MSA British Drag Racing Championship

Welcome to the MSA British Drag Racing Championship - Pro Mod

In 2007, UK drag racing entered a new era when spectacular Pro Modifieds began to contest the Motor Sports Association’s British Drag Racing Championship. Since then, predictions that the Championship spotlight would attract new entries into this ferociously fast doorslammer class have begun to bear fruit.

In 2007, the MSA Championship expanded from three to five rounds, including the two FIA European Championship events at Santa Pod Raceway. As a result, no fewer than 26 entries scored MSA Championship points during the season, with seven UK-based teams prominent among them. The 2008 season saw three more homegrown entries come to the line, and 31 racers from home and abroad scored points.

2008’s additions to the MSA Championship ranks were Graham Ellis, Roger Moore and Wayne Nicholson, all accomplished Sportsman racers, joining current Pro Mod stars Philip “Bert” Englefield (2008’s MSA British champion), Andy Robinson (the 2007 champion), Ian Bishop, Danny Cockerill and Kevin Slyfield.

In 2009, Ray White returned to the scene after taking a season’s sabbatical.

While all current championship rounds take place at Santa Pod Raceway, a long-term development plan foresees other venues hosting rounds as the series grows and prospers.

Despite their official championship status, Pro Mods still possess an outlaw aura, evoking the spirit of drag racing's earliest days, before defined classes had evolved, when you would "run what ya brung" and hope you had "brung" enough. The class emerged in America in the 1980s as an adventurous reaction to the sport's formalised structure, pairing classic sedan body styles with enormous engines in combinations unfettered by too many rules.

Today's Pro Mods come in a vivid array of bodyshells, everything from 1938 Ford Coupes to a 21st-century Dodge Viper. These bodyshells cloak pure-bred racing chassis built around giant V8 engines, some running on petrol and nitrous oxide, others on supercharged methanol, and all packing the punch to blast through the quarter-mile in six and a half seconds at over 200mph. They are, without doubt, the most extrovert machines ever to compete for an MSA Championship.

Valuable new interest was sparked in January 2008 when thousands of motorsport enthusiasts experienced Andy Robinson’s deafening, rafter-rattling burnouts inside Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, one of the hits of the Live Action Arena shows at Autosport-International.

Early in 2007, Keith Bartlett, CEO of Trakbak Racing Ltd., had stated, "There are about 38 Pro Mod teams in Europe and I would expect at least 20 at Santa Pod for the European rounds.” In the two seasons completed since then, this prediction has been more than fulfilled.

Each MSA season begins at the Easter Thunderball meet and includes two races which combine MSA British and FIA European rounds, May’s Main Event and early September’s FIA European Finals. The MSA Championship Pro Mods are also the highlight attraction at Santa Pod’s two national events in June and late September.

Trakbak Racing Ltd. promotes the MSA British Drag Racing Championship and all rights to the series are owned by Trakbak’s CEO, Keith Bartlett.

All events held at Santa Pod Raceway, nr. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

Round 1: Auto Trader Easter Thunderball - 2nd to 5th April
Round 2: The Main Event - 28th to 31st May
Round 3: Summer Nationals - 19th to 20th June
Round 4: European Finals - 9th to 12th September
Round 5: National Finals - 25th to 26th September