COMING EVENTS
1 MARQUE SPORTS
CAR ASSOCIATION ( www.msca.net.au )
ROUND
8 - Sunday 19th October at SANDOWN
If you are on the Team Healey email list
you will automatically receive an entry form, or contact Rod Vogt on 9739 1522,
0408 395 240 or mscatrack08@healey.com.au
2 FULL CALENDAR
|
DATE
|
EVENT
|
WEBSITE
|
|
Sept 21
|
G.C.C. Multi club Hill Climb - Morwell
|
www.gippslandcarclub.com.au
|
|
Sept 21
|
*PIARC Sprints – Phillip Island
|
www.piarc.com.au
|
|
Sept 28
|
MG Car Club Hill Climb Club Challenge–
Rob Roy, Christmas Hills
|
www.mgcc.com.au
|
|
Oct 3/4
|
*Winton Historic Motoring Festival
|
www.wintonmotorraceway.com.au
|
|
Oct 19
|
*MSCA Round 8 at Sandown
|
www.msca.net.au
|
|
Oct 24/25
|
Winton 6 Hour Relay Race
|
|
|
Nov 7/9
|
*Historic Sandown
|
www.vhrr.com
|
|
Nov 23
|
*MSCA Round 9 at Calder
|
www.msca
net .au
|
|
Nov 28/30
|
*Eastern Creek Historics (NSW)
“Tasman Revival”
|
www.hsrca.org.au
|
|
Nov 30
|
MG Car Club 18th Historic and
Classic Hillclimb, Rob Roy, Christmas Hills
|
www.mgcc.com.au
|
|
Dec 13/15
|
*Festival of Sporting Cars Summer
Invitation,Wakefield Park (NSW)
|
www.fosc.com.au
|
*Events can
score points towards AHOC COMPETITION CHAMPIONSHIP
Put October 3/4th in your
diaries because the WINTON HISTORIC MOTORING FESTIVAL will feature many of our
big Healeys and Sprites. John Goodall, Trevor Smith, Peter Jackson, Bill
Vaughan, Rod Vogt and Brian Duffy are definite starters. Russell Baker is
looking doubtful with time running out while he does a motor rebuild. Colin
Wallace (Sprite), David Kelly (in the TR7, not the 100/4?), Ross McKinnon
(TR3), Peter Osbourne (NSW ex Healey owner, now in Alfa) and Tony Rogers (ex
Healey, now in 911 Porsche) add to the group and we will all be garaged
together for a great weekend. More Sprite Club members will probably be there
so come along for a look – you are very welcome in our pit area.
COMPETITION
REPORTS
1 MSCA
ROUND 6
WINTON JULY 27th
Climate change? What climate change? A big black rain cloud is following us around
for MSCA Sundays this year with Winton being the 4th meeting in a
row with damp weather, and it was the wettest and coldest by far. If the trend
continues I’m off to buy a wetsuit. Team Healey was down to just two – Bill
Vaughan and Rod Vogt. When the going gets tough the tough get going eh
Bill? My theory that Tim Westover brings
the wet weather now needs a rethink. Perhaps it is our mate Colin Wallace in
his Sprite who is the problem as Colin has had ALL his MSCA days in the wet
this year. With Bill and I in our Sprites there were no big Healeys at Winton.
But a good entry from the Sprite Club of 7 cars, with 2 double entered, had Healeys
well represented in the smaller scale. I have moved on from Regularity to the
Sprint competition and it was great fun being in a Sprint group with 7 other
Sprites, and Bill had one other Sprite in the Regularity group.
Our Selwyn Hall officiated as Clerk of
Course for the first time for MSCA. Despite the wet conditions, slippery
surface and plenty of standing water (that’s puddles to you! ) Selwyn did a
great job keeping the meeting moving like clockwork, marshalling his assistants
and introducing a few ideas to save time between runs. He had me on the run
too! After losing time at Sandown the previous round trying to recover three
heavily crashed vehicles with the MSCA tandem trailer the Committee has hired a
professional tilt tray recovery truck for future events and Peter Wheeler made
4 very quick tray recoveries at Winton enabling runs to progress with minimum
delay. Paid flaggies, Dorian timers and now the tilt tray truck are all being
subsidized by MSCA – no fee increases – meaning more laps. Safety is always
paramount, but an overcautious approach can be frustrating for competitors as
they are forced to wait for the track to dry. Selwyn allowed us to stay out there – the
early wet runs gave us a chance to improve skills and exercise the adrenaline
gland and when the track started to dry, times improved but the battle was with
cold tyres that would not warm up, and there was inconsistent grip at different
points around the course. As speed rose so did exciting mid corner moments as
some sections remained damp and were difficult to pick.
