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British Mini Weekend July 15 - 16

MINI NATIONALS
15th - 16th July 2000

This weekend was:-
Wild Bunch Series Round 3
Custom Chrome Series Round 4
Rear-engined Dragsters Series Round 2
and
Midland Drag Racing Association Round 2 (for members of MDRA).

Event Results
Pos WB Driver/Team Car Points
1 110 Nick Connor Barking Mad 9
2 4 Clayton Round Shortshot 7
3 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 6
4 102 Steve Goode Wobble 5
5 20 Mark Coulsell Limited Funz 4
- 56 Andy Gosling RamRaider 4
- 58 Tony Froome Sundance III 4
- 67 Darryl Howells Jolly Boys Outing 4
- 96 Tony Smith The Cunning Plan 4
- 108 Andrew Wilcox Firefighter 4
- 117 Nigel King/Nick Grayston Big Block Altered 4
- 119 Eddie Yates The Nutcracker 4
13 7 Roy Wilding Hemi Hunter 3
- 28 Pete Loveridge Herr X 3
- 111 Tony Smith Faster Pussycat 3
16 43 Martin Holgate Paranoia 2
- 316 Leigh Turland Stone Cold 2
18 86 Dick Sharp Dorset Horn 1
- 637 Gerald Cookson Super Joker 1
- WBG 29 Tony Wynne-Jones Corvette Guest
- WBG 99 Mike Wynne-Jones E-Type Jag Guest
Spot Prizes
WB Team/Driver Car Detail
Best Slingshor 67 Darryl Howells Jolly Boys Outing  
Best Altered 4 Clayton Round Shortshot  
Best Dragster/Radical 108 Andrew Wilcox Firefighter  
Best Burnout 96 Tony Smith Cunning Plan  
Closest to Dial-in 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 0.008 off
Most Improved 7 Roy Wilding Hemi Hunter  
We had a field of 19 cars + 2 guests, as well as several others who joined in with our allotted slots - 4 rounds on Saturday and 3 rounds on Sunday, with the weather steadily improving all weekend!!
WB 4Clayton Round was out having fun in the "Shortshot" altered, running his personal best E.T. of 10.901 in round 2, taking "Best Altered" spot prize, and going both sides of his 11.20 dial-in to take 2nd place.
WB 6Chris Hartnell was running pretty consistently in "Backdraft" and posted "Closest to dial-in" on round 2 with a 9.592 (.008 under his dial-in, and his closest ever to his dial-in!). He also had a tyre-deflating wheelie on launch in round 3, keeping his foot in it for a 9.462 for 3rd place [this had been quickest E.T. Of the meet until a funny bike ran a 7.8 and "Awesome Jet Car" "Fireforce"#1 ran a low 7 at 220+ & the even more "Awesome Jet Car" "Fireforce" # 2 ran a record-breaking 6.16 @ 260 mph!].
WB 7Roy Wilding brought "Hemi Hunter" back to the track for some more tuning and had some good advice from experts Tony Baker [of "Awesome Jet Car" #1 fame] and Phil Cornish [veteran crew-chief extra-ordinaire] and got the car sounding amazing and like it wanted to jump down off the stands itself and put down a blistering time on the track! Roy took it for a couple of check-out/licensing-style passes finishing with an 11.235 getting-to-know-you run! Looks and sounds excellent - hold on to your horses when it gets really flying later this season!! [Roy also took 1st spot in 8.50 class Super-Charged Outlaw making 2 passes opposed to Frank Griffin's 1].
WB 20Mark Coulsell was out in the "Limited Funz" slingshot running consistently under his dial-in. He had some good-looking match races with WB 28 - Pete Loveridge making a multi-coloured spectacle! Pete had some carburetion problems but still enjoyed being out there getting more runs under his belt!!
WB 43Martin Holgate had his cast off and was starting to run well in "Paranoia" until a previously reliable starter motor broke and put him out after round 1.
WB 56Andy Gosling had a turn in "Ramraider" , which had been fixed since last event. The car experienced starting problems on Saturday but Andy made all the rounds on Sunday.
WB 58The irrepressible Tony Froome was out in "Sundance III" making a very squirrely lane-changing pass on Saturday [looking for traction!] and ran a best for the day of 9.765 on Sunday.
WB 67Darryl Howells ran consistently under his dial-in of 12.84, running a personal best of 12.600 in round 2 and taking "Best Slingshot" in the "Jolly Boys Outing".
WB 86Dick Sharp came out in "Dorset Horn" with a rejuvenated gearbox, with all three gears working(!), but sadly torched the heads on his Pontiac motor on his first pass on Saturday. Good luck with sorting that out Dick!
WB 96Tony Smith (Wales) turned up for double duty, running in G-Class Mini (and winning that with lowest E.T. of 12.453 in that class!!)(later running even quicker with a 12.336!).
WB 102Steve Goode was running consistently just above his 11.90 dial-in with low 12's all day Sunday, finishing in 4th place in his "Wobble" altered.
WB 108Andy Willcox was back out in the "Firefighter" r.e.d. enjoying himself, running mid 12's and picking up "Best Dragster/Radical" once again.
WB 110Nick Connor had his quote "best weekend ever" in the "Barking Mad" altered running his personal best E.T. of 12.097 in round 2 (if there had been a 4th round he may have had an 11!). He hovered around his dial-in and took 1st place to his great delight! (and that of all his crew and Dog Squad mates!).
WB 111Tony Smith (North) made a very welcome return in his gorgeous jag-powered "Faster Pussycat" altered, and made a couple of check-out passes on Sunday, after a lot of hard work over the last month and in the pits!
WB 117Nigel King & Nick Grayston were out in their yellow, blue and white altered eventually running a personal best of 10.231 in round 2.
WB 119Ed Yates was having his turn in "Nutcracker" and steadily improved during the weekend performing his personal best E.T. in the car of 13.624 in round 2.
WB 316Leigh Turland was back in the "Stone Cold" Topolino altered, with a lot of work in the pits, and ran his personal best E.T. Of 14.239, unfortunately blowing his engine up in the process - the bits of mangled con-rod and straight big end caps were on display in the pits. Let's hope he can rebuild soon and get back out there and have fun!!
WB 637Gerald Cookson again had some problems with his "Super Joker" midget, performing a wiggly run on Saturday and having to sit out Sunday with steering and leakage problems. Better luck next time Gerald!!
The brothers Wynne-Jones were also back out guesting; Tony in his lovely red Corvette, running .008 under his dial-in in round 1, and Mike bringing his pale yellow E-Type Jag out, having done the crank in on his Cobra. Their times were close, although not on the same rounds, with Tony running the lowest with a 15.136. He took 2nd place in the MDRA round to Chris Hartnell's 1st. There were also other assorted "guest" rwyb's tagging along: a red Topo altered, the pale yellow Ford of Vince Andrews (a funny car is under construction) and Bristol Doorslammer (YES!!!) Bob Lees in his blue Mustang Grandee.