Power Nationals - Wild Bunch

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Power Nationals June 14 - 15

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Ultimate Power Series 2003The Power Nationals14th June - 15th JunePoints awarded for Ultimate Power Series & Real Steel Championships

The second Ultimate Power Series event of 2003, the “Power Nationals”, was also Real Steel Series Round 5. There was a field of 14 Wild Bunch cars competing this weekend, including 7 Slingshots, 4 Altereds, 2 Rear-engine dragsters and 1 Radical.

Event Results
Pos	WB	Driver	Car	Points
1	56	Dogs Bollocks Racing	RamRaider	700
2	2	Tony Smith	The Cunning Plan	480
3	3	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	450
4	34	Alec Coe	Shy Torque	310
-	86	Dick Sharp	Dorset Horn	310
6	110	Nick Connor	Barking Mad	260
7	20	Mark Coulsell	Limited Funz	230
8	33	Tom Coe	Psycho	220
9	9	Dogs Bollocks Racing	Nutcracker	190
10	21	Gareth Kent	Hot Dog	180
11	82	Gary Kay	Dream Machine	170
12	29	Tony Wynne-Jones	Welsh Raider II	140
13	40	Dennis Hawkins	Wicked Lady	120
14	4	Darryl Howells	Wheels of Fortune	30

Spot Prizes
	WB	Team/Driver	Car	Detail
#1 Qualifier	2	Tony Smith	The Cunning Plan	.052
Best Reaction	82	Gary Kay	Dream Machine	.425
Closest To Dial-In	34	Alec Coe	Shy Torque	.011 Off
Closest Runner-Up	20	Mark Coulsell	Limited Funz	.094 Behind
Closest Breakout	33	Tom Coe	Psycho	.017 Breakout
Best Engineered	86	Dick Sharp	Dorset Horn
Best Altered	86	Dick Sharp	Dorset Horn
Best Slingshot	33	Tom Coe	Psycho
Best Radical/Dragster	29	Tony Wynne-Jones	Welsh Raider II
Best Appearing Team	2	Team Cunning Plan	The Cunning Plan
Wildest Ride	34	Alec Coe	Shy Torque

