Firstly, thank you to all for your well wishes, encouragement and support as I step into the role of President of this amazing Club. I know with the support of these great people around me, I will be able to draw on many numerous years of experience, and inject a new energy into the committee, keeping the TSOA alive, vibrant and a great club to be a part of for many years to come.
Secondly, a big congratulations to Mike Temby for taking on board the Vice President role. We now have a full committee again, and I know that Mike is very enthusiastic about the year we have ahead also.
Would we have the lowest combined age of an executive committee since the clubs inception?
The months are flying by already, and there are many events coming up on the TSOA calendar, both social and competition. I am personally excited about getting my TR7 V8 back on the race track again, the break between MSCA events seems like an eternity. But I am also as keen to keep the Spitfire cruising and discovering new coffee stops and spending great time with TSOA friends on the social runs.
I truly enjoy the general meetings also, meeting new members, the focus on a couple of cars on stage and a delicious supper afterwards. I think we have a great regular routine, and I sincerely hope to just make each of these just a but more fresh and interesting as time goes by with the new committee.
As always, the committee welcomes any ideas and feedback from the members, we represent you.
Hope to see you all at an event soon . . . .
Duane Kaak

I trust everyone has had a terrific Christmas and New Year break. The weather has been wonderful, and the general public seem to be in great spirits throughout this time of year.

The club has held several events throughout this period, the annual Christmas dinner, the “after Christmas” mid week run and the annual Ice Cream run which all were a great time to get out and about in your triumph with other club members.

We had a good crowd to the January informal meeting, and I’m sure we will again have a full group at our first formal meeting this month. Remember we will have an election this month for a new president, and any other vacant positions, so please take another moment to consider a chance to join the committee and to contribute to our club.

The year ahead looks like another full calendar of social and competition events, and I’m keen to see what amazing vehicles we can get on the stage for display. Even though we have all thoroughly enjoyed some other Marques recently, if you have a Triumph we haven’t seen on stage, done some major work to your Triumph, or have a new purchase, we’d love to see it, so please contact John from the details inside the cover. I know several members have plans for rewiring and minor rebuilds, so we’d love to see and hear your story.

The committee also has plans to review the constitution this year also, to keep up with the times, and will have a small sub committee work on this over the coming months. If you have any strong thoughts in this area, I encourage you to express this, in writing only, for consideration.

I’m starting to hear a bit of chatter about the Queensland National Rally already, and it is exciting to hear that many are already getting cars ready for the journey and booking holidays, I’m sure it will be a wonderful event.

The All British Day is also here again, and I’d like to ask all members to make themselves ambassadors for the club on this day that we are on display. This day, and the Day of Triumph seem to both be days that we attract new members, and I’m hoping to have a simple handout available to be distributed on the day. Hope to see you soon, Duane

It was with much sadness that I had to share this month the news of John Sampson’s passing, quite suddenly. John was a terrific Club President, and TSOA enthusiast who did so much for the Club, the Marque and the Historic Motoring Community. Much of which went largely unnoticed by many, but John was never a man to blow his TRumpet about his achievements.

Many thanks on behalf of his wife Barbara and their families for the numerous emails, cards, flowers etc received of support and thoughts during the past weeks. John is greatly missed by the club, and I am positive that at the time of writing, his funeral with a display of John’s award winning TR6 and other member’s Triumphs, will have been a fitting farewell to this remarkable man.

The Annual Day of Triumph held in the past month was a great success, over 50 cars on were on display, many entered the judging, and a huge thanks goes to all the volunteers on the day who made the event run so smoothly, and of course, to all the winners. The competition was tight, scores were close.

Due to a recent change of employment, I had to cancel my National Meeting registration. I was pleased to hear so many positive reports come back from our members that attended, especially of the trophies and awards given to the members who displayed their cars and participated. Well done!

MSCA Competition is now over for the year, it was a great year personally for me, achieving a Personal Best almost every round, however I would love to see more Triumphs out there on the TRack. I am open to suggestions as to how we can do this, but am pleased to hear that the 6 Hour Regularity next year should be abundant with Triumphs.

