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Mini Showdown Weekend July 9 - 10
Wild Bunch ResultsMini Showdown9th - 10th July 2011
Wild Bunch Series Round 4.
Real Steel Series Round 6.
The “Mini Showdown” was the sixth event of the WB season. It was the 4th round of the Wild Bunch Series, and the 6th round of the Real Steel Series; and there was a field of 12 Wild Bunch cars participating: 5 Altereds, 6 Slingshots and 1 Rear-engined dragster.
| Wild Bunch Points | ||||
| Pos | WB | Driver/Team | Car | Points |
| 1 | 3 | Adz Price | Go Hard or Go Home | 10 |
| 2 | 4 | Dogs Bollocks Racing | RamRaider | 8 |
| 3 | 11 | Dave Williams | Green With Envy | 7 |
| 4 | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 6 |
| 5 | 17 | Tiki Racing | Tiki Munki | 5 |
| - | 25 | Terry Clifford | Ratcatcher Resurrection | 5 |
| - | 41 | Tom Larman | The Ferret | 5 |
| - | 78 | Keith Crampton | Soultown Shaker | 5 |
| - | 81 | Steve Taylor | Claustrophobic | 5 |
| - | 91 | Bob Hawkins | Timetraveller | 5 |
| 11 | 2 | Dave Rowlands | Destinys Angel | 4 |
| 12 | 69 | Alan Loten | Paranoia | 2 |
| Spot Prizes | ||||
| WB | Team/Driver | Car | Detail | |
| Closest To Dial-In | 6 | Chris Hartnell | Backdraft | 0 |
| Best Reaction | 25 | Terry Clifford | Ratcatcher Resurrection | 0.025 |
| Most Improved MPH | 17 | Scot Durrant | Tiki Munki | 0 |
| Best Altered | 3 | Adz Price | Go Hard or Go Home | |
| Best Slingshot | 17 | Tiki Racing | Tiki Munki | |
| Best Engineered | 11 | Dave Williams | Green With Envy | |
| Drivers Choice | 41 | Tom Larman | The Ferret | |
| Wildest Ride | 91 | Bob Hawkins | Timetraveller | |
| The weather forecast was mixed for Saturday and fairly good for Sunday, so we hoped we could get the full 4 rounds in at this event. Saturday dawned okay, and though there had been some rain overnight, the track was dry and open mid morning. Many of the teams managed to get in 3 or more runs throughout the day, as there was quite a lot of track time, with short queues. Sunday was better warmer weather, and though at the end of the day there were clouds looming, we still managed to get in all 4 rounds of Wild Bunch racing, for the first time this season. Throughout the weekend 2 drivers ran Personal Best E.T.'s and 3 ran PB Speeds. On the Saturday night, we held our annual fancy dress party, and with the theme being The ‘70's, there were plenty of groovy guys and chicks, punk rockers, a team full of ‘Mr Men’, and the Scooby Doo gang, complete with cardboard Mystery Machine! The weather held out for the party in the pits, and everyone had a great time, capped off by a great fun ‘Mr & Mrs’ quiz organised by Gina & Lesley and the Tiki Munki team! The quiz was won by Val & Dex Price, who recently celebrated their 30th Anniversary! A great time was had by all! | |
| WB 2 | Warren Rowlands was in his second drive of the season in the “Destiny's Angel” altered, sharing the driving this year with Dad Dave. On Saturday, the altered was driven for the first time by Andrew Willcox from the Shakey fire crew. He had a couple of familiarisation passes in the car and later recorded a 9-second run, before handing the car back to Warren for Sunday's rounds. Warren dialled in blind at 9.75, and had a problem on the first round, recording an 11.163 at 94mph. His second round was better, and he posted a 10.928 at 121.81mph. He also experienced some problems on his third run, a 12.653 at 67mph, with a red light at the start. The team decided to sit out the last round as the car was not running well. They believe it may be battery-related, so will be buying a new one for next weekend. Hope that cures the problem guys! |
| WB 3 | Adam Price was in his sixth event of the season with the Team Gridlock “Go Hard or Go Home!!!” Topolino altered. Adz started Saturday with a run of 9.500 at 134.31mph. He later improved to a 9.363 at 133.54mph. His third and fourth runs of the day were 9.462 at 134.16mph and 9.390 at 132.66mph. Adam and the team dialled in at 9.39 for Sunday, and he was never further than .061 off Dial. He recorded 9.329 at 132.22mph, 9.349 at 132.80mph, 9.414 at 134.37mph and 9.330 at 134.10mph. And with this consistency he earned his first win of the season! Congratulations Adam and all the team! This is Adam's 5th Top 4 placing of the season. The team were also chuffed when the commentators awarded them the “Best Altered” Spot Prize for their well turned out Topo. Adz is now leading the Wild Bunch Series for the first time ever!! |
