Open Sports Nationals

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Open Sports Nationals August 23 - 25

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Wild Bunch ResultsOpen Sports Nationals23rd - 25th August 2014 Real Steel Series Round 8. Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 3. APIRA Series Round 2. MSA Points Challenge 4.

The Open Sports Nationals was the 8th event of the WB season. It was Real Steel Series Round 8 and APIRA Series Round 2 (the Final) as well as the 4th round of the Springbridge MSA Challenge and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 3 (The Final). There was a field of 9 Wild Bunch cars competing: 2 Altereds, 5 Slingshots as follow, a Rear-engined dragster and a Funny Car.

Wild Bunch Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	91	Bob Hawkins	Timetraveller II	1
-	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	1
-	4	Team GAS Racing	Tiki Munki	1
-	40	Sean Law	The Wicked Lady	1
-	45	Phil James	Rampage	1
-	101	Steve East	Ellies in Trouble Now	1
-	111	Dan Sharp	Little Big Horn	1
	35	Dick Sharp	Dorset Horn	1
-	961	Dave Nelson	Dorris Dormouse	1

MSA Points
Pos	WB	Driver/Team	Car	Points
1	40	Sean Law	The Wicked Lady	120
2	45	Phil James	Rampage	70
3	3	Keith Crampton	Soultown Shaker	60
4	91	Bob Hawkins	Timetraveller II	50
5	4	Team GAS Racing	Tiki Munki	40
6	111	Dan Sharp	Little Big Horn	30
7	101	Steve East	Ellies in Trouble Now	20
8	961	Dave Nelson	Dorris Dormouse	10
-	35	Dick Sharp	Dorset Horn	10

Spot Prizes
	WB	Team/Driver	Car	Detail
Best Reaction	40	Sean Law	The Wicked Lady	0.071
#1 Qualifier	40	Sean Law	The Wicked Lady	0.002 off
Best Appearing Car	111	Dan Sharp	Little Big Horn
Best Burnout	91	Bob Hawkins	Timetraveller II

