Letters: 101-year-old airman races down Santa Pod drag strip - where he flew WWII missions 80 years before
Readers revisit Michael Keyser’s racing photographs, question Formula 1’s sprint format and recall the wartime history of Santa Pod, where a former US airman returned to the runway on which he once took off in B-17 bombers
Papaya or orange? Denny Hulme, here at Watkins Glen in 1971, had an opinion on the McLaren hue
Santa Pod
A most interesting item in the November 2026 issue about drag racing at Santa Pod [Playing with fire]. Exactly a year ago we achieved one of the longer times down the strip – in a World War II Jeep!
Just ahead in another Jeep was Lester Schrenk, a 101-year-old US Army Air Forces veteran of 92nd Bomb Group who was a crew member in B-17s stationed at (then) Podington. He had taken off many times down the same runway strip before being shot down and captured.
WWII veteran Lester Schrenk
Charles Laird
He said that this was the first time he had actually seen the runway surface while travelling down it. As a gunner, he had to lay on the floor during take-offs!
Keith Martin, Milton Keynes
Lester Schrenk died in March this year at the age of 102 – Ed
B-17s at RAF Podington
Charles Laird
Two photographs in your A journey back to a lost era [October] by Kevin Rice show the Porsche 911T of Michael Keyser entangled with the Ferrari 512 M of Herbert Müller after their crash at Watkins Glen in 1971. It’s very fitting that it appears in the same issue with the piece on the movie Grand Prix, as American Michael Keyser is not only a racing driver but also a photographer and film-maker to whom we owe the superb documentary The Speed Merchants about the 1972 World Sportcars Championship and a photo book by the same name covering the racing scene in Europe and the United States between 1969 and 1972.
He also co-wrote with the British driver Jonathan Williams the book A French Kiss With Death: Steve McQueen and the Making of Le Mans [released in 1999] – the ‘other’ greatest film about auto racing.
Jean-Louis Doublet, Oulchy-Le-Château, France
Jeep at Santa Pod
Charles Laird
Papaya rules are back in the news at Singapore. Current McLaren F1 cars run in a TV friendly shade of orange. Back in the day we ran in a less lurid shade of orange. No less an authority than Denny Hulme told me, “That’s not papaya.”
John B Lewis, via Email
Irecently attended the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and melted in the sweltering heat during FP3. After 28 minutes, only half the grid had taken to the track, and there was the constant bemoaning by the drivers about the sprint races and how most, if not all, don’t like them. Why doesn’t Formula 1 management shake things up and deliver something the fans would enjoy on a Saturday: a reserve driver race.
No records today
Charles Laird
Every team has a reserve driver sat twiddling his thumbs every weekend hoping for a chance. This would also give the fans who don’t always watch F2 and F3 the chance to see these possible F1 drivers-of-tomorrow in action. Obviously the teams and F1 management will say it’s an added cost but they spend more on champagne in a season entertaining corporate guests than it would cost to field an extra car for a one-hour race on Saturday. F1 would be the winner and the fans would have something to watch instead of a half-empty track.
Steve Lilly, Filey, North Yorkshire
Michael Keyser’s 911 at the 1971 Watkins Glen 6 Hours – as well as a driver, he was a film-maker
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