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Spring Nationals May 15 - 16
Wild Bunch ResultsSpring Nationals15th - 16th May
Wild Bunch Series Round 1.
Real Steel Series Round 3.
The “Spring Nationals” was the third event of the WB season. It was the first round of the Wild Bunch Series, in our 15th year, and Real Steel Series Round 3, and there was a field of 12 Wild Bunch cars participating: 6 Altereds, 5 Slingshots and a rear-engined dragster.
| Wild Bunch Points | ||||
| Pos | WB | Driver/Team | Car | Points |
| 1 | 40 | Darren Law | The Wicked Lady | 10 |
| 2 | 1 | Dogs Bollocks Racing | RamRaider | 8 |
| 3 | 4 | Dave Rowlands | Destinys Angel | 7 |
| 4 | 109 | Andy Murphy | B-Sting | 6 |
| 5 | 2 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 5 |
| - | 11 | Dave Williams | Green With Envy | 5 |
| - | 25 | Terry Clifford | Ratcatcher Resurrection | 5 |
| - | 54 | Phil Sweeney | Bone Idle | 5 |
| - | 78 | Keith Crampton | Soultown Shaker | 5 |
| - | 99 | Adz Price | Go Hard or Go Home | 5 |
| 11 | 52 | Ant Harris | Frantic | 1 |
| - | 57 | Neil Ward | Andromeda | 1 |
| Spot Prizes | ||||
| WB | Team/Driver | Car | Detail | |
| Closest To Dial-In | 40 | Darren Law | The Wicked Lady | 0.003 off |
| Best Reaction | 40 | Darren Law | The Wicked Lady | 0.042 |
| Best Altered | 11 | Dave Williams | Green With Envy | |
| Best Slingshot | 2 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | |
| Fastest m.p.h. | 57 | Neil Ward | Andromeda | 148.91 mph |
| Best Burnout | 4 | Dave Rowlands | Destinys Angel | |
| Wildest Ride | 52 | Ant Harris | Frantic | |
| The weather forecast was pretty good for the weekend, and Saturday dawned with a completely blue sky! It clouded over, but there was no rain, and with a lot of track time available, most drivers were able to get in 4 runs of test and tune. It rained in the early morning Sunday, so the damp start delayed the track opening for about an hour, after the original planned opening time of 10am. All 10 drivers who took part in the rounds on Sunday managed to complete all 4 rounds, which is a good achievement, as this is not often the case. We were able to group up nicely together in the fireup road for each of the rounds, and this looked really good. Each of our rounds only took about 5 minutes, so we ran through efficiently as well! Four drivers ran E.T. PB's over the weekend, and these four plus another driver ran PB's for Speed. Well done to them, and the whole of the Bunch, who put on a good show. And well done to the Shakey crew for their hard work as always! | |
| WB 1 | saw Andy Gosling having his first turn of the season in the Team Dog's B's “RamRaider” slingshot (in the second event of the year for the team). Andy started well, with a 9.260 at 143.55mph on his first run Saturday, and improved on his second pass, recording a 9.154 at 144.37mph. His third and fourth runs followed a similar pattern, with a 9.226 at 145.00mph and a 9.186 at 144.43mph. The team dialled in at 9.20 for the rounds on Sunday, and go went better than this on every run, posting a 9.149 at 145.21mph, a near PB of 9.139 at 144.82mph, a 9.194 at 144.20mph (just 6 thousandths off Dial) and a 9.178 at 145.19mph. This consistency earned him the 2nd place for the weekend, and the team were very happy with the car's performance. |
| WB 2 | ‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell was in his third event of the season with the “Backdraft” slingshot. He was in second place in the Real Steel Series, though on equal points with leader Dave Rowlands. He began Saturday with a 9.483 at 144.72mph, having to back off from a bouncing launch. He then posted successive best E.T.s of his season, with a 9.103 at 144.52mph, and a 9.061 at 145.29mph. He finished the day with a 9.169 at 144.98mph. The team decided to Dial in at 9.11 for Sunday's rounds, and Chris put in a pass of 9.233 at 145.85mph for starters. He improved in the second round, with a 9.043 at 146.52mph, his best numbers for the year. He then experienced a mysterious drop in performance for the next two rounds, posting a 9.241 at 140.34mph, and a 9.364 at 138.68mph. He was awarded the “Best Slingshot” prize by the commentators, and finished in 7th place overall for the event. |
| WB 4 | Dave Rowlands was also in his third event of the season with his “Destiny's Angel” altered, and was leading the Real Steel Series, on equal points to Chris, and by having an event win to his credit. His first run Saturday was a 9.703 at 142.20mph, followed by a 9.697 at 141.93mph, a 9.736 at 142.07mph, and a 9.707 at 142.85mph, so a very consistent set of runs. He dialled in at 9.70 on Sunday, and ran a slightly slower 9.807 at 141.86mph. He then put in three strong runs of 9.691at 142.35mph (just 9 thousandths off), 9.666 at 143.07mph and 9.663 at 143.77mph. He finished the day in 3rd place, and also won the “Best Burnout” Spot Prize for his strong burnouts. He is now in second place in the Real Steel Series, behind Darren Law. |
