Summer Nationals - Wild Bunch

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Summer Nationals June 16 - 17

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Summer Nationals16th - 17th JunePoints awarded for the Real Steel Series Round 5 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2

This event was the second event of the year at Santa Pod Raceway, the Summer Nationals. It was Real Steel Series Round 5, and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2, and there was a field of 6 Wild Bunch cars competing: 5 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engined dragster

Event Participants
Position	WB	Driver	Car	Points
1	67	Darryl Howells	Chemical Reaction II	9
2	25	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection	7
3	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	5
4	34	Alec Coe & Kev Mortimer	Shy Talker	3
5	9	Dogs Bollocks Racing	RamRaider	1
-	40	Darren Law	The Wicked Lady	1

Spot Prizes
	WB	Team/Driver	Car	Detail
#1 Qualifier	40	Darren Law	The Wicked Lady	.313 Off
Best Reaction	40	Darren Law	The Wicked Lady	.069
Closest To Dial-In	25	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection	.055 Off
Quickest E.T.	9	Ed Yates	Ramraider	9.492
Best Appearing Car & Team	25	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection

Saturday This was a qualifying day and there were scheduled to be 3 qualifiers. The day started off cool and cloudy, and just as racing was about to start at 9am, the heavens opened! The rain carried on for a while, and then the track crew started the first of many efforts to dry the track. They nearly had it dry and the jet dryer was making some passes, when another rainshower hit. After this subsided, the crew started again, and eventually the track was ready for action around 2:15 in the afternoon. About 5 classes of cars did their first qualifiers, and just after this there was another rainstorm! (In fact the last man down the track Saturday was Roy Wilding, who was making an excursion in the S&K rear-engined dragster of SuperPro team Roger Sinclair and Mick Kemp! Roy ran a creditable 8.54 @ 161 mph on his first ever pass in the car!). After the rain, the track crew again started to dry the track, but there were intermittent showers, and the Race Director was finally forced to call a halt to the day at 6pm, knowing that the track was still soaked, and there were still more storms on the way (which hardly let up all evening!). Such a shame! Although some of the Bunchers made best use of the available puddles by staging some paper boat races in the pits!! The plan then for the new running order was to finish off the first cycle of qualifiers Sunday morning, so everyone would have a one-shot qualifier. This included the Wild Bunch, so everyone packed away and hoped for better weather on Sunday! Sunday (Qualifier) Sunday started off cool and cloudy again, and though the track crew had been working for about 3 hours, the standing water seeped back up through the track and delayed the start by half an hour. And though the rest of the day remained cloudy, no rain ever fell, despite some threatening clouds, and there were sunny intervals! This allowed all of the scheduled qualifier and eliminations to take place, which was great news!
WB 6	‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell had been running a transbrake at the last event with Backdraft, to improve on the launches, so he was hoping for some good wheels-up runs! However, the transbrake failed on the qualifier, and Chris crept forward and redlit on the run, recording a Reaction Time of -.399! Just one thousandth away from not getting a time, and not qualifying! This problem messed up the run somewhat and Chris posted a 10.921 @ 128.95 mph, but was pleased just to have made the show and qualified fifth!
WB 9	saw Ed Yates back in the hotseat of the RamRaider slingshot of Team Dog's B's. The team dialled in at 9.13, just below Ed's PB, and Ed posted a 9.492 @ 140.33 mph to qualify in second place. This run won Ed the Quickest E.T. Spot Prize and his speed also remained the highest of the day for the Bunch!
WB 25	Terry Clifford was back out in his Ratcatcher Resurrection slingshot, and in his first real MSA event competition, as the last MSA meet he entered was the August Bank Holiday Open Sports Nationals at Shakey, where he blew his engine on a qualifying run! So Terry was still a newcomer to the qualifying and eliminations format! Terry dialled in safe with a 10.00 even, and ran a 10.855 @ 118.45 mph, to qualify in 4th place overall.
