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American Car World National May 14 - 15

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American Car World Nationals14 May - 15 MayPoints awarded for Wild Bunch Series Round 1 and Real Steel Series Round 2
This weekend was a RWYB event, the “American Car World Nationals”. It was Wild Bunch Series Round 1 as well as Real Steel Series Round 2 and there were Spot Prizes. We had a field of 16 Wild Bunch cars, including: 8 Slingshots, 6 Altereds, 1 Rear-engine dragster and 1 Radical  
Event Participants
Position WB Driver Car Points
1 44 Sarah Howells Destinys Angel 10
2 1 Tony Smith The Cunning Plan 8
3 2 Joe Stevens Back in Black 7
4 33 Tom Coe Psycho 6
5 3 Mike Cresswell Living the Dream 5
- 5 Lee Hartnell Dazed & Confused 5
- 16 Mark Hartnell Awesome 4-Some 5
- 38 Helen Smythe Hell's Belle 5
- 54 Phil Sweeney Antisocial 5
- 76 Steven Field The Black Pig 5
- 81 Steve Taylor Claustrophobic 5
12 28 Pete/Gav Loveridge Herr X 3
- 147 Sid Slattery Destiny 3
14 39 Roland Willats Dragin Time 2
15 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 1
- 464 Tracy Froome Sunburst 1
Spot Prizes
WBTeam/DriverCarDetail
Best Reaction 38 Helen Smythe Hell's Belle .001
Closest To Dial-In 2 Joe Stevens Back In Black .000 Off
Best Altered 44 Sarah Howells Destiny's Angel
Best Slingshot 16 Mark Hartnell Awesome 4-Some
Best Dragster/Radical 81 Steve Taylor Claustrophobic
Quickest E.T. 44 Sarah Howells Destiny's Angel 9.490
Saturday was a practice day and the weather was cool and very windy but dry! Sunday was really warm and dry!!!!!! No less than 7 racers ran Personal Best E.T.'s, with 4 of these racers running Personal Best MPH's!! We welcomed newcomers WB 16, Mark Hartnell in the “Awesome 4-Some” slingshot, WB 54, Phil Sweeney in the “Antisocial” slingshot, and WB 81, Steve ‘Jacko’ Taylor in the “Claustrophobic” Rear-engined dragster. This event was also the first one run under the new Wild Bunch “DRAG” system, whereby the winner is the one with the lowest average difference from Dial-in, so all the teams were hoping for some early-season consistency!
WB 1 Tony Smith was out defending his Wild Bunch title in “The Cunning Plan” altered. He made 4 passes on the Saturday, ranging from 11.875, down to 11.673 @ 109.85 mph. He dialled in at 11.65 for Sunday's rounds, and started off well with an 11.666 in the first round. He improved his E.T. with an 11.530 @ 111.44 mph in the second round, and recorded an 11.577 in the third, followed by an 11.779 in the fourth round to finish the day in 2nd place. A very good start to his title defence!
WB 2 Joe Stevens was hoping to break into the 9's in his “Back in Black” altered. He made several good low 10-second passes on the Saturday, and dialled in at 10.05 on Sunday. He set a very high standard, as on his first round run, he recorded a perfect 10.050 @ 128.92 mph, exactly on his dial, and earning himself the “Closest to Dial-in” Spot Prize. Well done, Joe! Fair Play! On his second round, he carded a 10.191, and then a 10.190 on his third, before rounding the day off with a 10.143, to finish in 3rd place overall.
WB 3 Mike Cresswell was running in the “Living the Dream” slingshot. He made a few off-pace runs on the Saturday, partly due to the strong headwind, but improved on his 12.6 at the beginning of the day to post runs in the 11.6's, including an 11.611 @ 112.54 mph. He dialled in at 11.40 Sunday, and ran 11.696 in the first round, followed by an 11.620 in the second. He then went on to run a much better 11.320 @ 113.92 mph in the third round, and an 11.368 in the fourth, to finish just outside the points in 5th place overall.