| WB 11 | saw Dave Williams in his third event of the season with his new “Green with Envy” altered, and he had been steadily improving at the last event. He started Saturday with an 11.517 at 117.57mph, and then ran a new Personal Best E.T. of 11.365 at 118.53mph, a new best speed. He improved again on his next runs, setting new PB's of 11.291 at 119.40 and 11.285 at 119.54mph. For Sunday's rounds, Dave and Linda chose a Dial-in of 11.36. His first round pass was an 11.448 at 119.27mph, and his next two runs were almost equally either side of the Dial, with an 11.397 at 118.94mph and an 11.330 at 119.43mph. He then made a run for the fourth round of the day, but, almost unbelievably, the top end timing beam was tripped early by a rogue pheasant which had strayed onto the track!!! The pheasant recorded 0.83mph at the top end, and left Dave with no time. A re-run was allowed, if he was able to get back round to the track quickly enough, and this he did, recording another PB of 11.268 at 119.76mph. He finished in 5th place overall, and was awarded the “Best Altered” Spot Prize by the commentators. So a good weekend for the team. |
| WB 25 | we welcomed Terry Clifford for his first event this year, with the “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot. Terry had sorted out the transbrake problem which had kept him from attending the previous event. He had built a nice boxed trailer for this season, so that was a good addition to the team for a support vehicle. Terry began Saturday with a checkout pass of 10.438 at 124.02mph, and was fairly happy with that for starters. He then ran a strong 10.209 at 129.37mph, so was very pleased with that one. His third pass was an early shutoff 11.791 at 78.88mph. Terry and Ruth dialled in at 10.30 for the rounds on Sunday. His first round pass was a good 10.185 at 129.14mph. He then ran even better, with a 10.127 at 128.90mph in the second round. He remained consistent on these numbers, recording a 10.140 at 129.49mph and a 10.171 at 129.50mph in the third and fourth rounds. Terry finished in 8th place overall for the weekend, and was very pleased with how well and consistently the car had performed at this event. |
| WB 40 | saw Darren Law back in the “Wicked Lady” rear-engined dragster, after the success of running his first 8-second pass on the last run of the previous event. He started Saturday with a solid 9.080 at 145.65mph. he then ran better every run that day, with a 9.044 at 145.98mph, a 9.040 at 145.57mph and a 9.017 at 146.49mph, a new Personal Best Speed. The team dialled in at 9.00 even for Sunday's rounds, but hoped for a couple runs lower than this! They were all chuffed when Darren ran a new Personal Best E.T. of 8.974 at 146.83mph in the first round! His second round pass was closer to Dial, but still another 8-second run, with an 8.993 at 145.56mph. His third round run was the “Closest to Dial-in” for the day, just 3 thousandths off, with a 9.003 at 146.83mph (equalling his new Personal Best Speed!). His fourth round run was another consistent pass of 9.023 at 146.08mph. He was never more than .026 off his Dial for the whole day, and this consistency won him the event! He also won the “Best Reaction” time, with his .042 light in the third round. And is now leading the Wild Bunch and Real Steel Series. A great weekend for Darren and the team! Congratulations to all of them! |
| WB 52 | we welcomed back Ant Harris, who was in his first event this year with his “Frantic” altered, and the crew, dubbed the ‘Frantastic Four’. Ant put in a checkout pass of 10.107 at 99.94mph for his first run Saturday. He then posted a couple of solid runs of 9.469 at 134.07mph, and 9.424 at 135.04mph. His fourth run of the day was an great 9.074 at 144.58mph, but this also resulted in a “Wildest Ride” in the shutdown area, where the altered ‘got a bit of a bounce on’. Ant did well to steady the car, and made it safely to the end of the shutdown area, but it may be that there is a small amount of damage, which was not apparent to the naked eye. Ant and the team had a good look over the car and decided that they will need to check things over thoroughly before running again, so did not take part in Sunday's rounds. Very best of luck to them all with their plans! |
