Latest News 16/5/06 |
Welcome to the latest update to Trakbytes. I am pleased to say that in the four months since I re-launched the site I have renewed contact with many of the regular contributors and correspondents, and I have also heard from many people who have discovered Trakbytes for the first time, including some of the many racers featured in the archives. I am aware that lots of you out there are missing the regular updates to the site. As I have explained before I would like to add to the site on a more regular basis but time does not permit this. I hope that this latest small offering satisfies your thirst for nostalgia, for a short while at least. There has been a particular interest in UK Drag racing nostalgia in recent months which has been helped along by Stu Bradbury's excellent idea to launch a UK Drag Racing Hall Of Fame. You can read the story of this in Stu's own words on Andy Kirk's Drag Rod And Classic Review here... At the re-launch of the site I mentioned that I will not be concentrating too much on adding to the photo archive on this site. I will be continuing with the pictures that have already been donated to the site but after that I will be concentrating mainly on the other parts of the archive. There are a few other sites that cater predominantly for photos. Alan Currans Acceleration Archive and Jon Spoards UK Drag Racing Nostalgia site are two of my favorites. Jon has recently begun to update his site again and, as well as a huge set of photo galleries, has a nice collection of video clips, most of which you won't find anywhere else. On the subject of video (well sort of) Nick Pettit recently contacted me to tell me that his impressive set of Time Travel videos (of which I own a fair few!) are now available on DVD. In addition to this he has launched a website detailing them which also includes some photos from his collection. If you have never seen the Time Travel collection, and you have bothered to read this far, then you have to give them a look. Although with a current total of 48 volumes it will be a tough choice deciding where to start. You can find links to Nick's, Jon's and Alan's sites on the Draglinks page. There is now a "Search The Site" function included on Trakbytes. I introduced it some time ago but didn't announce it as I wanted to see how well it worked first. I'm glad to say it seems to work quite well so feel free to check it out. If you are looking for details of a particular racer or vehicle then it could be very useful. You can find the link on the left. Finally don't forget to visit the Help Us Find... page and see if you can help anyone find what they are looking for. |
The Latest Updates |
In the History Archives there are a number of new entries from Clive Rooms. The first of these is from 1905 would you believe. The next is bang up to date from 1962 (details of Sydney Allards entry in a Debden Speed Trial). There's more in 1965 with a FTD for John Lloyd at a Duxford Sprint in April. In the 1970 section there is a new entry that saw the Santa Pod strip speed record broken three times in one day in June. The 1972 section has details of a previously unrecorded meeting in March where the Stones debuted a new car. There's details from every class added to the Santa Pod European Drag Racing Grand Prix in April/May 1988 There's details in the 1992 section of an Avon Park meeting in April, of which I only previously had the winners list, and a huge report of Santa Pods Main Event in May. Following on from the above updates there are now new Hall Of Fame entries for Sydney Allard, Dennis Priddle, Tony Densham and The Stones. Some time ago Rupert Lloyd Thomas sent me a couple of scans from 1969. The first is from a Drag Racing show in Croydon, in January. Rupert kindly supplied some details to go with the programme cover he sent. The second is a flyer from the Elvington World Records Weekend in October. Both these events have been added to the 1969 archive. Rupert now lives in Canada but had an article published in the BDR&HRA newsletter in autumn 1971 about his trips to race meetings in the States. By chance a picture appeared in the November 1971 issue of Hot Rod magazine which caught Rupert on one of his visits. He is the young guy here with the bag that has London England painted on it. In the Special Features section the list of Blackbushe race dates has been updated with some missing detail. A big thanks to Jeremy Cookson for the extra info which helps complete the story. Unless you know otherwise... In the same section you will find the concluding part of the Dos Palmos Diaries, a unique look at the personal notes of Peter Godlee who looked after the mechanical side of the Dos Palmos dragster for the Croft Partnership. This section covers the arrival of Bill Weichelt, the re-naming of the car, the world records and the abrupt end to the story. There's an update to the Photo Archive with another selection from Tim Claxtons collection. Included are some of UK Drag Racings most famous vehicles. The Skilton fueler, Tee Rat, The Gladiator and Stardust to name but four. The second Photo update features another gallery from Dick Thompson. This includes such vehicles as Mickey Mouse, Mean As Hell and the Mantis wheelie truck with all wheels off the ground. The third (yes third!) update to the Photo Archive features a number of pictures sent to me by ex-pat Bill Taylor. They all date from around the late sixties/early seventies. A lot of Bill's pictures have appeared on David Kiplings site (see Draglinks) but I don't think there is any overlappage (?) here. Some of the pictures are of a slightly dodgy quality but I make no apologies for that as the subject matter is exemplary.
