Hi folks,

Here is the news from the Wild Bunch ‘Summer Showdown’ at the ‘Mopar Nationals’ on 28^th - 30^th July. Many thanks to the Mopar organisers for agreeing to include us at this fab event again! The Wild Bunch had 13 great teams participating at the weekend. It was a really good event even though it was weather-affected. 3 or 4 teams made use of the RWYB test day on Friday, and some put in 4 runs. Saturday went well until around midday when there was about 5 minutes of torrential rain!! The track crew worked hard and racing got underway again 2 hours later and ran through until 7:30pm. Every team got at least one or two runs in, with a few making 5 or more! Although Sunday’s forecast had not predicted rain until lunchtime, there was a shower around 8:30am, and racing was delayed an hour.  We all headed to the queue around 11:15 for our first round which we ran by noon. 10 cars ran in this round. We then headed back to the queue after the extended lunch break, and by around 1:30 luckily made it down quite quickly, not having to wait until a few spots of rain put the track on hold. Fortunately, this blew over quickly and we were able to complete our second round, and get back to the pits. We did hold out a bit of hope for a third, but the predicted rain came in, and the organisers were forced to call it off by about 3pm.  Massive thanks to all the Santa Pod track crew, who once again worked tirelessly all weekend!!  Our winners were:

1^st Place: Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ .0274 average (another great win!!)

2^nd Place: Paul Tarry in ‘Trigger’s Broom’ .0340 average (great to see Paul firmly in the Top 4!)

3^rd Place: Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ .0943 average (well done Pete!)

4^th Place: Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption’  .1119 average (first time in the Top 4! Well done!)

Spot Prize winners were:

Closest to Dial-in: Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’.012 off! (great start in the first round!)

Best Reaction: Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ .132 (well done Pete!)

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

Most Improved MPH: James Griffen in ‘Hold Fast’ 10.12mph improvement (over the weekend!)

Best Appearing Car & Team: Jim Tanner in ‘Shindigger’ (great teamwear and well turned out slingshot!)

Commentator’s Choice: Rob White in ‘Happy Daze’ (for massive efforts to get there, run the great-looking car Saturday, try loads of things to fix it, and overall, the whole team still smiling!!!)

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

James Griffen in ‘Hold Fast’ 11.197 / 119.90 (welcome to the Wild Bunch James!)

Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption’  10.421 (some 6 tenths quicker than his PB at Dragstalgia!)

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

The full field was:

• Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Rebel’ (it was Pete taking both turns on Sunday, great job winning two Spot Prizes and finishing in 3^rd place!! Peter recorded the quickest and fastest passes of the Bunch on Sunday in the second round, with a great 8.399 @ 156.87mph!)
• Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ (Dan managed to get in a fantastic 7 runs on the Saturday! Real good going! He put in a couple of strong runs on Sunday, near his best mph, and earned a well-deserved back-to-back win!
• Wayne Colliver in ‘Misfit’ (arrived hoping to have fixed his recent problems, only to be faced by more gremlins on track! Wayne and Rich worked hard to trace the issues, and tried loads of things, but could not get the car to run right; since the event, we hear they may have solved the problems, so fingers crossed for the Hot Rod Drags!!)
• Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Wrathchild’ (it was Rob who took both turns on the Sunday, but had a frustrating time with the car cutting out in the first round after the burnout, but he bounced back with a good run in round two!)
• James Griffen in ‘Hold Fast’ (this was James’ first event with the Wild Bunch, having run several drag cars before, a 1940 Willy and a ’69 Camaro! He made some test runs Friday and really got a handle on the car, enjoying running with the Bunch! He finished in 8^th. Welcome James and team!)
• Alan Loten in ‘Paranoia’ (it was great to see the boys back for another event with their updates on the car; Alan dipped back into the 9’s on round one, after Steve fixed a last minute nitrous leak! Well done folks! Alan finished in 9^th place overall)
• Jim Tanner in ‘Shindigger’ (Jim was enjoying some runs back in the mid 9’s and improved to a great 9.227 in the first round Sunday; the team looked great with their crew shirts too! Jim finished in 10^th place overall)
• Andy Roy in ‘Shawcrank Redemption (Andy was making more great progress and getting a handle on the car, getting into the mid 10’s by the end of the weekend! Well done Andy!)
• Rob White in ‘Happy Daze’ (Rob and team made it to the track midday Saturday after having a problem with a tyre blowout early that day! Thankfully he was ok and was able to make 2 runs Saturday; though the car experienced some carb problems, and although the team solved them, they then suffered a transmission leak! Hoping for better times at the Hot Rod Drags!)
• Paul Tarry in ‘Trigger’s Broom’ (Paul had found his spark which was lost at Dragstalgia, and was very much back in business! He made 5 or 6 runs on Saturday, and this paid off as he had dialled the car in well and got a great finish in 2^nd place! Well done Paul!)
• Ian Wild in ‘WildScat’ (Ian had a great weekend, and enjoyed making 7 runs overall, finishing in 6^th place in his great Jag-powered altered)
• James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ (Wild Bunch Series leader James put in 3 test passes on Friday and a few on Saturday; unfortunately his first run Sunday was a bit off the pace, but he had a great run in round 2 to finish in 5^th place overall, so close!)
• Steve Garlant in ‘Sonic Attack II’ (unfortunately the team were missing regular crew Vinnie – get well soon Vinnie! Steve made 3 runs Saturday in the low 11’s and started off with a close run in the first round, finishing in 7^th place overall)

Well done to all those who took part, and congratulations to the winners! Commiserations to all those with issues which we hope can be fixed soon!! Highlights of the weekend were the great group of Wild Bunch teams, some good track time despite the weather, a really nice laid back event, and managing to get our second round in on Sunday, before the rain curtailed the event!  Well done to all!! Huge thanks to everyone at Santa Pod & the Mopar guys and gals for all their hard work during the weekend! Another great effort!! It was a really good event overall, even with the weather disruption!! Many thanks to Ian and James for the loan of their awnings at the end, so that we could present the trophies!

All the best,

Claire