Have you ever wondered how people got in to Drag Racing? Often it is a long, bizarre, and quite interesting tale! Here is ours.

Way way back in the mists of time, Bob and his brother Mick were working in a catering van for their Father. They happened to turn up at a drag race with it, and became hooked. Their first car was built at their Dad’s bakery in Hitchin, Herts. A Ford Pop was the choice of car, and in it’s first incarnation it was known as ‘The Mangler’, painted green with orange lexan windows. This went on to fame and notoriety as Motor Psycho, first in purple then in blue. The car ran for a while before a rather impressive wheelstand which, on returning to horizontal, caused the motor to expire rather nastily. Bob and Mick were disheartened by this, and the car went up for sale. A young man by the name of Al O’Connor purchased it, and soon everyone knew the name ‘Al’s Gasser’. It can still be seen terrorising the strip today, albeit in name only as the original car was totalled in a rather severe crash some time ago.

In 1978 the Gleadow Brothers returned to the strip, this time with a slingshot dragster. The car started it’s life in 1966 as ‘Weekend Warrior’, and then in the hands of Roy Green became ‘Resurrection’. It was fitted with a Flathead V8 and known as Vintage Tin. This provided many good times and much fun, but eventually it became time for a new engine, and a Rover V8 was chosen. This also saw the arrival of a sponsor, H.T.Wells (a paint company). Indeed, it is to this sponsorship the very name Time Machine can be traced, given the similarity to H.G.Wells, author of a book by the same name. The sponsor may have been bought several times over by other companies and moved on, but the name stuck. Eventually, the chassis was sold on, and now races in Wild Bunch, campaigned by Mark Coulsell as ‘Limited Funz’.

Meanwhile, the engine found a new home between the rails of a T-Bucket Altered, and this car went on to be campaigned for many years. It became tradition for there to be a new paint job every season, and the car was slowly added to until it took on it’s final swoopy appearance. Always a head-turner, the car was well known all around, and its finest moment occured in 1989, on a trip to Hockenheim. The journey in a Transit Van may have been tiring and uncomfortable, but when there the car ran it’s best time ever, and went on to be included in a Top Trumps drag racing set! Look closely, and you can see Mick behind the wheel. After many years loyal service, the T-Bucket body was sold on (sadly never to resurface, at least not yet!) and a Mustang funny car body was acquired. In order to shift this new added weight, an injected Ford (well, Lincoln really) V8 replaced the Rover, and several seasons saw the car develop a truly mean stance. This body was eventually replaced by a Mondeo body, with the Mustang going on to resurface dressed as a police car.

Eventually, the ageing chassis became too much of a handful to work with, and so 1995 saw a new era for Gleadow Brothers Racing. After much deliberation, it was decided to purchase Doug Bond’s Top Alcohol car, the original Le Patron as campaigned by Jim Read. Initially the car was driven by Mick Gleadow, but he had to step down due to growing commitments elsewhere, and so the hunt for a driver was on. It was decided to give the drive to Super-Pro star and long time friend of Bob Gleadow, Fay Fischer. Fay brought with her a sponsorship package from The Big Bus Company of London, and at one meeting competed both in Top Alcohol and Super Pro, by no means an easy task. The car reached a best of 6.47 @ 210.64mph, and was sold to Martin Canto, to be driven by the UK’s next Top Fuel star, Darryl Bradford. 1998 brought with it the purchase of an Ex-Leppanen car with very few runs on it, which lead us to new highs. In 1999 Dave Wilson took over the driving seat, and the European Tour was attempted. This provided a fun journey through Europe, culminating in a weekend on a campsite and a win in Norway.

At the end of 1999, we decided to step down from the European Drag Racing scene, as it was proving too stressful and time consuming for a hobby. This allowed Bob to concentrate on the running of his business, while Martin started University in Sheffield. However, we could not stay away from the track long, and as Adam had long had his heart set on a Junior Dragster, we decided to have a bit of fun and relax at the track. After renting the SPRC car for a weekend and seeing the grin on Adam’s face, there was no turning back. We purchased Phil Cook’s old chassis and set an engine of Paul Lindley-Allen’s between the rails, planning an assault on the ranks of Junior Modified. All set for 2000, we really went back to basics, sleeping in a short wheelbase Transit Van one weekend. However, we were plagued by various gremlins all year, and decided that we were going to do it properly. That car is now in the hands of Tom Watts, who along with his sister Lottie make up Full Throttle Racing. Since Paul Lindley-Allen was retiring a succesful champion, we purchased his car, and things really picked up for 2001. We won the Cannonball event, came second in the SPRC championship, and finished second in Hockenheim at the NitrOlympics as the first UK Junior Drag Racing Team to race outside the country. When Adam got too old for the Junior Dragster class, we purchased a supercharged Model T altered. Things didn’t really go to plan for us in 2003, and so we took 2004 and 2005 off to regroup and plan where to go, and the latest incarnation of Motor Psycho is the fruit of those plans.