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Open Sports Nationals August 23 - 25
Wild Bunch ResultsOpen Sports nationals23rd - 25th August
Real Steel Series Round 9.
Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 3.
APIRA Series Round 2.
This event was the 9th round of our Real Steel Series, and the 3rd and Final round of the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series, the “Open Sports Nationals” at Shakespeare County Raceway, and the 2nd and Final round of the APIRA Series. There was a field of 10 Wild Bunch cars competing at the event: 3 Altereds, 6 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engined dragster.
| MSA Points | ||||
| Pos | WB | Driver/Team | Car | Points |
| 1 | 54 | Phil Sweeney | Bone Idle | 640 |
| 2 | 44 | Dave Rowlands | Destinys Angel | 480 |
| 3 | 95 | Mark Richardson | Pony Express | 440 |
| 4 | 9 | Dogs Bollocks Racing | RamRaider | 270 |
| 5 | 25 | Terry Clifford | Ratcatcher Resurrection | 260 |
| 6 | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 150 |
| 7 | 78 | Keith Crampton | Soultown Shaker | 130 |
| 8 | 3 | Darryl Howells | Chemical Reaction II | 120 |
| 9 | 142 | Mike Cresswell | Living the Dream | 110 |
| 10 | 4 | Darren Law | The Wicked Lady | 90 |
| Wild Bunch Points | ||||
| Pos | WB | Driver/Team | Car | Points |
| 1 | 54 | Phil Sweeney | Bone Idle | 10 |
| 2 | 44 | Dave Rowlands | Destinys Angel | 8 |
| 3 | 95 | Mark Richardson | Pony Express | 6 |
| 4 | 9 | Dogs Bollocks Racing | RamRaider | 4 |
| - | 25 | Terry Clifford | Ratcatcher Resurrection | 4 |
| 6 | 3 | Darryl Howells | Chemical Reaction II | 2 |
| - | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 2 |
| - | 78 | Keith Crampton | Soultown Shaker | 2 |
| - | 142 | Mike Cresswell | Living the Dream | 2 |
| 10 | 4 | Darren Law | The Wicked Lady | 1 |
| Spot Prizes | ||||
| WB | Team/Driver | Car | Detail | |
| Closest To Dial-In | 54 | Phil Sweeney | Bone Idle | 0.014 off |
| Best Reaction | 54 | Phil Sweeney | Bone Idle | 0.178 |
| Best Appearing Team | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | |
| #1 Qualifier | 95 | Mark Richardson | Pony Express | 0.003 off |
| Quickest ET | 54 | Phil Sweeney | Bone Idle | 8.927 |
| Best Appearing Car | 78 | Keith Crampton | Soultown Shaker | |
| 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, and there was only time for one more qualifier, due to a late start Sunday after some early rainfall. There had been some rain late Saturday, and again around 4:30pm on the Sunday, plus a fair bit of downtime, due to a few track incidents. Most of the drivers did all 4 qualifiers over the Saturday and Sunday. During the event, four drivers ran Personal Best E.T.'s and Speeds. | |
| WB 3 | Darryl Howells was back in the DASH Racing "Chemical Reaction II" slingshot, hoping to get a handle on the injection tuneup. For his first qualifier, he dialled in at 10.00 even, and recorded a sluggish 14-second pass. The team made a change and improved slightly to a 13.7 in the second round. They were making some more adjustments in the pits and missed the 3rd round Sunday, but came back out in the 4th round and improved again to a 10.949 @ 121 mph, to qualify in 9th place overall. |
| WB 4 | Darren Law was running "The Wicked Lady" Rear-engined dragster, and posted a conservative Dial-in of 9.54 for the first qualifier. He went straight out in the first round and posted a new Personal Best E.T. and Speed of 9.214 @ 145.04 mph, and the team didn't mind the breakout at all! They lowered the Dial to 9.21 and recorded a strong 9.220 @ 144.69 mph, just 10 thousandths off the Dial. On Sunday, the team kept this Dial-in, and Darren ran a slower 9.357 @ 143 mph, but unfortunately the diff broke on the run, causing a lot of unwelcome noise in the shutdown area! Darren and the rest of the car were a-ok, and some of the team went back to Reading to look for spares, but to no avail. So sadly Darren was unable to take part in eliminations, after qualifying in a strong 2nd place overall. |
| WB 6 | 'Crazy' Chris Hartnell was fresh from some recent good form in the "Backdraft" slingshot, with two wins in a row, and the team were hoping for some consistent runs. Chris Dialled in at 9.04 in the first qualifier and recorded a 9.146 @ 142.61 mph for starters. The team kept the same Dial for the second run, and Chris posted a breakout 9.020 @ 145.82 mph. The team once again lowered the Dial to 9.00 even for Sunday's first run, and the car ran a similar morning time of 9.150 @ 143.84 mph. The team raised the Dial-in back up to 9.02, being so far the car's quickest run of the year, and Chris broke out again by just 7 thousandths, with a 9.013 @ 145.97 mph. Chris qualified in 6th place overall, and was really happy with the strong wheels-up runs. |
