Hi everybody!

Here is the news from the fantastic 35^th NSRA ‘Hot Rod Drags’ on 15^th - 17^th September, at Santa Pod. A fantastic event where we thankfully made the most of the weather overall!

This event was Wild Bunch Series Round 4, Spirit of Nostalgia Series Round 6 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 3 (Final). The Wild Bunch had an excellent total of 28 teams participating at the event: 10 altereds, 16 slingshots, 1 rear-engined dragster and 1 funny car, with 2 British Drag Racing Hall of Fame members amongst them tuning their cars with their sons driving! 26 teams participated in the competition rounds on Saturday and Sunday.

• Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ (weekend’s bests of 8.441 and 159mph and a strong Win for the boys! Well done!)
• Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ (another great Top 4 for Dan with several consistent 10.1s and a PB for good measure!)
• Chris Hartnell in ‘Backdraft’ (some great wheels up launches and 3 runs over 150mph with a weekend best of 8.740 /152.15)
• Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Wrathchild’ (weekend’s bests of 11.178/127.01 close to a PB speed; the boys were 7^th overall with the car)
• Bradley Cooper in ‘Back from the Past’ (tuned by British Drag Racing Hall of Famer Dad Ken) (Bradley and Ken enjoyed another great flathead matchup with the Charles Bang car and were once again quickest flathead with the 11.076 pass)
• Terry Clifford in ‘Ratcatcher Resurrection’ (welcome back Terry & Ruth for the first time in 4 years with the car, with Ruth looking gorgeous in her back-up gear and Terry right back in the swing of things)
• Bobby Wright in the ‘Alturd’ (Bobby and team thoroughly enjoying extra testing and racing putting in some solid runs throughout)
• James Griffen in ‘Time Lock 2’ (James had bought the Topolino from Gary Atkinson since the last event where he ran his other Topolino ‘Hold Fast’!)
• Gavin Meanley & Pete Ayres in the ‘Charles Bang Special’ flathead slingshot owned by Dean Butler (welcome back for another great annual outing! Well done on fixing the brake issue Friday! Fantastic to see this 1966 original car running with the Bunch in low to mid 12s!)
• Alan Lloyd in ‘Gonzo the Great’ (tuned by British Drag Racing Hall of Famer Dad Ian) (after a few wild runs Friday, it was great to see Alan and Ian achieving a long time goal of getting into the 7.5s!)
• Ford Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’ (another fantastic weekend for young Ford who ran a PB on nearly every run! A great and competent performance! Ford was 8^th overall! Well done!)
• Keith Crampton in ‘Soultown Shaker’ (Keith had weekend bests of 9.930/138.19; he finished in 10^th place overall in his always perfectly turned out slingshot)
• Jim Tanner in ‘Shindigger’  (Jim had some strong burnouts and was 15^th overall)
• Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption’ (another great Top 4 finish and a strong PB! Congratulations to Andy on winning one of the NSRA ‘Dirty Dozen’ awards for his great slingshot!)
• Tim Roy in ‘Boston Straggler 2’ (after a strong 8.690/158.47 on Friday, Tee had a couple of small issues which prevented him from running on Sunday, but sure he can easily sort these for next year)
• Bob Hawkins in ‘Time Traveller II’ (brilliant to see Bob back in the 6.7’s, with two strong runs of 6.747/200.68 and 6.717 / 199.00, and he finished 9^th overall)
• Mick Taylor debuting his daughter Frankie’s ‘Banshee’ altered, running as a Wild Bunch guest (what a beautifully turned out and stunning car! Mick made progress all weekend, ironing out some new car issues, and Frankie thoroughly enjoyed the Cracklefest! Welcome to the whole team! Congratulations on winning one of the NSRA ‘Dirty Dozen’ awards for their gorgeous car!)
• Rob White in ‘Happy Daze’ (Rob overcame a couple of issues during the weekend, made it out for all 3 rounds, ran another 10-second PB and the team had another fun weekend! Rob finished 14^th)
• Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ (Dave had resolved the issues from the last event and had several great 10-second passes, great to see him win a Spot Prize for this lovely slingshot)
• Paul Tarry in ‘Trigger’s Broom’ (Paul was leading after the first round with just 5 thou off Dial! A problem with gears scuppered his second run, but otherwise he was consistent; he finished 16^th)
• Ian Wild in ‘WildScat’  (Ian ran weekend bests of 12.328/113.34, thoroughly enjoyed his weekend and finished in a good 6^th place overall)
• Elliott & Dan Jones in ‘Ragin’ Cajun’ (what a weekend! what a mammoth effort after breaking the diff, round trip home, fixing the car, and running a PB; they finished in 11^th place)
• John Sharod in ‘Never Say Never’ (John started the weekend with a low 12-second checkout pass but unfortunately the car suffered a breakage with a lifter, and despite trying, the team could not get this fixed; hope to see John out early next year, back in the 8’s!! Best of luck!)
• James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ (James was improving his position after each round, finishing just outside the points in 5^th place, another consistent performance!)
• Rich Butcher in ‘4orth Dimension’  (Rich was having a ball as always and ran several mid 12-second passes throughout the weekend with a weekend best 12.129, close to a PB; he finished in 13^th place overall)
• Allan Schofield in ‘Scud’ (Allan was running his first Wild Bunch event with the ex-Lee Gallimore ‘Red Mist’ car, after a recent test day; he had several strong mid 7’s and a great Top 4 result!)
• Steve Garlant in ‘Sonic Attack 2’ (Steve had some stand-in crew this weekend who were getting to grips with helping out; he ran a weekend best of 11.010)
• Ruaridh Hart in ‘Bravehart’ (great to see Ruaridh exceeding the team’s weekend’s expectations and running his first 10’s! He was 3^rd after the first round and finished in 12^th overall, due to going quicker than expected!)

