The fire-spitting, engine throbbing world of Drag racing is one of the most family-friendly of all UK motorsports. Will Gray spoke to three of the multigeneration families involved in the paddock at Santa Pod to find out why.

Walk through the paddock at Santa Pod and you will be greeted with the hustle and bustle typical of any race circuit. But here, there is a noticeable difference. Inside the open awnings, where cars are being worked on ready for their next run on the quarter mile, you will find people from all generations getting involved.

From the outside, Drag racing could easily be seen as one of the rawest forms of motorsport. The cars are flaming monsters that bang and pop on their way to the start line then roar as they shoot down the track at sometimes unimaginable speeds. It feels almost scary to the uninitiated. Surely not a place for families?

Peel beneath the surface, though, and it turns out that appearances can be deceptive – because this is actually one of the most inclusive forms of motorsport around. It is, perhaps,
its niche nature that forms such close bonds, but in that Santa Pod paddock, almost everyone is part of a racing family, and all the families are part of one big union.

“It’s a massively family-oriented sport,” says Andy Robinson, who has been competing since the late 1970s and is now a member of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame. “You’ve got sons and daughters driving when dad or granddad used to run, so in some families there are three generations racing together. I’m not sure you get that in most forms of motorsport.”

Shelley Pearson, whose dad Tony has been a racer and mechanic since the 1970s and whose partner, Kevin Kent, is a former Fuel Funny Car European record holder, is one of those
in the three-generation category. “My dad now drives a ‘56 Chevy in the classic gasser circuit and he also helps me to run my kids in Junior dragsters,” she explains.

Current reigning British Drag Racing Champion Bobby Wallace is in a similar situation, with his dad, Bob, now working as his crew chief, his mum Sandra, and sister Bonnie, doing the catering, and his other sister Annie, now a vital part of his crew, having recently taken a break from her own racing activities following the birth of her one-year-old daughter Mia.

Meet the Robinsons

Andy Robinson first set his eyes on a drag strip in 1976, when he was invited to marshal at Blackbushe. Despite living nearby, he says, he did not even know what drag racing was about at all. Around the same time, he and his girlfriend, who is now his wife, got involved in the Street Rod and Hot Rod Clubs at Reading University and started going to Santa Pod.

Bitten by the bug, he started racing three years later and it became an ever-increasing part of his life. In fact, he reveals, he even worked it into his wedding. “I got married on the
Saturday and I raced on the Sunday at Santa Pod,” he recalls. “Half the people who were at the reception came up to watch!”

It’s no wonder, then, that drag racing has since become a family affair for the Robinsons. Beginning with the top category of Pro Mods in the late-1980s, Andy has since won the British Drag Racing Championship eight times following its introduction in 2007 – and his wife Kate, son Luke and daughter Stef, have been alongside him almost every step of the way.

“Luke was born in the December and he was with us at the racetrack the following Easter, when he was four months old,” recalls Andy. “It was the same with Stefani. They’ve never
really not been at the racetrack with us – apart from last year when Luke’s own twins arrived and he couldn’t quite make it!”

But even then, he could not switch off from the racing. “It was really hard for him,” recalls his sister Stef. “I can probably count on one hand how many runs I’ve missed over the last 20 years, so I know how it feels. We were in constant communication and I was even sending him data from each run and he was tuning the car remotely!”

Luke began working part-time in the family business when he was in his early teens and by the time that he was 16, he was on the start line, helping prep the car, thanks to Andy’s efforts to convince the organisers to reduce the age of access – a move that has since resulted in a lot of families now doing the same.

In fact, Andy credits Luke, who also now works full-time in the family’s race car fabrication business, as having a “massive input” into his title triumphs and greatly values the close
family ties they all have. “Not everyone gets on with their sons and daughters, but I like to think I get on with mine really well,” he smiles. “We spend enough time together, after all!

“Our business is now the biggest drag race constructor in the UK, probably in Europe, with eight employees and we also do all sorts of track cars. Luke is in the workshop, bending,
welding, fabricating, designing. I’m sure that sometimes Dad’s a bit grumpy with him, and sometimes he’s a bit grumpy with me, but we don’t argue as such, and that’s really nice.”

It was not just Luke who wanted in on the action, though. Once she was old enough, Stef went to Frank Hawley’s drag race school in the US to get her NHRA license then immediately set an 8.6sec quarter-mile time. Her racing was put on pause when her son, now aged 4, and daughter now 1, arrived, but she and her husband Ben Fisher – and their children – are now part of the crew.