| WB 9 | saw Ed Yates back in the hotseat of the "RamRaider" slingshot of Team Dog's B's. The team dialled in at 9.36 for starters, and Ed broke out straight away with a solid 9.236 @ 144.17 mph. They lowered the Dial-in to 9.21 for the second round, and Ed posted a good 9.267 @ 143.50 mph. Ed did not take part in the qualifying on the Sunday, but still finished in a creditable 4th place overall. |
| WB 25 | Terry Clifford was running his "Ratcatcher Resurrection" slingshot, after his good second place finish at York. He Dialled in at 10.20 seconds for the first round, and was another driver to immediately break out, recording a 10.075 @ 130.14 mph. He lowered the Dial for the next round to a 10.00 even and ran a 10.112 @ 127.91 mph. The team again raised the Dial-in marginally, to 10.05 for Sunday morning, and Terry posted a 10.275 @ 127 mph. They stuck with the same Dial and once again the car improved to a 10.122 @ 128 mph, and Terry qualified in 5th place overall. |
| WB 44 | was Dave Rowlands running the "Destiny's Angel" altered, after a good showing up at York. Dave dialled her in at 9.70 for the first qualifier, and posted a good 9.545 @ 144.05 mph to temporarily take the top spot. The team kept the Dial for the second round and Dave broke out with a new Personal Best E.T. and Speed of 9.646 @ 145.42 mph! Lowering the Dial-in Sunday to 9.65, Dave again ran close with a 9.696 @ 144 mph; and again ran consistently on this Dial for a 9.711 @ 144 mph in the fourth round, finishing in 3rd place overall in the qualifying. |
| WB 54 | Phil Sweeney was back out in his "Bone Idle" altered after repairing some damage suffered at an earlier event. He dialled in at 8.58 in the first round, due to a misread shoe-white Dial, but only recorded a 10.573 @ 97 mph, still checking the car out. He raised the Dial for the second round to a 9.50 and posted a 9.283 @ 113 mph. He was back on form Sunday morning, recording an 8.927 @ 139 mph on an 8.80 Dial-in, and this proved to be "Quickest E.T." of the Bunch for the weekend. He then ran a 9.096 @ 119 mph on the same Dial in the 4th round, and finished in 7th place overall. |
| WB 78 | Keith Crampton was in only his second ever MSA event in his "Soultown Shaker" slingshot. He dialled in at 12.90 for his first qualifier and brokeout with a 12.891 @ 113.24 mph, a new Best Speed. He then dialled in at 12.49 for the second round, and ran an off-pace 13.389 @ 108 mph. He kept this Dial for Sunday morning, and ran a new Personal Best E.T. and big breakout of 12.050 @ 113.90 mph. But then suffered wheel spin and slowed to 22 seconds in the 4th round. Keith finished in 8th place overall for qualifying. |
| WB 95 | Mark Richardson was running the "Pony Express" altered, fresh from a gearbox rebuild. He began with a Dial of 9.70, running 9.806, and funnily enough, exactly the same difference to Dial as Chris in this round! He kept the Dial for the next round and ran a similar 9.827 @ 130.87mph. He then did some investigations into a top end misfire, and found a small wiring problem which was soon fixed. This sure did the trick, as in the third qualifier Sunday, Mark ran a great new Personal Best E.T. and Speed of 9.574 @ 140.19 mph, his first time in the 140's! Well done, Mark! He recorded another PB in the 4th qualifier, with a 9.553 @ 140.85 mph, on a 9.55 Dial! Just three thousandths off, and putting him into the #1 Qualifier Spot for the first time! Fair play Mark! |
| WB 142 | Andy Cresswell was running the freQ Racing "Living the Dream" slingshot, in only his second ever MSA event. There was a mistake with his first Dial-in, getting recorded as an 8.55, and he slowed to a 13-second pass with some gear change problem. He then Dialled in at 11.58 for the second run and posted a 12.619 @ 95 mph. The team tried to fix the problem for the next round, but only posted a 13.9 on a 12.60 Dial, and not making it out for the 4th qualifier. Andy qualified in 10th place overall, and the team stripped the box out of the car to try and locate the problems. |
