Last weekend I competed at the Winton Historic Motor Festival at which
Austin Healey
was the featured Marque (celebrating 50 years since the debut of the 100/4
at the
London Motor Show).
There was an excellent turnout of both big (14 cars) and little Austin
Healeys (and
MG Midgets in disguise!) (10 cars) for the AH races (3 races - 1 on Sat, 2
on Sun).
Winton is an interesting mix of tight/twisty with a couple of long
straights. So the
spridgets are *much* faster on the twisty bits but the faster big Healeys
just blow
us spridgets away on the straights.
The trick is not to get stuck behind the big Healeys once you get into the
twisty bits
or your lap times suffer badly!
I finished 3rd spridget, 2nd spridget, 4th spridget in each of the races
(1st in class
in all three races; 6th outright, 5th outright, 7th outright respectively).
The one
thing that was very clear is that my rally motor just doesn't cut the
mustard. It
doesn't pull over 6500rpm. My old race motor kept developing power up to
8000rpm.
I got to dice with a number of other well setup spridgets on the same tyres
and with
good drivers. While I could eek out a small lead through the twisty stuff,
they
just blew me away on the straights and my lead was not enough to hold them
out even
if I held the inside approach (they merely drive right around me and then
take the
inside line into the corner).
Luckily, I can change this before the next meeting since the emphasis on
mid-range was
achieved by playing with cam timing of a fullrace cam. So I have higher
hopes for the
next event at Sandown in Nov.
In addition to the races, there was a AH parade, and a regularity event at
which a
number historic Healeys competed in. These included the LeMans Sprite and
the LeMans
SR, a number of other historically significant cars were there and a very
large number
of big Healeys were on display.
On Sat night, we had a catered formal dinner at the track's corporate
entertainment
facility -- 100 people there to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the AH.
We had competitors from all over Australia -- Western Australia, Queensland,
NSW, and
of course Victoria. It was great to see. The Healey races are always
friendly (but deadly
competitive!) and this meeting was no exception.
Only a couple of incidents -- Mike Broso's 3000 threw a timing chain in
qualifying
(end of the weekend for him), in race 1 Tim Pyne slid his BJ8 into a flag
marshalling
point after losing control in the esses (panel damage all down one side). He
managed to
get back on the track in races 2 & 3. His car is the fastest thing in a
straight line.
Awesome. Bret McManus's midget destroyed a throwout bearing. My 2nd spare
was used to
get him back on the track for race 3 (he finished 4th outright and 1st
spridget in race 3).
That is the 2nd of my spare throwout bearings that have got other cars going
in 2 race
meetings! At least Mike Trathen was on my team, Brett went and beat me in
this race --
how outrageous! :-)
I left my camera behind, but I'll see if I can drag up some photos from
other folk and
I'll post them (I'll send out separate mail if I can get some photos)
Mike
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