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Conrad Stanley  |
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Conrad's current
ride is a 2000 Pontiac Firebird, imported from Texas by Conrad and Trevor
Graves in 2006, when they set up the Panther Racing team (a subsidiary of The
Bristol Doorslammers) with Conrad as driver.
This car had been racing
Super Gas in America and had been successful in bringing home the trophies at
both Divisional and National levels. The car runs a 547 cubic inch motor, which
produces around 900 horsepower. Conrad is now racing the car in Super Gas in
the UK championships.
Without the throttle stop restricting the car to
the Super Gas 9.90 second index , the car is capable of running the quarter
mile in 8.3 seconds at 163 mph.
To find out more about Conrad and the
Firebird please visit their team web site at
www.pantherracinguk.com |
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Conrad has been
racing since the late eighties, when he bought Mike Bull's couped Pop and took
it racing in the Street class. From then on he was hooked - he sold that
car and bought one of Neil Grant's drag racing Pops, (formerly the "Crazy
Horse" Pop before Neil had it painted black), which he raced in Mod ET for a
few years. |
| Conrad runs the
ex-Mike Bull Couped Pop at Avon Park. |
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Next, Conrad had
a fully tube-framed Pop built by Boot Soop Racing (now ZaNNetec Motorsports).
This car had a 427ci motor in it, and ran in the Super Gas and Outlaw Anglia
classes. In 1998 Conrad won the Super Gas Challenge race at the Hockenheim race
circuit with this car, bringing the gold home for the Brits. The Pop ran a best
of 9.4 at 147mph in the quarter mile. |
| Conrad burns out
in the ZaNNetec (Bootsoop) built pop at Hockenheim Grand Prix Circuit. |
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Due to work
commitments the Pop was sold in 2000. After a couple of different owners, it
now resides with Justin K, back in Bristol where it belongs. Conrad, not able
to stay away for too long, came back in 2001 with a Chevy Vega, bought from Ray
Barrow, who had run the car in Pro ET for a few years. The Vega ran a Small
Block Chevy in the Super Gas class. Conrad won the Super Gas National
Championships in 2004, then sold the Vega to look for a state of the art Super
Gasser, eventually finding the current Firebird car. |
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Trevor Graves |
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Trevor Graves has
had many cars, from his street Mk3 Cortina in the early eighties to the Super
Gas 2000 Firebird that he now co-owns with Conrad Stanley. His first
involvement with modified cars was with his brother Ian Graves, who was also
part of the Bristol Renegades. Trevor soon got involved, and was one of the
first of the Bristol mob to start racing on the quarter mile.
Trevor's
first car was a Mk3 Cortina which ran the 1/4 mile in 19.3 seconds at 79mph,
but from there he had a series of cars, getting faster and faster as the years
went on. In those years he even built a Rover powered Mk1 Escort with his
brother Ian, to run in the Rover Challenge - running a best of a 14 second
pass.
Trevor then decided he would get serious, and had a purpose built
Super Gas Mk4 Escort constructed by Tim Hines. Unfortunately this car had a
major crash at the top end of the race track - Trevor did suffer some
injuries, and was out of action for a while. |
| Mk4 XR3I at
Santa Pod. |
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After a good
recovery and a couple of years of crewing and helping to run Avon Park, Trevor
decided he wanted to race again, so he brought in a Sierra race car from
Europe, to compete in Super Gas. Again this car ran a Big Block Ford, and was
one of the first Super Gas cars in England to have a throttle stop device on
it. |
| Trevor at
Avon Park in 1994. |
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Trevor took this
car to Hockenheim in 1995, where he reached the semi finals. This car ran a
best of 9.2 seconds at 162mph. Again this car was to have a tragic end, when in
1996 a bit of water got under the slicks at half track at Avon Park, and the
car hit barrier - this time only the car was hurt, and Trevor got out
without a scratch. |
| 1996: Trevor
at York Raceway in the freshly painted Sierra. |
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After some more
time out and crewing for various teams, Trevor got itchy fingers to race again,
and bought the Honda Prelude which was built by Geoff Owen and raced for a
short time by him, before being parked up for a number of years.
After
running this car for a couple of years in Super Street and Super Gas, he
decided to sell the car and go into partnership with Conrad Stanley, and
concentrate on crewing on his own team. Trevor is now co-owner of The Panther
Racing Team and the 2000 Firebird that he and Conrad imported from the States.
You can find out more details on their web site
www.pantherracinguk.com |
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Anna Stanley  |
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Anna started
racing in Junior Dragster when she was eight years old, and soon became a
respected racer amongst her competitors. This should have been no surprise, as
she very much takes after her dad, Conrad.
With her racing career
starting early, will we see Anna in a Super Comp dragster by the time she is 16
years old? Or maybe even going Pro Stock racing in the future? Let's hope so!
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| Anna's Junior
Modified Dragster |
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Anna's Dragster
has a Chrome Moly chassis with a carbon fibre body, and has a billet aluminium
engine which runs on Methanol. Her fastest ET so far is 8.4 seconds at 73mph in
the eighth-mile. Most normal production cars would have a job in keeping up
with this young lady!
For current and future information on Anna and
Conrad please visit www.pantherracinguk.com |
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Words and pics:
Chris Kenny |
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R02 |