Our next Association meeting is the January Informal meeting. Due to John’s passing, February’s next formal general meeting will now include an election of a new President. This is a great opportunity for someone new to consider joining the committee. It is likely there will be a shuffle of positions, so please come to February meeting with your nomination ready and use the festive period to chat to anyone on the committee if you are considering or would like more information.

The Club has some wonderful events coming up over the next couple of months and into the festive season. I look forward to seeing many of you out in your Triumph over this fun time of year, catching up over coffee’s and ice cream, and at the Christmas Dinner.

Seasons Greetings

Duane Kaak

Our President and dear friend John Sampson passed away today, 14th November after a very short and aggressive exacerbation of his lung condition.

John went to hospital on Friday 26th October for a hip replacement which was most successful, and he did brilliantly for the first 3 days and was up and walking, after which the lungs became an increasingly difficult problem. The Doctors fought hard for the next two weeks to halt the decline in his condition, unfortunately without success.

John has been an exceptional member and most recently President of our Club and clearly was passionate about all things Triumph and for the people and cars that make up our membership.

He will be dearly missed, and we, The Triumph Sports Owners Association SA Inc extend our heartfelt sympathy to Barb and family for their loss.

I realise that you will not get this report until after the DAY OF TRIUMPH but I would take this opportunity to thank all members who participated on the day. The weather forecast looks good and I hope that all have enjoyed the picnic atmosphere and fellowship, as well as a great display of club cars.

During the finalising of the Historic Registration scheme documents we found that there are many cars out there that we really or never see. A count of TR6 cars in the club indicated that we have approximately 60 TR6’s on our register, and we decided to send out a personal invitation via email, to all TR6 owners to come along and show off their pride and joy. Only time will tell if the invitation works and we end up with a record number or TR6 cars on display.

If this proves to be successful, we will focus on a different model (or group of models) each year and send out a personal invitation thus making a feature display each year with the intent of catching up with members and their cars, who would not normally participate.

The All British Day next year will be held on the usual second Sunday in February (10th) but the 2013 event will be held at the Echunga oval and not the Uraidla oval as has been the case in past years.

Entry forms have been posted out to members who have participated in the last three years, the club will be sent a few blank entry forms for new members, and entry forms will also be available on the ABD web site, and is available via the TSOA web site under links/member added links / All British Day.

Please note that entries will close on the 30th November and NO LATE ENTRIES will be accepted, the ABD committee encourages all people interested in the event to submit their entries by the 1st of November which will make them eligible for 3 prizes (free entry refund) to be drawn on the day.

Just a friendly reminder for those members who are thinking of coming to the club’s Christmas dinner and Presentation night on Saturday December 8th  , we are looking to have numbers (and monies) finalised by the November 20TH meeting, so if you are thinking about attending or have just received an award at the DAY OF TRIUMPH then get your entry in quickly.

Till we meet again

John Sampson

The club AGM was held at the August 21st meeting and so the new club year begins, I would like to thank all those club and committee members who helped make the last year so successful.

Special thanks go out to retiring committee members Peter Davidge and Sue Gibson who after many years service on the committee have seen fit to sit back for a while and just enjoy the club activities, but knowing both of them, I am sure they will be only too willing to help out in some small way as time goes on.

I would like to welcome both Duane Kaak newly elected Vice President and Alex Smithson who was elected as Treasurer, to the committee for the 2012 – 2013 year.  I know they are both enthusiastically waiting to take on the new challenges that they have chosen. Bill Berlemon was successful with his nomination for Social Secretary and I am aware he is keen to make some fine tuning improvements to the already successful formula.

Our AGM was also a special event celebrating the 50th birthday of the TRIUMPH SPITFIRE. The stage was suitably decorated by Rick and Maree Staehr and there were two highly polished great looking examples of SPITFIRES for the full house to admire.

