Hi everybody!!

Here are the brief results from the ‘Nostalgia Drags’ at Santa Pod last weekend, 1^st & 2^nd August!

This was our first event of our 25^th Anniversary season, after the long delay due to the covid crisis!!! The Wild Bunch had a fantastic total of 23 great teams participating in the event, which was incredible given the short notice and the current situation in our country.  Well done to all the teams for making it and for following all the current social distance regulations at Santa Pod! A fantastic bunch of teams!!

We were running in memory of Stu Bradbury, who so sadly passed away last month. Such a wonderful man and a legend in British Drag Racing; a huge supporter of the Wild Bunch! Crazy Chris had a special message on his canopy & Claire was flying the Union flag & Stars & Stripes on every run!  Fly high Stu!!

The weather was hot and dry as the teams arrived on the Friday late afternoon and evening!! Saturday was thankfully cooler, with some cloud cover and sunshine during the day. It was still warm most of the time!  We had 4 runs during the day. The weather held on Sunday and was warm and sunny with occasional cloud, and again we got in 4 runs, with the last being finished by around 3:30pm! Huge thanks to all the marshals and officials and everyone at Santa Pod for all their hard work this weekend, especially given the current situation!! It was an excellent event all round!!

The Top 4 winners were:

1st Place:  Callum Swinchatt in ‘King’s N/W’ (picking straight up with winning ways!) .037 average
2nd Place: Brian Watson in ‘Interest Free’ (fantastic event with PB’s and Top 4!)        .056 average
3rd Place: Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Wrathchild’  (sharing the driving in both cars!)          .234 average
4th Place: ‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell in ‘Backdraft’ (loads of wheelies and lots of fun!)       .427 average

The Spot Prizes were:

Best Burnout: Chris Manning in ‘The Villain’  (awesome smokey burnouts throughout!)

Closest to Dial-in: Callum Swinchatt in ‘King’s N/W’ .003 off  (great getting back to consistency!)

Best Reaction: Rob Brown in ‘Rebel’  .027 (fantastic!)

Quickest E.T.: Chris Manning in ‘The Villain’ 7.070 (Wow!!!! Nearly 6 tenths off his previous PB!!!!)

Best Altered: Mick Hillier in ‘Texas Ranger’ (back in the 8’s on Sunday!)

Best Slingshot: Brian Watson in ‘Interest Free’ (a brilliant set of runs including PB’s!)

Best Appearing Car: Wayne Colliver in ‘Misfit’  (awesome first run in the 9’s!)

Best Appearing Team: Chris Manning and ‘The Villains’ (just incredible!!!!! First time over 200mph!!)

Many thanks to my brill trophy presenter, our granddaughter, Bella Hartnell! Great job Bella!!  J

The full line-up was:

·           Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Rebel’  (great to see the twins doing double duty with both cars!)

·           Mark Coulsell in ‘Ballbreaker’   (a few niggles, but back in the 8.3’s by Sunday!!)

·           Lee Hartnell in ‘Metal Mistress’ (fantastic to see make a run, 1^st time in 15 years against Dad too!)

·           ‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell in ‘Backdraft’ (brilliant set of entertaining wheelies, one 8.73 & two 150mph!)

·           Antony Colliver in ‘From Hell’ (fantastic to see the debut of this awesome looking car!! Well done!)

·           Wayne Colliver in ‘Misfit’  (brilliant to see him improve by 2 seconds! & match race brother Antony!!)

·           Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Wrathchild’ (an excellent performance from the old faithful steed!!)

·           Mick Hillier in ‘Texas Ranger’ (back in the 8’s again! Hooray!)

·           Brian Watson in ‘Interest Free’ (first time in the Top 4 after a long trip from Scotland, PB’s too!)

·           Gary Atkinson in ‘Time Lock’ (a big warm welcome on the team’s Wild Bunch debut!)

·           Craig Greenfield in ‘Grumpy Monkey’ (great to see Craig back out and rewarded with a good PB!)

·           Kev Whiting in ‘Tip Top’  (Kev was leading after the first 2 rounds! Great PB’s! Well done!)

·           Callum Swinchatt in ‘King’s N/W’ altered (right back on form after just a little tuning!)

·           Chris Manning in ‘The Villain’  (just fantastic! First ever run over 200mph!!!)

·           Steve Heaven in ‘Tight Fit’ (huge effort to get to the track and overcome problems to run!)

·           Alan ‘Skippy’ Skipp in ‘Cheap Thrills’ (great to see the team back, best of luck getting a new diff!)

·           Andy Stones in ‘Stoned’  (great to see him back in the 10’s with the new clutch!)

·           Graham Rawlings in ‘Rawspeed’ (long trip from Plymouth, great runs, new PB speed!!)

·           Jim Tanner in ‘Shindigger’ (cool as anything new cyclecart pit vehicle! Jim was having fun again!)

·           Ollie H-Smith in ‘Couped Up’ (good run before an issue, hope to see him back soon!)

·           Pete Huckle in ‘The Jagster’ (a few niggles, but great to see the team back out!)

·           Dan Boone in ‘American Pie’ (a couple of solid 8-second run, promising before issues!)

·           Danny & Elliott Jones in ‘Ragin Cajun’ (fantastic to see the family running back in the Wild Bunch!)

We just want to say a Huge Congratulations to Chris Manning and the whole of ‘The Villain’ team on running their first ever 200 mph pass on Sunday morning!!!!! A 201.68 mph run!! Yeehah!! Massive well done to the whole team on this great achievement!! We know it means so very much to you all!!! We are so over the moon for all of you!!!! J J

The PB’s this weekend were:

·           Antony Colliver in ‘From Hell’  16.411 / 80.26 mph

·           Wayne Colliver in ‘Misfit’ 9.504 / 139.48 mph  (a 2-second improvement!!!!!! Wow!!!)

·           Brian Watson in ‘Interest Free’  10.223

·           Craig Greenfield in ‘Grumpy Monkey’ 10.216 / 134.42 (more than 2 seconds improvement!!! Yay!!!)

·           Kev Whiting in ‘Tip Top’   10.726 / 120.92

·           Chris Manning in ‘The Villain’  7.070 @ 201.68 mph

·           Graham Rawlings in ‘Rawspeed’  129.05 mph

Commiserations to:  Rob & Pete Brown who had a small crack in part of the front chassis in ‘Rebel’, Lee Hartnell who did damage to the Powerglide in ‘Metal Mistress’ (the great news was that the engine was okay and sounded strong on his one run, which would have equated to a high 9!), Craig Greenfield sidelined with a couple of issues (hopefully fixable for the next event), Kev Whiting missing the last round due to a fuel system problem, Steve Heaven who had fuel pump damage at the start of the weekend (but the team made mammoth efforts not only just to get to the track in the first place, but to fix the problems and make a couple of runs! Well done guys!), huge commiserations to Skippy and Team Ratchet Strap who suffered comprehensive diff damage!, Andy Stones who broke the chain in his slingshot, Ollie H-Smith who had a bent steering arm, Dan Boone and the gang who had problems in the fuel system. Hope they can all get fixed real soon and be back out for the next event!

Highlights of the weekend were: the fantastic weather, all rounds being run, the brilliant field of Wild Bunch cars and teams and, to say the least, the event even happening in the first place!!!! There was another amazing show by all the Bunch! Well done to everyone!!! J Fantastic to race with you!! J

Huge thanks again to everyone at Santa Pod for all their hard work as always, especially given the current situation!! Well done to all the Wild Bunch teams! You all did yourselves really proud!! Look forward to racing with you all next month!! J

:-)