WB 34	was the first event of the season for Alec Coe and Kev Mortimer's Shy Talker slingshot, as they had just finished having a brand new engine installed in the blown digger! The whole of the Mad R's team were thrilled to be back and raring to go, so were especially frustrated by the rain on Saturday! They were still in shakedown mode, so dialled in at 12.00 seconds even for the qualifier, as the plan was for a half pass. Alec recorded an 11.269 @ 102.95 mph, and the team were pleased with the first run, and though they qualified in 6th place, were really glad to be getting another run in the first round of eliminations.
WB 40	Darren Law was also raring to go after a recent return to form with The Wicked Lady Rear-engined dragster. The team started off with a Dial-in of 9.81, and Darryl ran a 10.123 @ 131.97 mph to take the #1 Qualifier Spot! So they were all really pleased with that one! Darren also posted a good reaction of .069 to win the Spot Prize for Best Reaction!
WB 67	was Darryl Howells in the DASH Racing Chemical Reaction slingshot, and he was hoping for his first 9-second pass with the car, after some great runs at the June Shootout. He started off with a Dial-in of 9.99, and recorded a 10.429 @ 129.78 mph, to finish in 3rd place overall in the qualifying.
Sunday (Eliminations) All 6 Wild Bunch cars had qualified for eliminations and there were due to be 3 good races, between Darren and Terry, Ed and Chris and Darryl and Alec in the quarter-finals. This took place an hour ahead of the scheduled running order, about 4pm!! Quarter-Finals In the first race, Darren fired The Wicked Lady and performed his burnout, but unfortunately the car cut out after this, and just would not re-start! So sadly the team had to push him back! This left Terry to take a solo, and he recorded a good 10.655 on a 10.60 Dial-in, at 119.95 mph. This run proved to be the Closest to Dial-in of the day, so Terry was pleased to win that Spot Prize! The next race should have seen Ed matched up with Chris, but unfortunately, the delayed running order meant that work commitments forced the team to leave early! So Chris ended up with a Bye run. He posted a conservative Dial-in of 9.80, and was pleasantly surprised to run a 9.627 @ 133.48 mph, without the errant transbrake! The next pairing saw Alec facing Darryl. Alec dialled in at 8.50, planning for a full pass, whilst Darryl opted for a 10.25. Alec performed a strong burnout, but could only record a 10.322 @ 140.08 mph, still in shakedown mode. Darryl took the win with a 10.579 @ 119.96 mph to advance to the Semis. Alec took 4th place by virtue of being the only other runner to complete a pass in the quarter-finals. Semi-finals There was just under two hours until the Semis, and we ran this round about 6pm. This time, Terry had a Bye, and he ran a 10.737 @ 119.71 mph on a 10.60 Dial, to make it to the Final for his first time in competition. That left a race which was a rematch of the Thunderball Final, with Chris paired with Darryl. This was a great race, with Darryl having the edge on the Reaction time with a .203 to a .251. Chris posted a 9.691 on a 9.60, and Darryl a 10.342 on a 10.25, so there was only one thousandths in it on difference to Dial! Darryl took the win by virtue of the holeshot, and advanced to his second final of the year! And Chris finished in 3rd place overall. Final The final saw another great race between Terry and Darryl, with Darryl again having the better reaction, with a .368 to a .583. Terry recorded a 10.702 @ 119 mph on his 10.60 Dial, whilst Darryl posted a 10.372 @ 120 mph on a 10.20 Dial. Darryl took his first ever MSA victory due again to his holeshot! Many congratulations to him and Sarah! Fair play! Darryl was really beaming on the podium!! Fair shout! The commentators awarded Terry and team the Best Appearing Car and Team prize for the well-turned out Ratcatcher Resurrection slingshot and a good team performance, and he also was really chuffed with his weekend! All in all, a good event, despite Saturday's weather! Huge thanks to all the track crew for trying so hard to dry the track many times on the Saturday. And many thanks to all the marshals and officials and Race Directors for their hard work. Cheers to commentators Graham and Tog and thanks to the whole of the eurodragster team for the great coverage! And thanks to everyone at Santa Pod for making us so welcome! Darryl is now leading the Real Steel Series, on joint points with Chris, but with one more 2nd place finish. Darryl also leads the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series, with Chris currently second. So congratulations again to Darryl for his first MSA event win, and to Terry for reaching his first ever MSA final! Well done to them and all the Wild Bunch racers who gave a good account of themselves! We are now looking forward to the third round of the Wild Bunch Series and the sixth Real Steel Series round of 2007, at the Nostalgia Nationals at Shakey on June 30th & July 1st!