The 9 teams competing at the event were hoping the weather would allow lots of qualifiers and all the eliminations! And with two Series to be decided (Roy Wilding and APIRA) there was a lot to play for! Qualifying Saturday and Sunday This was a qualifying day and there were scheduled to be 3 rounds. The forecast was fairly good. We were 20th on the running order, so quite a while to wait. We were eventually called to the pairings lanes around quarter to one, with the round taking place about 5 minutes past. After this round, 7 of the teams had qualified. But there was some downtime during the day and a rainshower, and we ran out of time for a second qualifier. After Saturday's delays, we were due to be earlier on the running order for our second qualifier. This took place just before 11am, with the third round at about 1:15pm and the fourth and final qualifier at around quarter to five. After these rounds, 8 of the 9 teams had qualified. 5 drivers ran Personal Best ETs and Speeds this weekend!
WB 3	Keith Crampton was in his eighth event of the season in his Soul Town Shaker slingshot. He dialled in at 10.98 for his first qualifier, and posted an 11.294 at 114.57mph to open his account. He raised the Dial to 11.10 and ran a breakout 10.984 at 117.96mph in the second round. Again, the Dial was modified, to a 10.97, but Keith broke out again, recording a 10.929 at 117.80mph, near his PB. He duly lowered the Dial again, to 10.92 and on the fourth round posted a much closer run, 10.953 at 118.86mph. He qualified in 3rd place overall with this run.
WB 4	was Scot Durrants sixth event of the season in his and Ginas Tiki Munki slingshot coupe. Scottie began the weekend with a Dial-in of 12.80. He had some problems after the launch and posted a 14.787 at 87.27mph in the first round. He kept this Dial for the second and third rounds and made some adjustments in the pits, but still recorded passes of 14.618 at 88.11mph and 14.664 at 86.68mph. He raised the Dial to 14.60 for the last qualifier and ran a closer 14.698 at 89.31mph. He qualified in 5th place. Hope the team can trace the loss of power and be right back on form soon.
WB 35	Dick Sharp was in his third event of the season with the Dorset Horn altered. After a good low 9-second run at the Nostalgias, the car had lost performance at Dragstalgia. Dick and the team purchased a new condenser, thinking this was the problem. For the first qualifier, they dialled in at 9.10, and Dick had problems after the launch and slowed and pulled over, recording a 35-second pass. Back in the pits, they discovered a timing issue which was quickly rectified. So Dick kept this Dial for the second round. Well, he blew both the Dial-in and his PB out of the water when he ran his first ever 8-second pass, an 8.723 at 152.91mph, also his first time over the magic 150mph mark!! Well done Dick and all the team!! Huge Congratulations on this achievement!! Dick and team then lowered the Dial, to 8.80, but Dick broke out again and ran an 8.780 at 153.19mph, another new PB Speed! And backing up his new 8-second form! The team lowered the Dial-in again to 8.65, but Dick had to back off on a hairy run, and recorded a 9.457 at 150.75mph. He qualified in 8th place.
WB 40	Sean Law and The Wicked Lady team were back after repairing the gearbox which had broken at Dragstalgia. They also just had done a very smart new blue, black and white paint job on the dragster and it looked great! The team dialled in at 9.10 for the first round, and Sean ran well with 9.159 at 146.54mph, his best time and speed in the new car, and going top of the table after this round. The team kept the Dial for the second round, and Sean ran even better, recording a 9.102 at 147.03mph, his Personal Best ET and Speed for either version of The Wicked Lady! And strongly consolidating the Top Spot. The team stuck with this Dial-in for the third round and Sean recorded a consistent 9.141 at another PB Speed of 147.91mph, now the fastest speed for either car! The team kept with this Dial for the last qualifier and Sean promptly posted another Personal Best ET and Speed, with a breakout 9.085 at 148.04mph! Fair play! He also recorded Best Reaction of the Bunch on this run, with an .071 Reaction time. He remained #1 Qualifier. Well done Sean!
WB 45	Phil James was back for his fifth event of the season in the Rampage funny car after sorting out the brake problem experienced at his last event. He and the team were assisted on Saturday by Adam Charnley helping out on the crew. Phil dialled in at 9.45 for his first qualifier and broke out slightly with a 9.436 at 137.85mph, which was a good start performance-wise. The team lowered the Dial to 9.42 for the next round and Phil broke out again, recording a solid 9.340 at 141.38mph. The dial was lowered once more to 9.33 for the third qualifier and Phil surprised himself again, by breaking out with a 9.308 at 141.74mph, a new Personal Best ET and Speed! Fair play! The team lowered the Dial-in one more time, to 9.26, though still not quite believing the car would run that quick. Phil posted yet another PB ET, a 9.282 at 140.79mph, on the right side of the Dial! Well done! He qualified in 2nd.
