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Mini Weekend/Club Day July 17 - 18

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2004 Mini Nationals3 July - 4 JulyPoints awarded for The Wild Bunch Series Round 4 and The Real Steel Series Round 7
This weekend was a RWYB event, the “Mini Nationals”. It was Wild Bunch Series Round 4 as well as Real Steel Series Round 7 and there were Spot Prizes. We had a field of 13 Wild Bunch cars, including: 5 Slingshots,6 Altereds, 1 Rear-engine dragster and 1 Radical  
Event Participants
Position WB Driver Car Pts
1 28 Pete & Gav Loveridge Herr X 9
2 4 Tony Smith The Cunning Plan 7
3 109 Andy Murphy B-Sting 6
4 3 Joe Stevens Back in Black 5
5 2 Gareth Kent Hot Dog 4
- 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 4
- 38 Helen Smythe Hell's Belle 4
- 40 Darren Law Wicked Lady 4
- 67 Darryl Howells Chemical Reaction 4
- 76 Steven Field The Black Pig 4
- 142 Mike Cresswell Living the Dream 4
- 147 Sid Slattery Destiny 4
13 29 Tony Wynne-Jones Welsh Raider 2 1
Spot Prizes
WBTeam/DriverCarDetail
Best Reaction38Helen SmytheHell's Belle.441
Joint Closest To Dial-In38Helen SmytheHell's Belle.001 Under
Joint Closest To Dial-In109Andy MurphyB-Sting.001 Over
Quickest E.T.6Chris HartnellBackdraft9.326
Best Altered76Steve FieldThe Black Pig
Best Slingshot67Darryl HowellsChemical Reaction
Best Radical/Dragster40Darren LawThe Wicked Lady
Best Burnout3‘Smokin’ Joe StevensBack In Black
Best Appearing Team2Team ‘Daze Gone By’Hot Dog
Saturday was a practice day and the weather was pretty good, better than predicted! Sunday was similar, and the weather stayed good until about 3:30pm when a big shower ended racing for the day. There was loads of track time this weekend, and well over half the racers managed to get between 6 and 9 runs in on the Saturday and had a great time!! We completed 3 full rounds of Wild Bunch format on the Sunday before the rain so would have had a 4th round if rain hadn’t stopped play. It was a really good weekend with 6 racers running Personal Best E.T.'s, and 5 of these same racers running Personal Best MPH's!! We also welcomed 2 more teams back into the Wild Bunch. WB 40, “The Wicked Lady” was now in the hands of newcomer Darren Law, backed up with all the usual crew, including new co-owners Karen and Bob, and they were all having a ball being back out racing with the Rear-engine dragster. Also, a ‘new’ car appeared at the track, WB 67, the “Chemical Reaction” slingshot of Darryl and Sarah Howells, which only last year had been the Dog's B******s’ team's “Ram Raider”. Darryl and Sarah had moved heaven and earth to get the car finished and back on the strip and were finally at the race track after a lot of their hard work and help from some friends!
WB 2 Gareth Kent was back in the hotseat of his “Hot Dog” altered after loaning the car to John Munday at the last Ultimate Power Series event. He was having a great time this weekend and made no less than 6 runs on the Saturday, ranging from the low 13's down to a Personal Best E.T. of 12.043 @ a Personal Best Speed of 110.57 mph! Crewman Les Stephenson also made a couple of runs in the car, his first ever down the quarter mile, and recorded a 16.070 and a 15.164 @ 89.93 mph, in practice for his debut in his own altered in a couple meetings’ time! Gareth dialled in at 12.30 for Sunday, and ran 12.745 in the first round followed by a 12.509 in the second, before experiencing a puncture in a rear slick on the third run, recording a 13.728, as he slowed before the finish line. Gareth and the car were otherwise thankfully a-ok! This weekend he was ably assisted by not only Les, but also fiancée Lou and young son Marcus who was seen familiarising himself with the cockpit of the “Hot Dog” and enjoying the whole experience! Gareth and the “Daze gone by” crew were all sporting brand new navy team shirts with gold logos (and Marcus had his own baby-sized one!). For their smart appearance and professionalism the team were awarded the “Best Appearing Team” Spot Prize for the weekend.
