Hi everybody!

Here are the results from the amazing 15^th Annual ‘Dragstalgia’ event at Santa Pod last weekend on 26^th-28^th June. The Wild Bunch had 33 entrants with some teams having multiple drivers. Unfortunately 2 teams who had entered could not make it for one reason and another, and still much missed was ‘Crazy’ Chris Hartnell still waiting for parts for “Backdraft” at the Nostalgias! But stop press … the cam has been posted this week! Hooray!! … (Even more stop press, it has arrived today! Saturday! Yay!) … Chris was there cheering on the teams and enjoying the racing.   

We had one driver making his debut, with Ollie Young standing in for Paul Tarry in “Trigger’s Broom”. We welcomed back Luca & Simona from Italy on their annual trip to Dragstalgia for their 8^th time running with the Wild Bunch!! We are sending very Best Wishes to British Drag Racing Hall of Fame members Ken Cooper and Ian Lloyd who were unable to attend. We miss you both!!

The weather was very hot most of the weekend from Thursday through to Saturday, though thankfully cooled off on Sunday! It stayed dry throughout with just a tiny blip of about 10 minutes while a few drizzle flurries blew over! 9 Wild Bunch teams took part in the RWYB day on Friday. One highlight saw a 3^rd generation racer, James Clifford, make his debut in Dad Andy’s “Snake Eyes” slingshot, and getting into the 8’s on his second ever run in the car, an 8.776 at 151mph!! Very well done James!! In the extra class session on Friday evening, the Wild Bunch round was from 5:15pm and 25 teams took part in that round! A highlight of this round saw Mark Coulsell having another run in the “Ballbreaker” slingshot and releasing Dad Ian’s ashes from the parachute at a stellar 8.158 at 161mph. Race in Peace Ian.

On Saturday we were scheduled for 3 rounds of practice. We had our first round from around 10:55am and 27 teams participated in this practice round.  Our second round started around 2:40pm and again 27 teams ran in this. There was due to be another round for Wild Bunch, but with various downtime during the day, most classes did not get their third run in, before the planned ‘Cracklefest’ took place at around 7:20pm. 14 cars took part altogether and it was a very entertaining show.  There was one nitro slingshot, “Yesterday’s Dreams” and this was amazing as always, running for well over 5 minutes!! Two Gassers took part as well as one Cannonball car, the Flavell’s funny car.  10 Wild Bunch cars dominated the lineup!! Mark Coulsell and team performed an amazing tribute to dearly departed Dad Ian, by doing a push start fireup with brother Louis driving Dad Ian’s truck and pushing Mark in Ian’s old “Adventure before Dementia” historic rear-engined dragster while wearing a fuel mask and Ian’s helmet! He then drove round on to the track and took his place next to son Harley who was firing up the family’s “Ballbreaker” slingshot! Simply magic and very emotional!  The other Wild Bunch cars in the lineup consisted of Dan Wilson in “Antique Toy”, Mark Houghton & Terry Robbins with “Soul Town Shaker”, Kev Osborne with the “Texas Ranger” altered,  Philippa Turton in “Bitchcraft”, James Griffen in “Kiss my Gas”, our great Italian friends Luca & Simona with their beautiful Topolino “Fast Forward” and the Brown brothers, Pete & Rob with both their stack injected “Rebel” and “Wrathchild” slingshots, Cracklefest staples!  Very well done to all the Wild Bunch teams who put on a great show as always in the Cracklefest that had added Cackle!! Then straight afterwards, Steve Heaven performed a spectacular fire burnout with the “Tight Fit” slingshot, fresh from a recent rebuild.

On Sunday, the Wild Bunch were scheduled for 3 competition runs. The early cloud cover was welcome as it was lots cooler! The organisers had to fit in an extra round of Nostalgia Superstock, so we were just a little behind on schedule, but got our first round in at about 10:50am with 25 drivers making passes but with 1 unfortunate red light. At this point, Marie Mills was leading the Bunch with a great .005 off Dial-in in her purple altered. The second round took place from 2:30pm onwards and 26 drivers took part, with one redlighting.  The third and final round started just before 5pm and 20 teams participated, so a really good number still in competition! We were very happy to get all 3 rounds in at this busy event! 

