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Nostalgia Nationals July 3 - 4

2004 Nostalgia Nationals3 July - 4 JulyPoints awarded for Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2
This weekend was a RWYB event, the “Nostalgia Nationals”. It was Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2 and there were Spot Prizes. We had a field of 15 Wild Bunch cars, including: 8 Slingshots, 6 Altereds, and 1 Radical  
Event Participants
Position WB Driver Car Pts
1 3 Joe Stevens Back in Black 8
2 28 Pete & Gav Loveridge Herr X 6
3 109 Andy Murphy B-Sting 5
4 76 Steven Field The Black Pig 4
5 20 Mark Coulsell Limited Funz 3
- 38 Helen Smythe Hell's Belle 3
- 39 Roland Willats Dragin Time 3
- 71 Andy Solley Repeat Offender 3
- 142 Mike Cresswell Living the Dream 3
- 147 Sid Slattery Destiny 3
11 29 Tony Wynne-Jones Welsh Raider 2 2
- 43 Martin Holgate Paranoia 2
- 101 Matt Lee Worth the Wait 2
14 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 1
- 57 Neil Ward Ex-She Devil 2 1
Spot Prizes
WBTeam/DriverCarDetail
Best Reaction20Mark CoulsellLimited Funz.020
Closest To Dial-In3Joe StevensBack In Black.010 Off
Quickest E.T.71Andy SolleyRepeat Offender9.850
Best Altered3Joe StevensBack In Black
Best Slingshot28Pete & Gavyn LoveridgeHerr X
Best Radical29Tony Wynne-JonesWelsh Raider II
Best Burnout3‘Smokin’ Joe StevensBack In Black
Best Engineered43Martin HolgateParanoia
Drivers Choice147Sid SlatteryDestiny
Best Appearing Team109Team B-Sting
Saturday was a practice day and the weather was cloudy and windy. Sunday was similar, but despite a bad forecast all weekend, we hardly lost any time to rain, until the downpour about 3:00pm Sunday ended the event. Many of the Wild Bunch racers managed to get in 3 or 4 runs on the Saturday and 2 racers ran Personal Best E.T.'s, with 2 racers running Personal Best MPH's! We also welcomed back WB 39, Roland Willats in his first event of 2004 with the “Drag-in-time” slingshot. Alan Smith, WB 70, also came to the event with the “Avanti” slingshot, but sadly the engine expired on his first run, leaving 2 holes in the block and 1 in the sump! Hope he can get that fixed soon and be back out running and testing the new gearbox! Also due to be in his first event with the Wild Bunch was Dave Ward, WB 258, with the awesomely-painted “Rampage” funny car. Sadly he too had some engine damage after firing up in the pits, and could not take part in the event. Hope the team can get that fixed quickly and be back out racing! Tony Smith and the “Cunning Plan” team were not able to make it to the event, as they suffered a double blowout and axle damage to the trailer after setting out for the track. Fortunately both the team and race car were perfectly fine, but disappointed not to make the event!
WB 3 Joe Stevens had discovered torque converter damage after the last event in his “Back in Black” altered. He was able to install a spare, and put in a 10.269 checkout pass for starters on Saturday at a Personal Best speed of 135.66 mph, which remained the fastest speed of the Bunch for the weekend. He dialled in at 10.25 for Sunday and ran a 10.288 in the first round and a 10.240 in the second round, which won him the event!! The second pass also earnt him “Closest to Dial-in”, being just 10 thou under, and due to his great smoky burnouts this weekend, he won the “Best Burnout” prize and was nicknamed “Smokin’ Joe” by the commentary team, who awarded him the “Best Altered” Spot Prize for all his efforts!! Well done, Joe!!
WB 6 “Crazy” Chris Hartnell started off with an off-pace 10.396 @ 134.86 mph on the Saturday in the “Backdraft” slingshot. On his next pass, he put in a better 9.827, which earnt him the NSRA award for “Quickest Wild Bunch car of the weekend”. He later recorded a 10.032 @ 128 mph on his third pass, again off the pace; and, after doing some basic checks, decided it was best to park the car for the weekend to investigate the problem further, so as not to cause any damage to the engine.
WB 20 Mark Coulsell was running his “Limited Funz” slingshot. He made a couple of runs Saturday, including a 10.532 @ 125.62 mph, and dialled in at 10.55 for Sunday. He recorded a 10.761 in the first round and a 10.458 in the second round, with a “Best Reaction” of .020 (on a perfect .000 tree) and a speed of 126.14 mph, and finished in 5th spot overall.
WB 28 Father and son Pete & Gavyn Loveridge had radically shortened the “Herr X” slingshot, taking 4 feet out of the length of the chassis, and making the car look rather cute!! This modification means that they are able to keep the car at Pete's house, as they have a trailer that will fit on the drive, so they will be able to come out racing a lot more often, which is great!! Even though the car was shorter, it lost none of its previous performance and Pete and Gavyn made a couple of passes Saturday, ending the day with a 10.666. They dialled in at 10.70 Sunday, and took turns on the rounds, with Gavyn running another 10.666 in the first round! Pete then ran a 10.654 on the second round @ 125.38 mph, and the pair finished in 2nd place overall, and won the “Best Slingshot” Spot Prize to boot!! Great result, guys!! Well done!