| WB 4 | Andy Gosling was in his second drive of the year in the “RamRaider” slingshot. He made 4 consistent passes on Saturday, all within 5 hundredths of each other! They were 9.228 at 145.94mph, 9.215 at 144.03mph, 9.205 at 145.74mph and 9.255 at 146.10mph. The team dialled in at 9.22 for Sunday's rounds. Gos started well, with a 9.271 at 145.49mph in the first round. He followed this with a quicker 9.142 at 145.88mph in the second round and a 9.190 at 146.61mph in the third. His fourth round run was a 9.167 at 145.64mph. Gos finished in 2nd place overall, the team's 3rd Top 4 finish of the season. They are now in 4th place in the Wild Bunch Series. |
| WB 6 | Chris Hartnell was in his 6th event of the season with the “Backdraft” slingshot. His first run Saturday was a 9.113 at 145.78mph. He made some timing adjustments and his second run of the day was a quicker 9.027 at 145.94mph. Chris and the team dialled in at 9.06 for the rounds on Sunday. On his first run, Chris had a squirrely launch, and had to back off to a 9.436 at 144.78mph. But he bounced back in a big way, when on the next round he recorded a perfect run to Dial-in of 9.060 at 144.73mph, the first time he has ever done that, and the first of the Bunch to do so this season! His third round run was also very close, with a 9.064 at 144.32mph. His fourth round pass was a 9.095 at 144.39mph, and these last three runs were so good that it brought Chris back up the order and he finished in 4th place overall for the weekend, his 5th Top 4 placing of the season. He also won “Closest to Dial-in” with his perfect run. Chris is now in 3rd place in the Wild Bunch Series. |
| WB 11 | saw Dave Williams also in his sixth event of the season, with his “Green with Envy” altered. He had made some tuning adjustments for this event, and his first pass Saturday was a 12.425 at 117.38mph. He followed this with an improved 11.737 at 118.63mph. He and Linda dialled in at 11.60 for Sunday's rounds, and Dave opened his account with an 11.695 at 117.03mph. He then ran a quicker 11.511 at 118.13mph in the second round, and a very similar 11.512 at 118.83mph in the third. His fourth round run was his quickest of the day, an 11.472 at 119.67mph. Dave was pleasantly surprised to finish in 3rd place overall. He was also awarded the “Best Engineered” Spot Prize by the scrutineers for his well turned out altered, the first time he has won that award. |
| WB 17 | saw Scot Durrant's second drive of the season with the Wild Bunch in the “Tiki Munki” slingshot coupe, at the team's fifth event this year. Scottie made 6 passes on Saturday. They were: 13.473 at 97.19mph, a new Personal Best ET and Speed in the car, 13.301 at 97.47mph, again both ends of the PB, 13.552 at 97.16mph, 13.287 at 97.42mph, another PB ET, 13.451 at 95.74mph, and yet again, both ends of the PB with a 13.129 at 98.21mph. (The latter speed proved to ultimately be the “Most Improved MPH” of the weekend, with Scottie improving by 13.61mph over his previous best speed of 84.60mph). Scottie and the team dialled in at 13.29 for Sunday, and he was not far off in the first round, with a 13.342 at 95.35mph. He was a bit closer in the second round, with a 13.334 at 93.37mph, and at that point led the competition. He posted a 13.182 at 97.50mph in the third round, but had a slower run in the fourth round with a 13.509 at 93.15mph. Scottie finished in 5th place overall for the weekend. The team were awarded the “Best Slingshot” Spot Prize by the commentators for the second time this season. |
| WB 25 | Terry Clifford was yet another driver in his sixth event this year, with the “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot. Terry's first run of the weekend was a 10.455 at 131.01mph. He later followed this with a 10.607 at 129.27mph. Terry and Ruth dialled in at 10.35 for Sunday, and Terry ran a 10.496 at 127.59mph in the first round. His second round run was not far off this, with a 10.514 at 127.47mph. His third round pass was a 10.613 at 128.55mph at a Wild Bunch “Best Reaction” of .025, the first time Terry has won that trophy. He recorded a 10.538 at 127.47mph in the fourth round and finished in 7th place overall. Terry is now in 2nd place in the Wild Bunch Series. |