Here are the Top 6 at the event after the 3 rounds of competition, with average difference to Dial-in shown. Many Congratulations to all! :

1^st Place: Harley Coulsell in “Ballbreaker” .0271 (his first ever win with the family car!)

2^nd Place: Marie Mills in the purple altered .0421 (another great Top 4 placing!)

3^rd Place: Rob Brown in “Wrathchild” .0450 (moving up each round!)

4^th Place: Dan Wilson in “Antique Toy” . 0453 (welcome back after the engine breakage!)

5^th Place: Pete Brown in “Rebel” .0568 (also moving up each round!)

6^th Place: Kyle Southworth in “Big Bro” .0617 (his first trophy win in Wild Bunch!)

 

For info, the other finisher to complete all 3 rounds without redlights: 

7^th – James Griffen in “Kiss my Gas” .0657

8^th – James Auld in “Little Fauss” .0687

9^th – Mick Sharpe in “Ridin’ Dirty” .1524

10^th – Gavin Meanley, Damon Taylor & Pete Ayres in “Charles Bang Special” .2539

11^th – Ian Armitage in “Old Guys Rail” .3489

12^th – Kev Osborne in “Texas Ranger” .6921

13^th – Ford Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’  .7316

14^th – Ollie Young in “Trigger’s Broom” .8868

15^th – Joey Childs in “Fortunate Son” 3.8273

Here are the Wild Bunch Spot Prizes that were won. Many Congratulations to all! :

• Closest to Dial-in (in the rounds): Marie Mills in the purple altered .0015 off
• Best Reaction (in the rounds): Allan Schofield in “Scud” altered with an .015
• Quickest E.T. of the event:  Ford Skipp in “Chasin’ Time” 7.311 PB (First ever 7-second pass!! Also WB quickest with a PB 178.52mph on that same pass!)
• Best Appearing Car: Luca Govoni & Simona Mazzali with “Fast Forward” altered (Che bello!)
• Best Appearing Team: Allan Schofield and team with the “Scud” altered (co-ordinating red ’66 crew shirts to celebrate the Santa Pod anniversary and flower power trousers & funky sunglasses!)
• Best Backup Girl: Georgia Rae with “Ridin’ Dirty” (great style with a different fabulous outfit for every run!)
• Best Showmanship: Wayne Colliver and “Digit Man” (superhero with cape!) from “Funky Digit”
• Spirit of Nostalgia: Andy Jackson & Karen James and team with “Hammerman 2” (historic unique sidewinder rear-engined dragster, crew uniforms, fantastic history display boards!)

There was more to come at our Prize Presentation after racing when commentators Colin Theobald and Thomas Cook-Abbott and hardworking organisers Max Frost and James Forster brought some very special awards with them! The following won awards overall for the whole of Dragstalgia!! :

 

• Spirit of Dragstalgia: The Coulsell family and team (for the amazing tribute to Ian in the Cracklefest, running Ian’s historic car will a Marratastic Nostalgia display by push starting the car in the old fireup road and driving it into the lineup, raising £400 for the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Benevolent fund through selling some of Ian’s mementos, and putting on a fantastic show with the “Ballbreaker” all weekend, with Harley taking the event win in Wild Bunch!!!)
• Best Appearing Team overall: Mick Sharpe and team with the “Ridin’ Dirty” altered (stunning teamwear and a brilliant overall performance)
• Best Backup Girl overall: Shannon Cummings from the “Soul Town Shaker” team (crewing for 3 different teams, 6 outfits (one per round!) and a whole lot of enthusiastic effort!! Well done!)

Here is the full 33-car field of brilliant Wild Bunch participants!!!! Plus 10 ran PBs included here! There were some first 13’s, 11’s and 10’s, 8’s and even a first 7!!!!!!! Please do let me know if I have missed any!!! There were so many!! 