WB 5 Lee Hartnell was back in the “Dazed & Confused” altered after 2 successful Run-What-You-Brung events in March and April. After crewing for younger brother Mark's first run, he made 2 runs on Saturday, of 12.670 and 12.474 and Dialled in at 12.45 for Sunday. He recorded a close 12.499 @ 111.70 mph in the first round, after having performed a wild burnout! He then improved his E.T. in the second with a 12.252, and ran a 12.291 in the third. On the fourth round he ran a very strong 12.200, very close to his personal best, and with more yet to come from the car. He finished the day in 6th place overall.
WB 6 “Crazy” Chris Hartnell started off Saturday crewing for the youngest member of the Hartnell trio, son Mark, before jumping back in the hotseat of the “Backdraft” slingshot. He recorded a 9.206 @ 144.12 mph, with a great wheelie off the launch. Unfortunately, on the second run of the day, Chris had to shutdown with smoke coming out of a cylinder. The team diagnosed a blown inlet manifold gasket and Chris repaired this overnight, and dialled in at 9.00 for Sunday's rounds. But while staging in the first round, the gasket went again and Chris was forced to shutdown for the day and investigate further at home. Hope Chris can get the car back on song soon, running some more 8-second passes!! The highlight of the weekend though had been running against son Mark in his first ever race, and then crewing for both Lee and Mark for the rest of the weekend.
WB 16 was the debut of young Mark Hartnell in his “Awesome 4-Some” slingshot (formerly the “Nutcracker” slingshot of Team Dog's B***s, which Mark had revamped into quite a different-looking car, complete with front bodywork and a new paint job). On his first run, Mark recorded a 16.906 @ 72.29 mph, very respectable for a first effort! He then went on to run a 15.182 @ 93.18 mph on his second run, and a great Personal Best E.T. of 14.128 @ 96.94 mph on his third. He dialled in at 13.90 for the Sunday, hoping to improve even further, but ran a 15.480 in the first round, and a 19.154 in the second with throttle linkage problems. (On this run, he recorded a good .066 reaction time). The problem was fixed, and he went back out and ran a 14.537 at a Personal best speed of 97.40 mph in the third round, only to experience gearbox problems in the fourth round, and coast through to a 20.337 pass. On one of the runs on Sunday, Mark pulled a ONE-wheel launch, and this was captured by Sharkman, and other photographers, and through his good overall debut performance and nicely turned-out car, Mark was awarded the “Best Slingshot” Spot Prize. Fair play, Mark, and welcome to the Wild Bunch!!
WB 28 Pete & Gavyn Loveridge were running in the “Herr X” slingshot, and Gavyn made a couple of passes on the Saturday in the high 10's, both at over 120 mph. They dialled in at 10.80 for Sunday's rounds and recorded a strong 10.677 @ 125.29 mph in the first round. They then had problems on the line, so had to pull back at the second round, but came back out for the third with a 10.722 pass, getting closer to their Dial-in. We hope to see a lot more of the team this year, with the new shortened version of the original car, which seems to have lost none of the performance of its previous guise, and will be all the better for being able to run more often!
WB 33 saw Tommy Coe running in his “Psycho” slingshot. He made a couple of passes on Saturday with an 11.715 and an 11.740 @ 109.79 mph, and dialled in at 11.45 for the Sunday. He recorded an 11.645 in the first round, and an improved 11.417 in the second, rounding off the day with even better runs of 11.339 @ 114.59 mph and 11.399, to finish in 4th place overall for the event! Well done, Tom! Hope to see you out a few more times this year!
WB 38 Helen Smythe was running the Team Twisted “Hell's Belle” altered, supported by number one crew, hubby Dean, plus some furry friends back in the pits! She recorded runs of 13.151, 13.130, 13.030 and 12.976 on the Saturday, and dialled in at 13.00 even for Sunday's rounds. She promptly went out and ran a really good 12.850 in the first round, followed by a 12.853 in the second, with a great Reaction time of .020! She then recorded a great Personal Best E.T. of 12.720 @ 100.04 mph in the third round, surprising the team with such a strong performance. Also, on this run, Helen recorded a near perfect Reaction time of .001, and took the “Best Reaction” Spot Prize trophy for this!!! Look out everyone, Helen is really on the ball! She then ran a 13.306 in the fourth round and finished in 7th place for the weekend.
