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Venues

Santa Pod

Airfield Road, Wellingborough, Bedfordshire NN29 7XA

Podington airfield was built during 1940 and 1941 to accommodate two RAF bomber squadrons. In 1942 it was made available to the United States Army Air Force and the runways were then lengthened so that they could support B-17 bombers. The 92nd Bombardment Group flew almost 300 missions from Podington into Nazi Occupied Europe.

Podington was returned to the RAF in July 1945 and it was then used for the storage of millions of WWII sandbags. By the early 1960’s the MOD no longer needed to maintain the sandbags and it was agreed that the airfield should be sold.

In 1964 a group of people interested in drag racing contacted the owners of the main runway to see if it could be used as a drag racing strip. The first event at Santa Pod Raceway took place on Easter Monday, 11th April 1966.

In 1972 the concrete track was resurfaced with asphalt and Santa Pod became a major centre for drag racing in Europe. During the winter of 2017 / 2018 the asphalt track was replaced by a concrete track once more.

Rounds of Straightliners have been run at Santa Pod Raceway every year from 2006 onwards.

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