SPRC Summernationals, Santa Pod Raceway, England

Words and pictures Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
Thanks to TSI Timers (Europe) for access to the timing data

Three weeks after the European championship round at the Main Event it was back to Santa Pod for the SPRC Summernationals. A more subdued affair, but one with domestic sportsman honours on the line and the third round of this season’s MSA Pro Modified championship. Although the latter was subject to the pre-event withdrawal of the entries of Bert Englefield and Ray White, it provided the story we’ve been waiting to write for some time.

MSA Pro Modified

Four years ago Kev Slyfield debuted his show quality Willys Sedan in Pro Modified competition with a considerable amount of the original steel bodywork cloaking the ARRC chassis beneath. Slyfield’s ride has been gradually whittling down the ETs but largely notable for the occasional excursion into the tree and trackside barriers. However, the backend of last season saw Slyfield dip deep into the mid six second zone for the first time and he was firmly back into the mix at the Summernats qualifying second with a 6.556, defeated Roger Moore in the first round of eliminations on a holeshot to earn a semifinal bye, and then defeated Graham Ellis in a tyreshaking battle with a 6.549/212 to Ellis’s slowing 7.535/142.

The performance of the sublime Superbird of Graham Ellis was causing a lot of head scratching in the camp after simply refusing to get close to the 6.07 that he’d carded at the Main Event a couple of weeks previously (low qualifier Andy Robinson produced a string of 6.0s so the track was clearly there). A major revamp of engine hardware kept the team working until 4am overnight, but on race day the Plymouth was still shaking into the sevens, but with first round opponent Wayne Nicholson rattling to a high seven and Robinson breaking a transmission sprag in the semifinals Ellis was able to make it to the runner-up spot despite being someway off the performance levels he would be expecting.