SpringSpeed Nationals

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SpringSpeed Nationals May 3 - 5

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Wild Bunch ResultsSpringspeed Nationals3rd - 5th May 2014 Real Steel Series Round 2. APIRA Series Round 1. MSA Points Challenge 2.

The Springspeed Nationals was the second event of the WB season. It was Real Steel Series Round 2 and APIRA Series Round 1 as well as the 2nd round of the Springbridge MSA Challenge. There was a good field of 7 Wild Bunch cars competing. There were: 2 Altereds, 4 Slingshots and a Funny Car.

Wild Bunch Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	9
2	91	Bob Hawkins	Timetraveller II	5
3	1	Adz Price	Go Hard or Go Home	6
4	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	4
5	45	Phil James	Rampage	2
6	69	Alan Loten	Paranoia	1
-	101	Steve East	Ellies in Trouble Now	1

MSA Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	610
2	1	Adz Price	Go Hard or Go Home	340
3	91	Bob Hawkins	Timetraveller II	230
4	45	Phil James	Rampage	150
5	6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft	220
6	101	Steve East	Ellies in Trouble Now	60
7	69	Alan Loten	Paranoia	10

Spot Prizes
	WB	Team/Driver	Car	Detail
Closest To Dial-In	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	0.009 off
Best Reaction	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	0.083
Best Appearing Team	1	Team Gridlock	Go Hard or Go Home
#1 Qualifier	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	0.019 off
Fastest m.p.h.	91	Bob Hawkins	Timetraveller II	178.37
Wildest Ride	1	Adz Price	Go Hard or Go Home

