President’s Report – December 2019

At the close of formal TR runs this year we had 43 cars on display at our “Triumph Display Day” held at Civic park Modbury. A big thank you to everyone involved and special thanks must go to Dino and Lisa for providing discounted prices for us at their restaurant.

We were also helped this year by several from the Stag Club: Bob Gaston, Romeo Macolino, Steve Arthur, Shane Coates and Ricky Corben who gave judging assistance. Several of our own members also helped on the day. Thanks to Duane Kaak, Neil Martin, Noel Schmidt and Andy Hill who recently sailed back in.

 

I finally had one “Master Class” entry seen here from John Tuohy.

A second car is now in this class also having won 3 years in a row. Dino Vettese with his TR6.

The end results:

Outright winners for the day: Dino Vettese: TR6. Second Outright: David Stephens TR2 Third outright: Lisa Vettese STAG

Pride of Ownership

• Wayne Byrne: TR2  Graham Jones : GT6 • Geoff Ellis: TR6 Duane Kaak: Stag • Bob Farrell: TR8 Bryan Young: Estate • Bob Cini: Dolomite Ivan Powell: MODIFIED TR3 • Neil Martin: COMPETITION TR8

Concours d’elegance

➢ Dino Vettese: TR6 Richard Sutherland: TR8 ➢ John Tuohy: TR5 Lisa Vettese: STAG ➢ Carolyn Byrne: Herald Coupe Bob Cini: Saloon ➢ David Stephens: TR2

Master Class:

John Tuohy: Saloon

Other trophies that will be handed out this year for events held either during club runs or for Racing:

Under the racing categories:

Drivers Trophy: TBA at the dinner. Competition Trophy: TBA at the dinner.

General Club: Clubman award: 2019 TBA at the dinner. TSOA Observation Run: Dean Berlemon and Lisa MacLeod

President / Vice President Awards. Equally placed were Alex Smithson and Duane Kaak. Their support this year, not for the positions they hold but for the extra work and effort that they both consistently did during the year for TSOA made it very easy to make these awards as a combined effort.

Next year we start off as usual with an informal meeting in January and we hope to post up the next year’s calendar soon. I would be grateful if people had ideas to discuss with me for next year’s display day. Especially early on for a location or back to somewhere they enjoyed the most.

Our Nationals committee had its first formal meeting and we are well on the way to developing this event for 2021

Rather than re type the next bit of info sent, the following was received and discussed at last month’s meeting. Worth considering

“Dear Fellow Triumph Owner,
It’s time to make plans for Drive Your Triumph Day, February 10, 2020.

My name is Rye Livingston and I’m with the Triumph Travelers Sports Car Club in Northern California. In 2015 I encouraged members of our club to drive their Triumphs on February 10th, to celebrate Sir John Black’s Birthday, the man who organized Standard’s purchase of Triumph after the war, and went on to make the cars we enjoy driving today. This celebratory drive has been building momentum every year. For 2019 I received close to 350 photos from all over the world: UK, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Uruguay, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Finland, Canada, Holland, Czech Republic, and of course all over the USA.

This year is going to be a bit more of a challenge as February 10thfalls on Monday. As tempting as it may be to plan a drive for the weekend, we’re going to keep true to the day, and please submit photos only taken on Monday, February 10th, 2020.

The concept is straightforward. On February 10th, go for a drive in your Triumph. Take a scenic drive on a country road or out to lunch, to the market, to work, wherever. Go for a drive alone or in a big group from your local Triumph Club. Take your spouse, buddy, child, grandchild or your dog; then take a photo. The photo is mainly of the car and the owner if possible, ideally in front a cool spot, landmark, scenic view, in front of the hardware store or in your driveway. If it’s the middle of the winter where you live and your car is in hibernation, or in the middle of a restoration, take a photo of it anyway in the garage. Some winter photos I’ve received have the garage door open with the car tucked under a cover, and snow outside. Have fun with it and participate.

Next step is to email a high-resolution photo to driveyourtriumphday@gmail.com, along with some basic information: owner’s name, year and model of car, and place photo was taken (city, state, country). The photos will then be published not only in our club newsletter, but also in USA’s national magazine: Vintage Triumph Registry, and on the Drive Your Triumph Day website: https://driveyourtriumphday.shutterfly.com

Sir John Black was a very interesting character who brought the car industry at that time through some difficulty with his leadership and inspirational quality. Starting out from insolvency and thirtyfour cars a week in 1929 with a deficit he drove the company to a healthy £47,000,000 turnover and an output of over 135,000 cars and tractors in I95I. He was placed into the hall of fame in 2017 along with others tied heavily with the car industry racing and Triumph.”

So that’s it for this year I guess. If I don’t see you hope you all have a great Christmas and safe new year.

Best Regards

Ian Rigby President