WB 3 Joe Stevens was running his “Back in Black” altered and made 5 passes on the Saturday, including a 10.388 @ 134.42 mph. He dialled in at 10.28 on Sunday, and started off with a 10.377 in the first round. He then went on to record a 10.426 in the second round and a very close 10.285 in the third round, just 5 thousandths off his Dial-in. Joe finished in 4th place overall and was once again also awarded the “Best Burnout” Spot Prize for his storming smoky burnouts!
WB 4 Tony Smith was back with “The Cunning Plan” minivan altered after an enforced absence of a month, due to the trailer breakage on the way to the last event. He was real glad to be back and recorded 9 passes on the Saturday, making the most of all the track time available. These runs ranged from an 11.818 right down to an 11.600 @ 113.67 mph (near his PB) and he then took the body off for the 9th run, recording an 11.641, at only a fraction quicker speed than with the body on! He dialled in at 11.75 for Sunday's rounds, and started well with an 11.702 in Round 1. He then recorded an 11.724, getting closer to his Dial-in in the second round, and ended the day with an 11.792 in the third round to finish in 2nd place. Fair play to him!
WB 6 “Crazy” Chris Hartnell had installed last year's cam in his “Backdraft” slingshot, after doing some damage to the newer one during the previous event. He was still tuning his new injection system and started off well Saturday with a wheels up pass of 9.463 @ 136.46 mph. His next run was his quickest of the weekend, with a 9.333 @ 139.76 mph, and he went on to run 4 further passes on Saturday! He dialled in at 9.40 on Sunday, and started off with an event best E.T. of 9.326 @ 138.21 mph in the first round, which was “Quickest E.T.” of the Bunch for the weekend. He had a hairy launch on the second round, recording a 9.808, and then carded a 9.630 @ 134.33 mph in the third round, to finish in 7th place overall. On slowing down after the finish line, Chris heard a loud noise in the engine so shut down quickly. When he parked down the top end and inspected the engine, he found bits of metal down the injector trumpet. On returning to the pits, the team discovered that the engine had dropped a valve, and this had done some major damage to the engine! (But luckily had not spilt any oil on the track, and the slingshot was otherwise perfectly fine, as was the driver!). Let's hope Chris can rebuild the engine quickly and be back out racing again real soon!! Good luck, Chris!!
WB 28 Pete & Gavyn Loveridge were in their second event in a row with their new shorter version of the “Herr X” slingshot. They took turns running the car on Saturday, and recorded 6 passes between them, with Pete's best being 10.637 @ 126.44 mph and Gavyn's best being 10.773 @ 116.32 mph. They dialled in at 10.70 for Sunday, and started really well with Pete running a 10.715 in the first round. Gavyn improved on this with a 10.711 in the second round, and Pete ran quicker in the third with a 10.673. They proved to be really consistent between them and won the event for their first ever time!! Well done boys!! Glad to see them out there regularly having fun and doing so well!
WB 29 Tony Wynne-Jones was running in his “Welsh Raider 2” Radical and made 3 passes on Saturday, starting with a 12.226, improving with a 12.000 and finally recording a new Personal Best E.T. of 11.439 @ 119.86 mph. Unfortunately this was his last run of the weekend, as he broke an oil union and had to retire early from the event. Hope he can fix it soon and be back out and improve even more on his performance!
WB 38 Helen Smythe was running the Team Twisted “Hell's Belle” altered and made 8 passes on the Saturday. These ranged from low 13's, to four runs in the 12.9's, and a weekend best of 12.833, with some good reactions along the way. She dialled in at 12.93 for Sunday and ran 13.220 and 12.970 in the first and second rounds and recorded a “Best Reaction” of .441 in the third round, running an E.T. of 12.929, just one thousandth under her Dial-in, so fair play to her!! She won the Spot Prize for “Closest to Dial-in” for this one, an honour which she shared with one other driver!! Helen finished in 5th place overall and is getting closer all the time to a Top 4 finish.