| WB 41 | were newcomers Tom Larman, Mark Mills and Craig Larman, with their altered “The Ferret”, named in honour of Tom's Dad's car many years ago. Tom was the driver for their Wild Bunch debut. He began the weekend with a pass of 18.160 at 109.08mph, with some carb issues. The team adjusted the jets and Tom then recorded a much better 11.576 at 112.63mph. His third run Saturday showed more improvement, to an 11.064 at 116.38mph. The team dialled in at 10.90 for Sunday, and Tom's first run was not far off, with an 11.011 at 115.98mph. He followed this with an 11.091 at 115.35mph in the second round and an 11.449 at 118.94mph in the third. On his fourth round run, he broke back into the 10's, and posted a great 10.878 at 118.54mph. He finished in 8th place overall, pretty good for his first competitive outing with the Bunch! Tom was voted the “Driver's Choice” by those Wild Bunch members participating, showing that he and the team are already popular! Welcome to the Wild Bunch Tom and the whole team! |
| WB 69 | was another newcomer to the Bunch, though not a newcomer to Drag Racing, Alan Loten in the “Paranoia” altered. Alan had been one of the original owner/drivers of the car, back in the 80's, and had bought it back from Martin Holgate. Great bit of history there! Alan and crew Steve could not get to the event until around 1pm on the Sunday, but were just hoping to do some shakedown runs with the car, since finishing modifications recently, including a similar paint job to the original. Alan joined in with the Bunch for the third round of competition Sunday, and ran a checkout launch of 19.395 at 26mph. He later posted another checkout run outside of competition and went 5 seconds quicker, so made steady progress on his re-debut. Welcome to the Wild Bunch Alan! |
| WB 78 | was Keith Crampton's fourth event of the year with the Bunch, with his “Soultown Shaker” slingshot. Keith was not able to attend the event on the Saturday, but arrived nice and early Sunday, with his neighbours, crewing for him for the first time. He dialled in blind, at 11.66. His first round run was a 12.343 at 116.48mph. He improved on his next pass to a 12.086 at 117.52mph. He improved again in the third round, recording an 11.910 at 118.11mph. He later posted a 12.217 at 116.55mph in the fourth round and finished in 10th place overall. |
| WB 81 | saw Steve ‘Jacko’ Taylor in his first event of the season with his “Claustrophobic” rear-engined dragster. He made 4 passes on Saturday, beginning with a 13.550 at 99.60mph. He then ran a 13.621 at 97.51mph, a 13.394 at 102.25mph and a 13.180 at 102.42mph, near his best speed. For Sunday's rounds, he and crew man Angus dialled in at 13.35. His first round run was a 13.433 at 100.55mph, so pretty good for his first race of the year. He followed this with a 13.291 at 100.85mph, and at that point was in the Top 4 of all the drivers. He then made his quickest run of the weekend, a 13.157 at 102.17mph. His fourth round pass was a 13.243 at 101.59mph. He finished in 6th place overall for the weekend. |
| WB 91 | Bob Hawkins was in his fifth event of the season with his “Time Traveller” slingshot. On the Saturday, son Tom had a turn in the hotseat. His first run was a 12.095 at 125.58mph. He improved on every run after that, with a 10.672 at 139.46mph, 9.844 at 150.32mph (his first ever 150mph pass) and then a 9.273 at 148.46mph. On Sunday Bob was back in the cockpit and dialled in at 9.10. His first run was a 9.894 at 141.10mph. He then went a second quicker in the next round, with an 8.857 at a new Personal Best speed of 154.80mph, but he had a hairy moment in the shutdown area, and went off onto the grass at the top end. Thankfully Bob and the car were a-ok. Bob earned the “Wildest Ride” Spot Prize for that one! He then ran a 9.040 at 152.55mph and a 9.097 at 153.25mph in the third and fourth rounds. He finished in 9th place overall. |
| Big Congratulations to Adam and Team Gridlock on the win! And congrats to Andy, Dave and Chris for their Top 4 placings. Well done to all the Wild Bunch teams on another great show! Many thanks to the marshals and officials and track crew at Shakey for their hard work as ever.
We are now really looking forward to Wild Bunch Series Round 5, Real Steel Series Round 7 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 2 at the Inaugural “Dragstalgia” event at Santa Pod on July 16th & 17th! We have a really big field of 25 Wild Bunch cars pre-entered for that event!! | |