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UK Northern Nats August 5 - 6
UK Northern Nationals5th August - 6th AugustPoints awarded for the Wild Bunch Series Round 5, Real Steel Series Round 8 & Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2
This event was Wild Bunch Series Round 5, the “York Summer Showdown”, as well as Real Steel Series Round 8 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2. There was a field of 7 Wild Bunch cars competing: 4 Altereds, 2 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engine dragster.
| Event Participants | ||||
| Position | WB | Driver | Car | Points |
| 1 | 109 | Team B-Sting | B-Sting | 10 |
| 2 | 63 | Joe Stevens | Back In Black | 8 |
| 3 | 2 | Team Cunning Plan | The Cunning Plan | 7 |
| 4 | 100 | Roy Wilding | Chariot of Fire | 6 |
| 5 | 16 | Mark Hartnell | Awesome 4-Some | 5 |
| - | 72 | Sag Southworth | Daddy Cool | 5 |
| 7 | 4 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 1 |
| Spot Prizes | ||||
| WB | Team/Driver | Car | Detail | |
| Closest To Dial-In | 63 | Joe Stevens | Back In Black | .012 Off |
| Best Reaction | 109 | Andrew Murphy | B-Sting | .596 (On A .500) |
| Best Burnout | 63 | ‘Smokin’ Joe Stevens | Back In Black | |
| Best Altered | 100 | Roy Wilding | Chariot Of Fire | |
| Best Slingshot | 16 | Mark Hartnell | Awesome 4-Some | |
| Best Radical/Dragster | 72 | Sag Southworth | Daddy Cool | |
| Best Appearing Team | 2 | Team Cunning Plan | The Cunning Plan | |
| Saturday. The day started off cloudy and cool, and warmed up a lot during the day. This was a practice day and most drivers got in 5 rounds and had a great time | |
| Sunday (Series Points Day) Again, the weather was similar on Sunday, but with a few threatening clouds at times, but they all passed by in the end, and we got all 4 rounds in by about quarter past 3! | |
| WB 2 | Tony Smith in The Cunning Plan minivan altered was currently leading the Wild Bunch Series, along with crewchief Dave, and they were looking to consolidate this lead. They had travelled 285 miles to York Dragway and were eager to get some good runs in. On the first run on Saturday, Tony performed his usual smoky burnout but, on launching, the car turned immediately left. Tony corrected this but turned left twice more on the run and had to coast to a 20-second pass. Tony and Dave diagnosed a problem in the diff and on taking the casing off, found a broken inner drive shaft. Tony then put out a call on the tannoy in the unlikely event someone had a similar Jag shaft. And low and behold, track promoter Steve Murty came to the rescue, as he had the very shaft on one of his wheelie cars! Tony and Dave immediately set about installing this, and got the car back out to join in for the Bunch's fourth run of the day, with Tony posting a respectable 11.887 @ 100.02 mph! He also went out for the fifth round and recorded a consistent 11.896! With the car back on song, Tony dialled in at exactly 11.885 for Sunday's rounds and went straight out and ran a better 11.857 in the first round. He followed this with runs of 11.799, 11.832 and 11.932 in the other rounds and finished in 3rd place overall! He also retained the lead of the Wild Bunch Series and the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series! Not bad for a weekend which started with a breakage! As a bonus, the team won the Best Appearing Team Spot Prize! Tony would like to thank Murt for his help and for having the right part just when he needed it!! |
| WB 4 | ‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell had just finished installing a brand new axle in the Backdraft slingshot, and was looking forward to seeing what it could do. He went out for his first burnout on the Saturday, not really lighting the tyres. And then, when he launched, the car turned hard left. Chris corrected this and put the power down again, only to veer left towards the centre line again. He then cruised to a 14-second pass, and went back to the pits to investigate further. He later made a modification on the front end, and went back out for the Bunch's fifth run of the day. He launched and again started to turn left, not as harshly, but still enough to show that all was not well, coasting to a 12.0-second run. So, unfortunately he had to park the car for the rest of the weekend. Hope he can sort out the handling problem and be right back out at the next race! |
