Santa Pod Raceway, located in Podington, Bedfordshire, England, is Europe's first permanent drag racing venue. It was built on a disused Second World War air base, once used by the 92nd Bomber Group. The drag racing venue opened at Easter in 1966, and it is now the home of European drag racing and has grown substantially over its 40-year existence. It hosts both the first and last round of the FIA and FIM/UEM European Drag Racing Championship, along with the British National Drag Racing Championships.
It is leased and operated by Trakbak Racing which is based in London. Santa Pod regularly takes its promotional units to major events in motor sport.
Santa Pod is the venue in which the current world drag racing record, a time of 3.58 seconds at 386.26 mph (621.61 km/h) was set by Sammy Miller in his Vanishing Point rocket-propelled funny car in July 1984. Another record has also been set at Santa Pod, the world's fastest jet car (notably Santa Pod's "resident") Fireforce 3 piloted by Martin Hill broke the record in Easter 2005 with a terminal speed of 336.10 mph (540.88 km/h). Several other European drag racing records have been set along with records unsurpassed outside the United States.
In May 2010 Top Fuel dragster driver Urs Erbacher set a class speed record with a terminal speed of 314.87 mph reached in less than 5 seconds. At the same race meeting Eric Teboul set a time of 5.23 seconds at 249 mph on his Hydrogen Peroxide Rocket Bike, which he further improved to 5.19 seconds at the European championships in September 2010.
Santa Pod remains the fastest all-asphalt dragstrip in the world since most North American tracks are partially or entirely concrete in construction.