Hi everybody. Here is the brief news from the ‘NOT the Euro Finals’ at Santa Pod last weekend, 11^th – 13^th September.

The Wild Bunch had a small but fantastic field of 3 teams competing at the event:

• Phil James in ‘Rampage’ (his first outing of the year after a gearbox refresh, running it in)
• Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ (great 8-second passes for most of the weekend)
• Mark Coulsell in ‘Ballbreaker’ (great runs in the lower half of the 8’s all weekend, very consistent)

The weather was lovely and dry throughout and fairly warm during the day. We were able to run in all 7 qualifying rounds over Friday and Saturday, with all 3 cars qualifying easily.  

The Top 3 winners were:

1^st Place: Mark Coulsell in ‘Ballbreaker’ (his 1^st ever MSUK-type win with ‘Ballbreaker’! Well done LFR team!!)

2^nd Place: Phil James in ‘Rampage’ (after continuously improving on each qualifier!)

3^rd Place: Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’ (great racing as always from the Marras well-turned out slingshot!)

It was a great final between Mark and Phil, with Phil getting the holeshot but Mark running much closer to dial and taking the win by .027!

Here are the Spot Prizes that were awarded:-

#1 Qualifier:   Phil James in ‘Rampage’ .015 off (this came in the 7^th and final qualifier!!)

Best Appearing Car:  Phil James in ‘Rampage’

Highlights of the weekend were the great weather, the small but excellent field of Wild Bunch, the very well-run event taking place safely, and the usual great spirit and camaraderie amongst all the Bunch! Commiserations to Pete and Rob Brown, as on the Semi-final run, something let go in the dizzy, causing the car to run slower. The lads are straight on the case so are sure to bounce back next weekend!!

Well done also to young Ada Cassisi on only her second event in the LFR team Junior Dragster at age 8, the car now named ‘Cherry Bomb’! Ada and the team had to contend with numerous issues with the clutch and Ada did a brilliant job under the circumstances! She was very professional! Here’s hoping the team can solve the problems and Ada gets a great event at the ‘National Finals’ in a couple of weeks’ time! Best of luck Ada!  Thanks for helping present our trophies in a socially distanced way!! 

Huge thanks to all the Santa Pod marshals and officials, track and safety crews, Keith Bartlett for his commitment to running a great event, and all of the organisers. They all always work hard but have put in so much extra effort to adhere to the current conditions and run a great and safe event!! Thanks also to Simon Groves and co for another excellent lot of coverage on eurodragster.com! Well done to all of the Wild Bunch on another great show, which was small but brilliant!! All 3 teams did themselves proud and were, as always, fantastic ambassadors for the Wild Bunch!!