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Winton
Festival of Speed August
13th & 14 - Report by Gary Pearce
NEW
Morgan Park Historics, 30-31 July 2011 - photo
report by Ian Welsh
HSRCA Historic Motor Racing, Eastern Creek,
June 25th & 26th 2011 - photo report by Russell Windebank
Lakeside’s Golden Anniversary
ARDC Sports Car Carnival at Eastern Creek May
28/29 2011
Eastern Creek, Festival of Sporting Cars,
Easter 2011 - Pictorial Report by Riccardo Benvenuti
Mallala, South Australia All Historic Meeting,
Easter 2011
Mallala Historics Easter 2011, Paddock Report
Philip Island Historics - 18th to 20th March -
A Pantera Perspective
Phillip Island Historics, 18th to 20th March -
pictorial report by Ian Welsh
Wakefield Park - Festival of Sporting Cars -
February 12th & 13th
Wakefield Park - HSRCA - February 26th & 27th
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Winton Festival of Speed August 13th & 14 - Report by Gary
Pearce, photos by Martin Creely.
Pics
generously provided by Martin Creely whose
photos are available from his
website
or by
contacting him by
email. |
Winton
Festival of Speed August 13th & 14 was enjoyed
by many Group S members (23
entered)
with many performing well throughout the
week-end. (see Goldfield Cup point scores)
Notable stars were Perry Spiridis Pantera SCc
who was a joy to watch all day up until the last
race, Russell Stanford 240Z Group SCb on the
tail of the Porsches all week end, Michael Byrne
Lotus Seven Group SCa second outright in the
last race, Ian Ross Shelby 350 Group SBd who
performed well all day before succumbing to an
unfortunate off in the last race.
Alex Webster Porsche Group SBc was hard to beat
in under 2000cc class, Andre Breit Fairlady
Group SBb a brilliant drive with not too much
power, Don Bartley Sprite Group SBa first in
class and an unbelievable drive, Peter Jackson
Healey 3000 Group SAc who was mixing it with
Mustangs and Porsches of much later design.
For my bit with the Alfa Romeo clan it was a joy
to be on the track with some of the legends of
the game and a good showing of 12 Alfas on the
track throughout the week-end. Thanks to the
VHRR for a well run event, with a few new
innovations like the 20 lapper for Group N and
the Top Ten Shoot out which was a fantastic
spectacle.
Gary Pearce |
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Morgan Park Historics, July 30th & 31st, photo report by Ian
Welsh |
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Pics
generously provided by Ian Welsh whose
photos are available from Ian via his
website or by
contacting him by
email.
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Lakeside’s Golden
Anniversary
Story by Colin Wilson-Brown, |
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Lakeside, just north of Brisbane,
celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Opening in 1961, Lakeside has a wonderful history including
the Australian GP in 1966 and 1969, the legendary Tasman
series and the Australian Touring Car Championship.
  In
1999 V8 Supercars moved to the new Queensland Raceway and 2
years later, Lakeside closed. Then began a 6 year battle to
re-open the circuit. There were some who wanted the site
developed – a fate that has befallen Amaroo and Oran Park.
Surprisingly, the far-sighted Pine Rivers Shire Council
purchased the racetrack from the receivers and looked for a
buyer who would continue its recreational use. In November
2007, after many lawyers and obstructive residents, a 30
year lease was granted to Queensland Raceways. Restoring the
track required an enormous amount of work – much of it by
volunteers. To cut a long story short it re-opened in July
2009 with an AASA licence, as the requirements for a CAMS
licence were too onerous.
  The
facilities are now good and the track surface and safety
provisions are better than I recall from my one previous
visit in 1998. It is a great circuit to race on – hilly,
fairly short at 2.4 kms, but very fast with some demanding
variable camber corners, a bumpy kink in the main straight,
a back straight that has blind corners but still needs to be
taken flat, and a full throttle downhill right leading onto
the main straight, which has to be taken with pinpoint
precision. Get it wrong, almost anywhere, and you have badly
bent metal (as several drivers can testify) because there
are few run-off areas. But I loved it. The closest
comparison would be Amaroo for those of us lucky enough to
have raced there.
  Chairman
of Queensland Raceways, John Tetley and his charming wife,
Amanda, run the circuit and the meetings in a very efficient
but relaxed and friendly manner. John’s drivers briefing was
one of the best I have attended.
To celebrate the Golden Anniversary is
running four race meetings in 2011, but I am afraid you have
missed the Festival of Sports Cars, which was a great
meeting.
You can learn more about Lakeside at
http://www.queenslandraceway.com.au/
See if you can get there next year.
