Liz Burn - Drag Racing: Through the Eyes of a Woman

Drag Racing

THROUGH THE EYES OF A WOMAN

LIZ BURN

AuthorHouse UK Ltd.

500 Avebury Boulevard

Central Milton Keynes, MK9 2BE

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: 08001974150

2010 Liz Burn. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 1/29/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4490-3900-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-9863-1 (ebk)

This book is dedicated to:

My sons Jeremy and Richard, who had to endure many a cold night in a tent while I pursued my hobby.

My son Ben and my stepson David who have had to endure many a nostalgic tale of my exploits.

My husband Peter who has had to endure many a night cooking the evening meal, while I was writing this and just wanted to finish another page.

And of course to Ollie, who gave me the encouragement in the first place to have a go.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the following people for allowing me to use their photo images:

Alan Currans: www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk

Lawrie Gatehouse, Anthony Willstrop - www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk

Peter Quinn - www.phothog.freeserve.co.uk

Roger Gorringe - www.nitroexposure.co.uk

And to everyone on www.ukdrn.co.uk forum who have helped me in my research for photos

I would also like to thank Ron Clark and Brian Taylor, for their kind words of encouragement.

Contents

When I started to keep a diary of my drag racing career, it was just my intention to keep a record of each event - how well, or how bad I performed on each run. How the car performed and the reasons why if it didnt - so mainly just facts and figures really. However, as I got into writing it, I realised I should also include the many other factors that were important. It wasnt just the racing itself, but everything that surrounds it. What problems we had to overcome sometimes just to get to the race meeting! Then on the day the weather would play a major part, we would be all psyched-up for a great weekend, having spent hours preparing the car beforehand, only to end up not even being able to get the car off the trailer because of rain. The camaraderie between the teams was something special; how we all gave help and support to each other when things went wrong - even though we were rivals. On one occasion I remember some racers went around the pits with a blanket to collect money for one of the guys who had just totalled(written off) his car, to help him re-build it and come out racing again! So many stories had started to unfold that I realised It would make interesting reading one day, even if it was just to remind myself what an exciting opportunity I had been given to be able to drive one of these incredible machines.

So that is what I did. Mostly at the end of the day, or if I had time on my hands between races I would jot down a few notes of things that had happened. It helped to keep me relaxed between runs.

Sometimes, if we were doing well, I wouldnt have time to make any notes at all at the track, as sometimes the turn-around time would be quite short, so it would be all hands on deck to get the car ready in time for the next run, Then on returning home to a busy family life during the week with two small boys, I would sometimes forget completely, then would have to recall them from memory at a later date.

Since giving up the sport, my diary has lived in a drawer along with all my other memorabilia. Now and again I would dig it out, have a quick flick through it and put it back.

It wasnt until my mother died, having suffered with dementia for a few years, I realised that I, along with my sister Yvonne and brother Pat, didnt know very much about her life when she was younger. We werent really interested as we were too busy getting on with our own lives - and after all - she was just our mum!

Even though she had told us stories of playing with a young Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Ross) in fields around her home, when he was visiting Birr Castle in Ireland where we came from. My grandfather worked in the Castle and the groom used to bring young Anthony down on horseback to my grandfathers house!

Only after her death, when talking to relatives, did we realise that the stories she had told us were true! Her past was very interesting and we should have asked her more questions about it.

It made me think that maybe one day, when I have shuffled off this mortal coil, and my kids have to sort through all my rubbish and memorabilia, they might wish that they had asked me more questions about my past, so would find this book an interesting read (more likely they wont give a damn and it will all go in the bin!).For Jeremy who was there at the beginning when he was just 5 years old and is still very much involved in the racing today with his dad. For Richard who was only 4 years old when I started racing but never really had the same enthusiasm for the sport that Jeremy had. For my youngest son Ben and my stepson David, who came into my life much later and had not been a part of that episode of my life, they might find it an interesting read also.

So now, it is 2009 and I am in my 60 th year and before my memory fades completely, I have decided that the time is right to take it out of the drawer once more and put it into print - so here it is.

It is not about the history of drag racing, as that has been already covered in some very good books, nor is it very technical. It is purely about my experiences.

I do not profess to have set the drag racing world alight, nor do I claim to be a literary genius, so please bear this in mind as you read on

Hope you enjoy the ride

Liz

SANTA POD RACEWAY ENGLAND

3/4 TH JULY 1976

The weather is very hot 90 degrees.

My first time back in the driving seat since the crash, must say even though very nervous I am really looking forward to it. We had a lot of problems with the Transit van on the way down to the drag strip; dirt in the fuel tank, probably from the diesel Ollie used that he had on the farm for emergencies! We had to keep stopping every few hundred yards for Ollie to clean out the fuel reservoir. It has taken us hours to get from Knightcote (our village) in Warwickshire, to the track in Poddington, Northamptonshire. We thought we would never make it.

Warming up the engine. The new car minus the sign-writing. Ollie on the right, Pete Baker on the left. (one of my clogs is on the ground - not recommended for driving in!)

Got the car off the trailer and fired up its good to see people remember me, surprised at the amount of people cheering me on as I go up the fire-up road. I have the strip to myself, as it is my first run in the new car - which I have named the Lizard again! I have to make a pass first, to see how the car handles. I leave the line, pull the Lenco (its like a semi-automatic clutch, which is operated by pulling a lever in the cockpit) whoops! I dipped the clutch, silly me, not supposed to do that. I coast to the finish line.

ET: (estimated time) 15.95 seconds Speed: 45.16 mph. 2 nd run: Another easy pass, pull the Lenco and ease off. ET:10.72 seconds Speed: 80.97mph. Yep - Im happy with the car.

Day over, we all went down the road for a meal, had a few drinks with Bunt, Tim and the rest of the Dorset Horn crew, a few laughs, a bit of bench racing ( where you stand around talking about racing).