Unfortunately Colin Wallace made use of the
tow truck on the third lap of his first run. After the Wakefield weekend
Colin went back to the dyno and found an extra 20kw at the rear wheels in his
fuel injected, turbocharged 1300 Suzuki powered Sprite – a 25% increase! Coming
on to the main straight the turbo kicked in brutally and turned the car around
under acceleration and sideways in to the wall at the start finish line. Quite
a lot of damage to the car but none to Colin – it will be fixed in time for
Morwell hill climb. There is a knob on the dash to turn down the turbo and I
bet Colin wishes he had – but is there a knob to control the right foot ? I
spun my Sprite at exactly the same place later in the day as the track was
partially drying, but spun to the right into the open spaces instead of left
toward the wall. I can still here the cheering, or was that laughing, from the
small crowd standing knowingly at that spot. It’s pleasing when correct
instincts kick in - a split second of reaction time and no harm was done. You
can’t find the limits without the occasional spin, and the race track is the
place to do that. That lap was only 6 seconds slower than my other laps in that
session even allowing for getting the car pointed in the right direction !
Bill Vaughan had the usual difficulty in
Regularity of trying to achieve a nominated time when track conditions were
continually changing. In Sprint all I had to do was drive as fast as I could
with the 2 fastest laps for the day counting. Unfortunately Bill behaved
himself all day so I can’t embarrass him with any stories to tell. Bill and Carole left Benalla the next morning
for Qld to visit family and for Bill to compete in Regularity at Morgan Park
Historic Races at Warwick. I am sure Bill was pleased to put the car on the trailer in one
piece. Carole was a real trooper staying at Winton all day in bad weather, even
standing out in dummy grid holding an umbrella over Bill’s head while he waited
to start a run – some of us are luckier than others I guess.
In fact the only unpleasant part of the day
was sitting in an open car in the rain for up to 20 minutes while waiting for
your next run. Once you started that was the least of your worries although the
wind chill factor when rushing around the track with wet clothes and an air
temperature of probably less than 10 degrees made me realize why brass monkeys
do not race cars. Pedal control with feet like blocks of ice was a bit
difficult too. Stupid rule not allowing alcohol in the pits – a stiff whisky
would have been good between runs ! How about it Selwyn ?
At the end of the day those who stayed to
the end had 5 runs of 10 to 15 minute duration – I had 32 timed laps ! Even those who gave up on the weather had 3
or 4 sessions before leaving early.
RESULTS
BILL VAUGHAN in Regularity
6th place out of 8
Fastest lap 2.23 on a still damp track chasing a
nominated time of 2.20
AHOC Championship points - 877 ( out of
possible 1000 ) and these counted to his cumulative total being greater than
his previous low score in his cumulative total.
ROD VOGT
in Class A Sprint
2nd in Class and second fastest
Sprite – sorry, I couldn’t help bragging
Fastest lap 1.57 - track was still damp but the rain had
stopped. In March in the dry I did 1.48 - shows how difficult it was.
AHOC Competition Championship points - 888. After all that effort this was too low to
improve my “ 4 best scores” total so it did not count.
2 MORGAN PARK
HISTORIC MEETING Warwick QLD
August 9/10th
Bill Vaughan competed in the regularity
event at this meeting and hopefully will give us a report for a future article.
He did send me a text message as an excuse to gloat about the weather I think.
He said:
“great weekend, great fun….Morgan Park is even
tighter than Winton. The weather was sunny after cold mornings. The atmosphere
was relaxed, they were all very hospitable. The weekend was made especially
memorable with Bill and Deb doing similar times. “
Who the hell is Deb, Bill? Perhaps I
shouldn’t have repeated that last bit!
Looking at the Natsoft website results,
Bill was in one of 3 regularity groups with about 20 cars in each. His group
was for sports cars. Bill improved his times over the weekend from 1.41 to 1.25,
adjusting his target time for each of his 4 runs after a practice run on the
Saturday morning.
His best RESULT was a third place in Run 2.
Because this was a timed circuit event Bill
was able to score points towards the AHOC COMPETITION CHAMPIONSHIP- a solid 894
points out of 1000 available - and that did improve his “ best 4 event total”
again , so well done Bill.