Also on stage was a surprise visit from an past club member Jon Williams from W.A. with his “very recently prepared” MK1 PI. Saloon. Jon and co-driver Ken Bryant were here to complete in the “Targa Adelaide” starting the next day. Jon’s car had a total of 250Km on the clock when he started in the prologue on Wednesday evening, we wish them well in the event.

Thanks to Kyle Lill and Mark Gibson for bringing their Spitfires for the stage display on the night and joining in the celebrations.

Two dates to mark in your diaries for upcoming events,

1)      The Bay to Birdwood breakfast Sunday the 30th on Dequetteville Tce.  @ 9.00am – BBQ provided but BYO food.

2)      The Day of Triumph Sunday October 28th  – Not only is this a great picnic day for all members to attend and mingle with fellow Triumph owners, but it is a tremendous opportunity to promote our marque at this fantastic venue, so polish your car and come and enjoy the day.    For full details refer further in the magazine.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would remind all members on Conditional Historic Rego. and prescribed LHD vehicles schemes, who yet to pay their membership dues and have their log books stamped for the coming Club year (starting AUG 15TH 2012) are deemed by the Registrar to be driving unregistered vehicles and will not covered by third party insurance. For your own sake please attend to this matter before you take your car out on the road.

Till we meet again      John Sampson

I would like to thank club members who organised the club runs during the period Barb and I were away overseas just recently, I understand that they were well supported again showing the strength and fellowship of our club. My thanks especially go out to Margie and Bill Berlemon for organising the weekender to the Riverland, again I understand that the event was a great success, with many interesting activities planned, and a good time was had by all members who attended.

While I am on the subject of club events, I would like to put in an early reminder that the “2012 DAY OF TRIUMPH” will be held again this year at the Tea Tree Gully Civic Park opposite the TTP.

Again this year we would like to put on a special display at this great venue and promote our marque and club to the public, but more importantly this day is a good opportunity for club members to picnic and socialise in a relaxed atmosphere with fellow like minded Triumph enthusiasts.

There will be several adverts for this event in the magazine over the next couple of months which will be held on Sunday the 28th October, and while there is still plenty of time before the event it may be time to put a note in your diary as a reminder, and start making some preliminary plans in readiness for this important event on our club Calendar. So now may be the time to start brushing the cobwebs of the car and start checking over your vehicle in readiness for all those great summer months ahead.

August again “Heralds” the club AGM which will be held on Tuesday the 21st at the SCCOSA club rooms at 8.00 pm. As is the normal practice all club committee positions are declared vacant and elections will be held. I believe it to be a sound practice to change the mix of the committee from time to time to encourage new ideas and keep the club fresh, if you also believe in this principle and would like to get involved in some small way in assisting in the running our successful club, give me or one of the other current committee members a ring and discuss how you may be able to help.

The Concessional Historic vehicle and prescribed LHD Registration scheme code of practice has been issued and several articles have been presented in the past magazines for your information. Just to update a little further the code requires the clubs to set up and maintain a series of records which are required to be kept for a period of 5 years, these will be subject to audit from time to time by the DPTI. The code also requires each vehicle to be inspected every 3 years and we as a club need to commit to complying with these conditions by the end of December 2012.

The committee and our three authorizing people will be working through and tying to understand the new requirements, and from time to time we will issue statements of our understanding or clarifying the code to the membership as required.

In the mean time our team were very happy with the membership’s acceptance of the new requirements for a Stat Dec. and log book sign off at the July meeting and remind members that club subscriptions and log book sign off are required to be completed by the AGM or your historic vehicle will be unregistered and not covered by insurance.

That’s all for now

John Sampson

John Williams, a long time active member of TSOA passed away on the 5th May, and our thoughts go out to Angela and Johns’ family.

John was a long time motoring enthusiast and over the years had many fine examples of both Triumph and other marques in his collection. John will be sadly missed.

The Technical meeting organised by John Tuohy at Marque Restorations was brilliant, and those who couldn’t make it missed a great evening.

