Hi everybody! 

Here are the results from the MSUK "Summer Nationals" at Santa Pod last weekend, 10^th – 12^th July. This was Spirit of Nostalgia Challenge Round 3, Springbridge MSUK Challenge Round 1 and the 1^st round of the SPRC Championship for Wild Bunch. The Wild Bunch had a good field of 6 great teams participating in the event. Unfortunately, 3 other entrants were unable to attend due to various reasons. Hoping they can all be back out and running soon!

The weather for the weekend was very warm throughout, with Friday being quite hot, but luckily there was quite a breeze over Saturday and Sunday, and no rain at all! 

Qualifying

WB 1 Pete Brown was taking another turn in the “Rebel”, after running the slingshot at the previous  “Dragstalgia” event.  Pete began with a Dial-in of 8.37. His first run was a banker with an 8.864 @ 152.73mph. He recorded a break out 8.322 @ 147.65mph in the second qualifier He lowered the Dial-in to 8.30 for the next attempt and posted a closer 8.428 at 157.96mph. Trying to get closer he raised the Dial to 8.39 for the next round and recorded another break out 8.373 at 155.77mph!  He once again lowered the Dial to 8.37 for the last round and ran a great 8.300 at 162.48mph, his best speed ever! He finished as 5^th qualifier overall. 

WB 12 Philippa Turton started the weekend with a Dial-in of 10.30 and ran a solid 10.446 at 130.20mph, her first time over 130mph! This put her straight in at #1 Qualifier. She broke out in the next round with a 10.184 @ 131.29mph, another PB speed! The team lowered the Dial to a safe 10.14, and Philippa ran her Personal Best ET of 10.151 at 133.33mph, another PB speed! This consolidated her #1 Qualifier position. She lowered the Dial for the next round to 10.13 but did not record a time. In the last round, she dialled in at 10.13 again and ran a good 10.323 at 127.02mph. Philippa remained #1 Qualifier.

WB 85 Andy Clifford began with a Dial-in of 8.34 and ran a great 8.517 at 153.18mph for starters. He broke out in the next qualifier, recording an 8.346 @ 157.41mph, his personal best speed and very promising! For the next run he changed his Dial-in to 8.32 and ran an 8.398 at 153.19mph. Unfortunately the car experienced fuel pump issues so the team set about investigating that. Andy qualified in 3^rd place overall. 

WB 97 Frankie Taylor was back out in the “Banshee” altered for the first time since it was heavily modified, and since Grandad Mick did some recent testing. Frankie started with a checkout pass of 22 seconds in the first round. She then had an 18.539 at 69mph pass in the second round. For her third pass she dialled in at 11.02 seconds and ran a very good 11.374 at 95.23mph, backing off a little, but happy with the progress. For the fourth qualifier she changed the Dial-in to 10.89 and ran a 13.300 at 105.47mph, still getting a handle on the altered. Frankie was 6^th in qualifying.

WB 164 Marie Mills first Dial-in of the weekend was a 10.62 and she broke out on that with a good 10.466 at 123.74mph run. Her next pass was a consistent 10.446 at 124.20mph on a 10.38.  On the third qualifier she raised her Dial very slightly to 10.39 and broke out on that too with a 10.375 at 125.46mph. So once again the Dial-in was lowered, to 10.33 and she promptly ran a 10.326 at 125.84mph!! She lowered the Dial again to what the team thought was a safe 10.30, and the car ran so well that she recorded a 10.284 at 126.28mph, a PB speed! Marie finished 2^nd overall in qualifying. 

WB 526 Allan Schofield began with a Dial of 9.15 and broke out with a 9.128 at 142.04mph in the first round of qualifying. His next pass was a 9.171 at 141.72mph. For the third qualifier he opted for a 9.00 index and ran 9.123 @ 144.79mph. He refined the Dial to 9.10 for the 4^th run but did not record a time.  For the last qualifier, he kept this Dial and ran 9.096 @ 145.23mph. He qualified in 4^th place overall.

All 6 drivers had qualified safely after the first qualifying session. Well done to all! Many thanks to these teams for their great support of this, our first MSUK event of the season!!

Here are all the entrants with PB’s shown. Please do let me know if I missed any!

Race Day Sunday   This was thankfully a good dry day. The Wild Bunch were not due out for our first round until 2:10pm. Unfortunately Andy Clifford could not run due to damage to the fuel pump in “Snake Eyes”. Frankie Taylor elected to complete some more testing of the car at a later RWYB before going into full competition with the beautiful “Banshee” altered. We wish them both the best of luck!

With some delays during the day, it was 3:20pm before our Quarter Finals began! This featured two great races with Pete taking on Marie and Philippa matched with Allan. Pete had dialled in at a low 8.27 and Marie at 10.20. Pete pulled a stunning reaction of .0002, with Marie pulling a strong .0126 Reaction. Pete just broke out by only .0035 with a great 8.266 at 153.63mph, slowing slightly to try to judge the stripe. This handed the win to Marie who ran a great 10.252 at 126.99mph, her PB speed to boot! What a fantastic race!  In the only other race of the round, Philippa dialled in at 10.12, below her new PB, and Allan at 9.10 which he had run for most of the weekend. Philippa unfortunately had an issue on the run and recorded 11.992 @ 112.49mph whilst Allan had a much better reaction time and posted a 9.559 at 122.40mph, slowing and taking the win as he could see he was ahead of Philippa.  There turned out to be some rocker damage in the engine of the “Bitchcraft” coupe so hope it’s not too serious and Philippa and the team can be back out for the next event!

As the ladder worked out, it would have meant both Marie and Allan taking Bye runs into the Final, so they mutually decided to go down to the start line and individually both stage and break the beam in order to complete the Semis and advance to the Final, and they did this successfully just before 6pm.  They then immediately lined up for the Final, both completing their burnouts and staging. Marie dialled in at 10.10 and Allan at 9.10. Unfortunately Marie’s transbrake broke on the line and she rolled through stage so did not record a time, leaving Allan to take the victory with an 8.983 at 145.74mph, his best speed this year. Many Congratulations to Allan and the whole team who looked fantastic again in their smart crew shirts!

1^st Place: Allan Schofield  WB 526  “Scud” altered

2^nd Place: Marie Mills   WB 164 Purple altered

3^rd Place: Philippa Turton   WB 12  “Bitchcraft” (by virtue of being closest to Dial-in without breaking out)

4^th Place: Pete Brown   WB 1   “Rebel”

The Spot Prizes were:

#1 Qualifier: Philippa Turton in “Bitchcraft” .0115 off

Best Reaction in the rounds: Pete Brown in “Rebel” with a stunning .0002 Reaction!

Best Appearing Car & Team: The Brown Brothers and Team with “Rebel”

Huge thanks to all the marshals and officials and track crew for their hard work over the weekend, as always, especially in the heat, and with a fair bit of track down time!

Hoping these and several more teams will join back in for our next MSUK round at the ‘Green Light Nationals’ on August 22^nd & 23^rd!

We are now looking forward to the 3^rd Wild Bunch and 4^th  Spirit of Nostalgia Challenge Series rounds at the Wild Bunch ‘Summer Nationals’ at the Mopar Euronationals on 7^th - 9^th August.   It will be a really good relaxed event with lots of track time and fun!  We’re hoping for good weather at that one!! See you then!

:-) :-)