Always excited to see our race season get underway at Levels, Timaru. To expand our competitor numbers we now send invitations out to our other like- minded clubs, eg Mainland Muscle, CCC, Shellsport, Rennsport and other competitors that have races at our February southern classic. Over all the entries were pretty good although quite a few of our regular racers still had their cars in a” not quite ready to go” condition. Pleasing to see a good turnout of Formula Libre out racing again. This class has been hard to entice out over the past few years, so well done, team.
Nice to see Marc Doran out with us again. Marc was getting some track time in, in readiness for his seat time in the new Chapman R8 Audi endurance racer. Greg Mowat was absent due to compression problems in the wee lotus but John and Hamish Corbett in the Lotus and Mallock kept Haydon Cox honest amongst the sports cars. Graeme and Baldric were changing places regularly but my poor old FF2000 decided to misbehave AGAIN with valve train problems causing another withdrawal. Will be on top of it for Wigram I am assured. Greg Scott had the Brabham humming as usual and was at the pointy end of the group.
With several of our regular mainland Muscle racers having their cars packed away ready for their exciting Bathurst adventure the large saloon class was a bit thin. Bruce had his son driving the endurance Monaro extremely well and along with Frank Ryan in the sweet looking Camaro, Mike in the immaculate Mustang and Raymond Hart in the ex Munt OSCA Commodore. There was plenty of action and noise on the track.
As normal the small saloons always supply plenty of action in a packed field with spirited competition. Unfortunately, due to commitments I missed seeing their races and my spies failed to come up with any true or false stories for me to pass on.
The VCC and the bike races I did see and there was some very good racing in both fields. In the bikes the sound of Manx Nortons and Ducatis is almost as good as a grunty V8. The inclusion of Suzuki, Triumph, Yamaha 750, Triton, Gilera and Moto Guzzi completed the number of great marques racing with us. Exciting to see the Yamaha sidecar propelled around the track by Dave Reesby and bravely swung by his good lady Sue mixing it amongst the other bikes., Thank you team for a great display.
The VCC, again not sure what Thelma Bennet feeds Jim but it must be bravery pills as that man is in full control of an indecently quick little car and always on a tight racing line. Paul had the Chev special preforming well until gremlins showed up and forced an early retirement. David in the Furi was keeping Jim honest for a while then backed off a bit but there was plenty of good racing in the rest of the field.
The Brooklands Challenge rules are always a mystery to most of us especially myself so I have delegated the running of that to Karen for the past couple of years and young Dave who does an excellent job. The CMRC was represented by Greg Scott, John Corbett and Haydon Cox in the sports cars and after all of the BS, excuses and misdemeanours had been examined the trophy was returned to the CMRC team. Well done guys and well raced by the bikers.
Most of us were pleasantly surprised to look up to the sky to see the track being buzzed by a Spitfire. It was flown by Ivan Campbell from Campbell Aero Classics in Loburn, Rangiora. Ivan buzzed the track several times as one of his colleague’s was competing in the bike races. Thanks so much Ivan for putting on such a great show.
The day ended with a relaxing drink and awards presentation well done to all that attended.
Thanks to Brownie, Gerald and Pauline, for operating the BBQ to make lunch available, and to Dianne for getting the goodies. We decided to go back to the old ways (at very short notice) for supplying lunch as the café was unavailable for this meeting and thanks go to the coffee lady that came all the way from Tekapo as once again the local supplier would not accommodate. This seemed to be very successful.
We hope to see you at the CCC Wigram Revival. We are incorporating this as one of our club events and would encourage you all to attend. November 23rd 24th at Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna.
See you at the track, Brian.
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FROM THE TRACK – BROOKLANDS CHALLENGE AWARDS 31-8-2019
LINDSAY NEILSON Best Performance Dennis Chapman Fiat X19 Abarth
PDL TROPHY for BEST NZ SPECIAL David Clearwater Furore 11
SCOTTS AUTO SALES Best Presented Greg Scott Brabham and Mistral
RANSLEY SHAFT Hard Luck Award Gavin Jackson Triumph 2500
PETER GENDALL AWARD Most Polished Performance Barry Dorking Escort RP2000
ROSS CLIFFORD Sportsmanship Award David Hudson (Stood down to let ` his son race)
Brooklands Challenge Trophy CMRC team (Greg, Haydon, John)
CLASS AWARDS
Classic Saloons Lyndon Ball Toyota Starlet
Classic Saloons Large Raymond Hart Munt Commodore
Formula Libre Marc Doran Ray FF
VCC Jim Bennett Furi Impulse
Cams Bikes Gary Cotterell Manx Norton
Father’s Day Special award Russell, crew Sheryl, Crew chief Julie Greer, racer FF.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE BBQ and LUNCH HELPERS
PAULINE, GERALD and BRUCE