| WB 54 | we also welcomed Phil Sweeney for his first event of the season with the “Bone Idle” altered. This weekend, his crew was Dean Smythe of Team Twisted fame. He started Saturday with a checkout pass of 9.738 at 116.19mph. He then improved to a 9.498 at 132.87mph, followed by an even better 9.291 at 137.27mph. His fourth run of the day was a 9.395 at 130.02mph. Phil dialled in at 9.35 for Sunday's rounds. His first round was a quicker 9.292 at 128.22mph, followed by a slower 9.567 at a better 140.37mph in the second round. His third and fourth rounds were much closer, with a 9.334 at 140.11mph, and a 9.354 at 141.30mph, his fastest speed of the weekend, and just 4 thousandths off. Phil finished in 6th place for the weekend. |
| WB 57 | we also welcomed Neil Ward for his first event this year, with the “Andromeda” slingshot. He began Saturday tuning in the pits, and his first pass was a great 8.899 at 148.91mph, which proved to be the “Fastest MPH of the weekend” Spot Prize winner for the Bunch. His second run of the day was even quicker, with an excellent 8.742 at 148.33mph, the quickest E.T. of the Bunch for the weekend. Neil and the crew checked over the engine after the run, and found a slight reduction on oil pressure, so had to park the car for the rest of the weekend, to avoid any major damage. They think it might be a spun bearing, and will investigate back in the garage, so hopefully will be able to fix the problem, and be back out with the Bunch a couple more times this season. Best of luck to them! |
| WB 78 | we also welcomed Keith Crampton for his first event this year, with the “Soultown Shaker” slingshot. He began Saturday with a checkout pass of 12.136 at 112.83mph. And on his second run of the day, he recorded a new Personal Best E.T. of 11.431 at 112.32mph. His third pass netted an 11.601 at a new Personal Best Speed of 114.82mph, so he was very pleased with the days’ runs. He dialled in at 11.60 for Sunday, and posted an 11.776 at 113.00mph on his first round run. He then ran a 12.054 at 113.44mph in the second round, and then steadily improved again, with an 11.800 at 112.88mph, and an 11.797 at 113.55mph in his third and fourth round runs. Keith finished in 9th place overall, and had a great weekend. |
| WB 99 | Adz Price was in his third event of the season with the Team Gridlock “Go Hard or Go Home!!!” Topolino altered. This time the team had not had much to do between events, and were really looking forward to the weekend. Adz first pass on Saturday was an 11.708 at a new Personal Best Speed of 120.34mph, his first time over 120. The second pass resulted in a better E.T. of 11.533, at 119.29mph. And on his third run of the day, Adz set a new Personal Best E.T. and Speed of 11.320 at 120.63mph. His third run was a similar pass, with an 11.385 at another best speed of 121.07mph. Adz and Dex dialled in at 11.39 for the rounds on Sunday, but a problem occurred when the altered bogged off the line. Adz calmly restarted, but the run resulted in a time of 24.025 seconds, at a normal speed of 118.86mph. The team got over this temporary setback, and Adz went for the best runs he could. The second round saw an 11.547 at 120.04mph, whist the third round really blew away the old time, with a new PB of 11.008 at 121.53mph! Great run, and oh so close to that first ‘10’. The fourth round pass was a solid 11.155 at another best speed of 121.62mph.. Adz finished in 10th place overall, but the team had another great weekend, with all those PB's! |
| WB 109 | Andrew Murphy was back in the “B-Sting” Topolino altered, for his second event of the season. He started the weekend with a good pass of 10.498 at 126.90mph. He followed this with a 10.443 at 127.20mph. His third run of Saturday was a slower E.T. of 10.531, but at a new Personal Best Speed of 131.46mph, Andrew's first time over 130! His fourth pass of the day was a 10.562 at 127.45mph. The team dialled in at 10.48 for Sunday, and Andy recorded a 10.514 at 127.94mph on his first round. He followed this with a 10.547 at 127.41, a 10.574 at 127.66mph, and a 10.511 at 127.66mph again. Andrew was never more than a tenth off Dial, and finished in 4th place overall. |
| Big Congratulations to Darren and the “Wicked Lady” team on the win! And well done to all the Wild Bunch teams, with all the 10 cars running in a group on each round, this proved to be a really good show! Well done to all those who ran PB's, and for a good close competition.
Overall, a really good, relaxed event. Big thanks to the marshals and officials and track crew at Shakey for their hard work as always, and for assisting in fitting in all our rounds. We are now really looking forward to the second Wild Bunch Series round and fourth Real Steel Series round of 2010 at the “June Shootout” at Shakey, May 29th - 31st ! | |