Colin Wilson-Brown |
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HSRCA Historic Motor Racing, Eastern Creek, June 25th & 26th
2011 - photo report by Russell Windebank |
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ARDC Sports Car Carnival at Eastern Creek May 28/29 2011
by Colin Wilson-Brown |
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Despite predictions of showers we had a
dry weekend and the ARDC was very happy with a field of 29
Group S cars, considering the clash with Winton, where Group
S also fielded 29 starters.
I think we put on some great
entertainment with close racing throughout the field. In the
trophy race on Sunday, spectators (of which I was one due to
clutch failure on Saturday) were treated to a great battle
for the lead between the Porsches of Stephen Borness and Bob
Fraser, with the lead changing place several times before
Stephen took home the trophy. Not far behind there was
another great battle between the Porsches of David Withers,
Peter Boylan and Bill Pye. Chris Gray was first non Porsche
in his trusty Datto 240Z and behind him Sa trophy winner
Peter Jackson’s immaculate Austin Healey kept the TR6s of
Geoff Byrne and Tony Dains at bay, Geoff winning the Sb
trophy, while Tony lowered the ARDC Sb lap record to 1.51.7.
Brian Duffy (Austin Healey) and David Harris (Alfa) rounded
out the top 10, with no more than the length of a tow rope
separating them all race.
As usual it was the Porsche 911s that
dominated the weekend with Stephen Borness qualifying on
pole and winning all three races. Fraser, Pye and Withers
all had podium finishes as did Peter Jackson, whose Group Sa
Healey, despite giving away 20 years to the Porsches,
finished 3rd in the 2nd race with a
fastest lap of 1.51.88, taking nearly two seconds off the
lap record he set last year.
Thanks to Peter Jackson for coming up
from Victoria and to Paul Young and Manuel Pena who bought
their Alfa 105s down from the sunshine coast.
Some of us had very busy weekends, as
Stephen Borness ran his car in Production Sports Cars,
finishing a creditable 16th out of 35 in the one
hour race, especially considering his is a historic car,
while the winning car, also a Porsche was a 997 GT3. Peter
Boylan also ran his GT3 in the one hour race finishing 7th.
The Group S Alfas also ran in the All Alfa Romeo races,
which was more than some of our cars could cope with. Ah
well….there’s the HSRCA meeting at Eastern Creek in a
month’s time.
Colin Wilson-Brown |
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Eastern Creek, Festival of Sporting Cars, Easter 2011 -
Pictorial Report by Riccardo Benvenuti |
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Here is a selection of photographs
from the weekend courtesy
of Riccardo Benvenuiti. Many thanks to Riccardo for generously providing these photos.
Photos from the event are available from Riccardo via his
website or by
contacting him by
email.
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Mallala, South Australia All Historic Meeting, Easter 2011
By Phil Baskett |
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The Easter Historic meeting at Mallala in
2011 saw the biggest Group S field assembled for a number of
years, 14 competitors had to give forward notice to the
Easter Bunny on where to deliver their chocolate eggs this
year. 14 is close to double from the past few years, which
enabled us to have our own field and unlike previous years
where Group S usually accompany the Group N fields.
Friday –
Free Practice
Most took up the opportunity to have a
run on Friday, for me it had been 5 years since I had been
to Mallala so it was a case of reacquainting myself with the
circuit (and quickly remembering how hard it is on
brakes!). Unfortunately for Laurie Burton in his
beautifully presented TVR, Friday was as far as the TVR
would make it after discovering the majority of the 289’s
coolant in the sump, reducing the field to 13. Rohan Little
in the 2.7 Porsche turned up late on Friday and was
lamenting not knowing about Friday practice as he had not
been to Mallala before.....the rest of the field rubbed
their hands together!
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Some of the
Group S drivers - pic courtesy of Kent Brown |
Qualifying
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Group S were first on track and we all quickly
settled down and everyone was putting down some
impressive times with the cool air and warm sun on
the track. Tony Norris’ Alfa 1750 had discovered
steam coming out of #1 plug which put paid to the
rest of his weekend, the field now down to 12. In
the whirlwind that is Troy Ryan, 3 out of the four
warm up spark plugs were changed to the race plugs,
the sole warm up plug left destroyed itself and took
out an exhaust valve with it, although Troy was able
to take to the line with his MGB GTV8 that Guy Sierp
was to compete in, it meant the injured Healey
Sprite took the field down to 11.
Max Pegram and his SAa Bugeye
Sprite decided he would be better suited with Groups
K&L and changed accordingly (the Group S field
balanced out with the inclusion of a Group N mini).
