“Dripfeed” NEWSLETTER OF THE BANKS PENINSULA BRANCH OF THE VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF New Zealand (INC) VOLUME 45, No 10 November 2022. Editor: Michael Williams 10 Selwyn Parade Lyttelton Ph 328 8043, email mimiandmichael@yahoo.co.nz
Chairman: Secretary:
Club Officers: Craig Keenan 322 1006 Ron Hasell 942 1105
Branch Address: 27 Showgate Ave, ChCh 8042 E-mail: bankspeninsula@vcc.org.nz Noggin & Natter: 2nd Thursday of the Month • Noggin 7.30 pm at the Papanui RSA. Upham Room – enter either from 55 Bellvue Ave or the first entrance on the left on Harewood Road (Papanui / Main North Road) • Thursday 10th of November • We look forward to seeing you there. Supper is provided.
From the Editor: I’ve just returned from a great day out at the Hawkswood Sprint, some 20k north of Cheviot, and what a splendid day it was. About half of the field were VCC members, and a majority of them performed with great distinction. Dunedin members Paul Coghill, Triumph Vitesse, and David Hunter, MGBV8, had long felt that Hawkswood was on their bucket list, so these hardy southern men made the trek north in their British hotrods, and thoroughly enjoyed their day. David’s MGBV8, which he bought at a ridiculously low price after all the hard work had been done, has had some very effective development over the years, and is a very fast example. On his final run, David was about a third of a second slower than a McLaren, which given their relative values, is quite remarkable. In order to shave off that vital fraction of a second, David intends to undertake a rigorous fitness regime and thus shave off some equally vital kilos to lighten the load. William Noordanus in his much modified Mk 2 3.8 Jaguar won the Ray Archibald Trophy for the fastest Jag, beating Bert Govan’s E Type as well as four other Mk 2s and an XK 140. William, a solid specimen, is also thinking about a rigorous fitness regime in order to lose those vital kilos and thus stay ahead of the prowling pack. His support team included his father and his son, so having three generations involved is a lovely thing. The winner was a hot red Porsche, followed closely by Mark Scott in the ex Whittaker TVR, with Paul McCulla in his Peugeot 205 GTi rally car, another David and Goliath result. There was a suggestion at the prize giving that red cars be banned from winning, to stop those pesky Porsches, but Bert
Govan, who is having his famous red Mk 2 Jag rebuilt for about the twentieth time, registered a protest which it is hoped that the organisers will ignore. New member Neil Kay in his 1965 Mallock U2 Mk IV had a closer look at parts of the undergrowth than is generally recommended, but I’m sure he’ll have this delightful car ready for the Skope meeting. A much more serious incident occurred when one of the spectators, who shall be nameless, cut her hand with a cheese knife when organising lunch, so the ambulance people had something to do for once. No cheese was harmed during this incident. Motor Sport can be dangerous....... I was standing at the coffee cart with Michael Pidgeon when the genial Mark Scott of TVR fame came up and introduced himself. ‘”Michael Pidgeon? Are you Craig’s father?”, he innocently asked. The look on Michael’s face was indescribable. So young Craig is now bouncing round with child like vigour on his Raleigh 20, and dear old Michael is looking at retirement villages. Hawkswood has been going for nearly twenty years, thanks to the initiative of Jeremy Stace, who knew the local landowners, the Macfarlane family, and was able to persuade them to lend a paddock or two to act as the pit area. Jeremy, in his wonderful silver grey E type, has competed at Hawkswood every year since inception, but this year alas, he was a spectator. At the Wigram revival meeting at Ruapuna, just as he was lining up for his first race, an errant valve decided to break free from its proper place and do a great deal of damage to the rest of the motor in its quest for freedom. So Jeremy has decided to hang up his helmet, bringing to a close 43 years of motor racing in his distinctive E Type. For those of us who have been going to Ruapuna for that time, the E type has been part of the furniture. In the early days of racing, both at Ruapuna and Wings and Wheels at Wigram, the E Type was reasonably standard, and always near the front of the field, but over the years, as the competition caught up, extensive modifications have been made, to say the very least, so that it is one of the fastest racing E Types around. Jeremy is a very smooth driver, with a very low error rate and a very strong competitive spirit, and I’m sure his exploits have given his legion of fans as much pleasure as he has had from his years of motorsport involvement. I remember him debating whether to put new “sticky tyres” on but when he did so, lap times came down considerably. The Etype will not go into a gentle retirement, as once the necessary repair/rebuild is completed, son Tim will carry on the family tradition in this wonderful car, which is probably one of the most consistently raced E Types in the world. He’s got a hard act to follow. Don Gerard was lucky enough to be at the Goodwood Revival meeting recently, and wanted me to share with you all that the featured marque this year was the Austin 7. Given that it is the centenary of these dear little cars, fifty of them did some laps of honour, cheered on no doubt, by the adoring throng. Remarkably, only two broke down, finding the hill on the circuit just a little too steep. Club pedant and member of the Flat Earth Society Peter Croft was returning from the branch run to “Foxdown” recently when his Alvis 12/50 ceased forward motion just near Amberley. Consternation!! Other passing members were recruited to help solve what appeared to be quite a complex problem, and the long suffering Kate settled in for what looked to be a long wait. After various possible solutions were tried and found wanting, a younger member of the support team suggested that perhaps the contents of the petrol tank was less than should be, i.e. completely empty. This was indeed the case. Old dogs new tricks etc etc. The Foster family of Terrace Station near Hororata enjoyed the memorial picnic for Richard so much that they have suggested we make this an annual event to remember Richard, a lovely offer that we are very happy to accept.
