Summer Showdown (UK Northern Nats)

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Summer Showdown (UK Northern Nats) August 1 - 2

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Wild Bunch ResultsSummer Showdown1st - 2nd August Wild Bunch Series Round 5. Real Steel Series Round 8.

The “York Summer Showdown” was the eighth event of the WB season. It was the fifth round of the Wild Bunch Series and Real Steel Series Round 8, and there was a field of 8 Wild Bunch cars participating: 5 Altereds, 2 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engined dragster.

Wild Bunch Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	3	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	10
2	4	Scot Durrant & Gina Rumble	Tiki Munki	8
3	44	Dave Rowlands	Destinys Angel	5
-	99	Adz Price	Go Hard or Go Home	5
5	52	Ant Harris	Frantic	4
6	2	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection	5
7	109	Andy Murphy	B-Sting	6
8	72	Sag Southworth	Daddy Cool	7

Spot Prizes
	WB	Team/Driver	Car	Detail
Closest To Dial-In	4	Gina Rumble	Tiki Munki	0.048 off
Best Reaction	44	Dave Rowlands	Destinys Angel	0.584 (.500)
Best Appearing Team	3	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft
Best Appearing Car	2	Terry Clifford	Ratcatcher Resurrection
Best Burnout	52	Ant Harris	Frantic

