Sportsman National Finals

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Sportsman National Finals September 27 - 28

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Wild Bunch ResultsFall Nationals27th - 28th September Wild Bunch Series Round 6. Real Steel Series Round 10.

This event was the 6th and Final Round of the Wild Bunch Series and the 10th and Final round of our Real Steel Series, our “Fall Nationals” at the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. There was a field of 8 Wild Bunch cars competing at the event: 2 Altereds and 6 Slingshots.

Wild Bunch Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	25	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection	9
2	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	7
3	9	Dogs Bollocks Racing	RamRaider	5
4	95	Mark Richardson	Pony Express	4
5	44	Dave Rowlands	Destinys Angel	2
-	3	Darryl Howells	Chemical Reaction II	2
-	142	Mike Cresswell	Living the Dream	2
-	78	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	2

MSA Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	25	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection	550
2	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	340
3	95	Mark Richardson	Pony Express	270
4	9	Dogs Bollocks Racing	RamRaider	260
5	44	Dave Rowlands	Destinys Angel	220
6	142	Mike Cresswell	Living the Dream	130
7	78	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	120
8	3	Darryl Howells	Chemical Reaction II	110

Spot Prizes
	WB	Team/Driver	Car	Detail
Closest To Dial-In	25	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection	0.003 off
Best Reaction	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	0.046
Best Appearing Team	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft
#1 Qualifier	44	Dave Rowlands	Destinys Angel	0.037 off
Best Appearing Car	78	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker
Event Quickest ET	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	9.099