Rohan Little having never seen the circuit before
put in a monumental effort by sticking the Porsche
on pole, with Geoff Williams in the Morgan and Peter
Jackson in the big Healey within a second of Rohan’s
time. |
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Race 1 start - pic courtesy of
John Moss, South Australia |
Racing
Race 1 set the scene for the rest of the
weekend with Rohan winning the sprint to the first corner
closely followed by Geoff and as the race progressed the
power of the V8 Morgan enabled Geoff to slip by the Porsche
and take the win. A little further back Troy in the MGV8
had a spin at turn one forcing Kent Brown in his MGB and
myself to take evasive action, Kent heading left and I went
right, Troy speared back across the track narrowly missing
my Alfetta! Not long after that I out braked myself at the
Northern hairpin, dropping me to the rear of the field!
The first three positions for race one
were Geoff Williams, Rohan Little, Peter Jackson, which
remained unchanged for the balance of the weekend. But
these results belied the close racing and good dicing
between them that I could see from my seat. I managed to
work my way up to 7th and 6th in the
following races, and 6th is where I stayed for
all 3 Sunday races.
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Geoff Byrne in his rapid TR6 had starter motor
troubles throughout the weekend but managed to
get through with a push start, setting some
consistent (& quick) times which saw him greet
the chequer in either 4th or 5th.
Rod Vogt in his newly acquired MGB (I won’t
mention it is the ex-Brett Morse car Rod) got
faster every time it left the garage. Ric
Forster (Midget) popped a rear wheel cylinder
which was damaged beyond a quick repair, but
managed to have it repaired and greet the
starter every race.
The Easter Bunny gave Troy a replacement valve
and by 7.30am Sunday morning the Healey Sprite
was alive and well again, this also meant the
Guy managed to get a drive in the three Sunday
races. I learned over the course of the weekend
that Dennis Best in the Lenham LeMans is a demon
on the brakes, looming large in my mirror every
lap at the three big braking corners, all this
took its toll though as Dennis discovered that
he had worn out a set of rear brake shoes to the
extent that one of the linings separated from
the shoe itself. |
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Pic courtesy
Andrew Sefton, Grindstone Creative |
It seems that Troy’s spares were depleted
somewhat over the course of the weekend as he supplied Ric
Forster with a wheel cylinder, Dennis Best with rear brake
shoes and Max Pegram with an axle. Half the field was back
on track thanks to Troy!
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Speaking of Troy, he was the SCCSA’s
chief organiser for this year’s Mallala Historics, at the
presentations afterwards he was described by another member
of the organising committee as 'a breath of fresh air'. His
approach was an entrepreneurial one as Mallala Historics
seemed to be slowly dying, Troy reduced the regularity entry
fee by half and instantly got 3 times the amount of entry's,
he convinced the circuit owner to allow significant display
cars on his lawn area as a static display, fought for
camping for interstaters on the Thursday and Sunday nights
and introduced a reduced garage rate for interstate
competitors.....all common sense stuff, and the results are
there to see, it is a fantastic event that has a great
atmosphere and will grow. It should be on everyone’s ‘must
do’ list. Like Geoff Williams said while accepting his
trophy on Sunday night "Troy's organising style is like his
driving style, usually out of control yet effective". So
from all of the Group S competitors, well done Troy, it was
a cracking event and I for one will be returning.
Phil Baskett |
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Troy Ryan's
little red rocket & blue V8 - pic courtesy of Kent
Brown |
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Mallala
Historics Paddock Report, Easter 2011
By Kent Brown |
The racing was clean, at times close and above all enjoyable
at the annual Mallala Historic Easter race meeting.
Fourteen cars were entered, a record for Mallala in Group S,
but unfortunately only 12 cars made it to the grid for race
1.
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During practice on Good Friday Laurie Burton from
the ACT managed to have the contents of his cooling
system leave the radiator and take up a new home in
the sump along with the slippery stuff. When I last
spoke to Laurie he thought that there was a crack in
one of the heads on his 289 in the TVR. So it was
onto the trailer early. Tony Norris in his Alfa 105
from Melbourne had sufficient steam coming out of a
spark plug hole to cook the vegetables for the Royal
wedding so he too didn’t make Saturday. Very
disappointing for these guys who had travelled so
far. But that’s racing as they say. Been there,
done that!
All other cars got through to finish Sunday but not
without some anxious moments. If I have the record
correct the list of litanies looks like this:
Ric Forster (Midget) popped a rear wheel cylinder
which was damaged beyond a quick repair – Troy Ryan
supplied a replacement.
Max Pegram (Sprite) had a mystery with condensation
getting into the distributor and causing a misfire.
