Hi folks,

Here is the (updated) news from the Wild Bunch ‘Summer Showdown’ at the ‘Mopar Euro Nationals’ on 9^th - 11^th August. Many thanks to the Mopar organisers for once again agreeing to include us at this fab event! Many Congratulations to them on the 30^th Anniversary of the event! 

The Wild Bunch had 14 fab teams participating this weekend. It was a really great event where the weather was good throughout (apart from about 10 minutes!). It turned out very warm on the Saturday and Sunday afternoons!  Several teams made use of the RWYB test day on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, the organisers had very kindly added us in to the scheduled sessions, rather than just queueing in the RWYB sections, and this worked brilliantly well not only for the Wild Bunch, but for all the officials and marshals and organisers! Many thanks to them all for this!

Saturday went well with the teams making the most of the 3 scheduled sessions, and a couple of drivers getting an extra run or two in the RWYB slots. There was plenty of track time available on the afternoon! As indeed there was the following afternoon! Unfortunately Wild Bunch Series leader Dan Wilson and team had an early finish to the weekend with a cracked bell housing in the “Antique Toy” slingshot, and Skippy and team suffered a broken output shaft in the “Chasin’ Time” slingshot on the Saturday! Hope those 2 teams can get fixed real soon and be back out for the Hot Rod Drags! At least 3 other teams had throttle cable issues, but thankfully all managed to fix them!

On Sunday, we managed to get the full 4 competition rounds in, for the first time in a long time! We ran in our 3 scheduled sessions, beginning with the 10am slot, and then also in one RWYB session as a group at around noon! Our third and fourth rounds were about 2:15pm and 4pm. 12 teams took part in the rounds on Sunday.

Our winners were:

1^st Place: Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Rebel’ .0667 average (well done boys, a great win!)

2^nd Place: Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ .1235 average (welcome to the Top 4 Dave! Fantastic performance!)

3^rd Place: James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ .1419 average (running quicker than expected! Another great Top 4!)

4^th Place: James Griffen in ‘Kiss my Gas’ .1921 average (well done on the great Top 4 James and team!)

Spot Prize winners were:

Closest to Dial-in: Bobby Wright in ‘Alturd’ .0060 off Dial in Round 1 (leading the Bunch after the first 2 rounds!)

Best Reaction: James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ .026 ! (right on it!)

Best Burnout: Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ (strong smoky burnouts throughout!)

Most Improved E.T.: Colin Childs in ‘Boxo Bomb’ a 1.239-second improvement (from a 12.487 at Dragstalgia to an 11.248!!)

Best Appearing Car & Team: James Griffen in ‘Kiss my Gas’ (beautifully turned out Topolino! And a great performance this weekend!)

Commentator’s Choice: Joey Childs in his first ever time running the ‘Boxo Bomb’ Topolino (running PB after PB, 11.4, 11.2, 11.0, 10.9, 10.8 and going well in competition!)

Well done everyone on a brilliant event!!

The full field of Wild Bunch was:

• Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ - Dan put in 4 good runs on the Saturday, but sadly the car suffered a serious issue with a large crack in the bellhousing, so Dan could not take part in Sunday’s rounds! Best wishes to the team on fixing this quickly and being back out for the Hot Rod Drags!
• Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Rebel’ - it was Pete driving the slingshot all weekend; the team were doing some tuning and testing, and were pleased with the results, and also very pleasantly surprised to take the event win! Pete recorded the quickest and fastest passes of the Bunch for Sunday’s runs, with a great 8.477 @ 154.69 mph!
• James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ - James made 5 test passes in the RWYB on the Friday and was happy with the car’s consistency; he ran quicker than expected on the Sunday, into the 12.4’s three times! But this was still close enough to earn him 3^rd place overall for the weekend! Another great Top 4 result!
• Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Wrathchild’ - it was Rob driving the slingshot all weekend, and having fun getting back into the 10’s a few times; he enjoyed a few good matchups with Pete in ‘Rebel’; Rob finished in 5^th place overall
• Bobby Wright in ‘Alturd’ - Bobby and Dad John had fixed some issues since the last event and were raring to go to test them out, beginning on Friday! This resulted in a great PB of 9.594 in the first round Sunday; Bobby then ran very consistently with the Closest to Dial of the day, with an .006 off to lead the Bunch in the first round; he maintained the lead after the second round, but distributor issues caused the team to have an early finish. They are sure to get this sorted for the Hot Rod Drags and have some other improvements in the pipeline! Great weekend overall for them!
• James Griffen in ‘Kiss my Gas - this was the anniversary of James’ first event with the Wild Bunch; he made a couple of passes in testing on Friday, and then ran a great 9.005 PB on Saturday before running his first 8 on Sunday in Round 1! He backed that up and ran another 8 in the 4^th round! James enjoyed match racing Joey in his old Topolino! He finished in 4^th place overall, a great result and a fantastic weekend all round!
• Alan Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’ - Skippy ran fantastic PB’s of 8.53 and 8.391 on Saturday, before the output shaft had enough and broke! Such a shame! Well done to the whole team on the fantastic numbers which they are very pleased with! Skippy was indeed the quickest and fastest runner in Wild Bunch over the whole weekend with the 8.391 / 158.52 on the Saturday.
• Andy Jackson in ‘Hammerman II” - Andy and the team had made a massive effort to get back to the track after the issues at Dragstalgia! They were rewarded with 2 runs Friday and 2 on Saturday! Andy made the first round on Sunday, but unfortunately the team had problems with the starter motor! Andy & Tara and team worked hard to get this sorted but were unable to run again this weekend. Keep going team! We know you can do it! Very best of luck to them all for the Hot Rod Drags!
• Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption - Andy had a hairy wheelying launch in the first round on Sunday, the ‘wildest ride’ of the day, but a wheelie bar adjustment made sure the next 3 runs were spot on and smooth! He bounced right back in the second round and recorded a strong PB of 9.700 and a great matchup with Dave Shoemark also running in the 9.7s! Andy finished in 9^th place overall.
• Rob White in ‘Happy Daze’ - Rob and team had put together a new engine from the many spares that they had in the workshop after the damage the old one suffered at Dragstalgia. This proved a great little engine, running well all weekend, with Rob completing all 4 rounds on Sunday! Hooray! He finished in 8^th place overall and the whole team were thrilled to take part! Well done!
• Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ - Dave and team had a brilliant weekend, running PB’s including the great PB of 9.771 in the second round all-slingshot matchup with Andy Roy. In fact he ran 9’s in all four rounds on Sunday! He finished in a fantastic 2^nd place overall! His first ever time in the Top 4!! Well done Dave and team!!
• Paul Tarry in ‘Trigger’s Broom’ - Paul had a great start to the rounds on Sunday, running just one hundredth off Dial with a great 10.890. Unfortunately he had trouble with the starter motor on the second round, and went down to watch and support the Bunch for the next 2 rounds. He managed to get another starter and he and the crew thrashed on the hot afternoon to get it fitted and sorted, just making it in the nick of time for the fourth round. Well done Paul and team!
• Ian Wild in ‘WildScat’ - Ian had a great weekend, and enjoyed making as many runs as he could, including 3 in testing on the Friday RWYB. He began the rounds by running a great PB on Sunday, with a four tenths breakout, recording that 11.323! He also ran his first pass above 120mph! He finished in 7^th place in his wonderful blown Jag-powered altered. Well done Ian!
• Joey & Colin Childs in the ‘Boxo Bomb’ Topolino – in only their second event with the Wild Bunch and both really getting a handle on the car already, including running on Friday. Colin ran a PB into the 11.2’s. Joey, Colin’s son, was having his first runs in the car, and was going so well that he was chosen as Sunday’s driver for the team! He went from strength to strength, getting the car into the 10’s and backing that up, doing well in competition and earning the Commentator’s award, and finishing in 6^th place overall! Very well done team!!