MSCA NEWS
- Calder Park has
just increased track hire fees for the second time this year. It is now
more expensive to hire than the Phillip Island
track. MSCA is forced to increase competitors’ entry fees from $140 to
$160 for our last round in November. Calder may be easy to access and
overnight accommodation is not necessary, but these cost increases are a
worry going forward especially given the difficulty in securing dates for
Phillip Island and the continued doubts about the future of Sandown.
- As mentioned, MSCA is now hiring a professional Recovery tilt
tray truck subsidized within existing entry fees at this stage. PETER
WHEELER of WHEELERS TOWING SERVICES is kindly offering his services at a
very low rate to help us out, so consider using Peter if you need any
towing service on 0418 312 857.
- For 2009 we are going to try a new calendar by reducing our mid
winter meetings by having a January date and maybe an early December date.
Our first event for 2009 is already booked for Sandown on January 18th.
AHOC COMPETITION CHAMPIONSHIP - POSITIONS AT 10th
August 17, 2008
We are getting close to the end of the
season and positions are very close at the top !
The aim is to have a championship which
recognizes use of our Healeys on the track at the many and varied events at
which our members choose to compete. Official lap times from race, sprint or
regularity events, from open events down to MSCA or other club level 2 S Sprints/regularities,
qualify members for the Championship.
The key is a common scoring system:
Start with 1000 points
Calculate the difference between the
fastest and 4th fastest laps, in 1/100ths of a second
Eg 1.20.50 (fastest) to 1.22. 75 (4th fastest) = 225 points
penalty
Points Score is 1000 minus 225 equals 775
points.
The total of your BEST 4 events is the
final score – 4000 points is the maximum score.
Competing in more events gives
opportunities to improve your score but does not mean you must win. Fastest car
does not guarantee a win either.
This gives ALL members a chance to win,
regardless of the type of Healey, modifications made or level of driver
experience over quite different events.
The current scores are shown below.
It is pleasing to see how close the
position is at the top. Russell Baker can be caught by the next 5 competitors –
there are plenty of events left. For example, Peter Jackson is 108 points behind Russell in 4th, but a score of 890 in his next event will
take him to the top after dropping his worst included score of 781 points. I
(Vogt) am only 2 Points in front of Peter but after dropping a low score of 909
a perfect score of 1000 ( don’t put your house on it ! ) will leave me on 3747
and still 15 behind Russell. However I could catch up over several events and
there are at least 7 left.(hope Sue doesn’t read this) The maths are fascinating .
If Trevor Smith and John Goodall really
wanted to see their names on the Board they could do 3 more events at an
average of 945 and win – and they are capable of it too.
|
Pos
10/08
|
Driver
|
Points best 4
|
Average
Points
|
Next pts
To drop
|
No of
events
|
Event Scores
|
|
1
|
Russell Baker
|
3762
|
940.5
|
902
|
6
|
954,845,941,629,965,
902
|
|
2
|
Geoff Leake
|
3666
|
916.5
|
873
|
6
|
765,873,952,805,880,
961
|
|
3
|
Rod Vogt
|
3656
|
914.0
|
909
|
8
|
913,911,864,923,734,
896,909,888
|
|
4
|
Peter Jackson
|
3654
|
913.5
|
781
|
5
|
781,921,725,959,993
|
|
5
|
Bill Vaughan
|
3563
|
890.75
|
831
|
6
|
961,757,831,628,877,
894
|
|
6
|
Brian Duffy
|
3473
|
868
|
795
|
5
|
556,795,840,950,888
|
|
7
|
Cary Helenius
|
2472
|
824
|
|
3
|
949,942,581
|
|
8
|
Tim Westover
|
2464
|
821
|
|
3
|
860,819,785
|
|
9
|
Steve Pike
|
1786
|
893
|
|
2
|
903,883
|
|
10
|
Leon O’Brien
|
1332
|
666
|
|
2
|
839,493
|
|
11
|
Rob Raverty
|
1254
|
627
|
|
2
|
566,688
|
|
12
|
John Goodall
|
1187
|
593
|
|
2
|
927,260
|
|
13
|
Trevor Smith
|
950
|
950
|
|
1
|
950
|
|
14
|
Brian Dermott
|
920
|
920
|
|
1
|
920
|
|
15
|
Peter Kent
|
911
|
911
|
|
1
|
911
|
|
16
|
Larry Varley
|
788
|
788
|
|
1
|
788
|
|
17
|
Bill Petschack
|
730
|
730
|
|
1
|
730
|
|
18
|
Peter Williams
|
442
|
442
|
|
1
|
442
|
|
19
|
Damian Moloney
|
199
|
199
|
|
1
|
199
|
A CLOSING THOUGHT
Winning isn’t everything – A mediocre
effort can win and a magnificent effort can lose. Set a higher standard - YOUR PERSONAL BEST.