There was a small leak in the water pump gasket and
over time water had got into the distributor and
with nowhere to go it had formed a small pool in the
bottom of the casting. So when the engine got hot
the water vaporised and shorted on the terminals
inside the cap. The problem was solved by upending
the distributor and letting the water run out! Max
also broke an axle. Troy lent him one out of the
Midget and then supplied a replacement I believe.
Troy (one of the principal organisers of the
meeting) was distracted when replacing his warm up
spark plugs with the race version and only replaced
three. The fourth failed (disintegrated) and took
out a couple of pieces of the exhaust valve.
Luckily Troy’s engine man had a spare do the Midget
was back in action on Sunday after a midnight
delivery, rebuild and fire-up at 7.30am on Sunday
morning.
Tory’s MGB GTV8 which was driven by Troy himself on
Saturday while the midget was in hospital and then
Guy Sierp on Sunday broke a leaf in the offside rear
spring. That explained the copious amounts of tyre
smoke coming off the right hand rear tyre as it
rubbed on the guard particularly on the fast kink in
the back straight. I know, I was trying to pass the
V8 at the time!
Denis Best in the quick Lenham Le Mans wore out a
set of rear brake shoes to the extent that one of
the linings separated from the shoe itself. Troy
came to the party with a couple of spares so Denis
could make the last race.
And finally Geoff Byrne in the TR6 had a starter
motor failure when the main input terminal separated
from the casing. A push start for each race solved
that one and thanks must go to Laurie Burton’s crew
for their unstinting support.
Laurie and Denis also got me out of strife by
supplying some Avgas. The circuit supply ran out on
Sunday morning just as I was going to fill up my
drums. I actually had enough to get through the
last race but unless I had a top-up Collingrove
Hillclimb on Easter Monday would not have been a
goer. The Hillclimb was a very pleasant and relaxed
day with Troy taking out the Group S honours. My
son, Ian, co-drove the MG in the Regularity
hillclimb and had a ball.
I think Peter Jackson (Healey 3000), Rod Vogt (MGB –
the ex Brett Morse, Ken Price car), Rohan Little
(Porsche), Geoff Williams (Morgan V8), Phil Baskett
(Alfa) and myself had pretty much a trouble-free
run.
Well, my trip wasn’t entirely trouble free. I blew
a tyre on the single axle trailer between Barmera
and Waikerie on the way over. I had a spare but
have you ever tried to get a replacement tyre (and
have it fitted and balanced) in Adelaide over
Easter!! And then of course I cleaned up a large
kangaroo at night on the way home half way between
Mildura and Euston. The Sportwagon has quite a bit
of panel damage but Virginia and I were unhurt, the
car drivable and nothing moved either in the car or
trailer during my attempt to avoid Skippy, or at
least one of his kin, who crossed immediately in
front of my bows having bounded out of thick bushes
close to the road.
I for one will be back at Mallala next year.
Kent Brown
MGB No.51 |
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Philip Island Historics - 18th to 20th March - A Pantera
Perspective
By Ross Jackson |
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Phillip Island Historics, 18th to 20th March - pictorial
report by Ian Welsh |
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Here is a selection of photographs
from the weekend courtesy
of Ian Welsh. Many thanks to Ian for generously providing these photos.
Photos from the event are available from Ianvia his
website or by
contacting him by
email.
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See Group Sb racing at FOSC Wakefield Park on YouTube
courtesy of Alex Webster. |
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Wakefield Park - Festival of Sporting Cars - February 12th &
13th
pics courtesy of Lyn & Dennis Kelleher |
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The 2011 racing season opened at Wakefield
Park with the FoSC Summer Meeting on February12/13. Summer
at Goulburn usually means hot. However we were blessed with
mild and mostly dry.
There were 20 Sa and Sb cars running
together and 11 Sc cars racing separately. We were first out
on Saturday and the track was wet in places from overnight
rain, but it soon dried despite threatening clouds. By the
start of the race conditions were good and they stayed that
way all weekend.
Laurie
Burton seems to have the TVR Tuscan sorted out and was
rewarded with 4 wins. Behind him battle raged all weekend
with Geoff Pike (happily back on song after heart surgery)
mostly leading fellow MGB racers, Bret McManus and Laurie
Sellers, my Alfa Romeo and Alex Webster's Porsche 911. This
was Alex's first visit up from Victoria and he did well to
mix it with frequent Wakefield racers. Geoff Pike led the
chase behind the TVR in every race, but he was plagued by
fuel problems that set in around lap 6 and as we had 10 lap
races, he was caught by the rest of us, allowing Sellers,
McManus and myself to get on the podium.
