Sunday,

Sunday morning came and the team were in good spirits, looking forward to a days competition where we could be in with a chance of some points. With the girls ready to go we headed out for the first round of competition, but after stopping for a brief pause the Belle refused to start! This is quite out of character and sent us heading back to the pits to diagnose the problem.

Are you going to behave, or not?

After the ground cable had been re-crimped and soldered, thanks to the loan of a gas soldering iron from Steve and the Black Pig Team, the cable was refitted and we tried to restart the Belle. But still no fire!! The Belle didn't crank at all so we measured the voltage at the starter and all looked fine but we couldn't get her to crank.

The starter motor was stripped and the fault was found in the corroded terminals and commutator on the motor itself. As the third round fast approached we thrashed to get the parts cleaned up and reinstalled.

Mr Potato Head puts on his "angry eyes"....

As we inspected the Belle, it became apparent that the battery ground had almost pulled out of the chassis ground and had to be fixed.

Whilst the work continued Pooky and Penny decided to head out and make friends. They went up into the big control tower and met the nice men at the top, Penny chatted up the nice commentator and they both showed off their team shirts. They then went and met the ladies in the timing ticket booth.

No strangers, only friends you haven't met yet.....

Making a  "Black Pig"s ear of the soldering... ho ho!! thanks for the loan of the iron guys!

You will go to the ball!

Crew member Chris and Helen, refitted the body, reconnected the 'chute and got the girl back in shape whilst Dean refitted the starter motor. Helen got suited up and the Belle cracked back into life in time to join in for the third round of competition. We had dialled in at 12.30 for the day and this first pass hit 12.31 at 77mph. An hour and a half later and the final round saw Helen hit 12.01 at 82mph a new personal best for York, despite our 1/8th mile plans..

As normal the Wild Bunch got together with the rest of the classes for the award ceremony and the champions were applauded. Although we didn't win any performance prizes the stout showing by the team won us the Best Appearing Team trophy... (although we think Penny may have won the deal on this one!!) Once again, a weekend with The Wild Bunch proved to be a outing worth remembering.

Back on the track, against the man in black!