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Excitement Nationals May 3 - 5
Ultimate Power Series 2003The Excitement Nationals3rd May - 5th MayPoints awarded for Ultimate Power Series & Real Steel Championships
The first Ultimate Power Series event of 2003, (the first ever!) the "Excitement Nationals", was also Real Steel Series Round 2. There was a field of 17 Wild Bunch cars competing at this 3-day Bank Holiday weekend: 6 Altereds, 7 Slingshots, 3 Rear-engine dragsters and 1 Radical. (The second biggest car field at the event!!).
| Event Results | ||||
| Pos | WB | Driver | Car | Points |
| 1 | 34 | Alec Coe | Shy Torque | 790 |
| 2 | 20 | Mark Coulsell | Limited Funz | 480 |
| 3 | 3 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 440 |
| 4 | 56 | Dogs Bollocks Racing | RamRaider | 320 |
| 5 | 40 | Dennis Hawkins | Wicked Lady | 300 |
| 6 | 9 | Dogs Bollocks Racing | Nutcracker | 260 |
| 7 | 29 | Tony Wynne-Jones | Welsh Raider II | 250 |
| 8 | 4 | Darryl Howells | Wheels of Fortune | 240 |
| 9 | 21 | Gareth Kent | Hot Dog | 230 |
| 10 | 33 | Tom Coe | Psycho | 220 |
| 11 | 2 | Tony Smith | The Cunning Plan | 210 |
| 12 | 1 | Floyd Codpiece Racing | Back in Black | 170 |
| 13 | 82 | Gary Kay | Dream Machine | 90 |
| 14 | 86 | Dick Sharp | Dorset Horn | 30 |
| 15 | 15 | Keith Charman | Alkymist | 10 |
| 16 | 22 | Scottie Durrant | In The Dog House Again | 10 |
| 17 | 265 | Paul Martin | Red & Yellow Flamed Topo | 10 |
| Spot Prizes | ||||
| WB | Team/Driver | Car | Detail | |
| #1 Qualifier | 34 | Alec Coe | Shy Torque | .019 Off |
| Best Reaction | 20 | Mark Coulsell | Limited Funz | .473 |
| Closest To Dial-In | 33 | Tom Coe | Psycho | .009 Off |
| Closest Runner-Up | 2 | Tony Smith | The Cunning Plan | .018 Behind |
| Closest Breakout | 21 | Gareth Kent | Hot Dog | .018 Under |
| Best Engineered | 21 | Gareth Kent | Hot Dog | |
| Best Altered | 21 | Gareth Kent | Hot Dog | |
| Best Slingshot | 56 | Ray Ford | Ram Raider | |
| Best Radical/Dragster | 15 | Chevy Charman-Osborne | Alkymist | |
| Best Appearing Team | 22 | Scottie Durrant | In The Dog House Again | |
| Saturday This was a qualifying day and there were scheduled to be 2 qualifying rounds. In the 1st round of qualifying, 11 drivers took part. WB 1 Joe Stevens carded an 11.959 opener on an 11.11 Dial-in in the “Back in Black” altered, which qualified him in 9th place. WB 2 Tony Smith ran a strong 12.071 on an 11.90, in “The Cunning Plan” Minivan altered, hoping to break that magic 11-second barrier (with the body on). WB 3 Chris Hartnell and son Lee had sorted out the gremlins in the “Backdraft” slingshot, with Lee totally re-wiring the car; and he ran a 10.326 at 132.74 mph, after having to back off after the launch. WB 15 Chevy Charman-Osborne was having her turn in the “Alkymist” Rear-engine dragster and, after launching, had a very hairy run, crossing the centre line and not recording a time. It was WB 20 Mark Coulsell's first appearance of the year, in the “Limited Funz” slingshot, and he put in an off-pace 11.793 on an 11.00 Dial-in, with some minor problems, which was still good enough to qualify in 8th place. WB 21 Gareth Kent was doing his observed licensing runs in the “Hot Dog” altered, and put in a good launch and 1/8th pass on this round. WB 22 Scottie Durrant had put another gearbox in his “In the Dog House Again” Topolino altered, and had spent some of Saturday with Paul Stubbings tuning the injection system and engine in the pits. Unfortunately, he had problems with the torque converter, and had to drive to Bristol with his crew and Lee Hartnell to pick up a spare one, which he eventually fitted during the evening. WB 33 Tom Coe was running in his slingshot “Psycho” and ran an 11.385 on an 11.40 for his opening qualifier. WB 34 Alec Coe posted a 10.50 Dial-in in the “Shy Torque” slingshot and immediately shaved one thousandth off his Personal Best E.T., carding a 10.519 @ 115.38 mph, which earnt him the #1 Qualifier Spot. WB 40 Dennis Hawkins put in a solid 9.798 run on a 9.60 Dial in the “Wicked Lady” Rear-engine dragster, which was good enough to gain 6th qualifying spot. WB 56 Ray Ford was back in the “Ram Raider” for this MSA event and ran a strong 10.117 on a 10.17 Dial-in (if only the team had guessed that extra “1”!). This was a strong run @ 132.35 mph. WB 86 Dick Sharp was back again in the “Dorset Horn” and put in a brilliant 9.607 @ 139.32 mph pass on a 9.65 Dial-in, for a great start. Unfortunately, on the next fire-up, the team suffered a spun bearing and possible crank damage (to the old trusty one that's been in the Pontiac for 30 years!!). Hope they can fix it soon and be back out with more mid 9's!! After a lot of effort by the track crew and officials getting the track ready, and keeping racing going, the weather closed in and the 2nd round of qualifying was unfortunately rained off, so that was it for the day. | |