 

WB 1	PETE BROWN	REBEL
WB 2	JAMES AULD	LITTLE FAUSS
WB 3	ROB BROWN	WRATHCHILD
WB 4	DAN WILSON	ANTIQUE TOY	9.549 / 128.67
WB 8	HARLEY COULSELL	BALLBREAKER	8.093
WB 12	PHILIPPA TURTON	BITCHCRAFT
WB 19	WAYNE COLLIVER	FUNKY DIGIT
WB 23	LOZ BUTCHER	MEAN STREAK
WB 25	TERRY CLIFFORD	RATCATCHER RESURRECTION
WB 30	KEV OSBORNE	TEXAS RANGER	10.119 / 123.01
WB 50	JAMES GRIFFEN	KISS MY GAS
WB 53	GAVIN MEANLEY & PETE AYRES & DAMON T	CHARLES BANG SPECIAL
WB 64	STEVE HEAVEN	TIGHT FIT
WB 65	FORD SKIPP	CHASIN’ TIME	7.311 / 178.52
WB 75	ANDY JACKSON	HAMMERMAN 2
WB 78	MARK HOUGHTON & TERRY ROBBINS	SOUL TOWN SHAKER	T: 9.267
WB 85	ANDY CLIFFORD	SNAKE EYES	8.327 / 156.33
WB 85	JAMES CLIFFORD	SNAKE EYES	8.776 / 151.16
WB 90	TIM ROY	BOSTON STRAGGLER II
WB 98	ROB WHITE	HAPPY DAZE
WB 104	DAVE SHOEMARK	THE CREWMAN
WB 113	OLLIE YOUNG	TRIGGER’S BROOM	13.710 / 95.30
WB 116	IAN WILD	WILD’SCAT
WB 130	JOEY CHILDS	FORTUNATE SON
WB 164	MARIE MILLS	PURPLE T ALTERED
WB 245	JOHN SHAROD	NEVER SAY NEVER	8.290 / 157.93
WB 297	PETE A (& DAMON TAYLOR) & GAVIN M	CHARLIE BANGER
WB 301	MICK SHARPE	RIDIN’ DIRTY	145.30
WB 358	PETE WHITFIELD	ROWELL RAIL
WB 383	IAN ARMITAGE	OLD GUYS RAIL
WB 450	EMMA BUTCHER	4th DIMENSION	11.948 / 116.10
WB 526	ALLAN SCHOFIELD	SCUD ALTERED
WB 546	KYLE SOUTHWORTH	BIG BRO
WB 668	LUCA GOVONI	FAST FORWARD

 

Highlights of this weekend included: another big field of amazing Wild Bunch cars and fantastic people, a driving debut, 10 teams running PB’s, lots of fabulous backup girls, several crews with smart new team wear, a brilliant show all round, getting all 3 rounds in and a really fun weekend!! Wonderful!!

Just a few of the very many individual team highlights were:

 

