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Spring Nationals April 17 - 18
2004 Spring Nationals17 April - 18 AprilNo Points were awarded for this event for the Wild Bunch and Real Steel Championships as racing on competition day was rained off
This weekend was a Test & Tune weekend and the Wild Bunch “Spring Nationals”. It was Wild Bunch Series Round 1 as well as Real Steel Series Round 1 and there were Spot Prizes. We had a field of 12 Wild Bunch cars, including: 6 Slingshots, 4 Altereds, 1 Rear-engine dragster and 1 Radical.
| Event Participants | ||||
| Pos | WB | Driver | Car | Points |
| - | 3 | Joe Stevens | Back in Black | - |
| - | 4 | Tony Smith | The Cunning Plan | - |
| - | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | - |
| - | 29 | Tony Wynne-Jones | Welsh Raider 2 | - |
| - | 34 | Alec Coe | Shy Torque | - |
| - | 38 | Helen Smythe | Hell's Belle | - |
| - | 40 | Dennis Hawkins | The Wicked Lady | - |
| - | 57 | Neil Ward | Ex-She Devil 2 | - |
| - | 101 | Matt Lee | Worth the Wait | - |
| - | 109 | Bob Morgan | B-Sting | - |
| - | 142 | Mike Cresswell | Living the Dream | - |
| - | 147 | Sid Slattery | Destiny | - |
| Spot Prizes | ||||
| WB | Team/Driver | Car | Detail | |
| Best Reaction | 38 | Helen Smythe | Hell's Belle | .041 |
| Closest To Dial-In | (Not Contested As No Runs Made On Dial-Ins On Sunday) | |||
| Best Altered | 109 | Bob Morgan | B-Sting | |
| Best Slingshot | 147 | Sid Slattery | Destiny | |
| Best Dragster/Radical | 29 | Tony Wynne-Jones | Welsh Raider II | |
| Quickest E.T. | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 9.311 |
| Fastest M.P.H. | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 146.10 Mph |
| Best Appearing Team | 38 | Team Twisted | Hell's Belle | |
| Saturday was a practice day and the weather was very mixed! It had rained overnight, and in the morning, and the track took a while to dry, but racing started at 12:30 and did not stop (for weather) til the 6:00pm curfew. Sunday was a similar start, but unfortunately when the track was nearly dry, about 1 o’clock, the rain came again and did not really let up, meaning the cancellation of the day's racing. The track crew had again worked very hard to get the track ready, but it was not to be on Sunday. Nevertheless, 4 of the Wild Bunch racers managed to get in 5 runs on the Saturday and 4 racers ran Personal Best E.T.'s, with 5 racers running Personal Best MPH's!! We also welcomed 2 more new teams into the Wild Bunch, WB 57, Neil Ward with the ex-She Devil 2 slingshot and Mike Cresswell, WB 142, with the Living the Dream slingshot. Also, a latecomer to the event was Alan Smith, WB 70, with the Avanti Allard slingshot. He had taken last year off, but was back and raring to go! He and Margaret arrived Sunday morning, only to sit out the rainy day! Hope to see them back soon, at a sunnier event! | |
| WB 3 | Joe Stevens was hoping for a return to form in his Back in Black altered. He put in a checkout pass of 11.314 to start with on Saturday, and then managed to get the tune-up just right with successive runs of 10.529, 10.483 @ 128.57 mph, 10.528 and 10.448 (not far off his personal best) and starting to show some real consistency already. |
| WB 4 | Tony Smith again started well, running an 11.735, followed by a strong 11.625 @ 111.94 mph. He put in two more solid passes of 11.753 and 11.663, and spun the tyres on a cold track at the end of the day, with an 11.955. These runs were all with the body on, and showed that Tony is now firmly in the mid 11-second range and running well. |
| WB 6 | Crazy Chris Hartnell started off with a steady pass of 9.738 @ 137.61 mph on the Saturday, and started to tune the Backdraft slingshot. On his next pass, he pulled a monster wheelie, backed out, and still ran a 9.448 @ a Personal Best Speed of 143.31 mph! For his third run, he pulled another big wheelie, carding a 9.665 @ 142.86 mph. He then went down for a fourth pass, which was a Quickest E.T. and Fastest MPH for the Wild Bunch that day, with a 9.311 @ 146.10 mph, another new Personal Best Speed, and moving on nearer to the magic 150 mph mark! Chris even went out for a 5th run that day, recording a 9.788 @ 141.51 mph on the cooling track. |
| WB 29 | Tony Wynne-Jones was running in his Welsh Raider 2 Radical and, after an engine rebuild in the week, went straight off the trailer and put in a massive Personal Best E.T. of 11.629 @ a Personal Best Speed of 120.00 mph!! He later made a run of 11.894 @ 116.28 mph, and tried for a third 11-second pass. He had a very hairy run, as the car crossed the centre line, headed for one guard rail, came back again heading for the other, and turned 90 degrees again, all the while with Tony doing a great driving job and keeping the car out of the barriers!! He earned the Wildest Ride Spot Prize for these exploits and a huge sigh of relief for not causing any damage to the lovely bodywork!! Tony also once again won the Best Radical/Dragster Spot Prize, the second time in as many events! |
