I trust all TSOA members had a great Christmas and New Year and are looking forward to getting out in their Triumphs in 2024. We have not had formal club meetings in December and January, and so we will be getting back to business in earnest at our February meeting.

We had a great run to Gumeracha at the beginning of December, with a good turnout of members, and coffee enjoyed at a new café in Gumeracha. Members could then choose to go to either Torrens Valley Orchard or Kenton Valley Cherries. After the heavy rains a week or two earlier, we thought that supply of cherries might be limited, but at Kenton Valley Cherries at least, there were plenty available, and these were very reasonably priced. Thanks to Bill and Margie Berlemon for organising another great day.

The “Apres Run” was on the 28th December. I was unable to attend this run, but I understand that it was well attended with over 30 members and partners present. It was, as I understand, great weather, and the Macclesfield Hotel put on good quality and generous sized meals. Thanks to Roger and Cherri Lange for organising this ever-popular event.

I was also unable to attend the January informal meeting, and thanks to Duane Kaak for standing in for me. I understand that there was only a reasonably small number in attendance, however they were entertained and informed about model yacht racing by our multi-skilled racer, Neil Martin. Neil retired from work at Christmas and is now an even more dedicated competitor in classic car racing and his new passion with model yachts.
A small group of members had a very enjoyable picnic lunch at Lawrie and Kaye Placing’s house for Australia Day. The Placings provided ice-creams for all those there, in lieu of the traditional January ice-cream run to Noonies. Weather was good, and those of us who attended had a great time and an overload of ice-creams. Thanks Lawrie and Kaye for your ongoing hospitality.

The MSCA 50th Anniversary picnic is being held at the Mount Barker Oval on Sunday 25th February. We are making this an official club event, and hope that there will be a strong turnout. Roger Lange is organising a club display, and we have been successful in the past in winning the award for best club display. The venue is the shady western end of the Mount Barker Oval complex. Assembly of cars in club display groups are to be in place by 11.00 am. BYO everything for a picnic lunch. Talk to Neil Martin, Duane Kaak or Roger Lange if you would like more information or encouragement. Lots of us are going, so please, come along and enjoy the camaraderie.

Lastly, the All British Day is at Echunga Oval of Sunday 3rd March. There are 800+ people who have entered for this year event. Registrations closed some time ago, however if you have not registered, please still think about coming along as a spectator. It is always a great day, and this year, we plan to have our gazebos firmly tied down to heavy objects (e.g. Triumphs) to avoid a repeat of last year’s debacle.

I look forward to seeing as many members as possible at our February meeting. I believe supper may even include ice-creams for a lucky few.

Regards
Alex Smithson

President

The after Christmas run on Thursday 28th December was a delightful affair, with in excess of 30 members enjoying a wonderful jaunt through the Adelaide hills that are remarkably green for this time of year. Our group showcased around 20 Triumphs with Stags and TR4s and 6s the most prevalent.

We gathered at the rear car park of the Feathers Hotel and took off around 11.00 am through the upper reaches of Burnside, past the Glen Osmond Golf Club, on and off the freeway quickly to take in the old Princes Highway and past The Eagle on the Hill, on and off the freeway once again and then taking a left turn before entering Stirling and on to Mylor, Echunga and finally Macclesfield.

Lunch had been arranged at The Macclesfield Hotel which has undergone substantial renovation and extensions over recent times. Several benches had been reserved for us under the outside shaded area, the meals were reasonably priced and substantial, and everyone enjoyed the friendly chatter over a cold beverage or two. All rated the Hotel highly for ambience and service.

The weather treated us kindly, with perfect conditions for roof down Triumph cruising. All in all, a great run – if you missed it, too bad. Maybe next time?

The 42^nd TSOA Nationals were held in the last week of October, and were very successful, despite the less than perfect weather. The week-long event was at Lady Bay Resort, Warrnambool. The “Shipwreck Coast” as this locale is known, is one of the most stunning parts of Australia. TSOA Victoria organised a great week which was thoroughly enjoyed by all those attending.

I have done a full report of the event, and this is available on the TSOASA website. Some noticeable highlights were, however as follows:

Show and Shine winners: 1^st– Trevor Norris (Dolomite Sprint) Vic; 2^nd – Ron Farrugia (TR5) Vic; 3^rd  -Dino Vettese (TR6) SA; 4^th – Lisa Vettese (Stag) SA;  5^th – Geoff Byrne (TR6) NSW; 6^th – Alex Smithson (TR5) SA.