• Pete Brown getting in the Top 6 in “Rebel” and running  some great mid 8’s and taking part in the Cracklefest
• James Auld returning in “Little Fauss” with cool period racewear and just narrowly missing out making it into the Top 6
• Rob Brown getting into the Top 3 in “Wrathchild” with the team making a fantastic pit display of old photos of the car’s history in its 60^th year! Also taking part in the Cracklefest
• Dan Wilson back with “Antique Toy” after engine damage at the Nostalgias and running great PB’s quicker and quicker and getting back into the Top 4!
• Harley Coulsell running several PB’s including his first 8.0 and Winning the event! Also taking part in the Cracklefest in “Ballbreaker” alongside Grandad Ian’s rear-engined dragster with Dad Mark driving
• Philippa Turton back in the low 10’s by the end of the weekend in the “Bitchcraft” slingshot coupe after lots of help to overcome gremlins; nice to see Ruaridh & Ian Hart on their crew!
• Wayne Colliver and team having a great weekend and running more 9’s with the “Funky Digit” altered, before the unfortunate engine blowup! Great to see Wayne still smiling!
• Loz & Holly Butcher celebrating their 1^st anniversary! Loz match raced “Mean Streak” with Mum Emma in the “4^th Dimension” slingshot
• Terry Clifford making some more good 10-second passes in the “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot and being the head of the 3 generations of drag racers in the family running this weekend!
• Kev Osborne completely skipping the 12-second bracket when setting and re-setting PBs going from 13-seconds to 11 seconds and then deep into the 10’s with “Texas Ranger”
• James Griffen running some great mid 8’s in the “Kiss my Gas” altered and just missing out on the Top 6 by running a great 8.49 pass!
• Gavin, Pete and Damon, The “Proper Charlies”, having more fun with Dean Butler’s historic “Charles Bang Special”
• Steve & Dave Heaven being back after an extensive rebuild in the “Tight Fit” slingshot, and Steve completing another spectacular fire burnout after the “Cracklefest”! Do look out for the great photos!!
• Ford Skipp beating his optimistic 7.89 Dial-in massively by running straight into the 7.3’s in the “Chasin’ Time” slingshot, Low ET and High Speed of the Bunch! Huge well done to the whole team who went to a massive effort to collect and swap a torque converter on Saturday! Ford backed it up with another 7.3 on the following run, so consistent too!
• Andy Jackson making all three passes on the Sunday and well and truly back in the 11’s with the iconic Sidewinder dragster “Hammerman II”. The team’s pit area looked stunning as usual and was full of historic displays, fittingly receiving the ‘Spirit of Nostalgia’ award
• Terry Robbins & Mark Houghton with the “Soul Town Shaker” with Terry setting another PB, being backed up by the lovely Shannon, who won “Best Backup Girl” overall. A big well done to the boys too as they were successful in getting a chassis tag at the weekend!
• James Clifford becoming the 3^rd generation of the family to drive an 8-second slingshot in his Dad’s “Snake Eyes” dragster during testing on Friday, and in fact all 3 generations drove at Dragstalgia with Andy also running the slingshot and Dad Terry running his “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot, with the pair of them having 3 Father and Son match races!
• Tee Roy returning with the Jag-powered “Boston Straggler 2” slingshot for his first outing of the season, running into the low 9’s with more to come
• Rob White making several good passes in “Happy Daze” and having an enjoyable weekend with the boys!
• Dave Shoemark running a string of six solid 9’s in “The Crewman” slingshot, including two 9.70’s, and being consistent to within a few tenths
• Ollie Young making his driving debut in ‘Trigger’s Broom’ altered and running into the 13’s! Ollie took to driving the car well and gave a very good account of himself! Welcome!
• Ian Wild thoroughly enjoying his weekend with the “Wild’sCat” altered despite a breakage, which we hope can be easily rectified for the next round!
• Joey Childs running regular 10.7’s and 10.8’s in the “Fortunate Son” Topolino and overcoming an issue to bounce back in the later round
• Marie Mills running so close to Dial-in in the first round and winning that Spot Prize and getting another excellent Top 4 place with a 2^nd in her purple altered
• John Sharod running a tribute paint scheme to “The Mob” on his “Never Say Never” altered and running even deeper into the 8’s with an 8.290!
• The “Charlie Banger” team of Pete, Damon and Gavin having an enjoyable Flathead weekend, despite a breakage
• Mick Sharpe and team winning the “Best Appearing Team” overall for Drastalgia with their brilliant and smart crew shirts! Plus Mick running 8’s in the “Ridin’ Dirty” altered!
• Pete Whitfield running several 10’s and getting real close to PB territory in the “Rowell Rail”
• Ian Armitage running a host of 8’s  over 150mph in the “Old Guys Rail” slingshot
• Emma Butcher running her first 11 in the “4^th Dimension” slingshot, just slightly quicker than husband Rich’s recent PB 11 at the Nostalgias! Plus being part of another Mother and Son match race on Friday’s round!
• Allan Schofield having cat like reactions with that .015 in the “Scud” altered! (Could it be all those years in the Sidecar that have sharpened his reactions?!! Fair play!) and what an amazing effort by the whole team with their brilliant ’66 outfits!!
• Kyle Southworth earning his first Wild Bunch trophy, for 6^th place, with his well turned out altered “Big Bro”, part of the family “Daddy Cool” team stable; and we wish crew chief Alan Grimes a very Happy 70^th Birthday this week!
• Fantastic as always to have Luca & Simona come all the way from Italy to race with us for their 8^th time in the Wild Bunch! Such nice people, a stunning metal flake altered and a great Cracklefest appearance! Benvenuto!
• Really good to see long time Wild Bunch member Mick Hillier and wife Lorraine, with Mick making great progress in his recovery from serious health issues. We wish him all the very best for his continued and full return to health.
• Also really good to see “Paranoia” Steve Williams attending the event with Alan Loten’s wife Diane and her children who were there to see Alan’s wishes fulfilled as he took a last ride with Robin Read releasing his ashes from the parachute of the ‘Little car’ on another spectacular run. This was a very fitting tribute to the very much missed Alan, a real gentleman and true friend and longtime Wild Bunch member and supporter. Godspeed Alan. 

