It was All British time at Wakefield Park near Goulburn NSW over the weekend of 28th – 29th June with a Super Sprint hosted by the Austin Healey Owners club of NSW held on the Saturday, and an All British race meeting held on the Sunday.The Sprint was a round of the CSCA for all participating NSW clubs, but with the All British race day following, it was an opportunity for all competitors to enjoy two days at the track.

Trevor Lindsay (GT6), Rod Carey (AMI Spitfire) and Roger Lange (GT6) travelled from SA to compete with their support crew, pit garage heater and coffee machine. Richard Sutherland and his brother Don travelled in Richard’s TR4A to experience the sights and sounds of Wakefield Park as well.Saturday was a chance to practice this beautiful and fun circuit – weather was fine (some would say warm compared to past years!) and it was great to see and hear some wonderful machinery going fast.

Apart from the Triumphs, Jaguars seen included an awesome E Type race car, a brand new “C” type replica, there were lots of lovely Healeys, Mini’s, and a gaggle of other marques. Trevor posted FTD with an impressive performance that set the scene for race day on Sunday. Roger sorted out some handling issues to finish the day without a spin and looking forward to Sunday, as was Rod Carey, with the new motor in his Spitfire going well.

Qualifying for the All Triumph events saw Trevor on Pole, Roger in P4 and Rod some way further down the field amongst Triumphs of similar performance. Race 1 results were pretty much as we started, and this set the grid for the All Triumph Trophy race – an 8 lap affair. At the drop of the flag, Trevor took off like a startled rabbit and was never headed, taking a convincing win. Roger hounded the Wards TR7V8 and Morsillo Dolly Sprint Turbo for a lap or two, but just couldn’t keep up, and settled for fourth. Rod enjoyed some spirited dicing with a couple of other Triumphs, and had a good result down the order.

Vibrations in the drive train saw Roger withdraw his GT6 from further competition in the All Marque races, after qualifying in P6. Trevor took Pole in the Division 1 group, and once again showed the combined field a clean pair of heals to win both races. Rod started his first Division 2 group race down the order, but by the end of the 6 lap Trophy Race, and after passing a Jaguar XJS race car in the process, pulled off an amazing second place. You just couldn’t wipe the smile off his face! And to top off a great weekend for Triumphs at Wakefield Park, Andy Ansell from Victoria (TR7) took the Regularity event from a combined field.

Thanks to Rod Chivas (NSW) for his enthusiasm in encouraging people to enter these events and for chasing up sponsors, and also to those sponsors for their support – Noel Anderson from Sports Car Spares in Sydney, and Pitstop Bookshop, Perth.Have a look at Richard Sutherland’s photos that have been posted on the TSOA website.

Neil Martin has been active representing TSOA and Triumph in the Austin 7 Club Regularity series at Mallala, posting some credible results in the process. In a large field of some 20+ cars, Neil placed 2nd, 10th, 4th and 5th over the four runs held on June 29th, and based on the limited information contained on the Natsoft website, enjoyed a 4th and a 1st for the two early runs on July 20th.

Upcoming events include

Aug 3               Hillclimb, Multi Club                                         Collingrove      SCCSA

Aug 17             Super Sprint, Round 3                                    Mallala             MSCA

Aug 23-24        SA Race Championships, Rd 3                       Mallala             SCCSA

Aug 31             Hillclimb, Winter Cup Rd 3                              Collingrove       SCCSA

Also coming up is the MSCA Twilight Sprint, scheduled for Saturday Sept 13th. This year, the MSCA has agreed to try something different during the tea break. This period of approx two hours has traditionally seen a fun competition of a four car, one lap relay event between clubs, but support for this has waned over recent years. So this year, the tea break period will provide an opportunity for non-sprinters to have a go – a “come and try” event.

The idea is for small groups of just 4 cars or less to complete laps of the circuit with an experienced sprinter as a coach / guide at no more than 80% speed to provide people who may be interested in seeing what sprinting is all about, but haven’t summoned the courage to enter an event. No special preparation is needed – just a helmet if you have one, or borrow one if not. Full neck to knee clothing of a non flammable type is required, and proper shoes.  If you are interested (places will be limited to the first 20 applicants) contact the MSCA’s Sue Stephenson on 8357 5362 to register your interest.

That’s enough from me . . . . see you trackside!

Roger