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Latest News 1/1/06 |
Perhaps if I just carry on like nothing happened nobody will notice........... Oh alright then, I know you're not that daft. Welcome back to Trakbytes. It has been 17 months since the last update to the site and somewhere in the region of just under a year since the site vanished from the web. I won't go into details about the circumstances that were the cause of this, all you need to know is that it's back and hopefully won't be going away again. A big thank you to all of you that sent messages telling me how much you missed it while it was gone. It's always nice to know that someone out there is actually bothering to read all this stuff. An equally big thanks to the kind folk who made much appreciated offers of help in getting it back. You know who you are. What we have here is the site exactly as it was before it vanished. nothing has changed except this page and the URL. It took a lot of work to upload everything again and in the process I had to update and repair a lot of links between sections. It is possible, if not highly likely, that there may be one or two that I missed. I checked through as thoroughly as I could but if anyone discovers something I have missed then let me know. I am aware that the Draglinks page needs attention and I will be attending to that in due course. For anyone who may be new to the site I have always encouraged visitors to add material to the site. Wether it be meeting results, programme covers, anecdotes, snippets or a single detail from a single meeting. If it's relevant it will be added. Corrections are also welcomed. I have never claimed that Trakbytes is the absolute definitive version of events. When researching details for the site they can quite often be found from only a single source, and that may not be accurate. So if there is anything here that you think may be incorrect then get in touch. How often will the site be updated? The truth is I don't know. A change of jobs for me, not to mention the addition of two children to the family, means that spare time is a rare thing these days. All I can promise is that I will update it whenever possible. I have a mountain of new material to add, including many photos from Dick Thompson and another gallery from Tim Claxton. After those particular additions I may have to scale down any new additions to the photo galleries. These additions do take up a lot of time to prepare and to be honest there are some terrific photo-specific sites catering for this side of the nostalgia scene that do it much better than I ever could. Standing above all others is my buddy Alan Currans Acceleration Archive. A rapidly expanding wealth of photographic nostalgia. The only exceptions will be any really good rare stuff that comes my way that I don't want Alan to have. I'm sure you will be understanding mate! If anyone reading this is signed up to the mailing list, and did not get a mailshot about the re-opening of the site before the news appeared on Eurodragster, then it is possible you did not update your details when changing e mail addresses. The subscription form is on the front page of the site. Any e mail addresses that bounced back from the mailing list will have been removed. So get yourself signed up again in case I ever get an update posted! NOTE: If you have had trouble replying from the mailshot it is because I forgot to update the reply address (doh!) I have rectified this now. So, enough waffle for now. A happy new year to you all. I am looking forward to hearing from some of my regular correspondents who I have lost touch with over the last few months, and hearing from new visitors to the site. - Chris |
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Latest News 17/8/04 |
What's going on? Regular visitors to the site will have noticed the recent annoying appearance of advertisements and pop-ups on the site, along with the absence of any recent updates. Please accept my apologies for these, it is due to circumstances currently beyond my control. The main reason is that I am temporarily unable to meet the costs of renewing my host's fees and so the site has been downgraded to a free service host for the time being. Unfortunately it also means that I will have to suspend the updates to the site as the free service does not provide enough webspace for any new material. Bandwidth is also limited so you may not always be able to access the site. Another drawback is that the e mail address on this site will no longer work so please do not try to use it. If you wish to contact me you can do so by clicking here. I do hope to be able to have the site back to normal in the not too distant future. In the meantime thanks for your patience - Chris |
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Latest News 26/3/04 |
| Welcome to the latest Trakbytes update. As you may have noticed they are becoming more regular again. The new additions to the site are listed below and I am pleased to say that the first of Dick Thompson's photo galleries has now been posted in the Photo Archive. I met Dick some time ago after he initially contacted me with reference to one of his photos that I had used on the Showtime site. I'm sure you will enjoy seeing some of his work over the next few updates. Continuing on the photo theme a previous contributor to this site, Chris Dawson, has contacted me to let me know that he has posted some of his photos on his own site. You can find them here; www.madhats.co.uk/dragpics. And if nostalgia photos are your thing don't forget to check out Alan Currans site at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Alan has been regularly updating his site, obviously he has far too much spare time on his hands! Finally for now Danne from Sweden contacted me recently to let me know about his Swedish Dragracing nostalgia site at race68.com. It's well worth a look if you haven't already seen it, the nostalgia galleries contain some vehicles that will be very familiar to UK fans, including some of "that Jeep..", in fact some of the vehicles there also appear in the latest Tim Claxton gallery update on this site. Finally there is a new poll now open for the Hall Of Fame. Take a look at the list of possible new inductees and vote for your favorite. The winner will be included in the Hall Of fame as part of a future update. |
The Latest Updates |
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Latest News 8/2/04 |
| Welcome to the latest Trakbytes
update and the first for 2004. There are some updates this time that may
not be too obvious at first glance. My thanks go to Clive Rooms, who has
contributed before with help in compiling the list of Blackbushe dates. He
supplied me with a list of 22 corrections and updates to dates that were
incorrect throughout the archives. Fortunately there was nothing too serious,
and correcting them took less time than I imagined, but I cannot forgive
myself for getting the date of the 1965 Blackbushe Dragfest wrong! Clive
then offered to compile some race reports for some of the missing meetings
in the archive, and I naturally took him up on this. I need all the help
I can get here! So the first of Clives reports are contained in this update.
