Santa Pod Season Review 2005

Well, it's the end of another fantastic season of drag racing and enthusiast events at Santa Pod Raceway, and we are now heading into our 40th year!

That's right, Santa Pod first opened for an organised drag racing meeting way back in 1966, and the place is now almost completely unrecognisable. Things have changed dramatically even in the last 12 months, and the fully tarmac'd pits and full top-spec safety barriers have improved things further for racers and spectators alike.

Aside from the improvements to the site, 2005 was a stand-out year for the quality of the events too. Click the links throughout this report to find out more about each event, including winners info and pictures.

The year started off with a clutch of Run What Ya Brung events as usual, allowing those desperate for their fix of track action the chance to get out there early and blow the cobwebs away!

However, the first big spectator event on the calendar is the Easter Thunderball, and as usual, it attracted all the new cars and bikes for the 2005 season along with some superb top fuel action and stunt shows. Thomas Nataas won the Pro Fuel Shootout in an incredibly close race with Andy Carter, but the highlight that got everyone talking was the run by Fireforce that clocked 336mph! Incredible stuff from such an early event in the year. Read full Easter Thunderball report.

Next up was The Fast Show, now in its second year. The performance and modified car event attracted a wonderful array of cars from all sorts of different clubs and scenes, and proved that it was now an important date on every car nut's calendar. With great show cars and some quick and interesting stuff on track, this was a relaxed but packed start to the year for the modified car fan. Read full Fast Show report.

April also played host to enthusiast events for the Central Ford RS Owners club and the Water-cooled VW event, the GTi Sprint day.

May started off with the Big Bang, the first classic VW event on the calendar, and what a Big Bang it was! Somehow, it managed to stay dry and relatively warm for the whole three days, and aside from the great evening entertainment, there was some superb action on the track from the VWDRC and Super Modified classes making it a packed and memorable three days. Read full Big Bang report.

The Speedfreaks Ball followed Big Bang, with three days of track action for bikers including demos by some of the top thrust powered vehicles in Europe . Unfortunately, rain meant it wasn't blessed with the springtime sunshine everyone had hoped for, but a great event nonetheless.

The Redline Rumble was next on the calendar, and it was HOT. With a clutch of 10-second streetcars on the track, incredible Redline feature cars and club cars off track, and girls in wet t-shirts on the stage, this was a show that really stepped things up for '05 and would have left your camera's memory card full! The photo gallery says it all! Read full Redline Rumble report.

The end of May was the start of the European Drag Racing Championship, and as ever, the first round was The Main Event held at Santa Pod Raceway. Both the national and European race classes were packed with quality entries, and as such, the racing was among the best seen at Santa Pod with amazing "incidents" and excellent performances. all this was supported by some stunning action in the air too! Read full Main Event report.

The Performance Vauxhall Show was up next, and is one of Santa Pod's worst kept secrets, with thousands of Vauxhall fans flooding the Santa Pod site making it the biggest one-make event on the calendar second only to Bug Jam!

The Classic Ford Show once again put in a great showing, and enthusiasts of Ford's finest brought along a stunning collection of Ford's finest models.

June was a packed month at Santa Pod, and played host the eagerly anticipated JapShow June. Not only was this event incredibly busy, it was incredibly hot too, with some absolutely stunning track action. The Jap race cars really showed how things have moved on since the 2004 event, and the show car side of things was very impressive too. Read full JapShow report.

Somehow, we also managed to cram the Summer Nationals into June too, with the best variety of race cars and bikes seen at a motorsport event! The sprinkles of rain didn't hold up the action much, and great racing was seen in every class. Read full Summer Nationals report.

July started off with the ever-growing Retro Cars show, and celebrated the style and performance of classic cars from all manufacturers. It was great to see these cars being thrashed down the dragstrip instead of gather dust in garages!

The French Cars Clubs Day and GTI Festival followed shortly, giving fans of European hot-hatches the chance to rip up the track, and were as popular as ever.

Finally in July was the massive classic VW event, Bug Jam. People have been saying for years that Bug Jam couldn't get any bigger, but for the 19 th year in a row, it was! The site was so packed with VW Beetles and Campervans that people were having to park off site and walk in! The racing from the VWDRC was excellent as ever and the evening entertainment was top notch. A bit of rain on Sunday put a slight dampener on things, but the action was virtually non-stop for three days. Read full Bug Jam report.

The Mopar Nationals followed the weekend after, and as usual, was an awesome weekend of massive American engines and smokin' rubber! With cars of all ages taking to the track, it was a great celebration of Detroit ironwork.

August can mean only one thing. USC. The UK 's biggest modified car festival attracted a phenomenal number of people once again, to pack out the camping fields with modified cars and pack the track with three days of RWYB action. Another hot and wild USC that was noted for stepping up in every single way. Not only did we have the biggest flaming exhaust ever seen on anything that wasn't a jet car, but also the fastest run in the world by a Subaru Impreza that remains unbeaten. Read full USC report.

Scooters took over the Pod the week after at Scooter Hijack to prove that racing pretty much anything on a dragstrip can be fun, and the next biggie on the calendar was the European Finals. the final round of the European Drag Racing Championships. Despite mixed weather, the sheer power of the engines out-thundered the thunder to produce spectacular racing well into the dark, and a packed entry list believed to be the biggest ever at Santa Pod. Read full European Finals report.

On 2 Wheels gave bikers a second opportunity to take to the track and make the most of a bike only RWYB, and then into October, the National Finals provided the venue for the culmination of a whole season of National Drag Racing, once again providing the spectators with great racing and superb variety. Read full National Finals report.

Just a week after the National Finals came the new breed of national racers at the JapShow Finale, hammering the track and producing several new 9-second cars and of course featuring a MASSIVE club representation. Read full JapShow Finale report.

The season finale was of course, the Flame & Thunder Show, featuring loads of drag racing from all classes, monster trucks, stunt displays and drifting, it was a fantastic end to the season with Andy carter running 300mph straight off the trailer and a host of personal bests for many racers. Read full Flame & Thunder report.

We hope you had a superb season and we can't wait for 2006. it's even more packed than 2005!

Season Reviews
2010 Season Review here
2009 Season Review here
2008 Season Review here
2007 Season Review here
2006 Season Review here
2005 Season Review here
2004 Season Review here