Northampton petrolheads lap up '˜Roadkill' at special event

EBC Brakes, sponsor of Roadkill, hosted the event at its world headquarters in Upton Valley Way East, Northampton.

Freiburger and Dulcich, the presenters of the cult series watched by millions, spent hours signing autographs on everything from paper to drink cans, car bonnets, bumpers, and everything inbetween.

In fact, James Hallett, managing director of EBC Brakes, said that the event attracted visitors from the Netherlands, Norway, the South of France and even the USA.

The mechanically-minded crowd got to wander around the best builds that Britain has to offer, as well as watching stuntman Lee Bowers (also sponsored by EBC Brakes) who put on a motorcycle stunt-show.

Drag racing star, Jeff Lutz of Lutz Racing, renowned in the USA, made a surprise appearance as well as fellow drag racers Clay Millican, and Wayne Allman and his Mental Breakdown VW Bus.

And the Fifth Gear host, Jonny Smith popped along with his ratty Dodge Charger.

Northamptonshire man, Rob Judge, entertained the crowd by doing burnouts in his customized VW Beetle. “I built it and I look after it. It’s got a turbo charge and Nitrous oxide injection. It’ll do the quarter-mile in 16.49 [seconds].”

Rob, 45, of RNJ Motorsports said that he watches loads of Roadkill.

“[I see] quite a lot of the custom car scene, and this was a really good [event].

“It had a real nice feeling, a relaxed and friendly environment. I just want to say thanks to EBC Brakes and Roadkill for putting [the event] on. It was a great day.”

His wife, Polly Judge, 41, said “EBC were brilliant. It was a well run show, especially as they haven’t done anything like this before.

“[I loved] the sheer volume of really cool cars. It was all the stuff that you never normally see, and won’t see again.”

Polly has used the VW Beetle during her drag racing career. “I’ve been racing at Santa Pod for 12 years, and this year I came fourth in the whole championship.”

Mr Hallett said: “EBC Brakes have been friends of the Roadkill guys for many years in the USA and during a casual chat at the SEMA show in Las Vegas only 3 weeks ago, we thought it would be a great idea for them to visit our World HQ and arrange a car show for some of their followers here in the UK.

“Little did we know how big the event would become in such a short time.

“The EBC World HQ had over 2500 visitors during this event which surprised and exceeded expectations of all involved.

“During the day, our staff made a collection for the children in the Paddington Ward at Northampton General Hospital and collected over £2,000 which will be presented to them later this week by one of our new 2017 apprentices, Finlay Hackett.”

After the event, the Roadkill hosts joined EBC Brakes at The Smoke Pit for dinner before they moved on to the next stage of their England tour.

EBC Brakes tweeted “Special thanks go to Frank Hall of Frank’s Charity Track Day Club - FCTDC who handed us an envelope with a fantastic £500 inside.

“The money raised will be presented to Paddington Ward at Northampton General Hospital and will be used to buy Christmas gifts for the children who will unfortunately spend Christmas Day in hospital.”