WRIGHT Racing's Darryl Bradford failed in a mission to uphold British honours in his Top Fuel Dragster at last weekend's Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

Bradford, a Sky Sports TV presenter for the European series, suffered the misfortune of having a gear selector linkage break twice on the start line on his 7000bhp nitro burning dragster before overpowering the track in his third encounter.

However, in the opposing lane substitute racer Thomas Natass coming in as a late replacement for Andy Carter, who blew an engine at the previous weekend's race in Germany, didn't disappoint.

The rapid Norwegian and a previous visitor to Long Mar-ston, flew down the quarter-mile in 5.471 seconds at 281.46mph.

In the final of the track championships, Rick Cooke from Str-oud, Cheltenham's Ian Hook and Evesham's Harry Steadman all had something to say.

Cook narrowly missed out on taking his first ever final in Super Pro, while Hook drove his '34 Ford hot rod to several personal best elapsed times and speeds in the Street Eliminator category.

Sixteen-year-old Steadman completed his final race of the year in Junior Drag Bike defeating eight-year-old Scott Collier to the finishing stripe.

Steadman now has to retire from the class and move up to play with the bigger boys toys!