The Wild Bunch welcomed back 4 of the teams who had competed at the 'Festival of Power', and they were now joined by Chris Hartnell in 'Backdraft', Alan Loten in 'Paranoia' and newcomer Steven East in 'Ellie's in Trouble Now'. Three teams ran Personal Best ET's this weekend and 2 PB Speeds. Qualifying Saturday This was a qualifying day and there were scheduled to be 3 rounds. The weather was lovely all day! Sunny with occasional cloud and a pleasant temperature. The Wild Bunch were 20th class out on the running order and the first round was about noon, with the second at 1:45pm and the third around 4pm. By the end of the day, 6 of the teams had safely qualified. Qualifying Sunday There were scheduled to be another 3 qualifiers on this day, with the potential of a another if all went well. Our rounds were at 10:45am, 1:45pm and then 5pm. By then the 7th Wild Bunch team qualified. The forecast was good for Monday so we hoped to complete all eliminations.
WB 1	Adam Price was back with the 'Go Hard or Go Home!!!' Topolino altered, after the team did some tuning between events. He started the weekend with a Dial-in of 9.00 in the first qualifier and ran a 9.230 at 146.61mph for starters. He kept the Dial, but had problems on the next run and recorded a 24-second pass at 58mph. The team kept the Dial-in for the next qualifier and were all absolutely over the moon when Adam ran his first ever 8-second pass! An 8.984 at 148.20mph!! Congratulations to the whole team on this achievement! Fair play! And they didn't mind the breakout for that one! On Sunday, they lowered the Dial to 8.98 and Adam ran a slower 9.335 at 146.60mph. They kept this Dial again, and he posted a much closer 9.020 at 148.65mph, equalling his best speed. They raised the Dial once more and Adam posted a 9.031 at 148.52mph to qualify in 4th place overall.
WB 3	Keith Crampton was raring to go in his 'Soul Town Shaker' slingshot. He dialled in at 11.00 even for his first run, and recorded an 11.393 at 114.83mph to begin with. He raised the Dial to 11.30 and promptly broke out with an 11.110 at 115.82mph. He then lowered the Dial to 11.08 and ran a great 10.984 at 117.18mph, only his third ever 10-second pass. The team refined the Dial to 11.03 on the next qualifier and Keith ran another great run of 10.948 at 117.94mph. Keith lowered the Dial accordingly to 10.94 and ran another strong pass of 10.959 at 117.52mph to move to the top spot. He raised the Dial-in slightly to 10.95 and posted an 11.036 at 117.50mph. He qualified #1 for the event.
WB 6	'Crazy' Chris Hartnell and team were out for their first event of the year with their 'Backdraft' slingshot. This marked the start of the team's 20th year of racing, so many Congratulations to them! The team dialled in at 8.88 for starters, and Chris got squirrely after the launch, smoking a tyre and backing off to a 9.225 at a good speed of 149.31mph. The team kept the Dial for the second round and Chris had a very similar run, with a 9.226, but at a higher speed of 150.99mph. Always good to get in the 150's! The team kept the Dial-in for the third, fourth and fifth qualifiers, and Chris ran much closer with passes of 9.024 at 149.90mph and 9.091 at 147.02mph, the latter after putting the front wing back on. On the fifth qualifier he made another squirrely run and recorded another backing off 9.382 at 148.71mph. He qualified in 6th place overall.
WB 45	Phil James was looking forward to his second event of the season with the 'Rampage' funny car. Again he was ably crewed by son Carl and brother Mike. The team started off with a Dial-in of 9.35, and Phil posted a good 9.381 at 138.85mph to go into Top Spot after the first round. They kept this Dial for the next one, and Phil ran a 9.411 at 134.05mph. Phil's third run was a consistent 9.382 at 140.95mph.The team then changed the Dial to 9.38, and Phil had a slight dip on this run, carding a 9.512 at 139.57mph. The Dial-in was raised to 9.50 and due to a problem with the gear not changing, Phil recorded a 10.531 at 90.03mph. This was easily sorted and the Dial-in went back to 9.38. On this run, Phil was his closest yet this weekend, posting a 9.408 at 139.31mph. He qualified 3rd overall.
WB 69	Alan Loten was running his first event of the season with the 'Paranoia' altered. The team had spent the off season chasing the gremlin that had plagued them last season, and found a few minor problems. But on an engine stripdown a couple of months ago, had found that the head of one of the pistons had cracked and had they made one more pass on it last season, it could have destroyed the whole engine! So they were very lucky on that one. They rebuilt the engine and got a new sump, but on a fireup late in the week had experienced some fuelling problems. They then spent most of Saturday at home trying to fix this, and got it cured sufficiently and in time to make it to the track late Saturday afternoon, where they soon got scrutineered okay. On Sunday morning, Alan and crewman Steve dialled in at 9.50 to start the event. Alan did the burnout but there was a slight problem and he was pushed back and did not make a pass. For the next qualifier, the team kept this Dial, and Alan stormed off to a great 9.389 at 133.29mph. A straight and strong run, and good reward for all their hard work! Never mind the breakout! For the 6th qualifier, the team lowered the Dial-in to 9.35, below PB territory. Unfortunately, there was a problem on the run, and Alan slowed to an 11.023 at 78.84mph. Later the team found oil in the bell housing, and sadly that was it for their weekend, as they would have to take the car home and investigate. So hope it's an easy fix. And best of luck to them. Alan had qualified in 7th place overall.