| Sample Title Monday (Race Day) Monday started off with an early rain shower which delayed the start of racing a little. Round 1 All 10 Wild Bunch cars had qualified, and we were called to the pairings lanes around 10:30 am. Phil Sweeney ended up with a Bye, as he was due to face Darren Law in this round. He recorded a 9.705 @ 102 mph on a 9.50 Dial-in. Dave Rowlands matched up with Keith Crampton, who posted a slowing 13.858 on an 11.99 Dial, whilst Dave advanced to the next round with a 9.761 @ 133 mph on a 9.70 Dial. Keith's well-turned out “Soultown Shaker” machine was awarded the “Best Appearing Car” by the commentators, a credit to the beautifully presented slingshot. It was then a close race between Mark Richardson and Chris Hartnell, with Mark dialling in at 9.55 and continuing his new-found pace, taking the win with a strong 9.598 @ 138 mph over Chris’ breakout 9.066 on a 9.10 Dial. This run was Chris’ fastest of the year, a 146.81 mph, which was also fastest speed of the Bunch for the weekend. Chris and the team won the “Best Appearing Team” Spot Prize, chosen by the commentators, and the whole team were really pleased with the car's performance over the weekend. In an all-slingshot pairing Terry Clifford was up against Andy Cresswell. Andy dialled in at a slower 13.00 even, as the gearbox woes were still plaguing the “Living the Dream” car. Terry dialled in at 10.05, and “Ratcatcher Resurrection” took the victory with a 10.112, whilst Andy carded a 13.754. In another all-slingshot pairing, Darryl Howells faced Ed Yates. Ed took the win for the Dog's Bollocks team to progress to the next round, with a 9.392 on a 9.25 Dial, to Darryl's 11.034 on a 10.50 Dial-in. Quarter-finals There was then some considerable time to wait until the quarter finals, around six and a half hours in fact! This round saw Mark Richardson with the Bye, and he capitalised well on the opportunity, running another new Personal Best E.T and Speed, posting a 9.519 @ 142.22 mph on a 9.55 Dial! Next up was a race between Phil and Ed, with Phil being right on the numbers, recording a 9.514 @ 115 mph on a 9.50 Dial to take the win over Ed's 9.300 on a 9.25 Dial. Phil also took “Closest to Dial-in” Spot Prize with this run. In the other matchup, Dave faced Terry. Both drivers were not far from Dial with Dave posting a 9.711 on a 9.67, versus Terry's 10.100 on a 10.05, and just edging the win. Ed and Terry actually shared 4th place by virtue of both being exactly the same .050 off Dial of the Quarter-finals Runners up. Semi-finals And then it was a swift turnaround for the Semi-finals! Straight away, in fact, with the winners just having time to get back to the pits and refuel! This time Phil had the Bye, and he recorded a 9.595 @ 109 mph, on a 9.50 Dial to move safely into the Final. Then it was an all-Riot Racing affair, with Mark dialling in at 9.50, and Dave 9.67. Mark ran yet another PB of 9.486 @ 141 mph, breaking out and handing the win to Dave, who posted a 9.720 @ 144 mph on a 9.67. Mark was really thrilled with the new found performance of the “Pony Express”, and was pleased to make the Semi final, and once again surprise himself with a PB! Final The Final was another quick turnaround, and took place around quarter to 7! Luckily both finalists were ‘water-cooled’. This was now familiar territory for Dave, as it was his third Final of the season! He recorded a 9.843 @ 145 mph on his 9.67 Dial, whilst Phil took his first win for some time with a close 9.517 @ 112 mph on a 9.50 Dial, with a characteristic “Best Reaction” of .178! This means that Phil is the winner of the APIRA Series, his first ever Series win, so big congrats to him. Congrats also to Mark Richardson who is the Runner-up in this Series, a great showing, and his first Series trophy. This event was also the Finals of the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series, which has been won by Dave Rowlands! Congratulations to him on his first Series win in only his first full season of racing! Congratulations to Mark Richardson in second place, doubling up on the Series trophies, Terry Clifford in third place for the second year in a row, and Darryl Howells in fourth place, again achieving a Top 4 in this Series. Well done to all! And congratulations to all the Wild Bunch racers who did themselves proud in the qualifying. The Wild Bunch teams would like to thank the track crew and marshals for their efforts in completing all the eliminations! This had been Round 9 of our Real Steel Series, and Dave Rowlands has now taken the lead over Darren Law for the first time this season, with Chris Hartnell in third and Terry Clifford in fourth. We are now looking forward to the sixth and final Wild Bunch Series round, and the tenth and final Real Steel Series Round of 2008, at the “UK National Finals” at Santa Pod on 27th & 28th September! | |