Mid August, and the Wild Bunch were heading to the first UK Truck Event at Santa Pod. The Wild Bunch were part of the drag racing showcase that Santa Pod had organised for the event and it was also going to be a competitive round covering both the Wild Bunch and Real Steel Series.

Arriving on Friday afternoon brought us into a pretty unpleasant scene. The rain was heavy and the pits were awash. But we settled down and setup camp next to Martin Holgate and Paranoia.

Nice....

The weather on Sunday morning looked a bit better and The Wild Bunch found themselves sitting in  the staging lanes next to the 5.5 ton BTRA racing trucks. They were pretty impressive running 14 and 15 second passes at upto 100mph. 

So the first run came and Helen ran a 9.90 at 131mph. Not quite as quick as usual but likely due to slighlty too advance ignition timing after the new dizzy was installed.

Don't worry Dean, P&P will fix it!

"and... carry the one....."...

Hazing the Hoosiers once more....

Saturday came and when we came to warm up, we couldn't get the Belle started. There was no spark at all, tracing back through the ignition system it was either a dodgy coil or the MSD ignition box had gone fizz. With no real option of fixing it, Dean borrowed Darryls (DASH Racing) car and headed off home to fetch the spare HEI dizzy. (The HEI works without the need for the MSD box or a seperate coil.) Once Dean had returned about 6 hours later, it was a short job to get the Belle running again.

The louder you scream, the faster we go!

Click here for a few photos from Christine's Party......

Once the Belle was sorted it was time to get setup for Christine's birthday party. This weekend was a special party for a special age, but that's all I'm going to say..... We had a load of visitors from the Bunch and our other friends at the track and a we had a wonderful time. Thank you for all the cards and presents, you really made it a night to remember.

For the second run Dean re-adjusted the timing and the Belle sped up to a more normal 9.70 at 136mph. This was looking better and we looked forward to the third and final round.

As Helen left the next time the car looked a little sluggish and sure enough we ran a 10.34 but still with a reasonable 133mph. Dean was suspecting he'd overdone the timing, but on returning to the pit's Helen put his mind at rest as she had launched in 2nd gear! So, all was well with the Belle, but any chances of being placed were gone. Happy that we were back up and running, we started the packing up before attending the Wild Bunch prize ceremony.

Claire crunched the numbers and the happy winners went down to the start line to receive their trophies from the event organisers. Congratulations to Roy Wilding and Andy Murphy and the other winners, for their phenomenal consistency.

Next up, the Open Sports Nationals....