BDRHoF announces 2024 inductees

BRITISH DRAG RACING HALL OF FAME 2024

Eurodragster: INDUCTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS

6th July:

The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame has existed to celebrate the sport since 2006 and is pleased to reveal the individuals and organisations selected for induction into Membership this year when the annual Gala takes place on Saturday 23rd November.

Nominees are eligible by dint of having raced, owned, designed, built, maintained, prepared, promoted, officiated, supported or taken part in British drag racing in any capacity, having been involved for at least 20 years or having made a significant or recognisable contribution to the sport.

Ray Baskerville and Pete Miller began drag racing motorcycles independently in the late 1960s and carved separate early careers of distinction while also developing and fabricating equipment for their own and competing entries. Having become good friends, they teamed up as BM to build a complete new bike powered by the UK’s first purpose-built drag racing engine. Several leading teams of the era found success using BM transmission components. Their involvement continues to this day. Ray and his son Neil have helped revive the legendary 1970s bike Hogslayer due to appear on track during this Dragstalgia weekend.

The Huxley Family celebrates 45 years as a fixture on the British drag racing scene. After 10 years as a grass track racer, Brian Huxley switched disciplines in 1979 to the straight-line sport with a renovated ’69 Ford Mustang which ran flawlessly for several championship-winning seasons at Long Marston. Subsequent Toyota and Mitsubishi entries earned even more success which grew when Brian persuaded eldest son Lee to enter a ’32 Model B Roadster. Second son Marc joined the fray while ministering to the motorsports community through his Huxley Motorsports business and third son Darren completed a family quartet whose dragstrip presence is as vital now as ever.

John Spuffard holds a special place in British drag racing history as the sport’s longest-serving Funny Car driver, having piloted the volatile machines almost continuously from 1985 to 2015. Inspired to sample drag racing by 1970s visits to the Chelsea Cruise, John bought his first Funny Car in 1984. After fielding Funnies in conjunction with Trevor Young and Andy Craddock, John’s long and successful partnership with Bob Jarrett began in 1990. Acquiring and driving an ex-Tom Hoover car imported from America, the pair also inherited Hoover’s Showtime car name which would continue to identify John’s mounts throughout his career while his company Titanium Racing Products has supplied components to the sport at home and abroad.

Martin Hill has been the doyen of Europe’s Jet Car drag racing scene since debuting the first of his FireForce fleet of Funny Cars and a Dragster in 1989. The Yorkshire-born racer and engineer began his drag racing career on two wheels, with six successful years aboard a self-built, Street-class Kawasaki, before a fascination with jet machinery was sparked by watching Santa Pod’s Jet Cars of the time in action. Dissatisfied with the first two Jet Dragsters he had built, Martin imported a Jet Funny from America which became FireForce1, the first of five models he would run at home and abroad with an exhibitionist panache that belies his softly-spoken manner.

Straightliners have offered a ‘stepping-stones’ approach for new riders and drivers into the sport of drag racing. The organisation, founded and led by Trevor Duckworth, originated from the Streetfighter magazine class of motorcycle in the mid-1990s and grew in the early 2000s with a broader spectrum of race and street bikes competing over the quarter-mile. Since then Straightliners have successfully run grass-roots motorsports events on temporary tracks across the UK and have recently found a permanent home at Yorkshire’s Melbourne Raceway, which they are working to develop. Straightliners events continue to encourage newcomers, on two wheels and four, to start in drag racing.

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