Saturday started off rainy, and as predicted the rain was on and off all day long. The track crew were out early clearing the standing water, and kept trying to dry the track several times throughout the day. There was nearly a weather window mid afternoon, when the track dried up enough to allow street cars to race for nearly an hour, but there were still some damp patches, and the rain came back, so none of the Bunch got a chance to run. There was a nice sunset though! Sunday dawned dry and bright, as expected, and though there were a few clouds, it stayed dry all day. Everyone had to give a blind Dial-in, as there had been no practice on the Saturday. We started our rounds at about 11am, and we managed to get all four rounds of racing in by 4:30pm. Two of the drivers ran Personal Best E.T.'s and one a best speed, and we all had a great time!
WB 2	saw Terry Clifford in his third year at York with his “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot. Terry and Ruth had the longest journey of the Bunch, with some 272 miles of driving! Terry dialled in at 10.91 for Sunday's rounds. He began the day with an 11.489 at 119.04mph, and hoped to improve throughout the day. His second and third rounds were indeed improvements, with an 11.276 at 118.42mph and an 11.236 at 118.66mph, but he had problems with the box in the fourth round and slowed to a 19-second pass at 50mph. Terry finished in 6th place overall, and was awarded the “Best Appearing Car” Spot Prize by the commentators for his beautifully turned out machine. The event moved him a couple of places up the order and he is now in 8th place in the Wild Bunch Series.
WB 3	‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell was making his eleventh York appearance with his “Backdraft” slingshot, and he loves running at the track. He dialled in at 9.15 for the rounds on Sunday, and started with an off pace 9.484 at 139.66mph in the first round, though this was with the fastest speed of the Bunch for the weekend. He made some adjustments to the fuel injection system, and improved throughout the day, recording a 9.421 at 137.51mph in the second round, a 9.350 at 139.01mph in the third round, and a 9.307 at 139.34mph in the fourth round, with a real wild burnout! This run was the quickest E.T. of the Bunch for the weekend. Chris wheelied all the way to the event win, and the team were chuffed to win the “Best Appearing Team” Spot Prize, awarded by the commentators. This back to back win has seen Chris move into the lead in both the Wild Bunch and the Real Steel Series! And it means he is guaranteed a Top 3 finish in both Series this season. Well done, Chris!
WB 4	saw Gina Rumble taking another turn in the “Tiki Munki” altered, in what will be the last Wild Bunch event for the team with the car with that chassis. Scottie donned a white Elvis jumpsuit for the event, and spent the day waving Gina to stage with a flourish! Gina dialled in at 14.38, and made a brilliant start with the “Closest to Dial-in”, an .048 off, with a 14.332 at 90.38mph. She then put in a great Personal Best E.T. with the Ruby body of 13.950, her first 13-second pass with that body on the car, and a new best speed of 92.20mph to boot! She then put in good passes of 14.120 at 90.70 mph and 14.129 at 89.91mph, and finished in 2nd place overall! Well done Gina! It was her second Top 2 finish of the season, and it means the team are still in 2nd place in the Wild Bunch Series and in 4th place in the Real Steel Series, a really strong performance. They are guaranteed another Top 4 finish in the Wild Bunch Series this year, so congratulations to Gina and Scottie on that!
WB 44	Dave Rowlands was in his second year at York with the “Destiny's Angel” altered, after running some good 10-second runs in 2008. He dialled in at 9.90, and promptly went quicker, with a 9.805 at 125.64mph, his first 9-second pass at York. He then ran an excellent 9.636 at 127.08mph, 20 mph faster than he had run the previous year, and half a second quicker! (Though he did have quite a bounce on at the top end!). Dave was the winner of the “Best Reaction” Spot Prize, with a .584 light in this round. He then ran another good pass of 9.817 at 114.17mph in the third round, and was leading the Bunch by around four tenths of a second overall going in to the last round. But unfortunately, he just pulled a red light by the narrowest of margins, a .497 on the .500 tree! Dave recorded his closest to Dial of the day, with a 9.965 at 106.83mph, but it was to no avail, as the red light meant he was out of contention for the Top 4! Such a shame! But still he was really pleased with the weekend and happy with all his strong 9-second passes. Dave remains in 4th place in the Wild Bunch Series, and is now in 3rd place in the Real Steel Series. He is now guaranteed a Top 3 finish in the Real Steel Series, so very well done to him on that!
WB 52	local boy Ant Harris had to have the engine rebuilt in between rounds, after some comprehensive damage to pistons and rods at the ‘Mini Showdown’! He just got the engine back on the Wednesday before the event and did not have time to fire it up before the weekend. There was a mysterious misfire when he ran it up in the pits Saturday, and the engine builder was on hand Sunday morning to help, as were his team, who were looking into electrical or ignition problems. Ant dialled in at 9.75 for the rounds, but was forced to miss the first round, as they were still trying to trace the problem Sunday late morning. He came out for the second round and ran a checkout 10.252 at 94.75mph, still with some problem. But this seemed to be fixed in the third round as Ant recorded a strong 9.369 at 133.18mph. But just after the finish line, the altered made contact with a marker cone, which caused some damage to the inner body work, but worse still, sent debris into Andrew Murphy's lane. Andrew he had to take avoiding action with the “B-Sting” altered. Luckily, he was a-okay, as was Ant. Ant came back for the fourth round, and recorded a 10.854 at 110.50mph. Ant was awarded the “Best Burnout” Spot Prize by the commentators for his loud smoky burnouts. He remains at 6th place in the Wild Bunch Series.
WB 72	It was great to see Dave ‘Sag’ Southworth back out with the Wild Bunch for the first time this season with his “Daddy Cool” rear-engined dragster. Sag had installed new rear end gears, and was still getting a handle on launching without wheelspin. He arrived with all the family on the Sunday morning and took no time at all to get ready, and make it to the front of the queue to race with the Bunch. He dialled in at 9.90 for the rounds, and started the day with a 10.507 at 136.67mph. He improved E.T. in the second round to a 10.089 at 133.21mph, with still a bit of spin off the line. His best speed of the day came in the third round where he recorded a 10.226 at 138.95mph, near his best ever speed. Between rounds, he had the blower off, trying to tune the car, when the team noticed a drop in boost. Again he was at the front of the queue, raring to go! He then posted a 10.124 at 133.92mph in the fourth round, and was really pleased to finish in 3rd place overall! Well done, Sag! Glad to have you folks racing with us!
WB 99	Adam Price was at his first ever event at York in the “Go Hard or Go Home!!!” Topolino. This was the last event for the chassis of the altered, as the team are having a tagged chassis built for next season. Adz did not get a chance for any checkout passes on the track, though the team was treated to a tour of the strip and return road by Richard and Marjorie Lyons on Saturday! The team had been staying off site, and there was some drama for them on Sunday morning, as their day van would not start! Val made frantic calls to the breakdown and taxi services, and luckily the breakdown van came through and they were able to get to the track on time! (I think they would have walked if they had to and still made it!!). Adam dialled in at 12.14 for the rounds, and amazed everyone including himself when he ran a massive Personal Best E.T. of 11.238 at 100.44mph in the first round! Dad Dex was speechless! Congratulations Adz, some checkout pass! He then recorded a 12.617 at 100.71mph, missing a shift in the second round. But he was back in the 11's for the third round, posting a strong 11.350 at 99.58mph, and then an 11.871 at 98.04mph in the fourth round. But on completing the round, the team noticed that the chassis had just snapped! Just at the right time, after the run, and on its very last outing! Phew! Adz finished in 5th place overall for the day, and the whole team were really chuffed with his performance. Adam has now moved up into 5th place in the Wild Bunch Series! Well done to him!
WB 109	Andrew Murphy was in his third event of the season with the new “B-Sting” Topolino altered. The team dialled in at 10.65 for the rounds on Sunday, and Andrew started the day with an 11.416 at 126.05mph in the first round. He improved on the next run, going under the Dial with a 10.573 at a strong 127.47mph, then a real close run of 10.576 at 117.12mph in the third round, where he backed off at the top end due to the cone debris. He was doing some real strong smoky burnouts throughout the day. He then posted a slightly off pace 11.080 at 109.44mph in the fourth round, and finished in 4th place overall, incredibly only one thousandth of a second behind “Daddy Cool” over the four rounds! Andrew has moved into 10th place in the Wild Bunch Series with this result. Fair play!
It had been a bit of a shame to lose Saturday's runs to the weather, but Sunday more than made up for this! And all the track crew worked really hard to get the track in good condition to race. Congratulations to Chris on the win, and to all of the teams who really put on a great show at York! Great to see side by side smoky loud burnouts from the “Frantic” and “B-Sting” altereds, a great set of 9-second runs by “Destiny's Angel”, more big wheelies from “Backdraft” topping the charts for ET and speed, newcomer Adz blitzing his PB by six tenths on his first run at York, Sag finishing 3rd on his first outing with the Wild Bunch this year, “Ratcatcher Resurrection” winning ‘Best Appearing Car’ and Gina running strong PB's into the 13's on “Tiki's” last event in that setup. Well done to them all! Many thanks to everyone at the track for all their hard work, all the marshals and officials, promoter and staff, and to the PDRC for the prize money, which all the teams really appreciated! We are now looking forward to the ninth Real Steel Series round of 2009, at the “Open Sports Nationals” at Shakey on August 21st – 23rd. This will be the Finals of the APIRA Series and the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series, which are currently both being led by the “RamRaider” team!