| WB 16 | saw Mark Hartnell in his first ever trip to York with his Awesome 4-Some slingshot. He, like Dad Chris, had made the 220-mile trip up north, and was raring to go, and started Saturday with a ‘checkout’ pass of 13.002 @ 103.05 mph. He then never went slower than a 12.5 for the rest of the weekend, recording 4 more passes on the Saturday of 12.424, 12.479, 12.495 and 12.392 @ 105.20 mph. He dialled in at exactly 12.445 for Sunday's rounds and went quicker on every run, starting with a run exactly equal to his last run the day before, a 12.392! In the second round he ran a new Personal Best E.T. of 12.345 @ 106.30 mph, followed with a solid 12.395 in the third, and then another new PB in the fourth round, a 12.333! And although quite close throughout the rounds, he finished in 5th place overall! This was good enough to improve Mark's position in the Wild Bunch Series to 5th! He later went out for another test run, and recorded an amazing new Personal Best E.T. of 12.185, taking nearly two tenths off his previous PB recorded before the weekend! To top it all, Mark was awarded the Best Slingshot Mr Bolt Spot Prize by the commentators! Well done, Mark! |
| WB 63 | Joe Stevens was in equal 4th place in the Wild Bunch Series coming into this event with his Back in Black altered. He made 5 runs on the Saturday, beginning with a 9.747 @ 140.78 mph, then a 9.584 @ 141.56 mph. He then posted two 9.3-second runs, including a 9.378, and finished the day with a 9.415, all at over 140 mph. Joe dialled in at 9.410 for Sunday's rounds, and strayed from this in the first round with a 9.553. He then improved, posting exactly the same E.T. in the second and third rounds with a 9.422, just .012 off his Dial-in! This also won him the Closest to Dial-in Spot Prize for the day! He then recorded a 9.451 in the fourth round, and finished in 2nd place overall, with all Sunday's runs being over 140mph again. ‘Smokin’ Joe also won the Best Burnout Spot Prize for his long smoky burnouts and was the quickest and fastest of the Bunch all weekend! He also consolidated his 4th place position in the Wild Bunch Series. |
| WB 72 | saw the welcome return of Dave ‘Sag’ Southworth with the Daddy Cool supercharged Rover-powered rear-engined dragster for his first Wild Bunch appearance of the season. He arrived late morning on Saturday, but still managed to get three runs in, of 12.920, 13.517 and 13.358, all around the 60+ mph mark, and all with some problems with a new carb setup. He then posted a Dial-in of 10.60 for Sunday's rounds, which seemed optimistic, until he fired off a really strong 10.706 @ 116.54 mph in the first round! Sag was still tuning the carbs, and in the second round recorded a 10.842. He drifted to an 11.105 and an 11.009 in the third and fourth rounds, and finished in 6th place overall. On his return to Wild Bunch, Sag won the Best Dragster/Radical Spot Prize, which was really fitting, as it was his lovely wife Elaine who had made and donated all the ‘Mr Bolt’ trophies!! Well done to all the team, and glad to have you back racing with us!! |
| WB 100 | Roy Wilding was in second place in the Wild Bunch Series going into this event, and it was the first time he had raced his Chariot of Fire altered at York. He started Saturday with a checkout pass of 11.664 @ 116.22 mph, and after that made three consistent 11.4-second passes of 11.457, 11.421 and 11.431. He dialled in at 11.425 for the rounds on Sunday and began the day with an 11.532 in the first round. He improved in the second round, posting an 11.478, and then an even closer 11.445 in the third round, just .020 off his Dial-in. He then recorded his quickest run of the weekend, an 11.368 @ 118.15 mph in the fourth round. Roy finished in 4th place overall, and maintained his second place in the Wild Bunch Series, and moved into first place in the Real Steel Series. He also won the Best Altered Mr Bolt Spot Prize for his well-turned out vehicle and its good performance over the weekend. |
| WB 109 | Andrew Murphy was driving the B-Sting altered this weekend, and the team were lying in equal 4th place in the Wild Bunch Series, going into this event. Andrew made 5 runs on the Saturday, beginning with a 10.634 @ 124.41 mph. He then ran quicker with a 10.599 @ 125.03 mph, and even quicker with a 10.492, and finished the day with a 10.537. The team dialled in at 10.495 for Sunday, and Andrew started well with a 10.445 @ 125.15 mph, with a Best Reaction for the Bunch, with a .596. He then ran a 10.478 in the second round, just .017 off the Dial, and a 10.527 in the third, before running a weekend's best of 10.440, very near his Personal Best in the car! He was never further than .055 off the Dial-in and this consistency won him the event! (The first win for the B-Sting team for a couple of years!) So well done to Andy and all the ‘Sting boys, who moved up into 3rd place in the Wild Bunch Series! |
| It had been a good event where we were lucky with the weather! Thanks to promoter Steve Murty and thanks very much again to all the very hard working PDRC marshals and officials for their efforts and for making us feel very welcome. Well done to them all! We will look forward to racing at York again next season!
We are now really looking forward to the UK Truck Event at Santa Pod Raceway in two week's time, a new special event where we will be running as one of the demo classes in the Drag Racing Showcase! | |