5) is scheduled for Fri.27-Sun.29 August. Santa Pod's European Finals (FIA Round 6) is indeed two weekends later, Thu.9-Sun.12 September.
FIA Round 1, Santa Pod's The Main Event, is scheduled for Fri.28-Mon.31 May (Monday is a bank holiday).
Keep an eye on Eurodragster.com for further news. Let me know if you have further questions, reach any decisions.
Cliff:
I don't know for sure whether we had the first drag racing outside the US. Maybe Australia got there before us (?). Although if you count the reported "acceleration contests" at the Bexhill Speed Trials in the early 1900s, and something similar along the Blackpool sea front promenade maybe in the 1920s (mentioned in National Dragster during the 1980s, if I remember), we may have got there ahead of anyone.
However, drag racing as we know it began in the UK with Sydney Allard's dragster, built in 1961 from a plan found in Hot Rod of The Greek's car (
The Greek's car! Can you believe he's only just retired??) It was an old copy of the mag so the car was already out of date in a time of fast-moving change, plus it was further hampered by having to conform to Royal Automobile Club regulations (eg front brakes, covered body) which did not comprehend the existence of such vehicles. Allard's car was restored to working order recently and now resides in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. I took Roland Leong and Bob McClurg to see it when they visited three years ago. A couple of other dragsters were built around the same time as Allard's, notably by the pioneer Allan Herridge.
Allard brought over Dean Moon and Dante Duce to run at the Brighton Speed Trials in 1963. When Mickey Thompson heard, he brought himself over and muscled in on the scene, to most people's delight. In 1964 and 1965, Allard partnered with Wally Parks to promote the International Drag Festivals, running on various airfield sites around the country. The '64 tour included Garlits, Ivo, Bob Keith, Tony Nancy, Ohio George Montgomery, KS Pittman, Sox&Martin, Strickler&Jenkins, Dante Duce, Doug Church, and Bill Woods and Don Hyland on bikes. The 1965 tour included the likes of Danny Ongais, Buddy Cortines, Ben Griffin and others, plus Nancy and Bob Keith returning. The '64 tour was highly successful but '65 was largely rained off.
On Easter Monday 1966, a separate business group opened Santa Pod Raceway ('Santa' to evoke Southern California, 'Pod' for the name of the airfield and nearby village, Podington) as Europe's first permanent dragstrip. With supreme, sad irony, Sydney Allard died the very next day, aged just 56.
While today's FIA rounds are limited to Britain, Sweden, Finland and Germany, there is drag racing on a smaller scale all over the continent. Our FIA rounds at Santa Pod typically draw 16 or 17 different nationalities. In 2016 we had our first Pro Mod entry from Kuwait and in 2019 our first Russian. Thank goodness most of these foreigners speak better English than we do. And yes, the Maltese are great drag racers, and they know how to party in the pits after a win.
