1988 

Got my first taste of drag racing. Ran a lino cracking 15.88sec@88mph  quarter mile best with a bone stock roverV8 in the Vauxhall. The first thing I did when I got home was to pull that old dog rover out and put in a real engine. Yes I put in a Chevrolet 307ci  small block with a manual gearbox of course!
 

1989

Found out it takes a lot more money to build a small block than a Rover hence the 2 year delay in getting back on the street.
but it was worth it in the end as the Vauxhall(now called Red Victor1)ran a 13.7@ 100mph quarter with no changes from how I drove it on the street. The next 3 years were spent having some great racing in Street ET and Super ET  which I finished 6th in 1992) getting to know some great people, most of which are still great friends today!                                                                                               

1993

Now I had discovered real power. Yes I'd got a big block Chevy. DOH! This is the time I found out that I'd never have any spare money ever again, as I systematically broke everything on the car(clutch,gearbox,axle,etc) It took me 2 years to get all the components right(twin plate clutch, Doug Nash 5speed box,pro mod 9inch rear)before I could race again. Must grumble!?!!                                   
 

1995 

Started to make the big block work at last as I reached a long time goal. Running a 10sec quarter had been the holy grail for me
and I did it at the hot rod drags. 10.98secs@126mph .I was ecstatic for about 5secs when I immediately wanted to go faster(as you do).So it was out with the NOS, but i had run out of time for that meeting. Maybe next year eh!                                                     

1996

This was the best year so far. Competing in the Custom Car magazine Street Eliminator championship for the first time we came straight out of the box with Red Victor 1 to run 10.50's with no NOS.This enabled us(us being me and crew chief Jason Savory)to win the thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway with a best time of 10.05@140mph with a single stage of NOS,spinning the wheels in every gear. We knew there was more to come!                                                                           
The rest of the year got better as not only did we run a 9.77sec@142mph best ,we won the championship as well! Mega thanks go to my crew chief Jason, and my crew Deb,Damien,Craig and Gary, and everybody else who pitched in.                                               

1997

Made some changes to the engine in the off season to make it take lots of NOS,and thanks to Pete Knight of Knight Racing Services it did(about 400hp worth!),this got to 3rd in the championship, and a best time of 9.22secs@152mph .This was the time I really got the bug to go fast, so I stripped the car completely and decided to build a tube framed Vauxhall.

1999

I was getting on nicely with Red Victor 2 when I was asked to drive a Top Alcohol dragster. How can anyone with drag racing in their blood refuse? So I didn't and ended up driving one the next season.                                                                                             

2000

This was a great learning curve year as we(Pete Knight,Crew Chief,Tony Grayston,Dave Williamson,Bradley Cooper,Debbie Frost,Crew)had never touched an alcohol car before, but it didn't take us long to work it all out .After 3 runs I had my license and the car had run a 3/4 pass of 7.04@175mph .we knew there was lots more performance left so we felt really good at the end of that meeting. The Main Event at Santa Pod was next up and it was straight into competition as it was the first round of the FIA European Top Alcohol championship.
We qualified 7th with a 3/4 pass of 6.80@160mph so we were confident of doing ok in the 1st round.
Up against John Ellul I smacked a .499 light on him and was level to half track when the burst panel blew. We were on for a 6.20 but ran a 6.70@130mph .Damn! Later on in the year we got to a final at Super Series 4 when we ran faster still with a 6.44@210mph but lost! The Euro Finals at Santa Pod saw us qualify at No6 with a 6.32@215mph .our best numbers yet, so we stepped it up for the first round. Again we faced John Ellul so I smacked an even better light on him this time.0.436 and I was gone, unfortunately we had severe tyre shake so I was straight off it. A bit of a disappointing end to a meeting but a fantastic first season of racing with dragsters .And it won't be the last will it guys?!!!!!!!!               
 

 

2002 and beyond..

 
Unfortunately the Top Methanol team didn't continue for various reasons.Still,we proved that we could race a class successfully that we'd never done before.... As people will know Pete Knight went on to run his own Top Fuel team for a couple of seasons with great success.Another thing was that I also had a big change in employment this year with the acquisition of Penn Autos.....One that has been rewarding and frustrating at the same time....
Anyway,back to the plot.....
It was time to get Redvictor2 finished.I(along with my crew) spent every spare second finishing up all the work on the car.Needless to say we finally got it done.The Main Event at Santa Pod was the first showing of the car.We'd entered S/E for the first time in 5 years.The season went OK for us,finishing 10th and running low 9s to start with.It took us a bit of time to adjust from Slicks and race fuel to MT Sportsmans and pump fuel.
By 2003 we were a little more on the pace finally running into the 8's and finishing a creditable 3rd I the S/E championship.
2004 was a bigger step.We became championship contenders.Now equipped with a 600ci motor we were able to run deep in the 8's(8.3) and close to 170mph.We were in contention for the whole season but a dip in form mid year hurt us badly at the end.Again we finished 3rd,but it we were happy with what we had done.
2005 was a real good year for us.Firstly we went to America to take on the world in the (aptly named)World Street Race.It was slightly disappointing for the team that I redlit but great news for the UK team as they swept all before them.I guess if I never do anything ever again I can be happy that the 1st WSR ever had a successful conclusion. As far as the rest of the season I had already given up on S/E for 2005 as I missed the first 3 meetings.Funny how things come about! After doing only 4 meetings I appeared in 3 finals,won 2 of them,and finished runner up in the championship,also running 8.2's and 170mph+ (177mph best) on quite a few occasions.Maybe I ought to "not be bothered" about the rest of my racing.....hehe..
2006 will be a transitional year for us.The big step has been made to go with turbochargers.572ci and twin 88mm Holset turbos will be a huge learning curve,but one that will be rewarding in the end.... I'm sure you'll all see the outcome in due course..