John Willard and Paul Stephen have continued their supercharged UK campaign competing at Santa Pod Raceway’s SummerNationals on the weekend.
Pre event Willard was subject to a cool photoshoot by Santa Pod Raceway’s Callum Pudge with UK Outlaw Anglia legend Mick Taylor.
Getting serious on track, Willard was off to a booming start in qualifying, topping the time sheets in Outlaw Anglia with ‘Aussie Outlaw’ and helped set history being part of the quickest side by side Outlaw Anglia run ever – 6.76/204MPH against a 6.98/195MPH – with Colin Millar.
For Stephen, competing in Super Pro ET with his ‘Double Trouble’ altered, the event started on the back foot with their planned test day rained out. The team then missed the first qualifying session due to the car still being in the teching process, but Q2 delivered a 7.2/190MPH check out pass, unfortunately Q3 was also missed because of an electrical issue that was sorted in the end by the before mentioned Colin Millar.
Race day was unfortunately one of those days for the Aussie team. Willard won through the first round with a 6.79/184MPH, and would have had a bye in the semi. However, the blown Hemi would not fire in the pits, the team thrashed to solve the issue to no avail, thinking at the time it was a problem with the magneto, and they missed the call. Post-race it was not a electrical problem but a broken blower drive, though all will be repaired in time for the next event.
Likewise for Stephen, his day didn’t go to plan, red lighting in round one. As it turned out it would have been inconsequential, the altered shook hard and spun off the line anyway, and back in the pits potential damage to a engine bearing was discovered.
The pair are confident of fixing their machines and cleaning out the gremlins to focus on Dragstalgia this weekend at the same venue. It will be a monster event, with 30 Outlaw Anglia’s entered alone to take on Willard.
The supercharged UK tour was made possible with the help of major sponsor Atlantic Oil.