Saturday This was a qualifying day and there were 2 rounds of qualifying to be had. In the 1st round of qualifying, 12 drivers took part. Tony Smith ran a 12.449 on an 11.95 Dial-in for his opening bid in The Cunning Plan minivan altered, which had just received a brand new paint job with smart new graphics. Chris Hartnell ran an off-pace 10.328 pass on a 9.40 Dial-in in the Backdraft slingshot for his first qualifier. Darryl Howells ran an 18.812 on a 12.40 Dial-in, with gearbox gremlins. Andy Gosling made a pass of 13.981on a 13.40 in the Nutcracker for starters. Mark Coulsell put in a solid 10.553 on a 10.50 Dial-in in the Limited Funz slingshot to be top qualifier of the round. Gareth Kent posted a 12.40 Dial-in for his Hot Dog altered, and promptly went out and ran a Personal Best E.T. of 12.337! Tony Wynne-Jones took his beautiful Corvette radical Welsh Raider II to a 14.892 on a 12.20 Dial, with fuel delivery problems. Tom Coe was running in his Psycho slingshot, hoping to break into the 10's for the first time. He posted a 10.99 Dial, and unfortunately broke his half-shaft on the burnout. Dad Alec went down in the pairing lanes with the Shy Torque slingshot and Dialled in 10.45, but the car suffered a cracked starter motor casing, and Alec could not make a pass. Dennis Hawkins dialled in at 9.74 in the Wicked Lady Rear-engine dragster and promptly went out and ran a great 9.738! A breakout of only two thousandths!! Ray Ford ran a 10.426 on a 10.20 in the Ram Raider slingshot, and Gary Kay ran a 12.804 on a 12.30 for his opening bid in the Dream Machine Rear-engine dragster. Dick Sharp was back again in the Dorset Horn, after the team suffered crank damage at the first Ultimate Power event. He Dialled in at 9.65 and ran a 9.792 @ 138.04 mph straight off the trailer, qualifying fourth - not bad for starters!! Nick Connor was back in his Barking Mad altered after suffering gearbox damage at the Season Opener. He Dialled in at 10.50, but unfortunately rolled through stage and did not record a time. All 14 cars took part in the 2nd round of qualifying. Tony Smith went out and set the #1 Qualifier mark with 12.002 on an 11.95 Dial-in, .052 off, just one thousandth closer than Mark Coulsell!! Chris posted a 9.30 Dial-in for this round and ran a 10.147, still off the pace, but hoping to diagnose the fault for Sunday's eliminations. Darryl dialled in at 12.40 again, and had more problems, carding a 20.348. Andy Gos ran a better 13.655 on the 13.40 Dial-in, qualifying 6th, and Mark posted a red light by the very narrowest of margins, .399!! He slowed to an 11.144 on his 10.50 Dial. Gareth ran a 12.665 on a 12.20, qualifying 7th. Tony W-J bettered his previous time by nearly a second, with a 13.965 on the 12.20 Dial. Tommy Coe had raced round the pits to find someone to grind and weld his half-shaft. The Fireforce 2 team helped him out with a temporary fix, and he cajoled the slingshot down the track gently, posting a 36.557 time and qualifying for Sunday!! (He later took the shaft to Roy Wilding's workshop, and Roy kindly re-welded it Saturday night). Meanwhile, Alec and Kev had bought a new starter motor off promoter Lee Child, and were frantically trying to get it mounted in time for the second qualifier. They also succeeded in fixing their car, and Alec ran a 10.349 Personal Best E.T. on a 10.43, also qualifying! Dennis came back out on the 9.74 Dial-in and carded a 9.810 to take third qualifying spot. Ray ran a solid 10.369 on the 10.20 Dial to finish in fifth spot. Gary had overfuelling problems and slowed to a 29.563 on his 12.30 Dial-in, but hoped to cure the problem for Sunday's races. Dick had a glitch off the start line, running 10.334 on the 9.65 Dial-in, whilst Nick qualified with an 11.261 on his 10.50 Dial.
Sunday (Race Day) Round One The first round saw Tony Smith matched up against Gary Kay. Tony won with a 12.813 on an 11.95 Dial, whilst Gary ran a 13.825 on a 12.50 and posted the Best Reaction of the day with a great .425. The next race was due to see Dennis Hawkins taking on Chris Hartnell, but unfortunately Dennis had melted a piston on his previous run handing a Bye to Chris. Overnight, crewman Lee made some changes to the wiring in Backdraft, and it looked like the previous day's problems were cured when Chris posted a much stronger wheelying 9.770 @ 133 mph on a 9.30 Dial. Andy Gosling posted a 15.240 on a 13.60, losing out to Tommy ‘the Gun’ who ran well with an 11.579 on an 11.25 Dial-in. Tom had discovered a crack in the other half-shaft Sunday morning but went back to the Fireforce 2 team for some emergency repairwork, and made the round! Nick Connor changed his Dial-in to suit the altered's current performance and posted an 11.117 on a 10.90 to take the win over Mark Coulsell, who ran an 11.020 on a 10.50 and taking Closest Runner-up just .094 behind Nick. Ray Ford ran a breakout 10.251 on a 10.30 Dial-in when his opponent Darryl broke after his burnout. Dick Sharp was again on good form when he brokeout with a strong 9.575 @ 140.62 mph, the Top MPH of the Bunch for the weekend. This was on a 9.65 Dial-in whilst paired against Tony Wynne-Jones, who posted a massive Personal Best E.T. of 12.097 on his 12.20 Dial-in at his best ever speed of 115.09 mph. Tony won Best Dragster/Radical for all his efforts and lovely looking car. Dick took the win with the lesser breakout, and advanced to the quarter-finals. Gareth put in another consistent pass of 12.613 on his 12.30 Dial, but could not beat the charging Alec Coe, who ran another strong 10.383 on a 10.32 Dial-in, the closest driver of the first round.
Quarter-Finals In the quarter-finals, Tony Smith had a Bye-run by virtue of being #1 Qualifier. He put in a new Personal Best E.T. of 11.982 on his 11.95 on his solo run. The next race saw Tom paired against Chris. Chris ran a 9.891 on a 9.60 Dial-in, but Tom brokeout with a strong 11.233 on an 11.25 Dial-in, handing the win to Chris. Tom took Closest Breakout for this run, only .017 under his Dial-in, and Best Slingshot Spot Prize for the team's hard work to qualify the car and race in eliminations, and the strong performance after the breakages. Ray ran a close 10.253 on a 10.20 Dial-in to take the win over Nick's 11.011 on a 10.20 in a good heads up race. Alec posted Closest to Dial-in, just .011 off running a 10.291 on a 10.28 Dial-in defeating Dick's breakout great Personal Best E.T. of 9.549 on a 9.60 Dial. Dick and Bunt and the team took Best Altered Spot Prize, as well as Best Engineered for their well-turned out car and its good performance throughout the weekend.
Semi-Finals The Semi-Finals saw Chris facing Tony Smith, another tough one. Tony once again ran a brilliant Personal Best E.T. of 11.870 breaking out on his 11.95 Dial-in, handing the victory to Chris who slowed to a 10.544 on a 9.90 Dial-in. Tony ended up 4th for the event and the Cunning Plan team took the Best Appearing Team Spot Prize for their smart new pink and green crew uniforms and the brand new paint job on the altered. In the other Semi, Ray advanced to the Final with a 10.404 on a 10.20 over Alec who ran very close to the guard rail and had to back off to a 10.820 on a 10.28. Alec took 3rd place on the tot-back system, by virtue of being closest to Dial-in (without breaking out) of the Semi-Final runners-up. He also took the Wildest Ride trophy for his close call and good driving!
Finals The final was an unusual race which should have seen Ray taking on Chris for a classic Chevy-powered slingshot matchup; but Backdraft had not been running well in the Semis, and Chris had noticed a slight drop in oil pressure, so decided to park the car rather than risk any damage, and hopefully diagnose the problem back home. The Ram Raider's engine was still too hot to make a full pass, so the crew pushed her round to the other side of the bleach box, and Ray fired up and just staged to take the win light, not wanting to risk any damage to their car either. Many congratulations to Ray!! Well done! Again some close and exciting racing once more, as we have come to expect at these MSA events. The track crew and marshals worked really hard again to get the track in a running condition and keep the event flowing – many thanks to them for all their hard work and for maintaining a good safe track! Thanks also to APIRA, the track owner and Promoters LA Performance Services for making the event possible in the first place. And of course thanks as always to our major contingency sponsor Real Steel for their continued support. The next event is the Nostalgia Nationals, June 28th/29th. Should be a great event with a big WB field!