Supported Charity

Update July 2010

Wow what an amazing time over the last few months at Santa pod Raceway with the invaluable support provided for The MS Trust, a UK charity. A number of Santa pod staff, Drag Racing Teams, celebrities, press/media companies, spectators and so many more people have all worked together to help to promote this important cause. As this is such terrific news for the people affected by MS will now share some highlights about the marvelous achievements at Santa pod to date and for the future within drag racing.

As you may recall, at the Santa pod 2010 FIA Main Event The MS Trust had an exciting opportunity to be the lead charity for this prestigious drag racing meeting. Here are just a few of the event achievements:

The MS Trust team had a super information stand where they provided helpful information about Multiple Sclerosis to anyone that visited. Donations were collected and the stand also featured all of the terrific raffle prizes kindly donated from Top UK Drag Racing Teams, Allard Chrysler, Nitro FM and even Contemporary Art from Simonsgallery.com For Further MS Trust information why not take a look at: www.mstrust.org.uk

• Top Fuel Dragster European Champion Andy Carter & Lucas Oils signed shirt & prizes.
• Top Fuel Funny car driver Gary Page & Mongoose Exhausts with Powerchips signed shirts along with tickets for the Euro finals to spend with the team in the pits and even go up to the start line!
• Top Fuel Funny Car Gordon Smith & Shockwave signed shirts.
• Jon Best Nitro Fuel Altered Drag racing car memorabilia.
• Les Harris & The Supertwins branded & signed Team accessories
• Allard Chrysler signed prints, Brian Taylor’s Drag Racing Book and even a fantastic signed Drag Racing Painting.

Team Edge also raised money in their MS Trust branded pits while the team competing in Pro Et as a new comer for 2010. Team Edge continues to fund raise for the MS Trust and look at exciting ways to raise awareness about Multiple Sclerosis.

If you were not able to make The 2010 Main Event you can still make a donation to help the MS Trust on line. Just follow the link www.justgiving.com/KazAston or search www.justgiving.com under Santa pod.

Nigel, Jules and I (kaz Aston) have all worked very hard at Nitro FM over the last year to provide live updates to support many important Charitable causes that are important to people involved with drag racing and their families. For the MS Trust, Nitro FM produced informative radio adverts supported by Gary Page & Alex Alam while presenting on Nitro FM. All of these are still available for you to listen and learn about MS on www.kazaston.com with the multi media section.

As mentioned previously I have started drag racing even though I had been diagnosed with MS for 16 years now. After getting my MSA competition license and gaining truly amazing support from so many encouraging & kind people at Santa pod along with and Jon Webster my expert drag racing teacher, Trans World Sport filmed an informative Drag Racing and MS TV feature at Santa pod shown on Sky Sports. You can watch the Santa pod TV feature on Youtube.

Passionate to keep learning about this amazing sport and develop my driving skills further while able with MS, I have had to recently review my previous racing team position to promote my health in the possible best way, as I know too well as a nurse this is so important. As a result Sue Collins with her superb Mongoose & Powerchips Racing Team has been so thoughtful and asked me if I would like to develop my drag racing technical & crew knowledge further and begin my training to day drive, if able, a Top Fuel Funny Car.

Thank you so much, everyone that has helped to Raise Awareness about MS at Santa pod and for all of your amazing support for The MS Trust. Lots planned for the rest of 2010 at Santa Pod that I hope you will be able to enjoy when you next visit, if you cant attend watch with the new live stream web cam from eurodragster.com or listen to live event coverage from Nitro FM.

Finally all the very best for Colin Theobald, a race commentator at Santa pod, for his MS Trust fund raising target to drop a few pounds for the FIA Santa pod Euro Finals info available on face book.

Update May 2010:

Santa Pod & The MS Trust at The FIA Main Event 28th-31st May

You may have seen The MS Trust name & heard about it already on Nitro FM at various Santa Pod 2009 events, but what is this really all about???

This latest Santa Pod adventure started in 2009 when I (Kaz Aston) and Gordon Northway decided to raise some money for The MS Trust (www.mstrust.org.uk) as I have been diagnosed with MS for over 15 years.
 
I only discovered the world of drag racing at the 2009 Easter Thunder ball where I quickly spotted the Pod’s 2-seater dragster! Wanting to make a difference for the MS Trust, with a bit of fundraising for this invaluable UK charity, Darren Prentice (Santa Pod’s Race Director) kindly arranged a Thrill ride in Santa Pod’s exclusive 2 Seater Dragster.

Nigel & Jules, presenters from Nitro FM, Santa Pod’s official event radio station, quickly interviewed me at the Summer Nationals event to glean a bit more info to share with spectators and see how they could help for the future. I’d been blown away by the sport and being able do the thrill ride even with MS completed the whole fantastic Santa Pod experience.

Nigel quickly shared his expert thoughts and together with Jules and Caroline (Santa Pod Marketing Manager) we came up with a terrific plan to help me to raise awareness about MS (Multiple Sclerosis) & The MS Trust at Santa Pod (see: www.kazaston.com for info).

The MS Trust has existing relationships with several UK Drag Racing Teams that support the charity, so to further this at Santa Pod, we pulled together the following amazing ideas that you may have seen or heard about on Nitro FM at the 2009 FIA European Finals & National Finals events:

• Gary Page with The Mongoose Exhausts/Pennzoil Team displayed MS Trust Banners in their pits while collecting donations, Gary did a live Nitro FM interview with me to help people learn about what MS actually is and the support that The MS Trust gives.
• Les Harris with The Super Twins bike class displayed MS Trust Banners in their pits at the National Finals, collected donations and also highlighted it further during Les’ Nitro FM sessions.
• Together Nigel, Jules, Black Cat Productions and I produced an educational MS Trust radio advert that featured at both the 2009 FIA European & National Finals.
• A Nitro FM Shirt was autographed by Top Racing Drivers & key people within the sport ready to auction live on air. Watch out for this one at the 2010 FIA Main Event.
• Nigel Holland continued his outstanding photographic support to capture precise images you may have seen already in the Press/Media Coverage, associated web sites, The MS Trust UK Official Website and now here on Santa Pod’s website.
• Many other kind offers of support from teams & individuals also arrived at Nitro FM, which were just so kind. Here are just a few we hope will help in some capacity in 2010: Freddy’s Revenge, Shock Wave, The Wild Bunch & Paul Venners.

With so much wonderful encouragement arising from Santa Pod & the sport, Gordon Northway decided to combine his passion to support both the MS Trust and his love of drag racing and set up his own race team “Team Edge” (www.racing4multiplesclerosis.com).

Gordon will begin his racing his car “The Edge”, this year that displays The MS Trust branding & has also offered me (!) an opportunity to race another vehicle “Enigma” under the same team banner for 2010.

With both vehicles currently being transformed to enhance performance, the team is really excited about their first Santa Pod Track, Test & Tune Day organised by Webster Race Engineering. Owner, Jon Webster, along with Steve Good, (Team Edge Crew chief) and Adrenaline Race & Performance will support Gordon and I with the driving to advance the vehicles’ performance and for me a novice to the sport, enhance my drag racing driving skills!

Also, due to my new passion about this incredible sport and charity, I am excited to share that I will be working closely with Trans World Sport TV/Radio, so I’ll keep you all posted on this one. I hope you may have already seen that The MS Trust will be the lead charity at the 2010 Main Event so please look out for all the info on the Santa pod website. So lots planned for 2010 at Santa Pod in support of The MS Trust that I hope you will be able to enjoy when you next visit or listen to live coverage from Nitro FM.