Saturday This was a qualifying day and there were scheduled to be 3 qualifiers on Saturday, although a 2-hour fog delay on Saturday and some downtime, meant there was only time for 2 complete cycles of qualifying: one at around 4pm; and the other a night qualifier ‘under the lights’ at 8:15pm! All of the drivers took advantage of both of these and relished the chance of the night run! During the event, two drivers ran Personal Best E.T.'s. and there was some very close racing!
WB 3	Darryl Howells was back in the DASH Racing Chemical Reaction slingshot, and had made some changes to the injection setup. For his first qualifier, he dialled in at 10.80, and quickly broke out, recording a 10.550 @ 130.87 mph pass. He lowered the Dial-in to a 10.20 for the night pass, and enjoyed the run, with a 10.903 @ 126.82 mph, with some flames along the way! Darryl qualified in 8th place overall, and was glad to be back in the 10's.
WB 6	'Crazy' Chris Hartnell was hoping for some more real low 9's and some wheelies in the Backdraft slingshot. He Dialled in at 9.00 even in the first qualifier and recorded a 9.099 @ 140.66 mph for starters, so was quite pleased with that. This also proved to be the Quickest E.T. of the event for the Bunch. The team raised the Dial slightly to 9.05 for the nighttime second qualifier, and Chris ran another wheelie with a 9.188 @ 142.91mph with flames! Chris really enjoyed this run, and qualified in 5th place overall. He was looking forward to race day, as there was a chance of finishing first in the Wild Bunch Series, if he could win the event!
WB 9	saw Ed Yates again driving the RamRaider slingshot of Team Dog's B's. The team dialled in at 9.23 and Ed posted a good 9.293 @ 142.43 mph for his opening bid. The team kept the Dial-in for the second round, and Ed recorded a 9.386, again at exactly 142.43 mph! And with some nice blue flames on the start line! Ed qualified in 3rd place overall, so was pleased with that!
WB 25	Terry Clifford was running the golden Ratcatcher Resurrection slingshot, and looking for low 10's, and a chance to move up the Wild Bunch Series Top 4. He Dialled in at 10.10 seconds for the first round, and recorded a 10.316 @ 124.79 mph. He raised the Dial for the night round to a 10.20 and ran a good 10.285 @ 124.00 mph, which moved him one place up the qualifying order, to qualify in 4th place overall.
WB 44	Dave Rowlands running the Destiny's Angel altered only needed to stage in the first round on Sunday, to take the Real Steel Series win! Dave dialled the car in at 9.70 for the first qualifier, and posted a great 9.737 @ 139.36 mph to go straight into the top spot. He kept the Dial for the second round at night, and then recorded a 9.963 @ 142.46 mph, really enjoying the run! Dave qualified in #1 Spot for his first time ever, so was really pleased with that.
WB 78	Keith Crampton was in only his third ever MSA event in his Soultown Shaker slingshot. He dialled in at an optimistic 11.90 for his first qualifier and had a slight problem on the run, posting a 13.397 @ 112.41 mph, near his top speed. He kept the Dial for his first ever night run with the car, and recorded a much better 12.321 @ 111.78 mph, to finish in 7th place overall in the qualifying, really enjoying the experience.
WB 95	Mark Richardson was back out in the Pony Express altered, after some recent good form in the mid 9's. He began with a Dial of 9.50, and ran a strong 9.562 @ 139.01 mph in the first round. He kept the Dial for the night run, posting a 9.826 @ 138.96 mph, having a hairy moment just past the finish line! Mark was very pleased to qualify in a strong 2nd place overall.
WB 142	Andy Cresswell was running the freQ Racing Living the Dream slingshot, in only his third ever MSA event, and just a couple of weeks short of his 21st Birthday! He Dialled in at 11.50 for the first run and posted a good 11.668 @ 115.30 mph for starters, nearly equalling his fastest ever speed in the car. He kept the Dial-in for the second qualifier, his first night run, and posted an 11.785 @ 113.18mph. Andy qualified in 6th place overall.
Sunday (Race Day) Sunday started off with a lighter fog which only delayed the start of racing a little. Quarter-finals (First round) All 8 Wild Bunch cars had qualified, so there were going to be 4 good races in the first round and no Byes at all on Race-day! This round took place at around 1:30pm, so there had been quite a while to wait. One of the races saw a big battle of the breakouts, when Ed Yates faced Keith Crampton. Ed recorded a 9.228 @ 142.01 mph, breaking out by just 2 thousandths on a 9.23 Dial-in to take the win over Keith Crampton's 11.709 @ 112.31 mph on his 12.00 even Dial-in! Keith did not mind one bit, as this was a huge new Personal Best E.T. and his first time in the 11's! Keith also once again earnt the “Best Appearing Car” Spot Prize, as chosen by the commentators, so was really thrilled with his weekend overall. Another all-slingshot race saw Darryl Howells pitted up against Terry Clifford. Darryl broke out by a considerable amount, posting a 10.309 @ 122 mph on a 10.50 Dial-in, whilst Terry posted an excellent 10.183 on a 10.18 Dial, very hard to beat! Terry also took the “Closest to Dial-in” award, whilst advancing to the Semi-finals! The next race saw the consistent Dave Rowlands taking on Chris Hartnell. Dave posted a 9.880 on a 9.70 Dial, and Chris a 9.297 on a 9.09 Dial, with Chris earning the victory on a holeshot! The other race of the round saw young Andy Cresswell facing the on-form Mark Richardson. With not much difference in reactions, Mark took the win with a 9.649 on his 9.50 Dial over Andy's 11.836 on his 11.60 Dial. Semi-finals There was then less time to wait until the Semi-finals, which took place at around quarter to 4. Again there were two good races. Ed and Chris matched up for another all-slingshot pairing, and both ran close to Dial, with Ed posting a 9.266 @ 143.79 mph on a 9.23 and Chris a 9.137 @ 123.44 mph, with Chris again taking the win by the holeshot. Ed's speed proved to be the fastest of the Bunch for the weekend. And Chris was thrilled to make his first final of the year. The other Semi-final saw Mark and Terry facing off. Mark put in another stormer, breaking out but posting a new Personal Best E.T. of 9.459 @ 137.69 mph on a 9.50 Dial-in, handing the win to Terry who eased off to a 10.363 @ 126 mph on a 10.18 Dial. Ed took 3rd place by virtue of being closer to Dial-in without breaking out over Mark, who finished in 4th place. Final The Final took place around quarter past 5, and was a great race, with both drivers making their first Final of the year! At this point there was still a chance for Chris to win the Wild Bunch Series if he could take the win, whilst Terry was in with a chance of his first ever event win! Chris set the early pace, with a “Best Reaction” of .046, to Terry's .479, but eased off at the top end, recording a 9.553 @ 121.40 mph, whilst Terry came storming through with a 10.207 on a 10.18 Dial, to take the victory by just 3 thousandths of a second!!! Soooo close!! Fair play and good racing! Many congratulations to Terry and the whole team on their first ever win! There was some consolation for Chris as the team were awarded the “Best Appearing Team” Spot Prize by the commentators. This means that Tony Smith and Dave Williams are once again the winners of the Wild Bunch Series, for the third year in a row! And the 5th time ever for Tony!! A great achievement! Terry's late surge in the Series, meant that he tied Tony and Dave for points, but with both teams having one win apiece, the tiebreak came down to Tony and Dave having two second places to Terry's one! So close for the title!!! And Terry's first ever Top 4 finish! And Chris finished in 3rd place for the season, the third time he has earned WB 3! Scot Durrant in the GAS Racing “Tiki Munki” has finished in 4th place for his first ever Top 4 in the Wild Bunch! This event was also the Final of the Real Steel Series, which has been won by Dave Rowlands! Congratulations to him on his second Series win of the year in only his first full season of racing! Congratulations to Chris Hartnell in second place, for the second year in a row, Terry Clifford in third place, also for the second year in a row, and Darren Law in fourth place, again achieving a Top 4 in a Series. Well done to all! They will share the £350 in Real Steel vouchers, awarded at the Prizegiving Dinner. And well done to all the Wild Bunch racers who did themselves proud at the event, and put on a great show. The Wild Bunch teams would like to thank the track crew and marshals for all their hard work, and a warm welcome! It was a great event to finish the season with! We are now looking forward to the Annual Wild Bunch Dinner Dance and Prize Presentation at Drayton Manor on 29th November, where we will be celebrating all our winners for 2008!!