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Spring Speed Festival May 5 - 7

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Spring Speed Festival5th - 7th MayPoints awarded for the APIRA Series Round 1 and Real Steel Series Round 3
This event was the third round of our Real Steel Series, the “Spring Speed Festival” at Shakespeare County Raceway, and the first of two rounds of the APIRA Series. There was a field of 8 Wild Bunch cars competing at the 3-day event: 2 Altereds, 5 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engined dragster
Event Participants
Position WB Driver Car Points
1 2 Roy Wilding Chariot of Fire 120
2 9 Dogs Bollocks Racing RamRaider 70
3 67 Darryl Howells Chemical Reaction II 60
4 44 Sarah Howells Destiny's Angel 50
5 57 Neil Ward Andromeda 40
6 25 Terry Clifford Ratcatcher Resurrection 30
7 40 Darren Law The Wicked Lady 20
8 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 10
Event Participants
Position WB Driver Car Points
1 2 Roy Wilding Chariot of Fire 1
- 6 Chris Hartnell Backdraft 1
- 9 Dogs Bollocks Racing RamRaider 1
- 25 Terry Clifford Ratcatcher Resurrection 1
- 40 Darren Law The Wicked Lady 1
- 44 Sarah Howells Destiny's Angel 1
- 57 Neil Ward Andromeda 1
- 67 Darryl Howells Chemical Reaction II 1
Spot Prizes
WBTeam/DriverCarDetail
#1 Qualifier 2 Roy Wilding Chariot Of Fire .010 Off
Best Reaction (Race-Day)Not Awarded
Cockup Trophy 2 Roy Wilding Chariot Of Fire
Closest To Dial-In (Race-Day)Not Awarded
Fastest Mph (Weekend) 57 Neil Ward Andromeda 151.25 Mph
Best Appearing Car & Team 44 Evolution Racing Destiny's Angel
Most of the drivers did all 5 qualifiers over the Saturday and Sunday of qualifying where the weather held up. During qualifying three drivers ran Personal Best E.T.'s and 3 ran Personal Best Speeds. Unfortunately there were scattered rainshowers on Monday, and we were unable to run any of our eliminations rounds!

