Ian Atkinson

Plymouth Belvedere 440ci

Ian Atkinson and Daz Selwyn took their AFX-lookalike The Menace and Pandemonium to the Northern Nationals. As Ian put it: "What a fun, exciting and surprising weekend we had.”

"We had been quite apprehensive about our decision to race at York, but as we had not raced there we thought we'd give it a try and see for ourselves. We had travelled for six hours when we pulled into the main gates. I looked at the road to the pits and I thought to myself ‘What have I done?’ Bumpy with potholes and a few obstacles, which took me back to how the, Pod entrance used to be.

"We were greeted in the pits with warm smiles and everyone was willing to help us unload our cars. What a surprise when we walked the track, it wasn't the standard of Santa Pod's but it wasn't as bad as we had heard and it was a good weekend's drag racing. My sixty foot times were slightly down, but the terminal speed was up and I was quite consistent with my regular times at the Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway.

"On Saturday Daz was presented with Best Appearing American car, and on Sunday he came third in the American Super Stock round. I on the other hand kept pulling cherries, D'oh!"

"Anyone who is reading this and hasn't raced at York should give it a go. Okay, it's back to basics and you haven't got some facilities such as showers, but we had a brilliant weekend's racing and it was great to meet a lot of new faces as well as Pod and SCR regulars. We will try to visit the track at least once if not more a year. If more people support York Raceway we could have more of a National sport, not forgetting how the Pod and SCR started out." Well said Ian!