These are just some of the many highlights of an amazing weekend! Please do let me know if you had some amazing personal highlights, and I will add them in to the story! 

Commiserations go to Wayne Colliver who unfortunately destroyed his engine in the second round Sunday.  A rod had exited the block in dramatic fashion after the finish line on a good 9.4 second pass, with Wayne being covered in oil, braking and doing a 180 degree spin on the track but thankfully not tagging the wall.  The engine diaper did a good job as all of the debris itself and most of the oil was contained within it, saving Wayne from a worse incident! So glad to see he was okay! Such a shame to see all the damage after he has run so well recently! We wish Wayne and the team all the best for the rebuild and hope to see them back out too! Commiserations also to Ian Wild who was sidelined by a massive manifold pop on one of his runs! Thankfully the damage seems limited so we hope Ian will be back out soon in his fab Jag-powered “Wild’sCat” altered!!  Tim Roy also had some issues with his “Boston Straggler II” Slingshot so hope these are not too serious and can be fixed for his next planned event at the Hot Rod Drags. Best of luck also to Pete, Gavin and Damon for fixing the blower pulley and other damage and hoping to see them soon! Hope Steve and Dave Heaven can fix all the issues with the “Tight Fit” slingshot, after doing so much work to get it back to the track! Hope everyone else with breakages or issues can get them sorted soon and be back for our ‘Summer Showdown’ at the Mopar Euronationals in August!

Everyone in the Wild Bunch really did themselves proud as usual!!  What a brilliant weekend!!  Congratulations to everyone who took part!! 

Also sending Many Congratulations to all of the new Inductees into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame: Tony Betts, Andy Willsheer, Syd McDonald, Phil Baimbridge, Triple R Racing and Motorsport UK! And a Big Congratulations to Santa Pod CEO Keith Bartlett who was awarded the Peter Crane ‘Spirit of 76’ shield for all he has done for the track and the sport in general! All very well deserved! 

We would all like to send our very Best Wishes and Speedy Get Well messages to long time Wild Bunch member, committee member, top sponsor and supporter, WB nitro slingshot driver and current WB ET and Speed record holder and most of all friend Bob Hawkins as he embarks on treatment to overcome serious illness. We send you all of our love and support Bob and hope it is not long before you are back doing what you love! All the best!

Many thanks to our fantastic Trophy Sponsors for Dragstalgia:

• 1^st Place – Team “Ratcatcher Resurrection”
• 2^nd Place – Ian Wild
• 3^rd Place - Team “Ratcatcher Resurrection”
• 4^th Place – Kyle Southworth
• 6^th Place – Loz Butcher
• James Griffen for sponsoring a Spot Prize
• Luca & Simona for sponsoring a Spot Prize

Also, many thanks to Team “Ratcatcher Resurrection” for sponsoring the Prize Money for 1^st place! And big thanks to our Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Sponsor, Roy himself, for providing big prize money to the Top 3 in his Series this season!

Many thanks to all the organisers, starters, track and fire and safety crews, marshals and officials, timing crew, the signing on team, eurodragster.com team and commentators Colin Theobald, Darryl Bradford and Thomas Cook-Abbott for brilliant commentary as always! Thanks to all the photographers, all the media, the hard-working Max Frost and team at Santa Pod, and Keith Bartlett for all he does and all of his support, and especially again to all the hardworking track crew who again went above and beyond to get as many runs in as possible on a hot weekend!! 

Massive thanks to everyone at Santa Pod for all their hard work this weekend to run this incredible event!! Their huge tireless efforts, especially with such hot weather, are so much appreciated!! We had an absolutely brilliant weekend!!

C :-) :-) :-)