Future Events Peninsula Run, 20th of November. Meet at the Tai Tapu cafe at 9.30am, ready for a 10.00am start. Brian Smith and Digby Gemmell have been searching out some peninsula roads less travelled, so bring your lunch for what is always a very enjoyable day.
New Years Day Picnic, Little River Domain. Pomeroy Trophy, Wednesday 11th of January. This was the only slot we could get, and we know that a weekday is not ideal for many of you. At this stage fifteen keen punters have entered, but we do need more to make it all worthwhile. Get in touch with Ron for entry details etc. Just to encourage entries, I will not be entering my Citroen this year. After winning the Pom for the last three years, I feel it only fair that some lesser marques be given the chance to win this most hallowed of all branch trophies. I will however be the suitcase monitor again, and look forward to seeing if a Lotus can actually take two cases. Tracey was cross, to put it mildly, last time, so I’m sure she’ll have a creative solution.
National Veteran Rally, 24th – 26th of February 2023. To be held at Tuakau, Franklin, 56 km south of Auckland. Enquiries: barrybirchall@xtra.co.nz
National Motorcycle Rally, 3rd – 6th of February 2023. WWW.SPORTY.CO.NZ/NATIONALMOTORCYCLERALLY. or the Rally Coordinator; glenys@apprenticeships.net 021 388649.
Past Events. The Wigram Revival. Words and photos by Don Gerrard
The Wigram Revival Race Meeting held at Ruapuna a couple of weekends ago was not particularly well attended by spectators but all of the nine classes yielded good numbers and the weather gods played their part with warm and blustery conditions allowing excellent close racing. Our VCC grid had 16 cars to face the starter and good to see some new car/driver combinations with an outing for the 1951 Citroen Spyder Special piloted by young Ethan Kemp from Dunedin ( grandson of Ralph Smith/Lycoming) who with every race got quicker and quicker. Neil Kay in the Mallock IV has moved from the Formula Libre class to our ranks and thoroughly enjoyed himself at the sharp end of the field all weekend. Unfortunately, Stephen Beattie in his beautifully prepared Beattie LT16, which could be easily mistaken for a Lola Formula Junior suffered internal engine gremlins and Graeme Hamilton in the ACE III was not happy with some suspension tweaks so withdrew from proceedings. After the first race it was obvious that the Barrett Equipe was going to be the cars to beat, both clocking an identical
1.42sec lap. Sure enough this was proved correct with each taking either first or second places in the 4 races - Tracey in her Lotus 23C Rep and Mark in his 23B Rep. Jim Bennett in the Furi Impulse was always in contention too, likewise new man Neil Kay in his rapid Mallock. The next three-car battle was between Brian Ashworth SP250, John McDonagh's Mistral and the Spangeralli Holden of Bill Cowie with the grunt of the 8 & 6 cylinder cars just managing to stay ahead of the Mistral. Russ Haines had a patchy weekend in the MGV8 with a few fuel issues, but when on song was mixing it nicely with the others. The mid-field too were having great dices all meeting, Paul Tayler's Mistral fending off Don Ammon's Vanguard 6 Special who in turn had to watch his mirrors from Don Gerrard's inquisitive Mistral. Peter Leversedge made the Stuart Special as wide as possible on the track for the Citroen Spyder, but the young gun soon worked out a strategy to pass and climbed up through the field for a successful Mighty Mallock, pre Hawkswood weekend's work. A pity the MGA of Greg Noller had to call it an early day with no spark coming from #4 cylinder but he will be back at the Skope Meeting, 3/4/5/ February next year along with, as our branch snoope informs us at least another four new cars to add to our ranks - one being a Southland built Special with loads of racing history. Watch this space!
Hawkswood Photos – by John MacDonald
Mark Barrett Lotus 7 Series 1
Good Southern Man, Paul Coghill, pressing on.
Tim Evans in the Italian job
Winner of the Ray Archibold trophy, William Noordanus, MkII Jaguar
Mark Scott, TVR Tuscon
Rod Corbett - Targa Master
'Young' Craig, still on a restricted license
Peter Leversedge, looking for the cinders