WB 91	Bob Hawkins was in his eighth Wild Bunch event this year with his Time Traveller II slingshot. He had just come back from running at the Nitrolympix at Hockenheim, where he had been invited to attend to perform a fire burnout! The team actually took both Time Travellers to Germany. Bob in #2 and Sarah Howells in #1 performed side by side flame burnouts! It looked amazing and the crowd went wild, so fair play to the whole team! Bob started the weekend off with a Dial-in of 7.20! He posted a 7.479 at 177.91mph on this first round pass. He then raised the Dial to 7.30 and ran a closer 7.376 at 179.61mph, to go into second spot at that time. He kept the Dial for the third qualifier and ran a similar pass, a 7.390 at 175.94mph. The team raised the Dial slightly for the last qualifier to 7.37 and Bob had a slightly wayward run, easing off to a 7.790, but still at a good speed of 177.95mph. He qualified in 4th place overall for the weekend. He was also awarded the Best Burnout Spot Prize by the commentators, especially for the last pass where he burnt out to the 1/8th!
WB 101	Steven East was in his 2nd ever MSA event with the Ellies in Trouble slingshot and his fourth Wild Bunch event of the season. He and son Joshua arrived Saturday morning and set up their pit and prepared the car and got it scrutineered. They ran out of time to make the first qualifier so joined in on Sunday. Steven dialled in at 10.02 for his first round run. He recorded a red light and slowed to a 13.119 at 86.71mph on the run. He bounced back on the next pass, keeping the Dial-in and posting a 10.757 at 130.61mph. He raised the Dial for the last round, to 10.22, but promptly broke out in a big way, recording his first ever 9-second pass, a new Personal Best ET and Speed of 9.818 at 139.91mph! Well done Steven! He qualified in 7th place overall for the event.
WB 111	Dan Sharp was in his first ever MSA event with the teams Little Big Horn altered, and fresh from running a low 10-second PB at Dragstalgia. It was his fourth Wild Bunch event of the season. The team dialled in at 10.30 for the first qualifier, near his new PB. Well, Dan went straight out and blew this away, recording his first ever 9-second pass, a 9.923 at 127.83mph! Congratulations Dan! He then lowered the Dial to 9.85 for the next round, and posted a solid 10.050 at 134.02mph, a new Personal Best Speed! He kept the Dial for the next two qualifiers, and ran a consistent 10.057 at 129.94mph on the next pass. And backed up his new 9-second form with a 9.987 at 131.27mph in the fourth round! He qualified 6th overall. Baby son Blaize had slept through each and every pass of both his Dads and Grandads, unlike his big brother Harry who didnt seem to sleep at all! The icing on the cake for the Little Big Horn team was that the commentators awarded the altered the Best Appearing Car Spot Prize! Well, they had never stopped talking about what a great-looking and well turned out car it is! Fair play! A great weekend for the Sharp boys and their whole teams!!
WB 961	Dave Nelson was hoping to run his Dorris Dormouse slingshot in his third Wild Bunch event of the season. The team set up in the pits and fired the car up, but detected a problem during the warmup. They took the rocker boxes off and found a broken rocker stud. They searched for another, and managed to make a repair, but on firing up again found another problem, with one of the heads. This was too big a problem to repair, so unfortunately that was it for their weekend, and their season. Very best of luck to the team on getting this all sorted and coming back out stronger next year!
Race Day Monday (Eliminations) Monday's forecast was not very good, and though it dawned cloudy and dry, it had been wet overnight and by mid-morning the drizzle had set in! The event organisers were forced to call off the event before midday, as the forecast was then predicting more rain for the rest of the day. Such a shame, as there had been due to be 4 great races in the first round and more close competition! Well done to all the teams, who really put on a great show with great performances in the qualifying rounds. Overall it was a good event, where the weather allowed four qualifiers. Huge thanks to the track crew, marshalls and officials who worked really hard over the weekend. Fair play to all of them! The results mean that Adam and Team Gridlock have won the 2014 Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series again! Andrew Murphy has finished in 2nd place, Keith Crampton in 3rd and Scot Durrant in 4th. Many Congratulations to all of them! And, after ratification by the APIRA points co-ordinator, Keith Crampton has won the 2014 APIRA Championship, his first ever Series win, and Bob Hawkins is Runner-up for the second year in a row. Congratulations to both of them!! Adam Price is still leading the Real Steel Series just ahead of Bob Hawkins and Keith Crampton, and Keith is still leading the Springbridge MSA Challenge ahead of Bob and Adam. We are now really looking forward to the Finals of our season at the “National Finals” at Santa Pod on 20th & 21st September, for the final rounds: Wild Bunch Series Round 5, Real Steel Series Round 9 and the Springbridge MSA Challenge Round 5. It should be another exciting end to the season, with the points being so close, especially in WB and RS! Hope to see loads of entries for this one!