Easter Thunderball - Wild Bunch

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Easter Thunderball April 6 - 9

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Easter Thunderball6th - 9th AprilPoints awarded for the Real Steel Series Round 1 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 1

This event was the first event of 2007, the Easter Thunderball. It was Real Steel Series Round 1, and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 1, and there was a field of 5 Wild Bunch cars competing: 1 Altered, 3 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engined dragster

Event Participants
Position	WB	Driver	Car	Points
1	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	9
2	67	Darryl Howells	Chemical Reaction	7
3	9	Dogs Bollocks Racing Team	RamRaider	5
4	40	Darren Law	Wicked Lady	3
5	2	Roy Wilding	Chariot of Fire	2

This was the second time the Wild Bunch had competed at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod as a class, and it was a great event, with 4 days of qualifying and racing! Friday This was a qualifying day and there were scheduled to be 3 qualifiers. The day started off cool and sunny, and stayed good throughout the day.
WB 2	Roy Wilding was in his first outing of the year in his “Chariot of Fire” altered. He Dialled in at 11.40 for starters, and ran a good 11.482 @ 115.96 mph in the first round, which put him in the number one spot all day. He followed this with an 11.645 on a Dial-in of 11.48. He kept this Dial for the third round, and ran a breakout 11.418 @ 116 mph.
WB 6	‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell had taken “Backdraft” to a RWYB on 11th March at the Pod and tested his new 9” axle. The distributor had broken at the event, but he had replaced it and was hoping for some good runs in the slingshot. He Dialled in at an optimistic 8.94 in the first qualifier and struggled to an off-form 12.323 @ only 107 mph. He then spent the rest of the day in the pits trying to find the cause of the drop in power.
WB 9	saw Ed Yates taking the hotseat of the “RamRaider” slingshot of Team Dog's B's. The team dialled in at 9.25, and Ed posted a 9.803 @ 119.32 mph to open his account. The car experienced a small leak and Ed could not make the second qualifier, but came back out for the third and ran a 9.592 on a 9.45 Dial-in.
WB 40	Darren Law was making his first appearance of 2007 with “The Wicked Lady” Rear-engined dragster, after the team had rebuilt the engine over the off-season. He started off with a Dial-in of 10.25, and ran a 13.078 @ 74 mph in the first qualifier. The team made some adjustments and came back out and ran a much-improved 10.907 on the same Dial, in the second qualifier. Then confident of more improvement, they modified the Dial-in to 9.75 and Darren ran a better 10.141 @ 134.29 mph in the third qualifying round.
WB 67	saw the very welcome return of Darryl Howells in the newly-finished “Chemical Reaction II” slingshot, now sporting a brand new tagged chassis. He had attended the Test and Tune at Shakespeare County the weekend before for some shakedown runs, and was keen to get back into competition, after a year off. He started off with a Dial-in of 10.50, and recorded an 11.217 @ 127.81 mph for the first qualifier. He kept the Dial for the second round and posted an even better 10.870 @ 128.46 mph, followed by an 11.022 @ 129 mph in the third qualifier.
Saturday There were scheduled to be 2 more qualifiers on Saturday and the day started off with sunny, mild weather again. We were called down to the pairings lanes before noon for the fourth qualifier. Roy put in a strong run of 11.345, breaking out on his 11.40 Dial-in, whilst Chris was still having tuning problems and recorded a 12.727 on a 9.24 Dial-in. Ed came out and put in a strong 9.361 @ 145.63 mph on a 9.35 Dial, just .011 off, to take the Number One spot, which he kept throughout the rest of qualifying. Darren also improved and ran his best time of the weekend, with a 10.037 @ 134.70 mph on a 10.00 Dial-in to move into 2nd place. And Darryl also improved against Dial with a 10.860 on a 10.74, but stayed in 4th place. The fifth qualifier was a few hours later. Roy improved