Member Inducted 2008
The Page Family
History
The Page Brothers Clive, David and Gary began their drag racing
career as crew members on Wild Bill Weichelt's DosPalmos /
Asmodeus dragster in the late 1960s. Having decided
shortly afterwards to buy their own car they were narrowly beaten
in a bid to purchase Freddie Whittles first Shutdown
altered. Instead they ended up with the ex-Mark Stratton
Hustler BSA pickup (for £250) which they re-christened
Panic after the famous Stateside Fuel Altered. It ran a
best of 11.78/120. Although Clive, Dave and Gary formed the nucleus
of the team it was very much a family affair with mother Iris and
sisters Janice and Carol all playing an active part, Iris also
helping in the administration of the National Drag Racing
Club.
In early 1972 they decided to build a completely new car. The new
Panic altered featured a Roland Pratt chassis with a JWR
427 ci Rat motor and Fibreglass Applications Topolino body. Dave
won several Senior Altered titles and took the car to its first
nine-second clocking in October 1973. After switching to a Model T
Body Dave won the first event in the new Pro Comp class in 1975 and
after a switch to injectors that year the car ran a new Senior Comp
record of 9.17.
Clive drove in a few meetings in 1975 and younger brother Gary
started racing in 1976 having instant success by winning the Senior
Comp title on both days' eliminations at the legendary 10th
Anniversary Spring Nationals. In 1978 a blower was fitted and the
wins became regular. The first seven-second run came in August 1978
and by Spring 1979 the altered was running 7.1s. Panic was
now officially the quickest ever British Pro Comp car and the
quickest British Altered; it was also only three tenths of a second
off the long standing American record. All three Page brothers
drove the altered at various times.
In 1980-1 the brothers stepped up by purchasing Dennis Priddle's
Monza Funny Car complete minus the motor, intending to buy a new
motor from the USA. But the period between buying the Funny Car (as
the T still hadn't been sold), plus the astronomical cost of all
the transatlantic phone calls and shipping trying to get a new
motor together, slowed the project down considerably. The team
decided that to get the car back on the track at all, a motor was
going to have to be sought in the UK. The team returned to Dennis
Priddle, and another deal was done for Dennis to put together a
motor together.
The team had hoped to début the car during 1981, but the woes with
the motor and cashflow meant the Monza finally made it back out in
its good looking Panic colours at the Easter 1982 meeting
at Santa Pod. Dave Page commenced the driving duties and Gary won
his first trophy as a Funny Car driver in August and ran as quick
as 6.61 during the remainder of the brothers' début season in Funny
Car. The Panic Funny Car was run for the next six years
and in 1985 Bob Jarrett sold his Stripteaser Altered to
buy a share in Panic and joined Dave and Clive in the hot
seat.
September 12th 1986 was a dark day for the Page family: Dave Page
was tragically killed in a road traffic accident at the age of
34.
In 1987 Gary ran the best time of 6.34/214, the best time the car
had run in the Page's hands. It was also to be the final meeting
for the car in its current guise as Panic as it was sold
soon afterwards. In 1988 Gary drove for Bob Jarrett in the
Showtime Trans Am and ran down into the fives in his first
year in the car.
In the last two decades Gary has been one of the most experienced
Funny Car and Top Fuel drivers in Europe, driving cars owned by
Mark Newby, Stuart Vallance, Knut Söderquist, Rune Fjeld, Mark and
Jackie Hawkins and Kenneth Lorentzon, as well as Lawrie Gatehouse's
Chaos Fuel Altered. In his role as driver he has endured
his fair share of wins, records, fires and plain bad luck. He has
also crewed on the Top Fuel teams of Knut Söderquist and Micke
Kågered and is one of the most trusted pairs of hands for anything
to do with nitro burning race cars. Gary also has a wicked sense of
humour and a laid-back attitude at the track which is an example to
all.
The next generation of the Page family arrived on the scene in 2007
when Gary's nephew and Dave's son Dan Page achieved fourth place
out of fifty points scorers in the extremely competitive Pro ET
Championship in his first full season, and Dan's sister Heide also
has taken to the quarter mile.