Hi folks, here is the news from the Wild Bunch ‘Summer Showdown’ at the ‘Mopar EuroNationals’ on 18^th - 20^th August. Many thanks to the Mopar organisers for once again including us at this great event! 

Before the event, the forecast had been for rain for most of the event, with some thunder and lightning predicted! So we hoped it might be better than expected!!  The Wild Bunch had 13 fab teams participating this weekend. The Friday was a test day / Run-What-You-Brung, and 5 teams took part during this dry day. The most notable performance was by Loz Butcher in his fabulous ‘Mean Streak’ slingshot. He had just installed a new MSD on the car after recent issues with the mag and this, combined with some other tuning, sure did the trick as he ran a series of PB’s with his first 8’s at over 150mph, culminating in a fantastic PB ET of 8.683 and a best speed of 151.58 mph! What a present on his 25^th Birthday! Well done Loz and team! We welcomed a new team into the Wild Bunch: Kev & Louise Osborne with the “Texas Ranger” altered, formerly owned by Mick & Lorraine Hillier. They were assisted by crew members Clive and Samantha. Kev made one checkout pass on Friday but had a brake issue. The team worked much of the following day to cure a string of issues and made good progress on the learning curve. Dave Shoemark and team came to their assistance when their fuel pump failed, enabling the team to get the car running late on Saturday, ready for Sunday! Many commiserations to James Griffen who suffered a drop in performance and loss of a cylinder in the beautiful “Kiss my Gass” Topolino altered. The team had some very smart team t-shirts as well as some very well turned out professional crew shirts, and all looked fantastic! A real credit to their team! Best of luck with the repairs James and hope to see you all back out at the Hot Rod Drags!

Again on Saturday and Sunday, the organisers had very kindly added us in to the scheduled sessions, rather than 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 again to them for this! 

Saturday started off pretty wet, and the forecast still showed a lot of rain. Thankfully, a huge storm veered off to the east of the track, and track drying commenced in earnest by the excellent Santa Pod crew! Many thanks to them, racing started just after 5pm! The Wild Bunch had their first runs just after 6:15pm. Personal highlights of this round were: Terry Robbins recording a 144.30 mph PB just shy of the “Soul Town Shaker”’s best ever speed, and Loz Butcher recording a PB speed of 151.61 mph. 11 teams took part. Our next run was around 7:45pm and 10 teams took part. A personal highlight of that round was Pete Brown recording “Rebel”’s best ever ET of 8.319! Well done Marras!

Sunday dawned with the predicted rainfall and this was intermittent during the morning, but a prolonged dry period led to the track crew out in force again drying the track! Eventually, the track opened at about 2:30pm! Fair play to all the hardworking team for getting racing underway!! A huge effort!  We managed to get 2 competition rounds in, the first at about 3:15pm with 12 teams taking part. One highlight of this round was seeing Bob Hawkins well and truly back in the 6’s, after some major work between rounds, and he recorded a stellar 6.878 at 203.99mph! Well done Bob and team!! A personal highlight of the round was newcomer Kev Osborne recording an improved checkout pass of 17.081/79 on only his second run in the car, with the team making great progress over the weekend! Welcome to the Wild Bunch Kev & Louise and team!! Our second round took place at about 4:15pm, including a short stoppage for a few spots of rain, with 9 teams taking part. A personal highlight in this round was Mark Houghton recording a PB Speed of 135.15 mph after less than 10 runs in the car! Well done to both he and Terry for making more progress with the “Soul Town Shaker” and improvements all the time!  We were then asked if we wanted to go for a third round, but it was only 15 minutes after our last car ran, so many cars were too warm still. One team did go out for a test run near the end of racing.  We were thrilled just to be able to get 2 full rounds of racing in despite the weather delays and when it had not looked promising earlier in the day! Thanks to all the hardworking track crews!

Our winners were:

1^st Place: Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ .0283 average (Great to see Dan and team back to winning ways!)