Movie watched at Port Fairy’s historic Reardon Picture Theatre – early 1970’s Australian cult classic, “The Cars that Ate Paris”. Reviews mixed.

Ironman Trophy winner – Western Australia. (Controversial as team only comprised two people, Ron and Leigh Marian).

It was a fabulous week of great food, great company, great events, and of course, great Triumphs. There were attendees from all mainland states, with a South Australian contingent of 17 attending. We are now looking forward to Albany next year.

I understand from the WA organisers, that Albany is already fully subscribed, however TSOA members can still place their names on the waiting list. We know, from previous experience, that as the event gets closer, there will be inevitable cancellations and I strongly recommend anyone interested to get their names on the waiting list post-haste, as offers will be made when cancellations occur on a strict order of initial application. Register at: https://tsoa-wa.com/triumph-tsoa-nationals-2024/.

Our Christmas dinner and trophy presentation night was on Saturday at Royal Adelaide Golf Club. Sue Gibson has yet again, done a great job organising this event and the club is greatly indebted to her for her ongoing hard work in making this dinner a real highlight of our club year. Special congratulations to Larie and Kaye Placing for winning the Clubman trophy.

At our November meeting, we also had three cars on stage. Firstly, Peter Bogatec had his TR7V8 displayed.  This car is in great condition, and Peter recently ran it is the Adelaide Rally.  This was not planned, as he had a race car entered, but was not able to use it due to mechanical problems.

Don Richards had his TR250 on display. Don is in the process of restoring two TR6’s and came across this car when sourcing parts for the TR6. Roger Lange commented that Don got it from under his nose, and that he was next in line if the sale to Don had fallen through.

Finally, our secretary, Duane Kaak had his TR7V8 race car on display. This car has had a new motor relatively recently (out of a Range Rover). Duane has had this car for quite a few years, and it has great sentimental value to him. A spur of the moment decision to advertise for a travelling companion to accompany him and share the costs of driving it back from Melbourne to Adelaide all those years ago resulted in him meeting Meranie, who fell in love with the man and his car.

We do not have a meeting in December, and the January meeting will be an informal gathering at the Sporting Car Club. Trevor Hawkins has suggested that we make this a “swap meet” where members bring any relatively small and easily carried parts along to find potential new homes. I will send out an email to all members before the January meeting as a reminder and confirm more details.

Regards

Alex Smithson

It has been 50 years since the establishment of the MSCA for the purpose of providing an entry level motorsport  activity opportunity for members of affiliated clubs, mostly established marques such as MG, Triumph, Healey, Alfa, Jaguar, Mini, Datsun etc. There are currently 18 clubs affiliated with the MSCA here in South Australia.

To celebrate this milestone, a gathering of all the clubs involved is planned to coincide with the annual Picnic and Presentation Day on the last Sunday in February 2024. A special shout out to past competitors to attend and reminisce how things were back in the day and to share some stories about their experiences.

TSOA has been a big part of the MSCA motorsport scene for many years – it was not unusual to have up to 15 or more Triumphs competing on the track at a Mallala sprint event. Interest has waned over recent years as the drivers and cars aged, but the memories of past adventures prevail.

It would be great to have a big turn out of Triumphs and club members to support this event. Talk to Neil Martin, Duane Kaak or Roger Lange if you would like more information or encouragement.

The venue is the shady western end of the Mount Barker Oval complex. Assembly of cars in club display groups to be in place by 11.00 am

BYO everything for a picnic lunch

Feb 18th         (Tuesday Evening) General Meeting at the Sporting Car Club 8.00 pm

Feb 23rd        (Sunday) MSCA Picnic / Presentation Day – Virgara Winery, 143 Heaslip Road, Angle Vale . . . from 11.00 am

Mar 2nd        (Sunday) – All British Day

Mar 16th      (Sunday)  MSCA Super Sprint 

April 6th      (Sunday)  TBA Monthly Run instead of the 20th because that is Easter Sunday

