[1]A new European record for Front Wheel Drive drag cars was established recently at Long Marston Airfield’s Shakespeare County Raceway.
In near perfect conditions Rotherham ’s Richard Batty wound up the rpm’s on his self prepared 1050 horsepower NR Autosport Mitsubishi FTO to a staggering quarter mile elapsed time of 8.859 seconds at 174 mph. The previous record stood at 8.990 seconds by Bjorn Holmgreg in a Nissan Cherry at Sweden ’s super track Tierp Raceway..
Competing in the Injector Dynamics FWD Outlaw Shootout Richard drove the eight second racer into top qualifiers position. Nearest challenger was Yasir Dair in a 900 bhp Honda Civic.
[2]“We’ve been chasing the record for a while now,” says Richard. “We came so close at the end of last season. We we’re only 9 thousands of a second off, and that was frustrating. This year at the Injector Dynamics Outlaw Shootout we smashed it.”Richard has been racing since 1998 in RWYB competitions. His first win in the Front Wheel Drive competitions came in 2005 at Elvington’s Ten of the Best in a 300 bhp FTO. From then on the IT expert hasn’t looked back.
Although rain curtailed the final run offs, Richard was awarded the overall trophy. In the True Street category 27 year old Amy Bradley from Grimsby picked up the overall honours in her 10 second 500 bhp Honda Civic.
“Thanks to the staff at Shakespeare County Raceway for an excellent track that allowed us achieve our potential. The Outlaw Shootout is the largest FWD competition it’s great to be a part of it, run by the racers for the racers.” Richard added.
Photos courtesy of Steve Weston