The owner Gerard Miller showed us around the range of vehicles currently under restoration and some of these included, a late 60’s Mazarati, an Austin 7 special, a mid 30’s Bugatti, Jensen 541, Aston Martin DB2 and a 1920’s ALVIS chassis which has been remade using a few bits of original chassis and a lot of hard work in developing the balance to suit.

We were given a demonstration of the Bugatti running, what a magic sound, that a lone was worth the visit.  Once we have viewed all the vehicles we were given a demonstration of Gerard’s skills in metal forming which he made look so simple. A great night, thanks to John for arranging.

Historic Registration update:
The final draft issue of the Concessional Historic Registration scheme was circulated in mid May and the night before our club general meeting I located a copy on the Federation of Historic Vehicle clubs’ web site www.fhmcsa.org.au

While we as a club have yet to take in all the 43 pages of this draft issue, our preliminary understanding is that for our club, the “Code” is very similar but with the new requirement that from 1 July 2012 all vehicles have to be sighted by a club authorized person once each 5 years for approval, but with a mandatory requirement that a statuary declaration be submitted at the log book sign off time every year, listing any modifications made during the last 12 month period.

Kevin Foster will have a report in more detail later in this magazine.

With the discussions held during the May meeting in relating to the Historic registration Code Draft issue, I omitted to advise the membership that during the balance of May and for the month of June, Barb and I will be enjoying a relaxing cruise in the Mediterranean with a few days in Barcelona, Paris, and Singapore.

During this time any matters should be addressed to Bill Berlemon, who will also be running the June General meeting and with all his experience I am sure that all will run smoothly.

Look forward to catching up with you in July,

John Sampson

Our long standing friend and fellow Triumph enthusiast John Williams finally succumbed to the illnesses that he has battled over many years, passing away on Saturday 5th May.

We extend our deepest sympathies to Angela and John’s family – such a lovely fellow and all round good guy will be sadly missed.

John Sampson, President

What a great time of the year, the weather for the last few weeks has been tremendous, it makes you want to get out as often as humanly possible and cruise through those magnificent Adelaide Hills. Who would want to live anywhere else.

Another great Breakfast Run was set by Ian and Raelene Rigby starting at Burnside Town hall with a run through our wonderful hills to Gumeracha for a chance to show off our culinary skills cooking breakfast. This was followed by late morning tea / lunch (?) at Cuddly Creek. The reason for the (?) ….. well it is time to fess up  that Barb and I had an interstate visitor and didn’t make the run this year. I am sure that a full report will be documented latter in the magazine.

Those members who attended the general meeting on the 17th April, would have discovered that we didn’t have a member’s Triumph on the display stage for the evenings “show and tell”. Due to a lack of available Triumphs for the night we broke the long tradition and showed a member’s second pride and joy. This proved to be a successful option and from time to time we will endeavour to show member’s other cars.This Month we had Rick and Maree Staehr’s recently purchased and superbly presented 1966 Ford Mustang, and while not a British Marque it attracted a lot of attention.

Historic Registration Scheme update,

I thought that this report was going to be a repeat of the last couple … still waiting info,                                           but Just before leaving for the meeting I received some information via a third party advising that the DPTI had issued a statement, In brief the statement states:

(1)  The proposed amendments to the CHVR scheme along with the draft amendments to the legislation have been put forward for final deliberation at the highest level within Government.

(2)   As soon as any changes are confirmed the DPTI will contact all car clubs currently HVRS authorised with the information directly

(3)   The Transport Minister will issue a formal media release and the DPTI web site will be updated to reflect the news.

(4)   There will be an opportunity for the SMASA and FHMV and as I read it some key clubs to provide comment on the final draft of a revised Code of Practice, this will happen as soon as any legislative amendments have been approved.

I can only assume that the process is close to completion and we will finally have the understanding to move this forward in our club as needed / required.

Look forward to catching up soon,

John Sampson