Our Day of Triumph was held at Civic Park on Sunday 15th October 2023. While the weather wasn’t especially kind we
had 20 entrants and an extra 13 cars on display.
Winners on the day were:
Overall: Trevor Hawkins (TR4A)
Second Overall: Roger Lange (TR7V8)
Third Overall: Lisa Vettese (Stag)
Michelotty Trophy (TR4,4A & 5): Trevor Hawkins
Register Trophy (TR2,3,3A,3B): Colin Baldock
Harris Mann Trophy (Tr7/8): Roger Lange
Concours
TR2/3/3A/3B: Colin Baldock (TR2)
TR4/4A/5/250: Trevor Hawkins (TR4A)
TR7/8: Roger Lange
Stag: Lisa Vettese
Dolomite: Ian Burman
Saloon: Ian Rigby
Pride of Ownership
TR4/4A/5/250: David Stephens (TR5)
TR6: David Marlow
TR7/8: Dean Bogisch
Spitfire/GT6: Nathan Parkes (Spitfire)
Stag: Chris Marshall
Saloon: Rod Hanna
Big thanks to everyone who helped on the day, especially our judges and those of you who brought your cars.
Special Thanks to Ian Rigby for all of his help and support, Marg and Dean Bogisch for their great clerical skills and
my wife Lisa, who without her secretarial skills, none of this would have happened. Also, thanks again to Dino and
Lisa Vittese who provided a subsidised breakfast or lunch for members at Café Primo – all the reports indicated
breakfast was delicious.
Dean Berlemon
2023 DOT Organiser

Hi I’m Natalie, some of you may remember me through being the membership Secretary and also Regalia before that.
After Bob Passed Away, I found that I needed to get out and do things, so I decided to take on the position of Social
Secretary.
My aim is to encourage new members and members we haven’t seen before or for a while, to come to our social
events we have on the 3rd Sunday of each month.
The TSOA club is a fabulously friendly and happy group of people with like minds, namely your cars, as well as
meeting new people and enjoying each other’s company.
Over the years Bob and I have been all over Australia in our Triumph, meeting new friends interstate, and enjoying
meeting them again each year at the National Rally’s, going to places that we would never have visited by ourselves.
So, I hope to see you at some of our events and perhaps participate in setting a run. This could be of new places or
the same ones near Adelaide. This is a chance also to have a run in your car!
My Mobile number is 0455 250 990 if you wish to participate or would like a chat about any ideas you may have
regarding social events, just give me a ring.
Natalie Farrell
Social Secretary

I have wanted a modern audio system in my TR7 V8 for some time, and finally got around to doing it.

This required opening up the centre section of the console to accommodate a Double DIN unit, and finding a head unit that was shallow enough to fit, which I did with an Alpine – not many after market Double DIN units offer the shallow casing that the Alpine has, and even then, it only just fits.

What I now have is a quality sound system complete with Apple Carplay / Android Auto that enables Waze GPS, Spotify music, hands free phone, voice activated everything, etc. Needless to say, I am very happy with the result.

Oh, I also installed a rear view camera that works a treat. The mini camera is mounted centre top of the number plate and is nicely concealed.

The Day of Triumph (DOT) on Sunday 15^th October was a great success, despite the rather ordinary weather forecast. We were threatened with showers through the day, and although it rained first thing, we had a reasonably dry day, and unlike the All British Day, also no serious wind issues. We had, however, tied down our new gazebos to vehicles and trees, so we were ready for any weather event.

We had 33 vehicles on display and around 25 submitted for judging. Congratulations to all winners, and in particular, the overall Concours winner, Trevor Hawkins and his magnificently restored TR4A. Roger Lange was second with his TR7V8, and Dino and Lisa Vitesse came third with their Stag. Our new DOT convenor, Dean Berlemon did a great job in organising the day, although as Dean said, he relied heavily on Ian Rigby, our previous DOT convenor who provided great on-the-job training to Dean and also worked extra hard on the day. Dean was also ably supported by his wife Lisa on the gate, Dean and Marg Bogisch who tallied the results and a plethora of others who helped with judging.

Quite a few of our members took advantage of the $10 breakfast/lunch at Café Primo Tea Tree Plaza. Thanks again to Dino and Lisa Vettese for their ongoing generous support of our club.

We looked resplendent in our new hi-vis vests with TSOA logos which we have purchased as part of the SA Car Club Program (SACCP) government grant received in June.

At our October meeting, we also had two cars on stage. Firstly, Steve Ferguson had his TR7V8 hardtop. Steve also has a TR7V8 convertible, and both cars are in mint condition. Steve was previously a member of TSOA SA until about 10 years ago when he moved to Queensland and joined TSOA Qld. He has returned to Adelaide recently and rejoined us. Steve has restored the cars over 15 or so years.