Stef explains: “I’ve been coming to the track since I was a few months old and I did not even think twice about bringing along my children when they were born, because it’s just what
we’ve always done, and what other families around the sport do too. Last year, when I was six months pregnant, I was still backing dad up from burnouts at the Euro Finals!”

Andy adds: “It is great to have everyone in the garage at races now. Our son is seriously into it and he always wants to work on the car, so we let him do whatever he can to get involved! I guess it just works because that’s what we’ve always done. And even his sister, at six months old, is there with us! You bring kids along and they just tend to get into it.”

The Wallaces

The Wallace family’s involvement in Drag racing came the opposite way around to that of the Robinsons. Bobby, the son of Bob and Sandra, explains: “It all started when my dad and I went to quite a few American car ‘Show and Shine’ events. He then bought a Chevy truck that needed re-spraying, and we ended up meeting a guy who was racing in Super Comp.

“I was 16 at the time and he asked me if I’d like to come along to help and I really enjoyed it, so dad ended up buying a car and I started racing. We are both mechanically minded, so we had a rough idea, asked people in the paddock and picked things up as we went along, breaking stuff, working out why we broke it and then learning from it!”

They stepped up into the Pro ET class in 2012 when Bobby was 19 and the whole family then started to get more involved, with Bobby’s two younger sisters, Annie and Bonnie, both trying their hand in the Junior classes for 8-17-year-olds, which involve child-sized dragsters running to the 1/8th-mile point and reaching speeds up to 85mph in the eldest category.

“It was very much a family affair when we were in Pro ET,” he recalls. “At the time, I would say about half of the people racing had their families around them, with sons and daughters racing in different categories. Annie and Bonnie raced for a couple of years and both loved it, but in the end only Annie really wanted to keep going and move up the levels.

“There was a Mustang on the circuit that she had always loved and when it came up for sale, we got it. She got her license then won the event on the same weekend! She did really well
and we ended up racing in the same category, but we couldn’t run two cars so we never raced in the same event! It’s a shame – that would have been really good match up!”

As was the case with Stef Robinson, Annie’s racing career went on pause when she had her first child. However, also similarly, that did not keep her away from the paddock for long, and she is now back there working on Bobby’s car, along with Bonnie’s boyfriend, who has also been on the Drag racing scene in Street Eliminator for many years.

Meanwhile, Bonnie has not strayed too far from the scene either. “She’s more interested in the catering side, the same as mum and my wife,” says Bobby. “She’s now got her own coffee trailer which she takes to different events and it’s going really well for her – she even had it at the British Grand Prix this year. So, she’s still in the sport, just in a different way.”

The Pearsons

Shelley Pearson grew up in the Drag racing paddock in the 1970s, when her dad Tony spent time as a mechanic for various Top Fuel and Funny Car teams, including future Hall
of Fame members Harlan Thompson and John Spuffard. Her parents were a central part of the UK scene and little Shelley was taken with them wherever they went.

“It was a hobby for my dad, but it actually took up as much time as a full-time job,” she recalls. “My parents were good friends with drag racing people inside and outside of the track,
so it was a real family affair. We would spend times away from the track together and there was always a really tight-knit community around us.”

When Shelley was just 12 years old, her mum sadly passed away and her dad stepped away from the scene. He moved into Stock Rods, a highly competitive form of non-contact oval
racing, and Shelley got into banger racing. It was not long before she joined her dad in the Stocks, but she still dreamed of returning to the drag racing paddock where she grew up.

“As a child, my ultimate ambition was always to drive a Top Fuel dragster,” she explains. “So, I went over to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School in California and took my Super Comp license. It took three days, with some intense classroom tuition and track tests like burnouts, time targets and steering the car with all sorts of different variables.

“I passed, but there were no opportunities for me financially so I carried on oval track racing. Five years later, I renewed my license and at that time my dad was crew chief for Rune Fjeld in Scandinavia. I got asked to drive a Super Comp two-seater dragster over there for the FIA rounds, and that set me up then to be ready to get into a Top Fuel car.”

When she took her Top Fuel licence, she set the quickest licensing run in Europe with a 4.98s time over the quarter mile, hitting 278mph. A Flame and Thunder exhibition run
followed, along with a couple of competition meets, but a lack of sponsorship forced her out for the rest of the year. “Then I became pregnant with my daughter,” she concludes. “And that was that!”