KEEP FLYING THE FLAG
ROD VOGT
COMPETITION – TEAM HEALEY AND MSCA
COMING
EVENTS
Round 7: Sunday 24th August Morwell Hill Climb
If you are on the Team Healey email
list you will automatically receive an entry form, or contact Rod Vogt on 9739
1522 or0408395240 or mscatrack08@healey.com.au. To see pictures of this brand new hill climb
track visit www.smokie.ws/track2/index.htm
FULL CALENDAR
|
DATE
|
EVENT
|
WEBSITE
|
|
August 9/10
|
*Historic Races, Morgan Park, Warwick (Qld) Group
S/Regularity
|
www.hrcc.org.au
|
|
August 24
|
MSCA Round 7 – Morwell Hill Climb – new track – no points
toward club championship
|
www.msca.net.au
|
|
Sept 21
|
G.C.C. Multi Club Hill Climb – Morwell
|
www.gippslandcarclub.com.au
|
|
Sept 21
|
*PIARC Sprint meeting at Phillip
Island
|
www.piarc.com.au
|
|
Sept 28
|
M.G. Car Club Club challenge
Round 2 at Rob Roy Hill Climb
|
www.mgcc.com.au
|
|
Oct 3/4
|
*Winton Historic Motoring Festival –
Group S, Marque Sports and Regularity
|
www.wintonmotorraceway.com.au
|
|
Oct 19
|
*MSCA Round 8 at Sandown
|
www.msca.net.au
|
|
Oct 25
|
Winton 6 Hour Relay Race
|
|
|
Nov 7 – 9
|
*Historic Sandown
|
www.vhrr.com
|
*Events count toward AHOC Championship
Bill Vaughan is competing in his Sprite
at the Historic meeting at Warwick (Qld) on August 9/10. He is visiting his grandchildren in Toowoomba
and thought he might as well take the Sprite along. Good one Bill!
COMPETITION REPORTS
MSCA Round 5 Sandown June
22nd
Does anyone else wake up to Ross
Stevenson and John Burns on 3AW? Our
Sandown experience was like their ‘Grouse or S’house segment after the 6.30 am news!
Grouse was the fantastic entry of
10 Team Healey drivers plus my good friend Colin Wallace (Sprite Club). Colin has joined us at Calder and now Sandown
and has been welcomed as part of our group.
Now I will have to get him to join our Club.
S’house was the weather – wet and
cool for the 3rd event in a row.
Those who stayed late got a run in the (relative) dry. The first two sessions were wet and
slippery.
Grouse was the sight of 8 Big
Healeys and 3 Sprites sharing adjoining pit garages with the Club banner flying
outside. Inside was a feeling of
camaraderie that made the day a pleasure for all of us even when the track
activity was a little s’house. We had
the urn boiling for the arrival of our supporters, with various goodies, for
morning tea. Reeeeeally grouse!
Results:
a) Regularity
(16 competitors)
|
Driver
|
MSCA
Position
|
AHOC
points
|
Fastest
Lap
|
|
Bill Vaughan
|
2
|
628
|
1.57.41
|
|
Tim Westover
|
5
|
785
|
2.05.81
|
|
Bill Petschack
|
9
|
730
|
2.05.14
|
|
Rob Raverty
|
10
|
688
|
2.07.64
|
|
Leon O’Brien
|
11
|
493
|
2.16.39
|
|
Rod Vogt
|
14
|
734
|
1.46.12
|
|
Cary Helenius
|
15
|
581
|
2.16.64
|
A difficult day for scoring in Regularity with two wet
sessions and a much faster 3rd (dry) session for those who stayed to
the end. S’house was the confusion late
in the day when the call was made for all drivers to line up at random for
final runs. Not wanting to mix it in
sprint groups, some Regularity drivers called it a day. Then the 3rd Regularity run was
unexpectedly reinstated, so some missed out.
Also a difficult day to put together consistent fast runs which is
reflected in the fairly low scores towards the AHOC Competition Championship.
Tim and Bill P did not do the dry run.
b) Sprint
Class D 2500cc – 3500cc (16 competitors)
|
Driver
|
MSCA
Position
|
AHOC
points
|
Fastest
Lap
|
|
Peter Jackson
|
2
|
725
|
1.31.68
|
|
Geoff Leake
|
11
|
805
|
1.49.66
|
|
Russell Baker
|
15
|