To provide some variety the 4th race saw
the over 2 litre cars race with Sc, while the two Alfetta
GTVs of Robert Berson and Colin Connaughton joined Sa/Sb. I
am not clear why the Sb Porsche 911s of Alex Webster and
Andrew Begg were also moved in with the higher capacity
group. My Alfa managed to beat the three MGBs home in this
race and I also lowered my PB. Don Bartley's Sprite, which
was never far behind all weekend, was a deserved 3rd, after
a spin from Laurie Sellers and more fuel problems for Geoff
Pike. Bret McManus was his usual competitive self, but a bit
off his best pace as he wasn't confident with his new
bargain priced Toyo Tyres.
Sc was dominated all weekend by Porsches.
No one could catch Geoff Morgan, although David Withers gave
chase and recorded a new PB in 1.08.8. Behind them Bryan
Taylor and Peter Boylan (in the ex-Terry Lawlor 911)
provided good entertainment, with Bryan squeezing through at
the 'fishhook' only to lose out coming on to the straight,
as he had difficulty engaging 3rd gear. Chris Gray (Datsun
240Z) led the rest with Mark Cassells similar car battling
with the Alfas of Connaughton and Berson.
The Group S drivers are to be congratulated
as there were no accidents and no red flags. There were some
mechanical problems. Kent Brown spun in the first race only
to discover his feet sitting in a sludgy mess of oil and
water, after a piston liner cracked and there were several
other DNFs, but to my knowledge, nothing serious.
There were two off track issues that
warrant mention.
The first was that, as this was an AASA
meeting, CAMS had advised that log-books could not be signed
by the scrutineers. Consequently targeted scrutiny didn’t
apply and all cars were superficially inspected. This issue
begs more questions than I have answers for, but I shall
certainly be raising it at the forthcoming CAMS Historic
Commission meeting on 11th March.
The second off-track issue occurred when
two of our Porsche fraternity came to the dummy grid after
qualifying was under way, to be told they couldn’t practice
(ergo…no practice, no racing). The issue was resolved after
some heated words had been exchanged. Nevertheless we should
all be forewarned. If you arrive late for qualifying you
risk exclusion from the meeting.
Colin Wilson-Brown
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Wakefield Park - HSRCA - February 26th & 27th
pics courtesy of Lyn & Dennis Kelleher |
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Two weeks later Group S was back to
Wakefield for the HSRCA meeting and the weather was neither
wet nor hot – indeed just right. Two race meetings in two
weeks was too much for many but congratulations to those who
ran both.
I had planned to run but a badly worn
tailshaft and broken valve spring put the Alfa in hospital
until Phillip Island. However I drove down to watch the
races on Saturday.
There was a strong turnout from Sa with 9
cars racing with J,K,L. 15 Sc cars turned out to race with
only 6 Sb cars and Colin Dodds’ Group T Midget (on slicks).
The SA/JKL races were very entertaining to
watch thanks to the variety of cars. Andrew Gibson put his
TR3 on pole and won the first race comfortably from Brian
Duffy (Austin Healey), who had a race long duel with the
Jewitt Holden. It was good to see the ex David Davies (for
those of us with long memories) MGA being well driven to 3rd
in Sa by David Godwin, down from Queensland.
I didn’t see the second race Sa because I
had to head back to Sydney but Andrew Gibson must have had
an off on lap 5, allowing Brian Duffy to have a convincing
win.
As usual, the Porsche 911s led the way in
Sb/Sc. Geoff Morgan won the first race pretty easily from
Peter Boyden. Stan Adler pipped Russell Stanford (Datto
240Z) for 3rd after the Datto had spun and
clipped the tail of Bryan Taylor’s 911. Geoff Byrne’s TR6
was the first Sb car home after Bret McManus’s MGB came to a
halt.
Race 2 provided more entertainment as
Morgan fluffed the start and Boyden led for 3 laps. Geoff
was soon back to his customary position at the front, with
the Datsuns of Stanford and Chris Gray finishing 3rd
and 4th. Bryan Taylor and Bret McManus provided
entertainment carving their way through the field from the
back of the grid, Bryan finishing 5th, while Tony
Dains (TR6) was 1st in Sb.
For Sunday’s results you’ll have to read
someone else’s report – or Natsoft.
Colin Wilson-Brown
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As
usual, I had entered my beloved yellow 1972 Pantera,
this year sporting a new GT40 style exhaust system and
some more suspension tweaks in an effort to stay
competitive in the booming Group SC (sports cars of the
70s) category, where 2.7 and 3 liter Porsche Carreras
tend to dominate. Whilst my car has won the Victorian
Historic Racing Register Championship in the past
(2006),every year the game moves on, and those squashed
Volkswagens get faster...