Having met her partner Kevin Kent through Drag racing, the pair set up West Ten Motorsport to run a nitro Funny Car and Kevin is a former European record holder. Shelley runs
logistics for the team, but also runs two Junior dragsters – for 12-year-old daughter Lola-Belle and nine-year-old son Frankie – with dad Tony by her side supporting his
grandchildren’s passion.

“I liked the idea of them doing it, but even the children’s cars go to 50mph in the eighth of a mile and that is just insanely fast, so it’s not something I ever wanted to push,” she explains. “I gave Lola-Belle the option when she was eight, she said yes and she’s never looked back. Then, Frankie wanted to start doing it, and he absolutely loved it too.”

Nurturing atmosphere

The friendly family-focused environment seems to be helping to grow the popularity of this discipline, both in terms of people getting out on the track and people attending the huge range of events held at Santa Pod. There are, Shelley confirms, “far more” people coming to drag racing now than there were when she was younger.

However, she still believes the close friendship bonds she enjoyed in her youth continue to be a part of her own children’s experience in the paddock. “You have your friends at home and your Santa Pod friends,” she explains. “We always looked forward to going to the track because nine times out of ten, these people would live miles away.

“Coming to the track was the only time that we could actually meet up with a lot of them , and many from my generation are still around. Jake Mechaell, for example, one of my best friends when we were kids is now a Super Street Bike champion, and his son just got into 9.50 bikes and got a number one qualifier! I hope that continues in this generation.”

Andy Robinson remembers a similar experience when his children were younger, adding: “We would pull up in the motor home and before the thing was stopped, the kids were out the door to see their race friends! They would all go off together, but we always knew where each other’s children were because we looked out for them, and it is the same now.”

Andy gets to experience many different motorsport disciplines through his business and believes the unique, open and nurturing environment is what makes drag racing so family friendly. “A lot of the circuit type racing is quite male dominated,” he explains. “The wives don’t often go, and children only tend to if they’re really interested.

“Drag racing has always allowed people to get really close to the vehicles and talk to people, and you don’t get that much in other forms of motorsport at the more professional level.
In Pro Mod, for example, our professional class, we talk to the spectators, we let kids sit in the car, and we just do all that because it’s what we’ve done forever.

“The spectators have full access to the driver, the team, the car or bike, and they become almost part of the action. For the children, it is just natural being around it all and all these years later, our children and their friends from when they were three or four years old are still here, racing, crew chiefing, or working on different cars.”

Drag racing also has a far higher proportion of women in the paddock than most other motorsports, and that translates right the way up to the Top Fuel drivers. There are several
female drivers in the top category, Top Fuel, and Robinson adds: “A lot of girls raced in Junior dragsters and some moved on to bigger things. Whoever you are next to, either can win.”

It is no surprise, then, that some paddock regulars have ended up forming new drag racing ‘super couples’ – Kevin Kent and Shelley Pearson being just one example. There is no wedding chapel at Santa Pod, but it could perhaps do well to draw from Las Vegas and set one up – although Bobby quips: “I’m sure the owner would have a word to say about that!”

Kevin was not actually in the paddock when Shelley was a toddler, but theirs was still a romance made in Drag racing and Shelley explains: “He was introduced to a friend of his who worked on Knut Soderqvist’s Top Fuel dragster in Scandinavia. That was at the same time my dad was there, so he had met Kevin in the paddock before I even met him!”

The only problem with having multiple members of the family involved in racing is it can be quite uncomfortable watching your loved ones take to the track. That is something Bobby
struggled to get used to. “I was always more comfortable driving the car than when I was crewing for my sister,” he explains. “It can really be quite nerve wracking.

“There was one moment when Annie brushed along the wall and, knowing it was my sister in that car, it was a bit scary. I was straight on the radio to check she was ok and straight
away she replied ‘yeah, sorry, what about the car?’ Once I knew she was alright, the focus went straight back onto getting the car fixed as soon as possible!”

It is not just blood relations that create that family feel in the drag racing paddock because, even with the biggest nest, it is hard to run a car on just family alone. ‘Outsiders’ are
often welcomed in with open arms, and the intensity of work required to turn the cars around means crew often end up becoming an extended part of the family.

“Yes, they are, 100 per cent,” says Shelley. “We all know each other really, really well and we actually do a lot of things together outside the track too. Even when things get a bit
heated, when we’re trying to get the car turned around for the next round, there are never any hard feelings in any way. There’s an understanding.”

