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End-day report

A number of racers turned out for today's Run What You Brung which took place in overcast and very chilly conditions.

A new car to us was Bobby Wallace's immaculate Ford Pop, destined for Pro ET competition and another early contender for Best Appearing Car. Bobby put in a number of runs and clocked a best of 10.8135/125.56. Also first-footing with a new machine was former Supertwin ET racer Martin Brookes who has built a copy of Les Harris' Supertwin Gas bike. Martin looked like he had always been riding the bike and made it into the nines on his fourth run of the day with a 9.9916/132.07. Fellow Supertwin Gas racer Terry Green made a number of passes with a best of 9.5565/139.40.

Sportsman ET was represented by Joe Richards, Craig Wright and Nigel Hale, Craig now in his own car after racing Matthew Seamarks' car last year. Joe ran a best of 16.2592/85.19 in his Renault whilst Craig's best pass of the day in his Honda was 18.2950/61.67 with a best RT of 0.0417. Nigel made three passes with a best of 12.8368/104.45.

Al Cook put in a single pass in Richard Billings' Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator Mustang. The tyres didn't hook up on the cold track so Al had to pedal it off the line, put a bit more power in it as he went down the track and clocked 10.0857/161.92. Rick Johnson made his first pass in the former Brute Force Super Gas Sierra and had the same experience as Cooky, the tyres spinning up at the hit. Rick did most of the track on about helf throttle and clocked 13.5381/103.98. Also in Street Eliminator it was good to see Mats Andersson back on track, clocking 14.1990/71.58 on a checkout pass in his Opel.

Pro ET racer Roy Walker made one pass, the car running very close to the centre line, shut off early to a 10.5749/116.79. Fellow Pro ET racer Gordon Northway's Cavalier is now back in its original Pulse Rate colours and very smart it looks too. Gordon clocked a best of 9.4907/143.43. Deborah Laugher, who is headed for Super Pro ET next weekend, put in a couple of passes. The first was a very nice 8.8746/153.16 which Deborah told us was shut off early whilst the second run was not so nice from Deborah's point of view as after a strong launch the front end started to vibrate so she shut it off. Paul Marston made a couple of checkout passes in the Whoopass Monza, in both cases a strong launch and then shut it off before half track.

One of the undoubted stars of the day was JDS Street racer Rob Blackshaw who put in a number of huge burnouts and screaming nine-second passes with a best ET of 9.2408 seconds and a best speed of 152.09 mph. There were a fair number of spectators here and Rob quickly became a favourite with those in the grandstands.

On two wheels Chris Reed made a couple of passes on his Super Street Bike and clocked a best of 8.8419 at a big 185.80. Danny Cockerill also made a couple of passes on his SSB and his best was 8.7179/158.54. Regular test day attendee Paul Hambidge clocked a best of 8.6628/163.11 whilst fellow SSB racer Nigel Barker clocked 8.5850/163.68 on his bike which has a unique new... well, it's not a paint job: the best way to describe it is that that bike is now the planet's fastest mirror. Reigning UK National 8.50 Bike Champion Mick Winyard made three passes with a best of 8.3801/173.09; Mick told us that that pass was on a low boost setting and that he faces a weekend rolling off the throttle early at the Easter Thunderball. Fellow 8.50 Bike racer Rob field was running in RWYB with "For Sale" on his bike.

Junior Dragster racer Paige Wheeler pulled a stellar 0.0012 Reaction Time, a Personal Best, on her last run of the day. Not to be outdone, reigning UK and NDRS Champion Joe Kellett pulled 0.0006 on only his third-ever run in his new Junior Modified Advanced dragster which only arrived in the country a few days ago. "Perfect light, dialled-in, job done" was dad Pete's comment at the end of the day. Joe's was not the only Perfect Light as Thomas Cook-Abbott in the SPRC Junior Stock Dragster pulled a 0.0008 on his last run of the day. In the other lane in that pairing, Paige's sister Belle Wheeler pulled her best RT of the day of 0.160. Billy Ringer in what was Ross Norris' Body Snatcher Junior Modified Dragster pulled a best RT of 0.3164, first time I can remember seeing Billy in that car so I am guessing a first outing. Brad Jackson's best RT of the day in his Lucas Oil-sponsored Junior Modified Advanced was 0.0325 and Stacey Reed's best RT was 0.1454. Brad and Stacey in particular were running bang on their class index all day.

Apologies to a number of Outlaw Flat Four racers who were running but whose names we didn't get, and checking in with the OFF web site unfortunately proved fruitless.