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 the Motor Sports Association, the national governing body of four-wheeled motorsport, designated the spectacular Pro Modifieds as the official class of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship. The Championship expanded from three to five rounds, including the two FIA European Championship events at Santa Pod Raceway.

As a result, 26 entries scored MSA Championship points during that first season, with seven UK-based teams prominent among them. Since then, the seasonal entry list has never fallen below 26 and has numbered as high as 31, with new home-grown talent joining the cast list of stars from across Europe. And in 2010, the Championship welcomed its first American contestant, ‘superstar’ racer Melanie Troxel.

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 or turbocharged methanol, and all packing the punch to blast through the quarter-mile in six seconds at over 200mph. They are, without doubt, the most extrovert machines ever to compete for an MSA championship.

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 five seasons completed since then, this prediction has been more than fulfilled.

Each MSA Drag Racing season begins at the Auto Trader Easter Thunderball meet and includes two races which combine MSA British and FIA European rounds: The Main Event, held this year at the beginning of June, and early September’s European Finals.

The MSA Championship Pro Mods are also the highlight attraction at Santa Pod’s two national events in June and late September.

In 2011, Essex’s Graham Ellis became MSA Champion for the first time, following three consecutive runner-up finishes. Ellis won the title at the wheel of a supercharged Plymouth Barracuda imported from the USA while Silverstone-based racing engineers ICE Automotive were converting his familiar Plymouth Superbird to turbo power. ICE driver Nick Davies tested the ‘Bird at over 239mph, the fastest speed yet achieved by a British Pro Mod, and Graham Ellis will ride to the defence of his crown this year in the turbocharged, Andy Robinson-built machine.

New cars appear on the horizon, notably from Andy Robinson himself. Robinson’s venerable Studebaker which has carried him to three MSA Championships – and two FIA European Championship near-misses – now goes to a new home. In its place Robinson is constructing a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, though its debut may possibly come too late in the season to contend for the 2012 MSA Championship. And three experienced racers who took their first MSA steps in 2011 will aim to raise the stakes: Steve Hall and Mick Payne both wheel supercharged entries while Andy Frost’s latest Vauxhall incarnation, the VXR-sponsored Red Victor 3 – improbably, a street-legal Pro Mod, the only one in the world – brings another exciting turbo package to the scene.

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 - 6th to 9th April 2012
Round 2: The Main Event - 1st to 4th June 2012
Round 3: Summer Nationals - 23rd to 24th June 2012
Round 4: European Finals - 6th to 9th September 2012
Round 5: VP Racing Fuels National Finals - 22nd to 23rd September 2012