| Sunday Luckily Sunday started off with blue skies, and kept dry for the day. There was one more qualifying round for all classes, with eliminations scheduled to start if track time permitted. 15 Wild Bunch cars took part in this round. Joe Stevens put in another 11 second pass, but did not better his first qualifier, while Tony Smith fired off a Personal Best E.T. of 12.042 on an 11.90, getting closer to ‘that number’! Unfortunately, Tony suffered valve damage on the run, and mid afternoon went to extraordinary lengths of borrowing Lee Hartnell's car and driving to Abergavenny for parts, in the hope that he could fix it for the first round of eliminations! (He had already qualified safely in 5th spot.) Chris Hartnell was finally back in the 9's, running a great 9.559 on a 9.50 to take number 2 qualifying spot. Chris had launched into a big wheelie and carried the wheels for 60 ft and posted a 138.89 mph terminal speed. WB 4 Darryl Howells made it into the round in his “Wheels of fortune” slingshot with a solid 12.369 on a 12.40 Dial-in, fixing some of his gremlins. WB 9 Andy Gosling made a pass of 14.566 on a 13.00 Dial-in, back in the “Nutcracker” slingshot once again. Chevy Charman-Osborne was back in the “Alkymist” and ran a great Personal Best E.T. of 8.545 @ 157.89 mph, for her first trip into the 8's (this was also a Team Best for the car, topping Dad's 8.69 at the Season Opener!) and was Top MPH and Low E.T. of “the Bunch” for the weekend! Chevy also took the “Best Radical/Dragster” Spot Prize for her efforts. Congratulations again to the whole team!! Mark Coulsell improved his slingshot's performance with a 10.619 on a 10.70 Dial-in. Gareth Kent was on his full pass observed run on this round of qualifying, and posted a great 12.462 on a 12.40 Dial-in, both achieving his licence and qualifying 3rd overall for his first ever time in competition!! Fair play and congratulations to him!! Scottie had fixed the problems with the torque converter and took his beautiful purple altered down to the fire up road for the first time after 3 years of building, to do an observed licensing run! The car fired up and sounded strong and Scottie put in a good burnout, but sadly had to shut off due to brake problems, so was unable to get in his half pass. Scottie and the whole Dog Squad took the “Best Appearing Team” Spot Prize for their smart appearance and new purple team wear (once again beautifully made by Karen) and were thrilled to be making the appearance with the altered! WB 29 Tony Wynne-Jones made a pass in the “Welsh Raider II” Radical Corvette, putting in a total time of 59.785 on a 12.50 Dial-in. [This run was originally disqualified by the officials as Tony had launched and bogged, and then reversed to re-stage (and was touched by a marshal past the blue line) but launched again as the clock was still running, and recorded a time. On close perusal of the MSA rulebook, the officials noted that the blue line violation happens when a “crew member” touches the car past the blue line, and as it was a marshal who touched the vehicle, Tony was re-instated into the ladder, qualifying 11th!]. Tom Coe ran an 11.441 on an 11.30 Dial-in in this round, improving his qualifying place to 4th. Dad Alec also put in another good pass, with a 10.533 on a 10.50 Dial-in, underlining his Top qualifying place. Dennis Hawkins put in another good pass with a 9.815 on his 9.60 Dial-in. Ray Ford came back out with a 10.10 Dial-in and amazingly ran the team's first 9-second pass in the “Ram Raider” slingshot, carding a 9.929 @ 130.06 mph!! Fair play and many congratulations to Ray and the whole team, who didn’t mind breaking out again for that one!! WB 82 Gary Kay joined in the show posting a very good 12.803 on a 12.50 Dial-in, off the trailer, and qualifying 7th in his first MSA event with the Wild Bunch. Well done, Gary!! WB 265 Paul Martin was doing observed licensing runs in his yellow and red-flamed Topolino altered, and after initially losing fire on the line and pushing back, was able to re-start the Altered and put in a good launch and 1/8th pass of 12.4 seconds. As this was not his final observed pass and he still had one more to do, Paul ran out of rounds and was unable to qualify for race day. Due to a fair amount of down time and volume of entries (around the 250 mark!), we ran out of time to start eliminations, but at least everyone had the chance of 2 qualifying runs in all, and there were 15 Wild Bunch cars qualified for the race! | |
