You will find information and reports from other parties in the September issue of TRak, so I won’t dwell on the All British weekend held at Wakefield Park south of Goulburn over the weekend of 1st and 2nd August. Needless to say, “Team GT6” from South Australia had a great trip and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend’s sprint and race activities.

Trevor Lindsay placed 3rd in Saturday’s Super Sprint (hosted by the NSW Austin Healey Owners Club) with a sizzling time of 1:06.58 and Roger placed 5th with a personal best of 1:09.14. Rod Carey produced a best time for the day of 1:16.70 but it was Rod’s son who came up with 1:14.94 in his first drive in the car. It just shows once again that allowing your son to drive your race car may be embarrassing! Rod got quicker the next day, and was happy with his results overall, and who knows, he may let Michael drive the car again one day.

Race day on Sunday saw Trevor qualify in pole position for the All Triumph races, Roger in 3rd and Rod 13th – Race 1 saw Trevor sprint off from the start and retain a healthy lead for the duration of the race. Roger embarrassed himself again by spinning amongst the excitement of the first corner and had to do a lot of work to make his way through the field from last to finish in 7th and Rod had a lot of fun dicing with the competitors around him with finishing with 14th place.

The All Triumph Trophy Race was once again a strong result for Trevor, but the TR7V8 of Jeff Wards seemed to keep him honest with a very good 2nd place. Third was Mark Morsillo in his turbo Dolomite Sprint, whilst Roger came from 7th on the grid to 4th by the end of the first lap (no spins this time!) but just couldn’t catch up the leaders. Rod placed further back in 14th but was still smiling.

The All British Trophy Race saw a combined field of Triumph, Austin Healey, Jaguar, MG, Lotus and anything else  British looking to have a go. The race was won by an astonishingly quick MG Midget from Victoria, with Trevor placing a close 2nd, and Roger 5th. Rod jumped a few places from his starting position to finish 12th. My personal thanks to Richard Sutherland and his brother Don for their company and support on this trip, and to my “pit popsie” Hans who provided valuable help and navigational guidance. All in all, it was a great weekend for “Team GT6”!

Also held on the 2nd August was a Modern Regularity event at Mallala, hosted by the Austin 7 Club. Neil Martin competed but wasn’t very regular this time mainly due to having fuel surge problems in his TR7V8. Neil posted a best time of 1:31.01 nevertheless.

The MSCA Super Sprint held on a very cold and windy Sunday 16th August saw Roger, Rod Carey and Neil Martin all take part. Neil seemed to have found a cure for the fuel surge problem and is hopeful that this will prove to be the case longer term – particularly at the National Rally in WA in a few weeks time. The performance of my GT6 suffered with what I think is a failed alternator, and whilst the engine continued to run for a while, the battery was simply not strong enough to run the ignition system effectively. I only did a few laps in the first sprint and then had to pack up disappointed. Rod Carey enjoyed a trouble free day and posted a best time of 1:27.38 and Neil Martin was happy with his best of 1:30.75.

Some upcoming events worthy of special mention are :-

Sunday 6th Sep           MSCA “Come and Try” fun  day

Saturday 26th Sep       Come and Try Hillclimb at Collingrove – refer SCCSA website for details and entry form

3rd/ 4th October           Historic Demonstration in and around Lobethal – 50th Anniversary of the Lobethal Australian Grand Prix

Sunday 17th Oct         SA Hillclimb Championships at Collingrove

Full details of all upcoming events can be found on the Competition Calendar found under this News tab.

That’s enough from me . . . see you trackside!

Roger

NB – Trevor Lindsay will be taking over the role of Competition Secretary for a while, so we all look forward to Trevor’s slant on the competition scene for TSOA and its members.