Well done to all those who set PB’s. They were:

Bobby Wright in ‘Alturd’  9.594 / 140.35

James Griffen in ‘Kiss My Gas’ 8.855 / 142.57 (Many Congratulations on your first 8’s James!!)

Alan Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’ 8.391 (nearly 4 tenths off his previous best!)

Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption’  9.700 / 137.79

Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ 9.771 / 136.04

Ian Wild in ‘WildScat’ 11.323 / 120.11  (his first 120+ pass too!)

Colin Childs in ‘Boxo Bomb’ 11.248 / 118.03 (Many Congratulations on your first 11’s Colin!)

Joey Childs in ‘Boxo Bomb’ 10.893 / 124.46 (Many Congratulations on your first runs & first 10’s Joey!)

[Please let me know if I have missed any!]

We would also like to wish an absolutely massive Congratulations to our Wild Bunch co-founder and constant supporter of the Wild Bunch, as well as British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Roy Wilding, who achieved lifetime ambitions in his awesome ‘Chariot of Fire’ slingshot this weekend, running his first ever 200+mph pass, then his first 6-second pass, and on Sunday his first double, an amazing 6.886 @ 203.48 mph!! Huge well done to Roy and the whole team!! We are all so chuffed for you on the dream come true!!!!!! Many Congratulations also to amazing partner Elaine Southworth and ‘Daddy Cool’ team head, who made her first ever runs in a dragster on the Friday! This is the slingshot Roy has just finished building, with a Buick engine, very much similar to his old trusty Buick slingshot from the 90’s, and appropriately named ‘Her Indoors’ and running Roy’s old Wild Bunch number, WB 7!! A huge well done to Elaine on the achievement of her first ever slingshot runs! She ran a best of 15.745 @ 74.20mph! And it sounds like the driving bug has well and truly bit! Fair play Elaine on your fab debut and Roy on building another fantastic slingshot!

Over the weekend there were some brilliant-looking match races! One pairing saw the 2 Topos of James Griffen and Colin & Joey Childs (thoroughly enjoying the Topo they bought from James just a few months ago!). Another great pairing was Andy Roy in the ‘Shawcrank Redemption’ slingshot matched with Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ slingshot, especially when they ran side-by-side PBs in the 9.7s!! And of course the Brown brothers going head to head in ‘Rebel’ and ‘Wrathchild’! Always entertaining! There were some great matchups throughout and another good show from the Wild Bunch!

Well done to all those who took part, and congratulations to the winners! Commiserations to all those with breakages which we hope can be fixed soon!! Highlights of the weekend were: the fantastic group of Wild Bunch teams, loads of track time including 4 good well-spaced rounds on the Sunday, the dry weather, a nice atmosphere at the event, and loads of PBs, some brilliant match racing and lots of fun!! Well done to everyone!! Huge thanks to all the amazing marshals and officials and track crews, especially in the heat, and to Max Frost for his organisational skills and help and enthusiasm!! Thanks also to commentator Colin Theobald for his great support and to Graham, Chris and Kirstie at eurodragster for all their hard work to bring the news and photos to everyone! Many thanks to each and every one at Santa Pod and to all the Mopar guys and girls for all their hard work during the weekend! Thanks for having us along! It was a really great event overall, which we thoroughly enjoyed!!

All the best,

Claire