SUMMER NATIONALS SUCCESS

Paul Marston Racing had a most productive and successful outing at the SPRC Summernats. Arriving early on Thursday evening to join the queue outside the main gate was a good move and set us for the weekend. But firstly everyone at Paul Marston Racing would like to express their thanks and gratitude to all the Santa Pod track crew who never gave up and got the job done. The weather has certainly played its part this season and without the hard work and dedication of Darren Prentice, Ian Marshall, John Cross, startline crew, fire crew, the list goes on, the event would not have happened. At Paul Marston Racing, fielding five entries for the Summer Nationals, there was plenty to celebrate. Firstly Gary Springford had another outing in the Hulk Shogun, ably supported by Dave Catton wearing an Incredible Hulk fancy dress costume. This was quite a revelation as we always had DC penciled in as a quiet retiring, responsible type, after all he is a Senior Airline Pilot, Manchester based. Obviously painting himself in green paint has a strange effect, similar to that of the Hulk! On seeing a Hulk sitting in Hulk Shogun Gary Springford DRE Proprietor was for once speechless, we are still not sure if it was because Dave Catton was dressed like the Hulk or the fact that he had hair!. Gary capped his weekend with a still untested racecar by going two rounds in Pro ET. Steve Bolton had one of those weekends, with a new transbrake button fitted to his Plymouth Scamp. A small mistake with the button gave Steve a red light in the first round, this did nothing to help his points tally in Pro ET, as prior to the Summernats, Steve was leading the National Championship. We will just have to wait and see how bad the damage is. Steve, ever the sportsman took it on the chin and is looking forward to the next event. Tethys in the Ugly Stick Dragster fared about the same, electing to run just one class at the Summer Nationals, the Dragster was awesome, but after an unusually slow reaction time, Tethys day was done in the first round of Super Comp. Disappointing but Super Class racing in the UK has evolved and become so competitive that a small mistake on the start often leads to an unrecoverable position, better luck next time my friend. Mick Howling, driving Grumpys Dodge enjoyed success double classing in both Super Gas and Pro ET. In Super Gas Mick went two rounds, taking the win in round one against Steve Wells. Bowing out in the second to a resurgent Brendan Clancy, in a classic Super Gas doorslammer matchup. Mick Howling went even further in Pro ET taking out Darren Hulkes in his beautiful Blown Camaro in round one, Carl Burton in the English Rose Sierra in round two. Finally falling in the third round to a peculiar startline occurrence that rewarded Mick Howling with a cherry and his day was done. Paul Marston, standing in for usual Whoopass Monza driver Dave Catton, who was busy Hulking It Up. Paul Marston, again same as Mick Howling double classed in both Pro ET and Super Gas. When asked Paul said ‘One shot qualifying actually suited me as I have not driven the Whoopass Monza for nearly a year and not competed in Super Gas for nearly eight years, it made it a drivers race in both classes. Super Gas was great fun, it’s a real tough class, always has been, I got a bit lucky and got to the semi finals with the Whoopass Monza finally behaving itself and starting to show its true potential. I was more than happy with the performance of the Monza, we now have a firm handle on it, the 60fts were comparable with Grumpys Dodge for consistency. In Pro I went to the Quarter Finals and succumbed to one of those nasty red lights, every racer hates them. This one was entirely my fault I was just a little too keen, shame really as I thought I had my best chance in Pro, the one shot qualifying worked against me in this case. It’s a very fast reacting car and I just had not had time to pick my spot on the tree, on my qualifier the motor stumbled going on the chip so my reaction was 1.2 seconds! In the first two rounds of elimination in Pro my lights were way slow, I knew I had to tighten up, so I took a shot and it was too much. But with the kind of success we had over the weekend I really could not complain. So now it’s the Summer break, all efforts are now on the Calibra in preparation for Bug Jam and its entry into The Super Modified Wars. It’s currently in the Drag Race Engineering workshops ready for its upgrades and tagging for Super Modified. As ever a big thanks to all the hard working Paul Marston Racing Crew, without you guys it simply could not work, especially Lizz McCarthy who crewed up till she had to leave for her flight to Ireland Saturday afternoon and Drag Race School driver in training Simon who was on video camera duties all weekend. Special thanks to Tony Morris over in Orlando Florida for Tuning and settings advice over the weekend, especially the help he has given Tethys with the Dragster setup. Sponsors Drag Race Engineering, CTM Performance & Machine, Black Box, London Road Tyres, JW Performance, BLP and all the others, plus all the fans that stopped by to say hi over the weekend.