Hi folks
Here is the news from the ‘Festival of Power’ event over Easter on 19th – 21st April. This event was ‘Spirit of Nostalgia Challenge’ Series Round 1 and ‘Springbridge Motorsport UK Challenge’ Round 1, as well as the 1st round of the first ever Santa Pod Racers Club Championship for the Wild Bunch! There was a great field of 10 teams at the event, the biggest Motorsport UK field for 3 years! The trophies were kindly sponsored by “Ratcatcher Racing” so many thanks to Terry and Ruth for this! The weather was absolutely fantastic all weekend, blue skies, dry and warm! A fabulous Easter weekend!
The first round of qualifying was one of the best we’ve had, with all cars running well straight off! A credit to every team! They did the Wild Bunch proud throughout the whole weekend!
Here are the results:
1st Place: Keith Crampton in ‘Soul Town Shaker’ - a great start to his season!
2nd Place: Callum Swinchatt in the ‘Kings N/W’ altered – back to back finals! Getting quicker & quicker
3rd Place: Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ – newly licenced Pete ran incredible PB’s and made the Semis!!
4th Place: Darryl Howells in ‘Chemical Reaction’ – low 9’s all weekend until a fab 8.69 in Round 2!
Here are the Spot Prizes that were awarded:-
#1 Qualifier: Mark Coulsell in ‘Ballbreaker’ .0080 off – a very welcome return to Motorsport UK racing!
Best Reaction: Keith Crampton in ‘Soul Town Shaker’ .119 – brilliant reactions throughout race day!
Closest to Dial-in: Callum Swinchatt in the ‘Kings N/W’ altered.004 off
Best Burnout: Dan Boone in ‘American Pie’ – a fantastic Motorsport UK event debut!
Best Appearing Car: Pete & Rob Brown ‘Rebel’ – another fantastic Motorsport UK event debut!
The PB’s were:
Mark Coulsell in ‘Ballbreaker’ 8.208 / 159.65
Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ 8.354 / 160.21
Callum Swinchatt in ‘Kings N/W’ altered 9.031 /145.70
Bob Hawkins in ‘Time Traveller II’ 6.515 !!! Off the trailer with the new engine! Wow! Unreal
Dan Boone in ‘American Pie’ 8.608 / 156.28 (had already run the car’s quickest and fastest on his last licencing pass!)
Also of note: Dan finished 2nd in place for qualifying with an .0085 off Dial and Phil James 3rd with an .009! Phil ran several close to dial passes. Brilliant to see Philippa and Mark’s gearbox looking well and truly fixed!! Huge well done to them, and to Phil who went quicker and quicker throughout the weekend! Also running well was Terry Clifford with a couple of 8-second passes and going over the 150mph mark.
Huge commiserations to Bob Hawkins, as on the 2nd qualifier a couple of rods let go at three quarter track, and even worse, he ended up tagging the wall in the shutdown area, and bumping his head. The safety crew were quick in to action as always, and Bob thankfully got out under his own steam, but was taken to hospital for observation. It was fantastic to hear he was back later that night, and just had a headache and bruising the next day. Hope the damage to the car can be fixed soon, as Bob is already on the case with the stripdown to see how the engine is. All the very best of luck from all of us Bob!
Also big commiserations to Mark Coulsell who pulled a huge wheelie on launch in the 3rd qualifying round, and landed with a big bump. Mark got out of the car quickly, but was taken to the med centre for a checkup, thankfully being released about an hour later, with just a few bumps and bruises. (At this point, not long after, son Harley went down for his 4th qualifier in Junior Dragster and pulled an .009 reaction and went into 3rd spot! Well done Harley!!) After initially being told it didn’t look like Mark could run again, the team stripped the front end, measured up and effected strong repairs with the help of some expert friends. An inspection well and truly satisfied the tech team, and Mark made it to the first round with an amazing 8.28 on an 8.25 Dial! Huge tribute to him, Steve, the whole team and friends for getting the car back out and giving it a great go! He was only beaten by a very on-form Keith Crampton who was good off the lights and close to Dial!
There were some fantastic close and exciting races during the day and the whole of the Bunch put on a great show! Many thanks to all the hardworking track crew, marshals and officials and all the safety and medical crews for their brilliant work as always! So much appreciated!
Looking forward to our next event, the ‘Nostalgia Nationals’ in less than 3 weeks’ time! Should be a great field for that event, so hope the weather’s just as good!
All the best
Claire
