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The weekend of 9th and 10th May saw the first round of the HKS Drag Series with CPL’s Guy Chamberlain, Neil Knight and Paul Cresswell competing in the series. Also this weekend CPL had teamed up with blind adventurer Miles Hilton-Barber to set the first blind drag racing record across the ¼ mile. This record attempt took place on the Saturday following a practice run at Bruntingthorpe proving ground a few weeks earlier. Miles is 60 years old and has been totally blind since the age of 23. Despite this he has undertaken a number of amazing feats including micro-light flights, desert marathons, sky-diving and aeroplane aerobatics.
Miles was able to drive up the ¼ mile strip with co-driver Guy sitting beside him in the passenger seat giving directions via a numbering system. For both the practice and the record attempt Miles drove the CPL Racing Honda Civic FN2. The quickest time that Guy has achieved as an experienced drag racer of over 20 years is 13.0 seconds in the FN2. The additional weight of having Guy as a co-driver significantly impacts on times due to the additional 100 kilos in the car. Despite this Miles ran a highly impressive 14.2 seconds twice up the strip on Saturday and achieved a top speed of 150 mph at the Bruntingthorpe proving ground which is longer than the quarter mile. 
We are delighted to have been able to help Miles achieve his ambition of setting this drag racing record, not only for his own personal achievement but also because this was an opportunity for him to raise money for the Royal National Institute for the Blind for which he is specifically raising money for audio books for blind children. The record attempt was covered by Sky News as was a “live” interview with Miles. Airings went out on UK national television on the Saturday around 1.20pm and also at tea-time, with trailers throughout the day. This was also covered on the Sky News website with written report and video clips. Below are relevant links. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Blind-Adventurer-Miles-Hilton-Barber-Attempts-Drag-Racing-World-First-Against-The-Clock/Article/200905215278194?lid=ARTICLE_15278194_BlindAdventurerMilesHilton-BarberAttemptsDragRacingWorldFirstAgainstTheClock&lpos=searchresults http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Archived-Content/Blind-Adventurer-Miles-Hilton-Barber-attempt-to-become-the-first-blind-person-to-drive-a-drag-car--racing/Video/200905215278361?lid=VIDEO_15278361_BlindAdventurerMilesHilton-Barberattempttobecomethefirstblindpersontodriveadragcar-racing&lpos=searchresults http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Blind-Driver-Aims-For-Racing-Record/Video/200905215278654?lid=VIDEO_15278654_BlindDriverAimsForRacingRecord&lpos=searchresults If you would like to read more about Miles, he has his own website which is http://www.mileshilton-barber.com/ As for the HKS Drag Racing, congratulations to CPL’s Neil Knight who took the win in his Jackson Racing Supercharged Civic (still on a stock engine).
Guy had a number of niggly problems with his car but despite this still managed to qualify in the number one position with a 10.5 second run, and he took 3rd place overall. Well done to Paul Cresswell who beat his own personal best and ran into the 11’s for the first time in his CPL turbo Civic this weekend. Unfortunately Paul’s bonnet flipped up and smashed the windscreen at the end of a qualifying run which put him out of running on safety grounds.
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