The variety on offer at Santa Pod events is also key. The drag strip may be the highlight, and the paddock the home away from home, but it is the sideshows that make the place. There
is a stunt arena – including everyone’s favourite, the Monster Trucks; a circus tent; and a funfair, as well as bands and evening entertainment.

The main events typically run for two or three days and pretty much everyone stays on site in their own camper vans or tents, pitched right in the middle of the paddock. Everyone is
everywhere, so it is inevitable that over time even those who are not part of the scenery can often become friends for life.

“We’ve got a double-decker truck and trailer with a workshop and living accommodation,” explains Shelley. “I have about 15 people to cater for over the whole weekend, so we have
an outdoor kitchen and it’s a massive thing, going into a race meeting. It takes a lot to organise that, but it’s such a nice atmosphere once everyone is there together.”

The next generation

Inevitably, with so many children around there are many who see parents or grandparents on the track and want to have a go themselves. To scratch that itch, Junior dragsters offer
three levels of progression – Junior Stock for eight-year-old beginners; Junior Modified in the middle years; and Junior Modified Advanced for those up to 17 years old.

The category is booming, with a field of more than 30 participants at the last meeting, two of which were Shelley’s children, Lola-Belle and Frankie. “They are all so competitive,
it’s great,” she says. “They are only young, but they feel very comfortable and they totally know where they should be and what they should be doing.

“When they come off at the top end, they go to the office and get their timing ticket and all the way through qualifying, they’re all coming back saying, ‘what did you get, what did
you get?’ They are all looking on their phones to see who is coming up next and as soon as they take their helmet off, they’re chatting with everyone all about it all.

“When Lola-Belle started, her dad was a pro fuel driver, so coming into the Juniors pits we didn’t know how they would respond, but they have been nothing but welcoming. It has
been absolutely amazing. And when they’re not racing, they all disappear off to the grandstands together to watch the races, so it’s really good for them.”

Andy Robinson agrees that the Juniors is “absolutely awesome for the kids” but admits he was not so accommodating when it came to his own children taking that path. “If you get involved in Juniors, it’s pretty hard to race yourself,” he explains. “Unfortunately, I was a bit of a mean dad! My wife and I decided that if they want to race, they could do it later!”

Shelley, meanwhile, has seen both her children grow up through the sport, saying that her eldest, Lola-Belle, has become very focused and professional in the four years since
she has been racing. Having started as a bit of fun to pass the time, it has now become a serious passion that involves two generations of the family.

“As they grow up, they are finding out who they are,” says Shelley. “At the beginning, Lola-Belle was very focused. Then we went through a period where she was more focused on playing with her friends than coming driving, but now she has taken another step forward in professionalism and determination.

“Frankie is younger and when he started was quite textbook. We would tell him to do something and he would do it. He is still a bit like that, but he gets frustrated quite a lot if the car
doesn’t perform the way it usually does and something goes wrong. He cannot quite register that yet, but that will come.”

To those on the outside, it may appear slightly unhinged for a parent to be able to strap their child into a dragster and send them down the strip. In fact, it is far from it. Junior
dragsters are speed limited and built to exacting standards, and the children are fully kitted up, just as they would be if they were taking part in karting at that age. Also, in many cases the parents or wider families have been down the strip themselves, so they know exactly what it is like to be in the car, and most of the time they have also been involved in setting the cars up, so they know that every nut and bolt has been carefully checked to ensure things go to plan.

“If me, Kevin and my dad were not mechanically minded and knew nothing about racing, we would be going in blind and putting our faith into somebody else,” says Shelley. “But when you are fully involved with it, you can make sure everything is where it should be. They are my babies in the car, at the end of the day, so I want everything to be perfect for them.”

Into the future

There is a clear baton-handing feel about the future of drag racing. That is not to say new people do not come in – far from it, the ‘Run What Ya Brung’ (RWYB) events, where anyone can just turn up and take any car down the strip ensures there is a good flow of newly-interested participants entering the sport. It is more once you are in, you cannot get away.

“It is a passion, without a doubt,” says Andy Robinson. “When people come into the shop and ask for some advice about drag racing, I sometimes say, tongue-in-cheek, ‘don’t do it’
and when they ask why, I explain: ‘because it’s worse than doing Class A drugs – once you’re in, you can’t get out of it. It’s in your blood.”

Sure enough, many of the friends that Bobby Wallace grew up with are still there alongside him in the paddock to this day. “Not many people have left,” he concurs. “It is just what we do, and with some of them, even if they’re not there at every event, they’ll still be there at some point throughout the season.