Saturday & Sunday
These were qualifying days and there were scheduled to be 3 qualifiers on Saturday and two or more on Sunday, although some delays during Saturday meant our third qualifier took place on the Sunday. The day had started off cloudy and cool, but improved a bit during the day. Sunday's weather was similar and we had three qualifiers, making a total of 5. There was some rain at the end of the day, but we had finished our last round, and eliminations for some classes had started.
WB 2 Roy Wilding was in his third outing of the year in his well-turned out Chariot of Fire altered, which is now up for sale, as Roy is about to start new projects! Roy Dialled in at 11.45 for the first qualifier, and ran an 11.877 @ 111.21 mph, followed by an improved 11.417 breakout on the same Dial. On the third qualifier on Sunday, Roy dialled in at 11.41, but there was some problem on the startline with the tree being activated when Darren rolled through stage, so Roy did not record a time. He more than made up for this on the fourth qualifier when he ran a good 11.420 @ 117.80 mph on the 11.41 Dial-in, just .010 off, and good enough to take and keep #1 Qualifying Spot! In the fifth round, he kept the Dial-in again, and recorded an 11.620, but this had been with a Reaction time of 21.6 seconds! Roy had not put the car in gear! He was awarded the Cockup Trophy for this, and received it in good humour! He was just still pleased to have qualified in first place!
WB 6 ‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell was also in his third WB event of the season, and the Backdraft slingshot was sporting a brand new pair of Mickey Thompson rear slicks. (Chris would like to say a big thanks to Lee Child of LA Racing Parts for getting the tyres delivered so quickly, which gave him time to fit them before the weekend!). Chris was hoping the new tyres would cure the squirrelly launches experienced at the previous event. He Dialled in at 9.50 in the first qualifier and recorded a 10.127 @ 126.43 mph. But it had been arrow straight and Chris was really chuffed with this! He kept the Dial-in for the second run, and posted a better 9.876 @ 129.91 mph, still trying to get a tune-up in the car. On Sunday, he ran a 10.561, also on a 9.50, followed by a 10.260, and a better 9.974 @ 127.74 mph in the fifth round. Chris finished the qualifying in 8th place overall, but was happy that the car had run really straight, and was looking forward to getting a handle on the new setup.
WB 9 saw Ed Yates taking his second turn of the season in the RamRaider slingshot of Team Dog's B's, after Personal Bests from both Gos and himself at the previous two events. The team dialled in at 9.30 for starters, and Ed ran a 9.828 @ 130.01 mph in the first round. They kept the Dial-in for the second round, and Ed recorded a good 9.325 @ 143.52 mph, to go into top spot at that point. They stuck with the Dial for Sunday, and Ed posted varying runs of 9.620, 10.290 and 9.435, and finished in a good second place for qualifying.
WB 25 Terry Clifford had remounted the starter and installed a new flexiplate in his golden Ratcatcher Resurrection slingshot, after damage at the Spring Nationals. This was his first event after installing a new improved engine in the car, and he was eager to get back out on track! He Dialled in at 11.00 seconds for the first round, and recorded a new Personal Best E.T. of 11.609 @ 92.98 mph, on his checkout pass. He kept the same Dial for the second round and posted another PB of 10.725 at a new Personal Best Speed of 119.65 mph. He lowered the Dial-in to 10.40 for Sunday, and started off with yet another PB of 10.631 @ 122.61 mph, another best speed. Keeping this Dial, he recorded another good 10.649 run. He raised the Dial to 10.60 for the last qualifier, and ran a 10.712. Terry qualified in 6th place overall, and was very pleased with the performance of the new engine, and looked forward to his first round of competition.
WB 40 Darren Law was making his third appearance of 2007 with The Wicked Lady Rear-engined dragster. He started off with a Dial-in of 10.30, and ran a troubled 14.404 @ 55 mph. The team discovered the diff pinion flange had broken, so set about trying to get it repaired. They managed to get this welded, many thanks to Bob Glassup, and re-installed it, but things were still not right. Knowing they had a spare back home, several of the team made the 4-hour return trip to Reading to pick this up. They were up early on the Sunday to install this, and things seemed good when they fired the car up. Unfortunately, on the third qualifier, another breakage caused the transbrake to work incorrectly and Darren rolled through stage, and did not record a time. The team bounced back well on the fourth qualifier, when they dialled in at 10.30, and Darren ran a solid 10.528 @ 132.21 mph, with a great reaction of .049, so their journey home was well-rewarded. There was a slight problem in the fifth round when Darren red-lit and slowed to an 11.374. Darren qualified in 7th place overall, but the team had done really well to get right back in the show, and back on song!
WB 44 was Sarah Howells in her second event of the year driving Bernie Nicholas’ Destiny's Angel, which sadly is up for sale, as Bernie has a new job in Norway, starting in September! Sarah had just run a PB at the Spring Nationals and was keen to lower this even more at this event. Bernie dialled her in at 9.39 for the first qualifier, and she went straight out and ran a 9.191 @ 146.65 mph! The team quickly lowered the Dial to 9.15, and Sarah posted a good 9.209 @ 145 mph in the second round. On Sunday, Bernie raised the Dial a bit to 9.18, and Sarah recorded a consistent 9.215 at a new personal best speed of 147.05 mph. They kept the dial for the fourth round where Sarah really went for it and posted a new Personal Best E.T. of 9.172 at a new best speed of 147.36 mph. Bernie lowered the Dial to a 9.10 for the last qualifier and Sarah ran a 9.275 @ 145.83 mph, remaining nearly within a tenth throughout the five rounds! She finished in 4th place overall in qualifying and was really looking forward to the eliminations on Monday. Bernie and Sarah were awarded the Best Appearing Car and Team Spot Prize for the well-turned out altered and Sarah's good performance, which sadly has turned out to be their last event with the car, as the beautiful altered was sold on the Monday morning. All best wishes to Bernie for his new job! And to Sarah in her next drive! And to the lucky new owners of the car!
WB 57 Neil Ward was in his first event of 2007 with his Andromeda slingshot, hoping to pick up where he left off and tune the car even further. The team missed the first round doing some adjustments and fire-ups in the pits, but came out strong for the first pass of the year, where they dialled in at 9.00 and Neil ran a great 8.990 @ 149.02 mph ‘straight off the trailer’! They lowered the dial to 8.88 for the third round on Sunday, but had a problem when the cut off was accidentally activated, and Neil coasted over to the side of the track. Optimistically, they lowered the Dial to 8.80, and Neil went straight back out and ran a strong 8.882, being just one thousandth off his previous best E.T. This run was at a new Personal Best Speed of 151.25 mph, which earned Neil the Fastest MPH of the Bunch for the weekend. The Dial-in was raised back up to an 8.87 for the fifth qualifier and Neil ran a 9.418 @ 138.79 mph, with the team still tuning and getting a handle on the setup. They were pleased that this last run had been their best 60 ft time to date. Neil qualified in 5th place overall.
WB 67 Darryl Howells was another driver in his third event within a month, in the DASH Racing Chemical Reaction II slingshot. Darryl was hoping to make more progress with the E.T.'s again at this event, and iron out any remaining teething problems with the new setup. For his first qualifier, he dialled in at 10.50, and began the event with a 10.718 @ 127.84 mph. He kept the dial for the second round and posted a breakout 10.342 @ 129.70 mph. The Dial-in was lowered to 10.33 for Sunday, but a bog off the line netted Darryl an off-pace 11.129. He and crew Mark Coulsell traced the cause of this, so dialled in at 10.30 for the fourth qualifier, and Darryl went out and posted a new Personal Best E.T. of 10.325 @ 132.91 mph, which also earned him the third place qualifying spot. Darryl kept this dial for the last round and redlit to an 11.186 @ 132 mph.
Monday (Race Day)
Monday started off with a rain shower overnight, and persistent drizzle in the early morning. This stopped and the track crew worked hard to dry the track, but another shower hit mid morning. All the racers were called to the clubhouse for a riders and drivers meeting at 12:30, and the Race Director explained that the marshals were still working on the track. The weather stayed dry for a bit, and racing eventually started at quarter to 2 in the afternoon. All 8 Wild Bunch cars had qualified for the race, and most of the racers readied their cars for the first round, where there were due to be 4 good races in the quarter-finals, with Roy racing Neil, Chris facing Sarah, Ed running against Terry, and Darren racing Darryl. But unfortunately another short sharp shower happened at about 10 past 2. The track crew started to work on the track again, but another storm was predicted, so unfortunately the Race Director had to call off the event. This was such a shame for all the Bunchers who were looking forward to running the first round of eliminations. And a great shame for the marshals who had worked so hard to try and dry the track several times.

This had been Round 3 of our Real Steel Series, and the rainoff means all teams earned an equal 1 point for the Series, which is still led by Crazy Chris, with Darryl still in 2nd place. Congratulations to all the Wild Bunch racers who did themselves proud in the qualifying. It had been a good weekend, up until the disappointment of the rainoff, and the Wild Bunch teams would like to thank the track crew and marshals for their efforts in trying to dry up the track and give us some racing!

We are now looking forward to the second Wild Bunch Series round, which will be the fourth Real Steel Series round of 2007, the June Shootout at Shakey on 2nd & 3rd June!