Brad Wins Summer Nationals !!
Summer Nationals 22nd – 23rd June 2019
Santa Pod
We arrived at Santa Pod late on Friday night so missed scrutineering so had to be up early Saturday morning to get the car scrutineered before the event started, we woke up to a beautiful day and Brad was looking forward to this race weekend.
With only 3 qualifying runs on Saturday it was imperative to qualify well, qualifying one we dialled a safe 7.67 and ran 7.72, 5 hundredths of a second over dial in left Brad in 9th from 23.
Q2, we dialled 7.68 and ran a 7.677, we broke out by just under 3 thousandths of a second (0.0021) and Brad dropped to 14th place.
Q3 we dialled a 7.64, this was a strategic dial just to improve on the 500th’s position, the plans all went wrong when Brad had a massive slide at half track and scrubbed too much speed off collecting the car, this left Brad in 16th place from 25 drivers, Brad’s worst qualifying position for a very long time, however Brad was confident that once we got into eliminations we would recover this position.
Sunday morning brought cooler temperatures and a dull cloudy sky but the weather did improve throughout the day.
Eliminations 1 Brad faced Peter Walters, Pete has had a torrid time with minor gremlins in his car but he was running well at this meeting, Pete had a slight edge on Brad off the line but Brad was closer to the dial in and Brad took the win by 0.019 of a second.
Eliminations 2 Brad faces Laura Turburville Brad’s friend from the Junior Dragster days, infact Brad and Laura both ran their very first runs together 10 years ago
Brad pulled a 0.01 reaction time to Laura’s 0.06 and had the edge but Laura went too fast and broke out by 0.015, Brad ran 7.69 0n his 7.67 dial and took the win.
Eliminations 3 Brad was racing against Dave Evans, Dave‘s reaction time of 0.111 was too slow to an in form Brad whose 0.02 reaction time gave him the edge and Brad took the quarter final win.
In the semi Final Brad faced Bob Doyle, Bob was better of the line with a 0.022 reaction to Brad’s 0.038 reaction but Brad was much closer to his dial in, 7.67 dial and ran 7.70 and Brad took the win and was now in the final !
In the final Brad was racing against Dave Fulton, Dave was having a good day and was 2nd to Brad in the points championship, if Dave took the win Dave would be just 200 points behind Brad in the championship, if Brad took the win Brad would have a substantial lead of 510 points in the championship which would help Brad in his quest to retain his title again this year!
They both left the line with almost the same reaction time, Dave had the edge with a 0.052 to Brad’s 0.056, Dave ran too quick with a breakout 8.93 on a 8.99 dial, however Brad would have been hard to beat with Brad having a 7.68 time on a 7.67 dial, so Brad took the Summer Nationals win!
Brad is having a great year, his lowest position this year has been the quarter finals so Brad has a healthy points lead in the championship, the points have to be ratified yet but Wayne makes them to be;-
Brad would like to thank Nick and Cristiann for delivering a great race car yet again, Dave Catton for his tow car driving skills and crew help
We now have a summer break until the European Finals meeting at Santa Pod in early September, we cannot wait!
Brad wouldn’t be in this position, without the continued Support of all our sponsors , to whom we are very grateful
