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Austin Healey breaks 1000 km speed record at MIRA
Sunday 15th November 2009 saw the 'Healey Endurance' car built by Denis Welch Motorsport attempt the International and National speed record up to 1000 Km (International Group 2 Class 8 non supercharged). The car successfully completed 308 laps at record breaking speed, averaging 148.22 mph. The ambition was to beat the non-supercharged 4 cylinder records set by the Healey works team in 1954 at 132.81 mph and the current National records held by Prodrive.

So mission accomplished so far. It is now subject to FIA & MSA homologation as to whether the 6 International and 9 National records under consideration are confirmed. The car had a trouble free run with 3 scheduled pit stops and was driven by owner Martyn Corfield and Engineer Jeremy Welch in 4 stints of one hour each.

A further pit stop was made after Martyn was spun across the track at 150 mph due to the damp surface from that morning and previous day’s torrential rain and howling gales. After such a mind numbing moment he was still able to gather the car, losing little time and after a safety check carry on unabated to the next scheduled stop. “ We have made a great attempt at the 1000 km endurance record this weekend and subject to confirmation are happy that the car has performed brilliantly achieving near the theoretical maximum calculated by MIRA in 2009 which is better than we could ever have hoped for. It’s definitely the fastest Austin Healey in the World today at 153.44 mph, according to the stopwatch and is now the subject to FIA & MSA homologation to see whether the official International and National records have been achieved. We are looking forward to releasing more news shortly” commented Jeremy Welch.
Keep up to date on progress at www.healeyendurance.com
Photographs courtesy of Crucial Image www.crucialimage.org.uk
November 24, 2009
Chevrolet Camaro at Langley Speedway, Canada
Langley Speedway, like Pinecrest in Ontario, is one of those legendary tracks that closed before its time and one that fans never forget. Bud Bussiere is a long-time Langley fan who visited the track in the spring of 2005 and sent these photos. The Camaros should not be missed. Here are a few great pictures of Chevrolet's popular sports car racing at Langley.

Langley opened in 1965, under original owner Craig Frazer. In 1969 the Vancouver-Fraser Park District (now the Greater Vancouver Regional District) bought up land with the intent to create a park. The land also included Langley Speedway. Frazer obtained a 10-year lease and continued to run the track until Gordon Hemrich took over in 1977. After the 10-year lease expired in 1979 the track came under increasing pressure from the City of Vancouver. The lease periods became shorter and shorter with each renewal and there were more restrictions on numbers of dates, hours of operation, etc. The Lower Mainland Oval Racing Association took over operation of the track in 1980 and changed the name to Action Raceway.
Text by Canadian Racer
November 24, 2009
Built by Petty: 1970s Mopars in NASCAR
Part of the deal that brought Richard Petty back to Chrysler after his 1969 Fomoco excursion, was that Petty Enterprise would build and sell complete cars, chassis and components to NASCAR and USAC racers through the Chrysler performance catalogue. So what was before exclusively in Nichels hands went to Lee Petty, as ordered by Chrysler's racing boss Ronnie Householder. The Pettys built quite a few chassis and there are still about a dozen around at various museums and collectors. Here are a few shots of one example that can allow you to tell a real Petty car from the others.

Very smart dry sump tank location in the fender!

The huge bolt on bracket allowed the use of larger than life torsion bars!

Upper A-arm attachment look stock but has different angle left and right. Our car was run in USAC where there was no roadcourse and the longest oval was 1.5 miles, so my guess is that Hartman, who built the Feldner car, used a short track type chassis from Petty.
A view of the huge transmission crossmember from underneath.

November 17, 2009
1972 K&K Dodge Charger NASCAR racer unearthed
Here is a little sentation for you from the vintage racing world. The famous K&K Insurance Dodge, one of the cars that was driven by Bobby Isaac and Dave Marcis and managed by famous NASCAR crew chief Harry Hide, has recently come back to the light of day! While it is just a chassis for now, you can bet that it is about to be restored. While its location and owner ahs to remain a secret in order not to disturb the working process, we will keep you updated on the minute that we receive news about the Dodge. Stay tuned for more on this sensational find!

November 16, 2009
Langley Speedway: going roundy-round Canadian style
Here are some more pictures of Langley Speedway's glorious past. Today is featured car number 15, a Pontiac Bonneville of local fame. Competing in the sportman or street stock class, the old Poncho saw its fair share of fender rubbing! Stay tuned for more on Langley as Biud Bussiere brings the British Columbia short track back to life!

November 16, 2009
Langley Speedway reborn: back to the good old days

We have been following the rebuild of Langley Speedway, a notorious short track near Vancouver in Canada, for over three years now and we must say that those guys north of the border are doing a helluva great job. It is just month away from next season and some re-edition of the good old days. In the meantime, here are some great shots of racing action at Langley from the Reg Royle collection.

October 15, 2009
Looking for you NOW!
Petrol-Head is moving places after being put on hold for some valuable thinking time. In the footsteps of its sister publications in France leblogauto.com (600 000 unique visitors, 1.3M page impressions and 3000 reader comments per month), it is now recruiting a team of 10 bloggers.
Petrol-Head has signed a major partnership with a well known European Sport TV Channel website(yes that one) to produce THE ULTIMATE CAR BLOG.
We are looking for talented writers (you don’t need to be a journalist) who are passionate about cars, the industry and motorsport. Writing skills, a passion for cars and a sense of humour are qualities we’re looking for.
The selection process starts now, write to us with a couple of original sample articles on anything relating to automotive news at phbloggers@gmail.com…
PS: We are also recruiting for dasautoblog in Germany, so if German is your language, feel free to use the same mail to apply…
April 10, 2006