WB 91	Bob Hawkins was eager to be back in his 'Time Traveller II' slingshot after a really good debut event with the car at the Festival of Power. He began with a Dial-in of 7.55, and promptly broke out on his first run with a new Personal Best ET and Speed of 7.548 at 173.12mph! A great start, and an ET exactly equal to the Wild Bunch class record ET held for over 10 years by Derek Annable in his 'Brenda's Life Force' Top Methanol Dragster. Bob and team then kept the same Dial-in and had a slight problem at the start and posted an 8.561 at 173.24mph. The team soon sorted this out and on the next pass Bob recorded a 7.718 at 172.69mph on the same Dial. They refined this to 7.54 for the next run, and Bob broke out with another new PB and Speed and new Wild Bunch ET record at 7.492 at 178.37mph. This speed also proved to be the Wild Bunch 'Fastest MPH of the event' Congratulations, Bob and team! The Dial-in was duly lowered to 7.50 and Bob then posted a 7.544 at 174.91mph. He raised the Dial slightly to 7.53 for the last qualifier and ran a 7.573 at 174.53mph. He qualified in 5th place overall.
WB 101	We welcomed newcomer Steven East, with his 'Ellie's in Trouble Now' slingshot. Steven had bought the car from Steve and Lesley Field (it was their first 'Black Pig Too' slingshot). He had made some updates to it, and kept the nice black and flaked paint job with a cool logo for the name. He was joined by his teenage son Joshua who was his only crewman. They had previously had a couple of passes at a test and tune event, and Steven had run mid 10's at over 130mph. He started off with a Dial-in of 10.40, but left the line before the tree fully ran so did not record a time. He kept this Dial for the next qualifier, and ran a new Personal Best ET and Speed of 10.067 at 138.48mph, so a great start! The Dial-in was then lowered to 10.20, and Steven broke out again, with a 10.128 at 139.05mph, another best speed. He reduced the Dial to 10.01, and recorded a 10.666 at 136.97mph on the next run. He sat out the next qualifier, to watch the Wild Bunch from the stands, but came back out for the last qualifier. He dialled in at 10.01 again and ran another PB of 10.032 at 137.19mph! Fair play! With that run he qualified in 2nd place! Well done, Steven and welcome to the Wild Bunch!
Race Day Monday (Eliminations) Monday dawned dry and the forecast was good, so we were hopeful of having a completed event. There had been due to be 3 races and a Bye in the first round, but unfortunately Alan and Steve could not run with 'Paranoia' and Steven and Joshua had family commitments, so could not stay to run 'Ellie's in Trouble Now' in eliminations. The way the tree worked out this only left 1 race and 3 Byes! Quarter-Finals Our First Round, the Quarter Finals was held around 11:15am. The first run saw Adam with the solo as he had been due to face Alan. Adam dialled in at 9.01 and ran a strong 9.033 @ 148.42mph to advance to the Semi-finals. Next up was Bob, who should have been paired with Steven. Bob dialled in at 7.49 and posted a great 7.566 at 173.59mph to go to the next round. The only race of the round saw 'Crazy Chris' matched up with Phil. Chris dialled in at 9.10 and Phil at 9.37. As soon as Phil left the line, the cherry glowed on the Christmas tree, and he backed off to a 12-second pass. This handed the win to Chris who broke out and ran his first 8 of the year, an 8.964 at 148.57mph. Well done, Chris! The next run saw Keith taking his #1 Qualifier earned Bye. He posted a 10.95 dial and recorded an 11.039 at 114.98mph to move on to the Semis. Semi-Finals The Semis were run at about 1:30pm. First race up was Keith versus Chris. Keith opted for a 10.97 Dial and Chris and team lowered their Dial to 8.98. Keith posted the 'Best Reaction' of the Wild Bunch on this run, an .083. He ran quite close to Dial as well, with an 11.020 at 117.40mph, to take the win over Chris' run, a spectacular breakout of 8.823 at 141.43mph! A great run! The other race saw Adam facing Bob. Adam kep his 9.01 Dial and Bob raised his to 7.54. Bob ran close to Dial with a consistent 7.563 at 173.92mph, but Adam took a holeshot win, recording a 9.079 at 148.51mph. Bob finished in 3rd place overall and Chris in 4th place overall. Final This took place at about 3pm. And was due to be an exciting race. Adam kept the 9.01 Dial-in and Keith refined his to 10.98. Keith had a reasonable reaction, but Adam pulled a deep red light. Keith went on to win with the Wild Bunch 'Closest to Dial-in' of .009 off, with a 10.989 at 117.73mph. But in the other lane Adam had not see his red, and charged hard after Keith. Somewhere after half track he started drifting towards the centre line, and made a correction. The altered then got way out of shape and at one point was at 90 degrees to the guardrail and up on one front wheel!! Adam managed to just catch it and steered away, but the car sideswiped the Armco with quite a heavy tag! Adam quickly brought the car to a stop and got out by himself and was thankfully a-ok! Great driving job as it could have been worse! The car has suffered damage to a wheel and tyre, and some bodywork, and the chassis is now being completely checked over, so hope the team do not find too much damage and can be back out soon. Needless to say, Adam was awarded the 'Wildest Ride' Spot Prize for this one!! The team were also awarded the 'Best Appearing Team' by the commentators, for their well turned out altered and nice new teamwear, so a nice surprise for them! Many congratulations to Keith on his great run, and his first MSA event win! Well done! And well done to all the Wild Bunch teams, who put on a great show, with some good qualifying, great entertaining runs and some excellent PB's. Overall it was a really good event, where we were lucky with the weather. It was good to have 6 qualifiers and a completed event. Huge thanks to the track crew, marshalls and officials who worked really hard to prepare the track, and run a smooth, successful event. And huge thanks also go to Mark Coulsell and Linda Williams who had again worked tirelessly doing pit running all weekend and keeping us well-informed. Fair play to them! We are now really looking forward to the first Wild Bunch Series round, of this our 19th season, which will be the 'Spring Nationals', also at Shakey on May 24th - 26th, the Yanks American Gary's Picnic weekend. This will also be the 3rd Real Steel Series round of 2014. It should be another great event! We're expecting to see loads of the Bunch out for that one!