Many thanks Clive.
The Hall Of Fame vote should be back in action on the next update and I will have the first set of photos in the Dick Thompson Galleries. There will also be more race reports from Clive as another batch have appeared in my inbox as I type this. |
The Latest Updates |
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Latest News 6/12/03 |
| Another update so soon! You can
tell that the long winter nights are drawing in.
...have read the feature and think it is great...thank you very much for this it is a great honour that people think so much of my family to vote for us, please thank them. - Gary Page There will be a new poll in place for the next entry soon. If you have any suggestions as to who should be in the running please e mail me and let me know. This update sees the first in a series of new additions in the Special Features section. There you will find the first four pages of a genuine 1960's drag racing diary which was kept by Peter Godlee who was part of the Croft partnership that owned the Dos Palmos dragster from 1965 onwards. |
The Latest Updates |
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Latest News 1/11/03 |
| Oh there you are! Where have
you been? OK I know I said that there would be more frequent updates after
the last one, but it's only been five months! It's been a busy year I guess
and spare time with a new baby in the house doesn't seem to exist!
Over the past few months a couple of notable events involving famous names from the UKs drag racing past have taken place. Firstly John Hobbs made his annual appearance at the North Weald Sprint with his famous twin-Weslake fuel bike The Hobbit. Also present was Alf Hagon himself with his legendary V-twin JAP on display. Sadly this was the last of the Classic Bike sponsored events after eleven years at this venue. The organisers, Motorsport Promotions, have pulled the plug due to the rising costs of staging the event. A great shame. Hobbs went out in style though and brought the meeting to a memorable close. On the very final run of the day Hobbs lined up the Hobbit alongside the twin-engined Triumph of Terry Fisher and proceeded to set a new strip record for the event at 8.80/154.7. Another '70s Drag Bike legend Keith Parnell has also been back in action this year. At 67 years young he is claiming a place in the Guiness Book Of Records as Britains fastest OAP! At a sprint event at Woodbridge Suffolk he set a top speed of 204mph on his modified 200bhp Kawasaki ZX-12R. He has just got himself a new set of leathers too so he doesn't look like slowing down just yet! I also purchased myself a copy of E. J. Potters book 'Michigan Madman' from the guys at Hot Rod Nostalgia. E. J. was the guy who came over here with the US Commandos team in 1966 with his Chevy V8 motorcycle and left a huge impression on the crowds as well as (on one occasion) the guard rail! The book is an absolute gem and I couldn't put it down. It has some serious moments but on the whole is hilarious. It's written exactly the way E. J. speaks, which adds to its appeal. In these days of computer aided design it's hard to imagine that someone could come up with some of the machines he created by just making it up as he went along. It's also hard to believe that E. J. has managed to survive as long as he has. I thoroughly recommend that you get a copy somehow. I also recommend that you take a look at the Hot Rod Nostalgia website. They have a great range of books, photos, clothing, posters and much more and the service is great. I have been working through my collection of magazines for the most recent updates but I have so much new material from contributors now that I will be concentrating solely on archiving that for the next few weeks/months/..... One of my regular contributors, Jim & Janet Smith, who contributed a large amount of the sixties material already on Trakbytes, have come up trumps again with another vast collection of material for me to wade through. Also Bill Haynes, who used to drive the 'Quarter Horse' Dragsters in the '60s/'70s has been in touch with some stuff for the site, the first of which is included on this update. Thanks Bill! I have decided also that as there is so much 'old news' to catch up on, and so little time in which to do it, I will no longer be covering the current years results and details on this site. There are a number of places where these are covered in detail on the web, Eurodragster.com is a great place to start and The European Drag Racing Database has a wealth of information. Finally the first installment of the previously mentioned 1960s Drag Racing Diary will be appearing on the next update. Stay tuned! The 'Help Us Find...' page has been updated regularly with new entries from people looking for people, photos, vehicles and stuff. be sure to check out the list and see if you can help anyone in their search. This part of the site is updated as the new requests come in so don't wait for a major site update before checking for any new entries. If you do post a request to be included on this page please be sure to include a valid e mail address. If you're the guy who sent a request for pictures of Craig Lowes Fast Forward team you forgot to include a working e mail address! Finally the vote for the next Hall Of Fame inductee will be closing soon in time for the next update. But I'm not telling you when that will be. Suffice to say it will not be another five months! Seems to be a two horse race at the moment. Vote now! Thanks for stopping by. |
