Member Inducted 2007
Nobby Hills
History
Nobby Hills has been involved in drag racing since the sport
started in Europe in the 1960s. He was inspired to build his first
car after having witnessed match races between Sydney Allard and
Dante Duce in 1963. The first in a line of Houndog cars
was introduced at the 1964 Drag Fest meetings. Nobby is primarily
interested in the engineering side of the sport and mainly used
hired drivers, including Les Hill, Mike Hutcherson, Owen Hayward
and Alan Bates.
Nobby built six front-engined dragsters, starting with a Jaguar
engined car in 1964. Subsequent cars got quicker and faster with
Houndog 6 running regular mid 7 second runs in the early 1970's
with a Chrysler Hemi engine sitting between the rails.
In 1973 the opportunity arose for Nobby to buy Paula Murphy's
STP-sponsored Plymouth Duster Funny Car. This car was brought to
the UK by Santa Pod Raceway along with Stardust that was owned and
driven by Don Schumacher. Owen Hayward drove the Duster, which was
renamed Houndog 7, achieving a best time of 6.61 seconds. Alan
Herridge assumed the driving chores of Stardust and European fans
enjoyed many years of close and exciting racing between the two
imported cars.
For a few years Nobby ran both the Funny Car and a top fuel
dragster, both painted in matching paint schemes. The rear engined
top fuel dragster, Houndog 8, was built by Nobby and was a replica
of the car driven in the UK by US shoe Tony Nancy. It was a regular
mid 6 second runner and achieved a best time of 6.30 seconds at the
Easter 1976 meeting. The Duster was written off in a crash in 1977.
Thankfully driver Owen Hayward wasn't too badly hurt and continued
to drive Nobbys cars for a few more years.
A new Vega bodied Funny Car was already being built and appeared on
the track in 1978. The dragster was retired at the end of 1977 as
it had reached the end of its competitive life. After the Vega, a
couple of years later a Challenger bodied funny car carried the
Houndog name and finally a Corvette bodied car was run by Nobby
through to the end of the 1980's.
With Alan Bates in the drivers seat, the Corvette was the first
Funny Car in Europe to record a five second run receiving a 5.99@
251.8mph timing ticket on 25 May 1986. Unfortunately the time was
not backed up to make the time official and it took another 2 years
or so for Europe to see another five second run from a Funny
Car.
In addition to the Challenger and Corvette funny cars, Nobby built
a Model T Ford body and the car sometimes appeared as a Fuel
Altered, using the Funny Car chassis. After a hiatus from active
involvement of almost two decades, Nobby Hills Racing have
constructed a nitro-burning Camaro Funny Car.