WB 29 Tony Wynne-Jones was in his “Welsh Raider 2” Radical and made a run of 12.168 @ 113.38 mph on Saturday, and had some problems with a broken oil union, which he went home to weld up and came back to fix in the pits. He dialled in at 11.40 Sunday, but missed the first round, still repairing the breakage. He joined in on the second round and ran a promising 11.970, winning the “Best Radical” Spot Prize in the process.
WB 38 Helen and Dean Smythe were back with the “Hell's Belle” altered, after sitting out a couple of events to make some repairs and tinker with the carb. Helen started off well, running a 12.999 @ 100.49 mph first thing Saturday, followed by a quicker 12.775 (not far off her PB) and a 12.858 on her third pass of the day. She dialled in at 12.81 for Sunday and carded a 13.031 in the first round, and ran exactly a tenth quicker with a 12.931 in the second round, finishing in 6th place overall for the weekend. Glad to see Team Twisted back in action and fair play for being the last car waiting in the queue on Sunday!!
WB 39 was Roland Willats’ first outing for 2004 in his “Drag-inTime” slingshot. He sure made the best of the day Saturday, putting in 5 passes ranging from a checkout 16.268 to a best E.T. to date of 14.175. He dialled in at a very precise 14.246 (being the average of his best runs) and recorded a 14.075 in the first round and a Personal Best E.T. of 13.904 @ 94.49 mph in the second, and had a ball on his first drag race this year! Congrats on your first 13-second pass, Roland!! Well done!
WB 43 Martin Holgate was making his first appearance of the season in his “Paranoia” Jag-powered altered. He put in runs of 13.172 and 15.869 on Saturday and dialled in at 10.00 even Sunday, hoping for improved performance. He sat out the first round, and in the second round recorded a 12.388, unfortunately experiencing gearbox problems on this run. This was due to be Martin's last event with the car as faithful crewman (Mr) Bonehead is emigrating to France; but rumour has it that he possibly might make some ‘holiday’ trips back to Blighty on certain (race) weekends!! We sure do hope so!! Martin won the Spot Prize for the “Best Engineered” car of the weekend for his beautifully turned out altered.
WB 57 was Neil Ward in his second event in the ex-“She Devil 2” slingshot. Neil experienced some electrical or ignition problems in the car at the weekend, and although he dialled in at 10.20 Sunday and got the car running in the pits, was prevented from making runs each round when the car would not fire on the start line. Let's hope he can cure the problem soon and be back out racing with the Bunch and having fun!!
WB 71 Andy Solley was also in his second event of the year in his “Repeat Offender” altered. On Saturday, the team discovered blown head gaskets but, undaunted, took a trip to the local motorparts store and purchased some more! They fixed the car Saturday, but unfortunately not in time to put in a run. On Sunday Andy dialled in at 9.80 and ran an 11.786 in the first round without the nitrous. He sure turned up the wick for the second run, recording a nitrous-inspired 9.850 @ 135.61 mph, which took the “Quickest E.T.” for the Bunch for that day, and making the repairs very worthwhile!
WB 76 Steve & Lesley Field and “The Black Pig” team were fortunately able to overcome their transport problems from the last event and made a welcome arrival at the track Friday night. Steve put in 4 runs on Saturday, making up for lost time, starting with a 12.274 and improving to an 11.880 on his second pass. He dialled in at 11.80 for Sunday's rounds and ran a 12.140 in the first round. He recorded his best speed and E.T. of the weekend in the second round, with an 11.585 @ 115.47 mph, very near a Personal Best, and finished in 4th place overall. Fair play to the whole team!!
WB 101 Matt Lee was running in his “Worth the Wait” slingshot. He made 4 strong passes on Saturday, with 11.250, 11.463, 11.358 and 11.239; this last run being very near his PB and with a Personal Best MPH of 119.15 mph. He dialled in at 11.20 Sunday and ran an 11.433 in the first round, but unfortunately finished the weekend when he noticed low oil pressure on that run. Matt parked the car to diagnose the problem, so hope he can have it fixed soon and be back out racing!
WB 109 was Bob Morgan who was back in the hotseat of the “B-Sting” altered. He made a couple of passes Saturday and dialled in at 12.35 for Sunday. He ran well in the rounds, recording a 12.488 in the first and then a Personal Best E.T. of 12.311 @ 104.18 mph in the second, to finish in 3rd place overall. The team also won the “Best Appearing Team” Spot Prize for the weekend. Well done to Bob and the whole team!!
WB 142 Mike Cresswell was running the “Living the Dream” slingshot and put in a couple of passes of Saturday, including an 11.814 and a 12.179, practising his burnout technique in the process. He dialled in at 11.20 for Sunday and ran a 12.016 in Round 1 and a weekend best of 11.273 in the second round.
WB 147 Sid Slattery had done some more repairs to his “Destiny” slingshot since the York event and was tuning the car on Saturday. He dialled in at 10.70 for Sunday's rounds. He put in a checkout pass on the first round, recording a 12.719 and a better pass in the second round, but due to a redlight, did not get a time recorded. Sid was happy with the progress that weekend, and was really chuffed to receive the “Driver's Choice” Spot Prize voted for by all the drivers attending. Well done, Sid, you really deserve that one!!
All in all, a good event. Once again thanks to all the marshals and officials for their hard work! The next event is the Mini Nationals weekend at Shakey on July 17th & 18th! This RWYB event will be Wild Bunch Series Round 4 and Real Steel Series Round 7! This should be really fun and we look forward to the racing being even closer!!