“When I was growing up, they were all a lovely bunch of people to chat to and get along with and it was just such a friendly atmosphere. If I ever had any trouble, they would always be there willing to help and it is the same now – although, come race day of course, everyone still wants to get one over on you and take the win!”

As time moves on, so do generations. In the Wallace family, while Bobby is still at the top of his game right now, his sister Annie is only really on hiatus until her children grow
up, at which point she will almost certainly want to get back in the car, or follow Shelley Pearson’s approach and get her daughter involved. Under the Robinsons awning, Andy’s grandson is already showing signs of becoming the third generation to want to get behind the wheel, while Andy himself concedes that once he decides to hang up the racing gloves, he will happily get on the spanners for Luke and Stef if she ever wants to get back onto the strip.

The Pearson / Kent family, meanwhile, already has that third generation in training and, right now at least, that has become the focus for Shelley. “Last year, I was asked by the
Nitro Vikings from Norway to drive their top fuel dragster,” she explains. “I went and did it, and they asked me if I would be interested in doing the whole FIA tour.

“Of course, I would love to! But I had to really think about how, logistically, that would work. There’s me and dad running the kids in Juniors, Kevin focusing on his car, then there’s school, work, it’s just massive. I would also need a sponsorship deal, so it was all really difficult and it didn’t happen – although I would be interested in doing it in the future.

Asked if she thinks she could end up racing alongside one or both of her own kids, she adds: “I don’t know what the future will hold for them, whether they’ll continue or not, but that
would be nice! Lola-Belle’s already saying ‘mum, it’s only four years until I can do Super Comp, can I get a Super Comp dragster’ so I think I will have to start saving. Honestly!”

Shelley is certain that some of the children that are now in the paddock are so engrained with the drag racing mindset that they could even become future stars over in the US, where the sport has a far larger profile, commands primetime television slots and truly offers a professional career to those who make it to the top. “I definitely think some could make it,” she confirms.

“Recently, the juniors that have moved into adult classes like pro-ET or Super Comp have been absolutely amazing – and there’s quite a few doing that at the moment. That’s what
drag racing needs. We’re seeing a real influx of younger people, not just driving, but also working on the cars as well.” The key for Drag racing, as with any form of motorsport or, indeed, any hobby, is to maintain that progression from junior to senior level and beyond. Drag racing seems to be able to do that because many operations involve so many generations and, as a result, become a big weekend out for all the family.

It is often remarked on by motorsport Clubs across the country that there is a significant drop-off in involvement through those family years, when children arrive and commitments
change. The same does not seem to be seen in Drag racing, because in the multi-generation environment people stick around, but just change how they get involved. Despite this, there is still a keen appetite for newcomers to join the sport and fill the grids even more, and Bobby Wallace adds: “The way I look at it, the more cars we can get in every category, the better it is. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a front running car, in the middle or right at the back, the more people we get, the bigger the event becomes.”

The drag racing paddock is just as heavily competitive as any motorsport paddock and although not all families compete against each other on track – there are many different classes
in which you can enter – whenever there is head-to-head competition, in most cases they will all see each other around the bar and food stalls the evening.

Part of that is camaraderie is down to the complexity of the machines they are racing, and Shelley Pearson adds: “Anyone at any level of Drag racing is fully aware of how much work and dedication is needed to actually make these cars hook up and get down the track, so when it works and you do well, there is a lot of respect from other teams.

“It ends up becoming a way of life, rather than just a hobby. As a family, we obviously do other things in between – the kids and I are heavily into martial arts too, and we do that
pretty much five nights a week! – but we live about a ten minute drive from Santa Pod and we really feel at home here.”

For Stef, the importance of the racing has evolved over the years and she explains: “When I was younger, it was definitely more about the social side of things, seeing friends that
I had not seen for a while and getting to spend the weekend with them. But as I have grown older, I have realised that this hobby is more important than just that.

“Spending that time all together as a family is something not many get to do and it’s great for my children. Seeing the enthusiasm and passion my son has for the cars and how interesting he finds it all really fills me with pride. Even if he ends up having nothing to do with racing or cars in the future, it’s a great learning experience and I expect it’ll be the same for his sister too.”

“It’s all about families here,” concludes Andy Robinson. “Spectators come along as complete families and camp or have a caravan, and for all of us in the paddock, we want to race and beat each other but as soon as the race is over, you’ve got your own family, but then you’ve got the drag racing family as well. And that’s what makes it all a bit special.