and a V8 engine in the garage…

I wonder if these are signs from the gods,
or presents from the fairies?

maybe some Special Magic will come and make it into a race car for us…
so we can GO DRAG RACING!!!!!!!

April 2nd – 5th (Fri-Mon) EASTER THUNDERBALL (MSA) SANTA POD (RS 1)

May 1st – 3rd (Sat-Mon) SPRING SPEED FESTIVAL (MSA) Shakespeare County (RS 2, SC 1)

May 15th & 16th Spring Nationals RWYB Shakespeare County (WB 1, RS 3)

May 29th – 31st Yanks American (3-day) RWYB Shakespeare County (WB 2, RS 4)

June 19th & 20th SUMMER NATIONALS (MSA) SANTA POD (RS 5, RW 1)

June 26th & 27th NOSTALGIA NATIONALS Shakespeare County (WB 3, RS 6, RW 2)

July 10th & 11th MINI SHOWDOWN Weekend Shakespeare County (WB 4, RS 7)

August 7th & 8th UK NORTHERN Nationals YORK DRAGWAY (WB 5, RS
(still to be confirmed after their AGM on Feb 27th, but we will advise asap if there is any change) (This will be the 10th year the Wild Bunch has raced at York!)

Aug 28th -30th(Sat-Mon) OPEN SPORT NATIONALS (MSA) Shakespeare County (RS 9, RW 3, SC2)

Sept 25th & 26th NATIONAL FINALS (MSA) SANTA POD (WB 6, RS 10)

We’d already decided to retire the car at this one…I bought the first bits for it at the Hor Rod Drags in 2003 - The engine was rescued from a Jensen Interceptor that had been sitting in a barn covered in Pigshit , there was even umskau in the bores !! It was a bit of a mess inside and out – so to have restored it and competed with it for the last six years has been a real joy – and with a re-build it would still run 11′s all day long … BUT …

Since day 1 it has been the case that as soon as all the team drivers were ready to go faster then we would upgrade the engine – and that time has now come There’s a beautiful in-house competition going on here with us all determined to go quicker than each other, and this season it’s Ashleigh that has the record (11.20 @ 124mph)  - We’ve all arrived back at the pits having heard all the valves bouncing around in the engine so ….Time for a new motor

So…earlier this year I had a little chat with Uncle Roy (Wilding) and took his advice … and throughout the summer I’ve been quietly collecting bits and ideas for a fresh look for the car and team

We’ll definately be racing with the Wild Bunch again in 2010 if they’ll have us  and we may even go and have a play in a Vw class too with racecar projectNo2 – the Vw pro racers are a great bunch and it’s a really competitive class - of course a lot depends on ‘budget’ and the WB racing takes priority cos they’re  ’the roots’  :-)

A sponsor or two would definately help things along but hopefully our ‘team family’ attitude will ensure that we can continue for a while yet … we’ll continue to support the Multiple Sclerosis Trust and promote their services at every opportunity..

Whatever, you can be sure that as long as there’s drag racing there’ll be fReQ’s around, ready to race you, crew you or just make you smile .

<<< freqmikey bimbles off stage left, to return to the laboratory and  polish more components – ahh, winter re-builds  >>>

Holly is looking for that elusive 14second pass – only a couple of thousandths to shave off – go for it Holl!!

fReQMikey is piloting his beloved LandRover as the tow-vehicle – could be very useful for dragging things out of the mud if the weather gets bad

WOOHAA!

we were THERE and got wet and dried out and got wet and dried out…

there were LOTS of Minis…

between the rain and the Minis Ashleigh put in a few good passes – she’s developing a *storming* burn-out style!!
and her ‘drive’ is getting more and more confident with every run

the shift into 3rd gear is apparently nice and solid now (well done fReQ Mikey!)
the mods to the starter-mounting have done the trick too it seems – all tickety-boo there (“well done” again!)

sadly the fReQs had to miss out on the last run due to an annoying little ‘weep’ from the rocker cover – BUGGER!
it was a soppy little smear from under the gasket but it wouldn’t respond to ‘persuasion’ (despite the combined efforts of Andy, Hula-P, Ben and Mike) so ‘safety first’ meant Ash couldn’t get out there again
buggerbuggerbugger!

now we’re all BACK and the jobs are already stacking up to be ready for the next Wild Bunch championship round at York 1+2 August – Hula-P will ‘take the controls’

before that there will be a bit of fReQ-crewing for Holly Baldwin in her Beetle ‘Whirlygig’ at BugJam (Go Holly! shave off those thousandths and get into the 14s!!)

there should be a bunch of photos up soon

Lorna

ps we failed completely to get-it-together for the ‘fancy dress’ – oooops – but Ben’s ‘new recipe’ race biscuits were a huge success! s’pose you can’t have everything <shrug>

We’re all really happy with the way this season is going for us so far…some solid runs and a good ‘team’ feeling with everyone doing their bit and the MS Trust logo being seen regularly.

We’ll be racing at the Nostalgia Nationals (June 27&28), with fReQmikey behind the wheel again.

The current in-team positions are: Ashleigh = fastest et, @ 11.27 …
Andy = Fastest reactions @ .03
Mikey = Oldest driver in the team haha… but look out, I’m not gonna let you pesky kids take it away from me that easily !!:-)

No major changes planned for the racecar for the Nostalgia’s though we’re seriously considering getting rid of the on-board battery and the entire cooling system to save some weight and maybe get those front wheels up …whatever all the team drivers will be trying to lose those final tenths and run a 10sec pass ! – Remember, the engine is 44 yrs old and still basicly in stock tune – still has some original bits !! woo-ha, lets work it hard

Whatever- we’ll be out there for the Wild Bunch races all season – continuing to promote the MS Trust and having loadza fun all the way Hope to see you all at the track

everybody CELEBRATE!!!!!