Well, the 2013 Spring Wakefield Park meeting has been run and won and despite our concerns about low entries our JKL group was well represented with 30 cars from all over the east coast.
Great to see our interstate mates make the trip. In all 9 from Victoria, Samantha Dymond, Brian Simpson, Shane Bowden, Dick O’Keefe, Peter McKnight, Terry White, Tony Osborne, John Anderson, and Peter Statton, plus Peter Yeomans from Queensland made the long drive to Goulburn and they, along with the regular NSW/ACT competitors all had a great weekend.
It was great to see Les Wright once again invited to join the group in the mighty Group M Dalro Jag and he kept all those at the pointy end of the grid on their toes for the weekend. Grant Craft is really coming to grips with the Sharp Holden with a fine 1st in the 10 lap feature race on Sunday and the Brian Simpson/Cooper Jap combination seem to find the tighter Wakefield layout to their liking with some great times and a 3rd outright (2nd in Lb).
Good dices right through the field as well with Shane Bowden’s Prad 5, Dick O’Keefe’s Photon Special, Warwick McBean’s Lolus and Dick Willis in the Nota Major locking horns all weekend with lap times all within a few 10ths in most races. Paul Armstrong’s Jewitt Holden was kept very honest by Peter McKnight in the Aarons Special.
There were as usual a few issues around the pits as cars fell by the wayside.
I have already enlisted those who competed at the meeting to give me a brief account of their weekend’s activity in the pits as it’s not always easy to catch up with all and find out what’s happening during the weekend’s activities. This was a great idea from Derry Greeneklee and I would like to make it a regular part of the newsletter, so after every meeting I will ask those competitors to give me a little feedback about how they fared over the meeting and hopefully this will bring a bit more to the news for all to share.
Having said that please feel free to keep me up to date anytime with any newsworthy items that may be of interest to the group. Give me a call and say hi or send an email.
So, when things go array and problems and failures happen to our precious machines it really is the pits, so I think the new segment should be fore with known as “It’s The Pits”. That’s the best I can do for now so here we go.
Samantha Dymond had a bad case of the giddies after going around and around a few times in practice. A porous cylinder head leaking oily water out the exhaust and under the rear wheels was the culprit and the beaut little Lola was out for the weekend. Sam was pretty optimistic about her chances over the weekend as team Penrite had just given the Lola a big freshen up in the motor department and it is well suited to the tight Wakefield layout so she was pretty disappointed that she only managed a few practice laps and had to retire for the weekend. I believe the Lola will be back in action early in the New Year.
The ever present John Medley managed a new first by not breaking a motor or gearbox, but instead picking on the rear trailing arm to cause him some concern for most of Saturday. A broken ball joint in the locating arm that holds the rear live axle in place was the issue and thanks to the help of our old mate Howard Tucker from Wagga Wagga, Johnno managed to secure the rear axle for the races on Sunday.
Peter Cohen started out in practice in the HRB clubman by breaking a LH rear axle on the 7th lap. He tells me that with the help of his new found pit crew they had the diff centre out and all back together again in 2 hours, missing only missed 1 race and thoroughly enjoying the rest of the weekend.
Peter McKnight in the Aarons Lotus went to start the motor for the Saturday arvo race only to find fuel pouring out from under the car. Not able to fix the problem he missed the race but managed to secure the line and was going fine on Sunday morning.
I had a run in brother David’s Faux Pas in the last race on Saturday and was having a ball driving from the rear of the grid until the gear linkage parted from the gearbox and I had a gear change so that put an end to my race for the day. An easy fix with a few new pop rivets had Dave back in action on Sunday morning and he ran very strongly all weekend albeit hampered by having to start from near the back of the grid due to a mix up with the grid sheets for the last race on Sunday. No complaints though, as we know how hard all our officials work for us and I know they were really under the pump for the weekend.
It wasn’t all bad news that has filtered back to me as Brian Simpson reported. The Derry Greeneklee Mk.9 Cooper JAP which Brian was driving had a trouble free weekend. Now fitted with some demon compound brake linings (he tells me that he is happy to supply at $ 3000.00 per set to any other LB competitors!) and 2 new rear tyres meant the car braked and cornered superbly all weekend. Currently the engine is out for a peep inside to see that all is still well and the Norton gearbox has had an overhaul too, so we look forward to seeing that combination back soon.
Dicky Willis tells me he had a trouble free weekend in the Nota Major but was complaining loudly about needing more grunt. Don’t we all Dick, it’s nothing that money can’t fix.
And that brings me to the latest creation of that master of the pre war special, Frank Cuttell. Franky has been fettling away at his ¾ sized ERA look alike for some time and the wait has been well worth it. Without a doubt his best effort yet, this black beauty is based around a 6 cylinder supercharged Armstrong Siddeley with the obligatory pre selector gearbox, went like a charm for most of the weekend. The only gremlin slowing his weekend was a rear axle coming adrift from the housing late on Saturday, which was successfully secured for Sunday’s action. Gradually over the course of the weekend Franky cranked up the rev limiter and his own courage to have some beaut dices with Richard Longes Bugatti Type 35A and Tony Osborne’s Riley Special. He was also turning out some smart lap times and The SAS Armstrong Siddeley will only be more competitive as Franky fine tunes things and is a very welcome addition to the group, well done Frank.
Coming up is the first summer meeting at Eastern Creek (sorry Sydney Motor Sport Park) to be held on 23rd and 24th November. Entries are open and the old GP circuit will be used not the newer long circuit.
Rees Mackay has his MGTB for sale. This is a fully registered road car, which is an excellent base for development as a racing car, as the engine and radiator is back and down with a light all steel body. If anyone looking for a project Rees can be contacted at realmac@spin.net.au .
Finally, thanks to all those who have sent their notes (emails) of encouragement and support at my appointment as your HSRCA JKL registrar. It’s been great to hear from so many and it will spur me on in the cause of promoting our favourite group and keeping you all in the loop as to what’s on and what’s happened. So if you have any goss or interesting items let me know and I’ll spread the news.
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