against his Dial-in running an 11.394 on an 11.34, but stayed in third place. Chris had yet more problems with a 12.889 on his 9.24 Dial, still trying everything he could to trace the gremlins. Ed then put in a new Personal Best E.T. of 9.273, again at 145.63 mph, breaking out on a 9.35 Dial, whilst Darryl put in his best time to date with the new chassis, of 10.686 @ 131.25 mph. Sunday There were scheduled to be yet 3 more qualifiers on Sunday! The day started off sunny and cool and warmed up. Roy put in passes of 11.554 on an 11.35, 11.707 on an 11.49 and 11.866 on an 11.55, and finished the day in 3rd qualifying spot. Chris unfortunately missed the sixth qualifier, still sorting out some of the problems with the car, but came back out for the seventh and ran a better 10.153 @ 130.05 mph, on a 9.50 Dial-in, to improve greatly against Dial, but still he still remained fifth place qualifier. He later ran a 10.214 on a 9.50, still off-pace, but getting there! Ed recorded runs of 9.344 on a 9.20, and 9.342 on the same (really consistent!). He then went out for the last qualifier, which was about 8:15 at night, and launched with a big wheelie and great header flames, and recorded a new Personal Best E.T. for the whole team of 9.140!! Congratulations, Ed! Darren had three good runs, with a 10.383 on a 10.00, a 10.296 on the same and a 10.627 on a 10.15 Dial-in, and finished in the second place qualifying slot. Darryl made good use of all the qualifying rounds, posting 11.042 on a 10.66, a new PB for the new chassis of 10.529, breaking out on the 10.66, and then a solid 10.551 on a 10.49, near the 130 mph mark, and finished in 4th place overall in qualifying. Monday (Race Day) Monday started off sunny and cool again. All 5 Wild Bunch cars had qualified for eliminations and there were due to be 2 good races between Roy and Chris and Darren and Darryl, and a Bye for Ed in the first round, the quarter-finals. This took place just before 11am, so we did not have too long to wait! Quarter-Finals Ed had a Bye run in this round, as he was #1 Qualifier. He ran a 10.190 on a 9.30 Dial. The first pairing saw Darren facing Darryl. This was a close one, as there was not much in it on reaction times, and only .037 at the top end. Darryl took the win with just .028 off his Dial, running a 10.538 on a 10.51, whilst Darren ran a good 10.274 on a 10.15. The next race saw Roy matched with Chris. Roy posted a small breakout of just .005, carding an 11.555 on an 11.56, so close, whilst Chris managed to recover some form with a 9.503 on a 9.50 Dial-in, and took the “Closest to Dial-in” Spot Prize, whilst advancing to the Semis. Darren took 4th place by virtue of being closest to Dial-in without breaking out of the runners up in the Quarter-Finals. Semi-finals After the quarter-finals, there were quite a few classes of eliminations to run, so there was a bit of a wait, but we got called to the pairings lanes before 3pm. This time, Darryl had the Bye, and he ran a 10.763 on a 10.51, to make it to the Final for his first time with the car. That left a race between the two methanol-injected slingshots, and Ed had a great run of 9.289, but broke out on his 9.30 Dial, handing the win to Chris who posted a 10.202 on a 9.99 Dial-in, to make it to his first final for a while. Final The final saw Chris recording his best E.T. of the weekend, with a 10.074 on a 9.99 Dial-in to take the win over Darryl's 11.254 on a 10.51 Dial. It was great to see them on the new podium behind the pairings lanes! Darryl was thrilled to be back in Wild Bunch competition, and to top his weekend off, DASH racing won the “Best Appearing Car” award for the well-turned out “Chemical Reaction II”. Congratulations to Chris on his win against the odds, and to all the Wild Bunch racers who put on a good show! All in all, a great event, with brilliant weather every day! Huge thanks to all the track crew, marshals and officials for their hard work. And thanks to everyone at Santa Pod for making us so welcome! We are now looking forward to the first round of the Wild Bunch Series and the second Real Steel Series round of 2007, at the “Spring Nationals” at Shakey on April 21st & 22nd!