WB 39 Roland Willats arrived on Sunday morning and dialled in blind at 14.00 in the “Dragin Time” slingshot. He ran a 13.652 @ 84.39 mph in the first round, and then just carried on with testing and tuning for the rest of the day, and ran a Personal Best E.T. of 13.234 during RWYB time, also sharing the car with his crew.
WB 44 Sarah Howells was back out in the “Destiny's Angel” altered and ran 3 good passes on Saturday, with a day's best speed of 142.39 mph, and a great 9.601 E.T. at the end of the day. She dialled in at 9.50 for Sunday's rounds, and never strayed far from the 9.5's all day, with a 9.531 in the first round, 9.523 in the second, at a weekend best speed for Wild Bunch of 144.69 mph. She then recorded a 9.546 in the third round and went on to run a new Personal Best E.T. in the fourth, with a brilliant 9.490, which also earnt her the “Quickest E.T.” Spot Prize for the Sunday, and was only a hundredth off her Dial. This consistency saw Sarah rewarded with her first ever Wild Bunch event win! So many congratulations to her! With her brilliant performance and Bernie's well-turned out and tuned car, the team also won the “Best Altered” Spot Prize! Well done to all of them!
WB 54 saw newcomer Phil Sweeney in the “Antisocial” slingshot, in his first Wild Bunch event of the season, after having attended some earlier RWYB events. He put in a few checkout passes on Saturday, and dialled in at 13.50 on Sunday. He soon went better than anticipated, as on his first run of the day recorded a new Personal Best E.T. of 13.237 at a Personal Best speed of 97.54 mph! Unfortunately, this was a red light, by a small margin of -.011, showing that he was really trying hard!! He then recorded times of 13.935, 15.280 and 13.738 in the next three rounds, with his best reaction of the day being a strong .032! Well done, Phil, and welcome to the Bunch!!
WB 76 Steve Field was running “The Black Pig” altered, and only made one pass on the Saturday, having some problems. He dialled in at 10.60 on Sunday, and put in a good PB of 10.419 in the first round at a Personal Best speed of 129.77 mph, which meant he didn’t mind so much that he had red lit! On the second round, he ran a great new Personal Best E.T. of 10.297, so he was really chuffed with that! He then posted a 10.695 and a 10.743 in the third and fourth rounds, and was pretty pleased with the day's performance.
WB 81 Steve ‘Jacko’ Taylor was another newcomer to Wild Bunch, having been a marshal for many years at Shakey and finally realising a dream by buying his own race car! He made several passes in his “Claustrophobic” Rear-engined dragster on Saturday and dialled in at 13.10 on Sunday. He recorded a 13.941 in the first round and a 13.692 in the second. He then went on to run Personal Best E.T.'s on each of his last 2 runs, with a 13.090 @ 102.54 mph and a 13.071, getting closer to that 12-second bracket, and finishing in 8th place overall. Welcome to the Wild Bunch, Jacko!
WB 147 Sid Slattery was running his Jag-powered “Destiny” slingshot for his first event of the year. He spent a lot of the day Saturday putting some finishing touches to the car, and curing some problems that had developed. He dialled in at 15.00 for Sunday, and although he missed the first couple of rounds, put in a checkout pass of 12.996 @ 113.58 mph in the third round, and a much-improved 11.729 in the fourth. It was a shame he ran out of time, as he was just starting to get a handle on things. We will look forward to seeing a return to form on his next outing!
WB 464 saw Tracy Froome's first outing of the year with the “Sunburst” Radical Funny Car. He spent all of Saturday in the pits, checking out some last-minute problems, and had the car fired a couple times over the weekend. He dialled in at 9.50 for Sunday, but sadly did not make it to the track. So, better luck next time Trace!
All in all a very good weekend, with good weather! Many racers put in 6 or 7 passes during the event, with nearly half of them running Personal Best E.T.'s!! A great start, showing that a lot of drivers are already improving their performance early in the season. Many thanks as always to all the track crew and officials for all their hard work.



The next event is the Bank Holiday weekend “Spring Shootout” at the UK Spring Nationals at York Dragway on May 29th/30th! This pre-entry RWYB event will be Wild Bunch Series Round 2, Real Steel Series Round 3 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 1! This should be a real fun event and we’re really looking forward to it!!