If you like extremes, you'll love Top Fuel drag racing. Some numbers: 0-343mph in 3.6sec, 11,500bhp, fuel consumption of five gallons per second... To these can now be added '60' - as in 60 years of Santa Pod Raceway (1966-2026), the drag mecca in Bedfordshire. Or is it Northamptonshire? Both councils claim it but then nothing's normal in this sport, including Keith Bartlett, the Bernie Ecclestone of drag racing, who owns Santa Pod and a clutch of championship rights and who, like the former Formula 1 supremo, looks and behaves like a man half his age.

"You're how old?" I ask this trim and energetic legend of the strip, whose consortium bought Santa Pod and the surrounding land in 1996. "Eighty next birthday," he shoots back. It's another remarkable number in a sport that's full of them. But I'm not meeting Bartlett at his Santa Pod HQ to play Drag Strip Top Trumps. Instead, I've come with one simple aim: to find out just who watches the shortest motor races on the planet and why.

But first, some history. The roots of drag racing can be traced to road racing in the immediate aftermath of World War II, when demobbed servicemen with money, technical skills and an appetite for risk modified many of the surplus vehicles then available and, with decommissioned airfields to play on, began racing each other, first over a quarter of a mile and later 1000ft. The new sport was popular on the west coast of the US but by the 1960s its stars were arriving in England and competing on old airfields, often in front of their own countrymen stationed here for the Cold War. Encouraged by the sport's growing popularity, in 1966 a group of British businessmen bought Podington airfield, a former US Air Force bomber station, and on it established Europe's first permanent drag strip. Combining the spirit of its California roots with the name of the former bomber base, they called it Santa Pod.

By the 1980s, Santa Pod Raceway had become Europe's premier drag racing venue, where spectators could see Top Fuel cars (so-called because they race in the top formula), funny cars (drag racers that look like extreme road cars) and doorslammers (modified production cars with suspension and functioning doors) competing in a growing number of championships and formulas. Towards the end of the decade, the first Bug Jam Volkswagen festival took place, an event that set Santa Pod on the path to being the popular car culture destination it is today.

Then in 1996 a consortium led by Bartlett, who had created the European Top Fuel Association in 1991, bought Santa Pod and set about transforming it into Europe's maddest and baddest motorsport venue, albeit one that many have heard of but few have visited. The fact is that drag racing seems to exist under the radar, I suggest to him. "Not at all," insists Bartlett. "It's huge, with millions watching it online and across all the platforms. We host 65 events a year and Santa PodTV, our YouTube channel, attracts big audiences."

Who's watching? According to Bartlett, the sport's 'blink and you'll miss it' action is catnip to younger fans: "Young people have a low attention span. They want instant gratification. With drag racing, they can see Johnny beat his best mate or the blue car beat the red car in less than six seconds." Their average age, he says, is 22 to 35 years, compared with 35 to 60 only a few years ago. Influencers are an important route to them and Santa Pod hosts around 10 events where they race each other, streaming the results to their followers. "One year, an influencer said he'd sell tickets and invite his followers to come to Santa Pod to watch," says Bartlett. "The first year, 5000 came and the next, 10,000."

While the Top Fuel cars get the media's attention, it's the doorslammers and less extreme racers that many youngsters relate to. "At some events, the Top Fuel cars feel like the support act," says Bartlett. "They're unattainable to youngsters, who instead want to see the BMWs and JDMs [Japanese Domestic Market cars] they can afford tearing up the strip."

A key attraction of drag racing in this age of equality between the sexes is how, behind the wheel, male and female drivers are evenly matched. In fact, female driver Brittany Force is the current Top Fuel national record holder with a maximum speed over 1000ft of 343.16mph. Bartlett's wife, Susanne Callin, 42, is the 2025 FIA Top Fuel champion. His daughters are drag racers too.

However, male or female, a race is over so quickly that it's hard to imagine a driver has much to do. But Bartlett puts me straight: "You've got to steer but, more important, understand whether the car's getting loose, whether it's getting too heavy and what's happening behind. It's all about feel. It's experience and instinct."

Bartlett has plans for Santa Pod. He's about to buy out his business partner and gain full control to upgrade the site and, among other things, build spectator accommodation and new workshops. He's mulling an EV race formula too. "It's very exciting," he says. "I love the sport. If you don't love it, it'll eat you alive!"

Top fuel facts to melt your brain

In this age of hybrids and regen, the supercharged V8 pushrod engines that power the Top Fuel cars might seem old tech but they're bristling with advanced technologies, including a seven-stage clutch that only fully locks up at the last moment and a fuel system that weakens the mixture to generate more power as it does so. The engines burn 90% nitromethanol because, as a monofuel, it contains its own oxygen, allowing the pumps to force more of it into the combustion chambers at a rate of around five gallons per second. Typical power output is around 11,500bhp. The rear-pointing exhausts add additional thrust.

The rear tyres are very soft and inflated to only 7-10psi. The sidewalls bunch up on launch, increasing the contact patch. This twisting also moderates the savage burst of torque generated by the engine. At 300mph, the large rear aerofoil provides around 5450kg of downforce, while the smaller front aerofoil generates around 1135kg. A mixture of glue and chemicals is spread over the entire surface of the drag strip to increase the tyres' grip. I know this because when I walked it, it pulled my shoes off.