Member Inducted 2006
The Phelps Family
History
Without any doubt the Phelps family - Bob and his son Roy,
along with Santa Pod's administrator Eileen Cattley - had a huge
impact on British drag racing. They were involved from its very
early days of the Drag Fests but really only became main players
with the opening of Santa Pod Raceway in 1966 which they continued
to run into the 1990s. They were personally involved in building
many of the facilities at the track including the tower, barriers,
and the famous Barn. Bob and Roy also ran their own stable of race
cars. Roy also drove theGloworm Capri Funny
Car and the Wheelie Stingray, which is still running
today. The number of cars Roy Phelps ran over the years is huge and
included the famous Top Fuel cars such
asCommuter, Firefly, Asphalt
Alleygator, along with Funny
Cars Gloworm, Gladiator and
Cannonball. The Phelps family not only ran their own cars,
but helped many other teams with parts, as well as building their
engines for them. They were also had a stable of Jet cars as well
as the more traditional cars. Most of these cars were built and
driven at some point by Allan 'Bootsie' Herridge who had a long
association with the Phelps family
Most race fans will remember seeing a string of big name USA
drivers coming to the Britain to race at Santa Pod Raceway. All
these cars and teams were bought over by the Phelps family, usually
with the cars staying here to be raced by British drag racers
afterwards. The list of these famous names is huge and included
Paula Murphy, Don Garlits, Gene Snow, Raymond Beadle, Don
Schumacher, Sammy Miller, Tony Nancy, Al Segrini and Darrell
Gywnn.
Santa Pod was by no means their only interest. They were also
involved in organising drag racing shows in Brighton and Milton
Keynes, ran events at other tracks such as Snetterton and North
Weald. They also signed an agreement with the International Drag
Racing Association from the USA to run Santa Pod under the IHRA
banner. Santa Pod became the only facility in Europe to be an
official IHRA sanctioned track.
Sadly Bob Phelps died in 1988. Roy Phelps carried on running Santa
Pod until 1990.
1990 was significant for the Phelps family and also for British
drag racing as the owner of the land decided to sell. After the
sale of the land Roy decided to sell the separate company name of
Santa Pod Raceway to the same people buying the land. This ended
nearly twenty years of involvement in British drag racing by the
Phelps family.
They had their critics, as would anyone in their position. Bob and
Roy had many frank discussions with organising clubs and
administrators over the years as they tried to improve the sport
and move it forward in the way they thought was best. They also saw
some very tough times financially, but somehow managed to keep the
track going until better times arrived. Looking back, you can now
see that they had a massive impact on the sport and its growth over
many years they were owners of Santa Pod Raceway.