Brilliant to see such a big field of awesome cars and teams for our final RWYB-type event of the season!

Friday was a Run-What-You-Brung day and 12 teams were out testing that day.

On Saturday we had 3 rounds scheduled during the Race class sections of the day. Due to the unpredictable weather that was due to come in on Sunday, we decided as a whole to have the first two rounds as practice runs and the third session as our first competition round.  Our first session took place around 11:30am and our second at 3:30pm, a fair bit after the scheduled time. Everyone chose a Dial-in and 25 drivers took part in our first competition round at around 6:30pm.

Then on the evening, only about an hour later, there was the ‘Cracklefest’ and 3 Wild Bunch drivers thoroughly enjoyed taking part in that! They were: Frankie Taylor in ‘Banshee’, James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ and Allan Schofield in ‘Scud’.

On Sunday, we ran our second round at about 10:30am. Our third was then around 2:20pm. Due to the predicted storm, we planned that to be our last run of the day. This turned out to be a good call as some of the Bunch were not finished running and back in the pits until quarter to 3, and the rain came in at about 10 past 3! But overall we were very lucky considering the clouds were hanging around since the morning! So it was great to get 3 rounds in over the 2 days! Many thanks to Andy and Tee for the use of their big awning for the Prize presentation! It was cosy and dry! Much appreciated!

The amazing Top 4 trophies and 8 spot prizes were spectacular and were fabricated by Elaine Southworth of coolengineeredart of team ‘Daddy Cool’. They are fantastic as always! Thanks very much Elaine!