WB 40 New driver Darren Law was making his first outing in “The Wicked Lady” Rear-engine dragster with the assistance of all the regular team. He put in some checkout passes of a launch and a half pass Saturday, and then his first full pass of 10.6. He then succeeded in getting his MSA licence signed on his second ever full pass in the car, a very respectable 10.082 @ 135.55 mph, with the chute successfully deployed!! He dialled in at 10.00 on Sunday and would have been very happy to break out and run his first 9-second pass. This he did on the very first round, recording a brilliant 9.739 @ 138.55 mph!! He followed this with a 9.814 and a 9.830 @ 139.33 mph, knocking on the door of the 140's! He finished 8th overall, and won the “Best Radical/Dragster” Spot Prize for all his efforts. We’d say he definitely got the hang of things pretty quickly!! It was also great to see the whole team back out again and they were very excited with Darren's progress at the weekend. Well done, Darren, and welcome to the Wild Bunch!!
WB 67 Darryl & Sarah Howells “Chemical Reaction” was making its long-awaited debut at the track, and the team spent Friday evening putting some finishing touches to the smartly-painted purple slingshot. Darryl started off with a checkout pass of 13.128 @ 124.24 mph on Saturday, and followed this with three good 11-second runs of 11.875 (at a weekend best speed of 127.97 mph), 11.636 and 11.7. He dialled in at 11.20 for Sunday and carded a 12.166 in the first round, but improved with an 11.705 in the second round and a Personal Best E.T. of 11.173 in the third round. The team took home the “Best Slingshot” Spot Prize for their beautifully turned out car and good debut performance. Next stop the 10-second bracket!! Fair play!!
WB 76 Steve & Lesley Field were running “The Black Pig” altered, well-supported by hardworking crew John and Heidi. Steve was another driver who put in 8 runs on the Saturday, no slower than an 11.818, 4 runs in the 11.6's, 2 in the 11.5's and right down to a Personal Best E.T. of 11.468 @ 116.33 mph, a Personal best speed! Steve dialled in at 11.600 for Sunday and ran 11.768 in the first round, 11.840 in the second and an 11.831 in the third round, finishing in 6th place overall. The team won the “Best Altered” Spot Prize for the smart-looking Plymouth-bodied altered and its strong performance over the weekend.
WB 109 This weekend it was again Andy Murphy who was having a turn in the “B-Sting” altered. He also put in 8 passes on the Saturday, running consistently well from a 12.484, three runs in the 12.3's and three in the 12.2's, including a 12.251 @ 108.03 mph, a new Personal Best E.T. and speed, the fastest the “B-Sting” has ever run! Former crewman/co-driver turned commentator Baz Bohannon also had a turn back in the hotseat and ran well into the low 12's, and really enjoyed being back in the car (like he’d never been out of it!!). Andy dialled in at 12.35 for Sunday and ran 12.467 and 12.401 in the first 2 rounds and a 12.351 in the third, just one thousandth off the Dial, sharing the “Closest to Dial-in” honours with Helen Smythe! Andy finished in 3rd place for the weekend and the whole team had a ball making 12 runs over the weekend!
WB 142 Mike Cresswell was running in the “Living the Dream” slingshot, and made several passes on the Saturday, perfecting his burnout techniques and hoping to get back into the high 10's. He dialled in at 11.25 for Sunday, and ran an 11.647 in the first round. In the second round, he staged and launched but there was some problem with the lights so he did not record a time. He ran better in the third round, recording an 11.478 @ 112.64 mph.
WB 147 Sid Slattery was in his “Destiny” slingshot and started off with some checkout passes of 12.236 and 12.549 @ 118.73 mph on Saturday. He followed these with improving runs of 11.857 and 11.456, and then dialled in at 11.50 for Sunday. He ran close to his Dial-in for the first round, with an 11.520 @ 115.07 mph, and then recorded 11.967 and 11.909 in the second and third rounds.
All in all this was a great event with loads of track time, and all the drivers had a good time getting in as many passes as they could. The next event is the York Summer Showdown at the UK Nationals at York Dragway on August 7th & 8th! This RWYB event will be Wild Bunch Series Round 5 and Real Steel Series Round 8 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 3! This should be really fun and exciting with things getting closer!!