Santa Pod Raceway
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Santa Pod Raceway was founded in 1966 as Europe's first permanent drag racing venue. It was built on a disused WW2 American Air base, RAF Podington, which was once home to the 92nd bomber group. It is now home to European Drag Racing, and has grown substantially over its 40 year existence. It now plays host to both the first and last round of the FIA and FIM/UEM European Drag Racing Championship, along with the British National Drag Racing Championships.
It is leased and operated by Trakbak Racing which is based in London. Santa Pod regularly takes its promotional units to major events in motor sport and contributes much to the local community.
Santa Pod was the venue in which the current world drag racing record, a time of 3.58 seconds at 386.26 mph (621.61 km/h) was set by Sammy Miller in his Vanishing Point Rocket Funny Car in July 1984. (a quicker 1/4 mile time of 3.225 seconds was set by Kitty O'Neil although this was not performed on a drag racing surface)[1] Another record has also been set at Santa Pod, the worlds fastest jet car (notably Santa Pod's "resident") FireForce 2 piloted by Martin Hill broke the record in Easter 2005 with a terminal speed of 336.10 mph (540.89 km/h)[2]. Several other European drag racing records have been set along with records unsurpassed outside of the USA[3]
Santa Pod remains the fastest all-asphalt dragstrip in the world
In the racing season which runs from January to November, Santa Pod is host to over 60 different events. These include: national drag race meetings; classic car events; modified car festivals, such as Redline Rumble, Mopar Euro Nats, The Fast Show (car show) and USC; Volkswagen Beetle shows, such as Bug Jam and Big Bang; Japanese performance car shows, such as The JapShow, specialist events including the Performance Vauxhall Show, the Classic Ford Show and the French Car Clubs Day; and it's open turn up and go days for any vehicle capable of making a trip down the 1/4 mile drag strip called RWYB (Run What Ya Brung).
Top Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, Jet Cars, Rocket Bikes, Pro Mods, monster trucks and other motorsport events are all situated in north-west Bedfordshire, England.