2^nd Place: James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’ .0597 average (Another great Top 4! Well done James!)

3^rd Place: Loz Butcher in ‘Mean Streak’ .0637 average (Congratulations on his first WB Top 4 finish!)

4^th Place: Phil James in ‘Rampage’ .0784 average (Great to see Phil back in the Top 4!)

 

For info, the other teams to complete both rounds were:

5^th: Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’  (.0988)

6^th: Rob White in ‘Happy Daze’ (.1787) Welcome back team! We missed you! Looking happier than ever!!

7^th: Ian Wild in ‘Wild’sCat’ (.3318)

8^th Terry Robbins & Mark Houghton in ‘Soul Town Shaker’ (.3930)

9^th: Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ (.5108)

 

Spot Prize winners were:

Closest to Dial-in: Dan Wilson in ‘Antique Toy’ .0017 off Dial in Round 1 (absolutely fantastic run!)

Best Burnout: Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Wrathchild’ (the commentators’ remark - “drifting the days away!”)

Most Improved E.T.: Loz Butcher in ‘Mean Streak’ (improving from a previous PB of 9.550 to 8.683 (an overall improvement of 0.867 of a second! Well done Loz!)

Best Appearing Car & Team: Dave Shoemark in ‘The Crewman’ (fab new team shirts and a very well turned out slingshot!)

Driver’s Choice: Loz Butcher in ‘Mean Streak’ (a very popular driver, car and team!)

Commentator’s Choice: Loz Butcher in ‘Mean Streak’ for fantastic PB’s deep in the 8’s at over 150mph!!

Loz and team had the broadest smiles all weekend with the improvement in performance and reliability of their beautiful period perfect slingshot, 3 Spot Prizes and Loz’s first Top 4 place! Absolutely brilliant!!

The full list of participants with PBs added is as follows:

 

WB  1	JAMES AULD	LITTLE FAUSS
WB  2	ROB & PETE BROWN	REBEL	Pete: 8.319
WB  4	DAN WILSON	ANTIQUE TOY
WB 20	PETE & ROB BROWN	WRATHCHILD
WB 23	LOZ BUTCHER	MEAN STREAK	8.683 / 151.58
WB 30	KEV OSBORNE	TEXAS RANGER	17.081 / 79.20
WB 45	PHIL JAMES	RAMPAGE
WB 50	JAMES GRIFFEN	KISS MY GAS
WB 78	TERRY ROBBINS & MARK HOUGHTON	SOUL TOWN SHAKER	T: 144.30 mph M: 135.16 mph
WB 91	BOB HAWKINS	TIME TRAVELLER II
WB 98	ROB WHITE	HAPPY DAZE
WB 104	DAVE SHOEMARK	THE CREWMAN
WB 116	IAN WILD	WILD’SCAT

 

Please do let me know if I have missed any PB’s!!

Well done everyone on a brilliant event!! Massive thanks to the hardworking track crew who made huge efforts to dry the track both days and get as much racing in as possible. What stars!! Many thanks to all the marshals and officials and everyone at Santa Pod for all they do! Much appreciated!

Many thanks to our great sponsors this weekend:  “Hold Fast Racing” who sponsored all of our 6 Spot Prizes. Many thanks to James Griffen and team!  Many thanks also to “Scumbag Motors” who sponsored Prize Money for our event winner! Big thanks to Karl Dandridge and Ian Wild and team!

Highlights of the weekend were some great matchups throughout, another great show from the Wild Bunch with several teams stepping up with some fantastic new teamwear and also getting 2 full rounds of racing completed!

Well done to all those who took part and put on a great show, and congratulations to the winners! Commiserations to all those with breakages which we hope can be fixed soon!! Thanks also to Max Frost for all his organisational skills behind the scenes! Thanks also to commentator Colin Theobald for his great support and to Graham and the whole fantastic team 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! A great event overall!

All the best

Claire

:-)