| WB 34 | was the first outing this year for Alec Coe in his Shy Torque slingshot. He had changed the diff and was hoping to increase his top end speeds in the newly painted blue rail. His first pass achieved this, as he ran an 11.036 at a Personal Best Speed of 124.31 mph, his first time over the 120 mph mark! His second run almost equalled that with an 11.111 at a speed of 123.63 mph. He put in three more passes of 11.084, 11.339 and 11.430, all at over 120 mph, so things are looking promising already. |
| WB 38 | Helen Smythe was in her second full event with the Hell's Belle altered, and husband and crew-chief Dean celebrated his birthday with Helen running a 12.948 @ 102.97 mph, followed by runs of 13.040, 13.103, and 13.012, already showing some amazing consistency, and looking promising for the rounds on Sunday, before rain stopped play. Helen was also able to get her MSA licence signed, so well done to her with that! She also recorded the Best Reaction of the Wild Bunch, with an .041 [This is the first time that Shakespeare County has used the .000 as a Perfect Reaction index]. Helen and Dean and the rest of Team Twisted made another good impression, winning the Best Appearing Team Spot Prize for the weekend, so fair play to them!! |
| WB 40 | Dennis Hawkins was making his first outing in The Wicked Lady Rear-engine dragster with the assistance of new crew member Ian. His first pass of the year was a very strong 9.45 @ 141 mph, which he followed up with another solid 9.6 @ 142 mph. Unfortunately he did not record a time on his third pass, but Dennis was very happy to be back out playing again, and starting as he means to go on! |
| WB 57 | was newcomer Neil Ward in the ex-She Devil 2 slingshot, which he recently finished rebuilding. Neil worked in the pits all of Saturday, making final adjustments, and firing up the car a few times. It sounded really strong and Neil was nearly ready to run late Saturday, but was just beaten by time. The team did make some good progress with the car and tuning over the weekend, and were happy just to be at the track, so welcome to the Wild Bunch Neil and all the team! |
| WB 101 | Matt Lee was running in his Worth the Wait slingshot. He made several passes on Saturday, all over 12 seconds, and unfortunately finished the weekend when a half shaft broke on a burnout. Matt was another driver who also managed to get his MSA licence signed,so well done to him for that achievement! |
| WB 109 | Well!! The B-Sting is back!! With former main driver Paul Croston now taking over the reigns as team manager, and several of the team sharing the driving. This weekend it was Bob Morgan who was having his first ever passes in the altered! He put in some checkout passes of a launch and a half pass, and then succeeded in getting his MSA licence signed on his first ever full pass in the car, a very respectable 12.366 at a Team Best Ever Speed of 107.91 mph!! We’d say he definitely got the hang of it pretty quickly!!! It was great to see the whole team back in the Wild Bunch again, and to top it off, they won the Best Altered Spot Prize!! Well done boys, it's like you were never away!! |
| WB 142 | Mike Cresswell was making his first passes on his Wild Bunch debut in the Living the Dream slingshot. He recorded a 14.862 @ 91.46 mph and a 19.716, just starting to get used to the car and the track. He seemed to be enjoying his first outing, and the car is very aptly named, as Mike first got interested in drag racing when he won a Corgi model of the Commuter when he was 11 years old and he's been a fan ever since!! Welcome to the Wild Bunch, Mike! |
| WB 147 | Sid Slattery had done some impressive modifications to the appearance of the bodywork on his Destiny slingshot since the first event, stripping the paint, and decorating all the panels with a shiny ‘engine turn’ finish. This was a brilliant effect and complemented the shiny chromework really well. Sid's first pass of the day was a 12.134 @ 114.80 mph, followed by a slightly better 12.087 @ 122.62. Sid was still getting used to the car on these runs, but it all came together for the third, when he recorded a massive Personal Best E.T., going straight into the 10's with a great 10.754 @ 125.00 mph!! Fair play Sid, congratulations!! To put the icing on the cake, he also won the Best Slingshot Spot Prize for his beautiful-looking car and PB achievements. |
| Even though the Sunday was rained off, everyone still had a good weekend, with several drivers having 5 runs on the Saturday. The rain-off meant that everyone went home with 1 point for the round, and all 12 drivers are now in equal first place in both the Wild Bunch and Real Steel Series!! This won’t last long as the next event is the Bank Holiday weekend Excitement Nationals on May 1st-3rd! This MSA event is the first round of the Ultimate Power Series, as well as being Real Steel Series Round 2! This should be really exciting!!
The Wild Bunch would just like to say a huge Get Well Soon to Jenny Archer, fiancée of 2003 Wild Bunch Champion Tommy ‘the Gun’ Coe, as she is very unwell in hospital. We are all thinking of you Jen and wish you a speedy recovery! And it would be great to see you guys both back at the track flying the ‘WB 1’ on the car!! | |