| Monday (Race Day) The first round saw Alec with a Bye run, being “#1 Qualifier”, and he ran a 10.563 on a 10.50 Dial-in for the solo. Tony Smith was matched up against Darryl Howells. Tony ran a great 11.985 on an 11.95 Dial-in, recording the altered's first ever 11-second pass with its body on!! Congratulations to Tony who has been waiting a long time for this one!! Although Tony was pretty close to Dial-in, Darryl had had a better reaction and took the win with a 12.446 on a 12.29 Dial-in! It was a close race and Tony also took home the “Closest Runner-up” Spot Prize (losing by only .018) as well as a new Personal Best E.T. (well worth the trip to Wales during the weekend!). Gareth was in his first race of competition and posted a 12.382 breakout on a 12.40 Dial-in, handing the win to Andy Gos, who had a breakage and slowed to a 17.884 on a 13.50 Dial-in. Gareth took the “Closest Breakout” Spot Prize for this, going under his Dial-in by only .018. He also took home “Best Engineered” and “Best Altered” Spot Prizes for his well-turned out “Hot Dog” altered this weekend, and made a very good showing in his first competition outing. In the next pairing, Gary Kay unfortunately had trouble with his fuel pump and could not make the race against Ray Ford, who advanced to the next round with a solid 10.075 on a 10.00 Dial-in. Chris Hartnell was matched against Joe Stevens and both drivers broke out in their race, but Chris broke out the least with a 9.479 on a 9.50, against Joe's 11.285 on an 11.91 Dial. Chris had a great Reaction time of .485 on this run, posting a speed of 139.32 mph [the third driver to post this exact speed at the weekend, equalling Dick and Dennis!]. In the next pair, Dick had broken, so Dennis had a Bye run and posted another high 9 on a 9.74 Dial-in, to advance to the quarter-finals. Tommy “Gun” Coe posted a great 11.309 on an 11.30 (“Closest to Dial-in”) but had unfortunately red-lit, handing the win to Tony Wynne-Jones who ran a new Personal Best E.T. of 12.584 on a 12.50 Dial-in in his beautiful radical Corvette. Mark Coulsell also had a Bye run, when Chevy had problems with the breather on the “Alkymist”. He ran a solid 10.547 on a 10.50, progressing to the quarter-finals. It had been another good run and, in fact, 3 of the drivers with Bye runs had posted times all within .075 of their Dial-ins! | |
| Quarter Finals In the quarter-finals, Alec ran another PB of 10.477 on his 10.50 Dial-in, breaking out but taking the win over Darryl's greater breakout of 12.192 on his 12.35 Dial. Gos had repaired the damage to “Nutcracker”'s engine and posted a 14.789 on a 13.50, in a Team Dog's Bollocks race against Ray, who ran a closer 10.404 on a 10.10 Dial, to advance to the Semis. Unfortunately, Dennis had to leave early, and handed Chris a Bye run, where he posted a good 9.597 on his 9.50 Dial-in (another Bye-run driver within a tenth of Dial-in!). In the last pairing, Tony W-J posted a 12.819 on a 12.50 Dial-in, but had a slow reaction time, giving Mark the win with a slow 11.212 on a 10.70 Dial-in. | |
| Semi Finals The Semi-Finals saw a tough race with Alec matched up against Ray. Alec posted a 10.607 on a 10.50, advancing to the Final for his first time ever, over Ray's 10.235 on a 10.00 Dial-in. Another tough race in the other Semi was Chris against Mark. Mark took the win with a 10.592 on a 10.50, to Chris’ breakout of 9.346 on a 9.50 Dial-in, Mark also posting “Best Reaction” on this run with a .473. Chris didn’t mind as this was his best run for 9 months and resulted in his first speed ever over 140 mph, with a terminal of 141.96 mph!! (Which had been a few years coming and meant that “Backdraft” was well and truly back on song!). Ray ended up 3rd on the “tot-back” system, by virtue of being closest to Dial-in (without breaking out) of the Semi-final losers, and he also took “Best Slingshot” Spot Prize for his PB first 9-second pass and consistent efforts. Chris took 4th place for the event, and was very chuffed with the return to form of his slingshot! | |
| Final This was quite a rush after the Semi-finals, with the two drivers barely getting back to the pits and refuelling, but they both made the call and raced “heads-up”, both on 10.50 Dial-ins! This was an absolutely cracking race, with not much between the two drivers all the way down the strip. Mark ran a brilliant Personal Best E.T. of 10.413 (his first for years) but Alec took the first ever Ultimate Power Series victory with a lesser breakout of 10.437, also yet another great new Personal Best E.T. for him!! Congratulations to both drivers on their achievements this weekend! And, in deed congratulations to all ‘the Bunch’ as overall, it was some close and exciting racing once more, and a great start to the Ultimate Power Series, with such a big field of Wild Bunch. Thanks to all the efforts of the hard working marshals and officials, who had a lot of incidents to cope with at this event (even including runaway gazebos trying to get on to the track!). And once again it was thanks to the hard work of everyone concerned, including fellow racers, that enabled the event to be completed! Thanks also to the track owner and new promoters, Lee Child (LA Performance Services) for making the event possible in the first place. Looking forward to some more fun and close racing at the second round of the Ultimate Power Series in June!! In the meantime, we also have the Rear-engine dragsters half of Wild Bunch Series Round 2 at the Classic American Nationals on May 17th & 18th and the first round of the year at York on 25th & 26th May! Hope to see loads of you there!! |