2007
Historic Sandown Race Report
The
biggest Historic Sandown boasting more then 360 competition cars was
recently held in front of a huge crowd. The organisers – VHRR
and MG Car Club paid tribute on Sunday 11 November with a truly inspiring
Remembrance Day service, with our most decorated returned soldier
Squadron Leader Tony Gaze DFC OAM reading the tribute.
This
year marked a tribute to the Mighty Mustang. There were over 40 Mustang’s
that competed throughout the weekend, spread across Group N, Group
A and regularity classes. Not to mention a fine display of pristine
vehicles from the Mustang Owners Club of Victoria.
First
Green race meeting
Earlier
this year committeeman Nev Butler had some spare time, found his green
thumb, did some calculations and presented a case to one of the committee
meetings. The calculations were based on the burning rate of fuel
during the race meeting as an average over all entrants. The committee
made a decision to donate a portion of all entries to Greenfleet who
then essentially plant a certain number of trees to compensate for
the emissions resulting from the weekend.
Committee
involvement
At
this year’s event almost the entire race committee and even
some of the commentators took their cars to the tarmac. Mike Devine
raced his superb Lotus Super 7, Eddie Dobbs and Bill Cutler competed
in Group N in FE Holden and BMW 2002 respectively, Ian McLennan and
VHRR President Ian Tate shared the Bocar in both regularity and race
and Nev Butler took his Ford Falcon to the track in Group C.
Ron
Simmonds got back into the swing of driving a car at speed competing
in the regularity in his Mini Cooper, whilst fellow commentator Charles
Rogers circulated in his MGB GT. The meetings Clerk of Course, David
Vernall let son Paul keep the family name on the track in their MGB,
and Chairman Noel Robson handed the steering wheel of the Lola T332
F5000 to son Andrew.
Group
S
Since
the introduction of the Sc class a few years back we have seen a number
of later model vehicles take to the track. During this time one person
has experimented with a De Tomaso Pantera, Ross Jackson. Now, this
car is very well set up and has won the VHRR club championship. At
Sandown we witnessed four of these mighty powerful cars – the
word has got out, there is a Porsche beater!
Perry
Spiridis (former Porsche state sports car driver) dominated the weekend
in his GTS De Tomaso. In the second race Perry streaked the field,
the battle for the minor placing fought between Ross Jackson, Stan
Adler (Porsche), Michael Bryne (Lotus Super 7 S4) and Phil Verwoert
(RS Carrera), all acknowledging the chequered flag within a second
of each other.
Group
J, K & L
Don
Thallon chose to bring the Lister Jaguar from his Queensland collection
as it favours the fast Sandown track. Little did he know that Ian
Tate is now becoming quite accustomed to Dean Butler’s Bocar,
and they fought out a feature race battle Sunday afternoon. Samantha
Dymond impressed in the Lola Mk1, and maybe next year will make this
a three car battle at the front
Formula
Ford
Reynard
was the chassis to have this weekend with Jonathon Miles and Nick
Lubransky holding off tough competition from Andrew McInnes and his
Lola T644. The Formula Ford’s provided some of the most exhilarating
races of the weekend with numerous battles throughout the 25 strong
field.
VACC
F5000 + sports & racing cars
The
weekend got off to a bang in this group with a major startline incident
between Rusty French and Andrew Robson. Rusty got an absolute blinder
of a start in his 800 horsepower Porsche 935 sports car, went for
a gap between the Veskanda of John Briggs and the Lola of Andrew Robson’s
mis-calculating and ripped a wheel off the Lola.
The
race was re-started, and with it started the domination of the Veskanda
sports car. Darcy Russell finished the weekend in his Lola T330 with
a very strong second place in what is the cars second only race meeting
in the past 10 years. Aaron Lewis contributed strongly to the 5000
numbers with both the Matich A50 and Chevron B34, but one minor over-sight
can cost a race. This happened in the final race when a rear wheel
dis-lodged on pit straight – the cause, no holding pin on the
wheel hub.
Group
M & O Sports & Racing
A
great combination in this category saw Richard Carter and Laurie Bennetts
(both in Elfin 600’s) going wheel-to-wheel with the door handles
of Max Warwick’s McLaren M1A across the weekend until a mechanical
problem finished Laurie’s weekend before race 3.
The
next combination was between Max Brunninghausen (Chevron B8) and Bob
Cracknell – Elfin 600B who swapped minor places in each event.
Notable mention must be made to the appearance of the Dizane families
Alexis Mk6, which was successfully driven by Michael Russo.
Invited
fields
The
VHRR race committee invited two categories to the meeting, MG’s
and Sports Sedans. The Sports Sedans showed with a number of the national
cars, which circulate Sandown faster and more spectacular then a V8
Supercar. The MG category provided its usual mix between the highly
modifies “open class” cars with a large contingement holding
historic log books. Of note was NSW entrant Geoff Pike who drove his
4 cylinder MGB like no tomorrow keeping up with the more powerful
MGB GT V8 of Rosemary Trevethan, and some 8 seconds in front of the
next historic log booked car.
Closing
remarks
The
meeting was held under spectacular sunshine with a strong crowd making
the journey, particularly on Sunday when one could’ve heard
a pin drop during the Remembrance Day service.