We also had Trevor Hawkins show us his TR4A, fresh from his win at the Day of Triumph. Trevor told us that he bought the car essentially as a “wreck” and took on the restoration as a retirement project. He had previously restored his TR6 and had learned a lot with this first project. Trevor did most of the work on the car himself, and his skills were very much on display at the Day of Triumph.

Social secretary Natalie has a lot of great events planned in the next few months, and we really hope club members take full advantage of their club membership and attend these upcoming functions. The Christmas Dinner is on Saturday 25^th November at Royal Adelaide Golf Club, Seaton. This is a club sponsored event with the cost being only $50 per head for members and $70/head for non-members. We keep going back to the RAG because there is always excellent quality food and great surroundings. Pre-dinner drinks are provided by our club, and DOT trophies will be presented on the night. I urge all members to attend if they can, and contact Sue Gibson on 0428 735 960 as soon as possible to book in.

A group of 17 members and partners are about to head off to the TSOA National Meeting in Warrnambool, and I will report on this event at the next club meeting.

Regards

Alex Smithson

Firstly, I am very pleased to welcome Natalie Farrell to the Committee as Social Secretary. Natalie is a Life Member of the club and has held numerous positions in the past during her long membership. Natalie has always been super-efficient and dedicated in everything she does, and I know she will be very successful as Social Secretary.

We have had a great start to the Club year with two very successful Sunday events. The run to Bethany on 27^th August was reported on in the last edition of Fastrak, and was well attended, with a gourmet lunch supplied by the tireless team of Bill and Margie Berlemon.

The Berlemon team was again at the fore with the All-Triumph Observation Run on Sunday 17^th September, this time with Dean and Lisa organising a very enjoyable run along the metropolitan coast with stops at Henley Square and Semaphore Road, Exeter for a series of challenging questions, before having another great BBQ lunch (supplied and prepared by Bill and Margie) at Osborne Foreshore Reserve, North Haven. The weather was near perfect, and we had a great turnout of members, with lots of them in their Triumphs.

We have also had a mid-week run to the Aussie Inn Hotel at Hackham, once again organised by Laurie and Kaye Placing.  There are a group of regulars to these lunches, and there is always a convivial atmosphere. All club members are welcome to attend, and I am sure you will enjoy yourselves.

Ian Rigby explained at our September club meeting, the problems he has had in following up members to have their logbooks updated for this year. Ian puts in countless hours in ensuring that TSOA is “Gold Standard” in the Conditional Registration Scheme, and that members do not get in trouble with DIT, the Police or their insurer by being non-compliant and driving a technically unregistered vehicle. We are a club of over 250 members, and the amount of work Ian does to follow up those who do not comply with our procedures is immense. I ask all members to do all they can to make Ian’s job as easy as possible and get logbooks to him next year in a timely manner.

We had two new members, John Watts and David Marlow have their vehicles, a TR7 and a TR6 on stage at the September meeting. Both cars looked great, and John and David were able to tell us about their ownerships. Members’ cars on stage is something I would like to get back to on a regular basis, and I will be asking new and recent members to get involved by presenting their cars to club meetings.

Our next big event is the Day of Triumph on Sunday October 15^th at Civic Park. Modbury. Dean Berlemon is convening this event for the first time, although I am sure that previous convenor, Ian Rigby will still be a key part of Dean’s team. It would be great to see a record number of cars there, and I ask all members to make a special effort to have their cars on display. You definitely don’t need to have a Concours standard car, and do not need to enter it into the judging. Please come along however and add to the spectacle of the day. Club members Dino and Lisa Vettese, who own Café Primo at Tea Tree Plaza are offering a super cut-price breakfast at only $10.00 to all club members.  Thanks Dino and Lisa, and please, take advantage of this great offer.

You don’t need to book or advise anyone in advance of your attendance at the Day of Triumph. Just turn up to Civic Park, Modbury prior to 10.00am on Sunday 15^th October.

Dean also asked for judges to volunteer to help on the day. This is a great way to have a close look at a lot of cars and be involved. Judging is not hard, as we are not looking for originality, and is great fun. We need more members to help out, so please contact Dean ASAP.

Lastly the Christmas Dinner is coming up on Saturday 25^th November. This is a great night and super value at $50.00 per head, with sponsorship by the club, including drinks before the meal. Please contact Sue Gibson to register your attendance.

Regards

Alex Smithson