Ulverston drag bike racer Dave ‘Rocket’ Peters literally set the Santa Pod dragstrip near Northampton alight last weekend.

Dave, who won the ACU Funny Bike championship there in 2016, was contesting the 2019 championship on his awesome 16ft-long 1373cc nitrous oxide-fuelled, 600BHP turbo-charged Suzuki.

All seemed to be going well after his first competitive run on the quarter-mile strip recorded a 7.4-second run with a terminal speed of 175 mph.

A second run recorded 7.5 seconds at 171mph. At the start of his next run, the engine suffered an unexpected ‘flame out’ to make things uncomfortable to say the least for the Ulverston man.

Undaunted, he lined up the following day only to be knocked out in the semi final.

However, the team are happy with the overall result, they now lie third in the championship with more rounds to go.