Here are the Top 4 winners:

1^st Place: Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’  .0316 average

2^nd Place: Allan Schofield in ‘Scud’  .0614 average

3^rd Place: Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption’ .0735 average

4^th Place: Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ .0837 average

Here are the Spot Prizes that were awarded:-

• Closest to Dial-in (Race-day): Paul Tarry in ‘Trigger’s Broom’ .005 off (brilliant to see Paul getting so close to Dial)
• Best Reaction (Race-day): Ruaridh Hart .108 (his reactions were good throughout)
• Fastest MPH: Bob Hawkins in ‘Time Traveller II’ 200.68mph (fantastic to see Bob running at over 200mph again!)
• Best Appearing Car:  Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ (well turned out car and a great PB)
• Best Appearing Team:  James Auld and team with ‘Little Fauss’ (well turned out team in red jackets and hats, looking professional throughout the event!)
• Driver’s Choice: Terry & Ruth Clifford and ‘Ratcatcher Resurrection’ (brilliant to see them back with the car)
• Commentator’s Choice: The Joneses with ‘Ragin’ Cajun’ (on the test run Friday, the car broke the pinion, and Dan & Elliott made an 8 hour round trip to Manchester to get the spare with the team installing it Friday night and firing up Saturday morning and making the first practice round, with Elliott later running a PB for the car – massive effort, well rewarded!)
• Outstanding Performance: Ruaridh Hart in ‘Bravehart’ (for taking around a second off his PB!)

Also:

NSRA Quickest E.T. in WILD BUNCH:  Bob Hawkins in ‘Time Traveller II’ 6.717

NSRA Award for the Quickest Flathead car: Bradley Cooper in ‘Back from the Past’  11.076

PBs (and there were a lot of them! In fact, half of the field ran PBs!!):

• Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ 10.087 / 126.51 (good performance as well as a PB)
• Bobby Wright in the ‘Alturd’  140.22mph (more improvement for Bobby!)
• James Griffen in ‘Time Lock 2’ 9.151 / 141.66 (getting a handle on the new car really quickly!)
• Alan Lloyd in ‘Gonzo the Great’ (tuned by British Drag Racing Hall of Famer Dad Ian) 7.594 / 172.42 (the Lloyds had been looking for that 7.5 for some time now and great to see them achieve it!)
• Ford Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’ 9.207 / 147.19 (a string of great PB’s all weekend!!)
• Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption’ 10.289 / 127.22 (really getting a handle on the car)
• Mick Taylor in his daughter Frankie’s ‘Banshee’ altered, running as a WB guest  9.627 / 128.78
• Rob White in ‘Happy Daze’  10.911 (backing up his 10-second pass from earlier this season!)
• Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’  10.294 / 134.16 (great improvement throughout the weekend)
• Elliott & Dan Jones in ‘Ragin’ Cajun’ 9.761 / 136.09 (what a fantastic PB after all their efforts!)
• James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’  110.05 mph (well done on the first PB for some time, on a newly refreshed engine)
• Allan Schofield in ‘Scud’ 7.598 (a brilliant run at 172.22mph!)
• Steve Garlant in ‘Sonic Attack 2’  124.11mph (great to see Steve making more progress!)
• Ruaridh Hart in ‘Bravehart’ 10.602 / 117.45 (and backing up that 10!) 

[Please do let me know if I have missed any!!]

Many Congratulations to all those who ran PB’s at the weekend, especially those who set and re-set them!! Excellent!!  And what a great way to finish their season!!

Big commiserations to all those who had issues and best of luck with the repairs, and for next season!!

Highlights of the weekend include the large brilliant field of Wild Bunch, the small Cracklefest, completing 3 rounds of great competition, and of course the amazing group of cars and people, who all put on a fantastic show as always and did themselves proud!!

Huge thanks to all the Santa Pod marshals and officials, track and safety and medical crews and organisers and Alan Martin and all at the NSRA for all their hard work!! It is so much appreciated!! Another great event overall and fitting to celebrate the 35^th Anniversaryl!! Thanks to all on the eurodragster team this weekend, especially Simon for his usual excellent reporting and the photography team!! Thanks to Colin Theobold and John Price for great commentary!

Again, a massive well done to all of the Wild Bunch for an incredible show as always!!

All the best

Claire