The Latest Updates |
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Latest News 15/5/03 |
| Wow, I think that's possibly
the longest time I have gone without an update! You have all been patient
though with only a few reminding me repeatedly that it was about time I put
some new material up. (You know who you are!) For those of you who are unaware
of the news here Jo and I had a new addition to our family early in February
with the arrival of our daughter Samantha. As you can imagine the small amount
of spare time I once had seems to have vanished completely! And, in a bizarre
inverted twist of fortune, I have found myself with more new material waiting
to be added than ever before. As usual the material that has been donated
by visitors to the site will take preference and be added first. The next
few updates will see the addition of some great photos and a unique look
at a sixties drag racing diary!
The 'Help Us Find...' page has been updated regularly with new entries from people looking for people, photos, vehicles and stuff. be sure to check out the list and see if you can help anyone in their search. This part of the site is updated as the new requests come in so don't wait for a major site update before checking for any new entries. There are ten requests for help at the moment. The latest comes from Phil Brown who is trying to locate the ex-Keith Lee 'Mutant' Lambretta. Hopefully the next update should be along soon. Thanks for stopping by. |
The Latest Updates |
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Latest News 19/1/03 |
| Welcome to the first Trakbytes
update for 2003. I was unable to get any more updates prepared before Christmas
so I was unable to wish you all a Merry Christmas etc beforehand. Tough!
Happy New Year anyway :o)
Firstly thanks must go to my Brother Bill who has succeeded where others (namely PC World) had failed, and managed to restore my errant laptop to a fully working condition. The benefit of this is that I can work on new material for the site while out on the road. Hopefully you should all see the benefit with more frequent updates. Cheers Bill. While browsing the site I came across the long forgotten "Questions" page. It seemed to have been dormant for some time and so I decided that it's time had come and made the decision to remove it from the site on the next update. Lo and behold within a couple of days I received an e mail from Clive Rooms with answers to 8 of the 10 questions! Clive has also updated the Blackbushe list of events and brought it to what we believe is a completed state. If anyone knows of any events that are not included please let us know. The Blackbushe list is now residing on a new page called "Special Features" which you can find by clicking the link on the left. The "Questions" page has now gone however and in its place is something I have been considering for a while. I have dealt with many requests from people trying to trace old friends or vehicles and, with the help of visitors to this site, we have had some successful outcomes. Now the site has a page devoted to this subject. On the "Help Us Find..." page you can view requests from people who require help in tracing someone or something, or would like some information on a particular subject. I will also be using it myself for some of those unanswered questions that still bug me! There is also a form included for you to post your own requests for help. Finally a big thank you to John Hutchinson who has single handedly provided enough video clips for me to launch a section devoted to them. If anyone else has any clips they would like to contribute they will be gratefully received. The Video page will be launched on the next update however as I have not had time to get it up and running yet. Stay tuned. |
The Latest Updates |
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Next update; Launch of the video section, a profile of 'Mighty Mouse' plus lots more!
| 2002 Whats New Archive Click Here |
| 2001 Whats New Archive Click Here |
| 2000 Whats New Archive Click Here |
| 1999 Whats New Archive Click Here |
| 1998 Whats New Archive Click Here |
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