Hi everybody

Here are the brief results from the ‘Green Light Nationals’ at Santa Pod last weekend, 19^th & 20^th August.

The Wild Bunch had a field of 5 excellent cars participating in the event. We had 4 qualifying runs on Saturday, and all 5 teams safely qualified.  On Sunday, we had a 5^th qualifier in the morning. There were a couple delays during the day and our first round, the Quarter Finals, took place at around 1:30pm. Unfortunately only 3 of the Bunch were able to take part, due to breakages!  Due to a couple of delays, the Semis took place at around 4:30pm and then the Final at around 5:30pm. It was a brilliant race!!

The Top 3 winners were:

1st Place: Phil James in ‘Rampage’ (Phil’s 3^rd win of the season! Well done Phil!)

2^nd Place: Steve Field in ‘Black Pig Too’ (great to see Steve in the Final! Well done!)

3rd Place: Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ (a fantastic effort in the semis! Fair play!)

The Spot Prizes were:

#1 Qualifier: Phil James in ‘Rampage’ .0061 off

Best Reaction (elims): Steve Field in ‘Black Pig Too’ .056

Best Appearing Team: Steve & Lesley Field and team in ‘Black Pig Too’

The full line-up was:

·      Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ (Pete did a great driving job in the first qualifier after some oil came out of the breather tank and covered the front of the car! The team did a thorough deep clean and Pete made the other qualifiers, qualifying in 3^rd place overall with an 8.488 on an 8.45, at a great speed of 160.21, exactly equal to his fastest ever speed! On Sunday, he ended up with a solo in the quarter-finals as sadly Alan was not able to run; he put in a great 8.486 on an 8.46 dial. In the semis, he faced Steve and brokeout with a strong 8.406 on an 8.44 dial-in)

·     Phil James in ‘Rampage’ (Phil yet again qualified in 1^st place in the first round and improved on the second with a 9.586 on a 9.58 dial. Phil had some problems firing the car before the elimination round, but made it out to stage and break the beam on his earned Bye run in the quarter-finals; he then ran 9.500 on a 9.46 in the semis against a breaking out Pete. He posted a 9.562 on a 9.46 in the final against Steve – a real close run race which he won by just .009! Congratulations Phil!)

·    Alan Loten in ‘Paranoia’ (Alan put in a solid 9.957 on a 9.50 dial in the first qualifier in the strong headwind. On the second qualifier the altered was a second off pace, with a 10.906 at only 106mph, and qualified in 5^th place. Sadly, back in the pits, it was discovered there was damage to the cam cover, push rods and possibly suspected piston hitting a valve – we are all so gutted to see this after Alan and Steve’s huge efforts to get the car back running again, and their previous good progress this year! Hope the damage is not too extensive and they can repair it soon! All the best folks!!)

·         Steve Field in ‘Black Pig Too’ (It was great to see Steve back out, and running the Mondrian body on the slingshot. Steve’s quickest pass in qualifying was a breakout 8.491, but his closest was an 8.697 on an 8.50 Dial, at 160.20mph. Steve qualified in 4^th place. In the quarter finals, he had a solo, as sadly Bob could not run. He took great advantage of this to ‘just go for it’ and recorded a stunning PB of 8.164, on an 8.55 dial! In the Semis he had a Bye run, so just staged and broke the beam, as the Final was going to be up quickly!  It was a great race with Phil in the Final, nad he ran am 8.635 on an 8.50 dial-in, to come within a hundredth of Phil’s winning effort. Well done Steve!)

·         Bob Hawkins in ‘Time Traveller II’ (Bob had only just built up a brand new engine after massive damage at Dragstalgia! The team had a few fireups on Saturday, but had a slight issue and missed the first two rounds. Bob made up for this on the 3^rd round, posting an excellent 6.765 @196.40mph pass on an 6.72 Dial!! Bob qualified in a great 2^nd place on this, his only qualifying run.  (I believe this may be the quickest and fastest run by any car at the event, but will double check on that! Well done Bob!). Sadly on warmup on Sunday, the team discovered a broken oil filter seal and Bob could not take part in eliminations! Such a shame! Hope this is a very limited issue, and Bob will easily resolve it and be back out at the next event! All the best!)

The PB’s this weekend were:

Steve Field in ‘Black Pig Too’ 8.164 (brilliant run!)

Highlights of the weekend were a slightly bigger field for this MSUK event, the brilliant cars and teams and the great camaraderie and racing!

Massive thanks again to everyone at Santa Pod for all their hard work as always! Well done to all the Wild Bunch teams! You all did yourselves proud once again!

Commiserations to Alan & Steve and Bob on their breakages, and hope they can all be fixed for the next round!

We hope to see an even bigger field for the MSUK final event on 22^nd – 24^th  September!! This is just one week after the 35^th Annual Hot Rod Drags which will see the Final of the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series and the penultimate round of the Wild Bunch Series and Spirit of Nostalgia Series!! Really looking forward to both of these races!!