club.liberty.asn.au

I've put in fairly consistent performances in the first three events that count for the year, and my opposition have had a little bad luck, which all contributed to me being the current outright championship leader.

That is from:
7th outright in an economy run in January
8th outright in a motorkhana in February, and
3rd outright in an Autokhana in May
(the Concours in April doesn't count towards the Outright Championship)

http://www.mgcc.com.au/competition/2013 ... ht04.shtml

Congrats Ric!

Keep up the good work!

What's the prize? Or is it bragging rights?

jakey wrote:...
What's the prize? Or is it bragging rights?

Bragging rights, the right to wear #1 on your car for the following year, and this trophy

We had another three events over the Queen's Birthday weekend. (Two on Sat, and one on Sun)
My outright placings were:
Calder Sprint: 14th,
Calder Regularity: 8th
Rob Roy Hillclimb: 14th

Still, I only slipped to second place outright, to last year's winner who has an MGB GT (with a much beefier engine than mine).
I'm pretty sure I will beat him in the next two events!

I videoed most of the runs. Here's a couple from the race track, and one from the hillclimb.
(FYI, I broke my own personal best at Rob Roy, trimming it from 29.00 down to 28.69 seconds.)

Calder Session #3

(FYI, I'm doing about 105mph = 170 km/h at the end of the main straight into turn #1. The tacho is well into the red line at that point, but I only have four gears. Another gear would let me get a bit quicker )

Calder Session #6


Rob Roy Run #1


(Note, these are all HD vids. You can see them at full resolution by clicking through to Youtube)

... and some pics of me at the Calder Sprint

My god, it's beautiful!


My Auntie-in-law races old Minis, which I have gone to see a few times, they are a hoot as well. She was National champ for a few years there.

There is nothing like vintage racing!

and after 8 events..... I'm back in the lead
http://www.mgcc.com.au/competition/2013 ... ht08.shtml

The most recent event was an "OST", which is slow driving on slippery grass around numbered poles.
I came 8th outright, but could have done much better if I didn't have a momentary brain-fade on the second out of 4 courses.

After 9 events, I'm further in the lead. http://www.mgcc.com.au/competition/2013 ... ht09.shtml

There was another OST last weekend, on a farm up at Macedon.
I had another brain fade on the second course, and hit an easy post at #5.
I thought I had thrown the championship away right there, but I had incredible runs on the 4th and 5th courses, blitzing the field and coming second outright.
( would have won easily if I'd not mucked up the second course)

Anyway, that gives me 19 points, which gives me a good buffer for the upcoming events which will favour the faster cars.

I have GoPro vids of all 5 patterns, I'll get some up on YouTube soon.

Is there a gallery of these old cars anywhere?

Oh, and congrats!

Well done Ric!
BTW, you always appear so relaxed in your competition photos. Perhaps this is what gives you your winning edge?

lump_a_charcoal wrote:Is there a gallery of these old cars anywhere?...

The full Gallery of the photos from the Rob Roy OST is at http://gallery.mgcc.info/2013-rrost/index.htm
There's a few of me on pages 2 and 3.

Ric wrote:

lump_a_charcoal wrote:Is there a gallery of these old cars anywhere?...

The full Gallery of the photos from the Rob Roy OST is at http://gallery.mgcc.info/2013-rrost/index.htm
There's a few of me on pages 2 and 3.

I have never really liked the soft top MGs, but your tin top is sublime! Please never crash it.

lump_a_charcoal wrote:... Please never crash it.

Too late.
#1 May 2010 Left-side damaged by sliding into a ditch at Bryant Park (Haunted Hills Hillclimb)
viewtopic.php?p=124595#p124595


#2 Feb 2012 Right-side damaged by clipping the Armco at the Attwood Police Driver training facility




but at least the paintwork on all four mudguards is fairly good now, as they have all been repainted in the last three years

Here's videos.

Just a reminder, the aim in an OST is to pass as many numbered poles as possible.
As soon as you stop moving forwards, or touch a pole, your run is over.
The courses are always set on slippery grass and mud, with several corners that can only just be negotiated on full lock.
(Sometimes you simply cannot make it on full lock, but it can be done by sliding the back around...)
In a RWD car, full-lock makes the front wheels push back against movement, much like a snow-plow when you're skiing.
Again, sliding the back around may let you straighten the front wheels up, and keep moving.

This is the fourth course. I was the very first car to try this course. I hate that, it's much better to be able to see where a few other cars strike problems first!
In this case, I think it worked to my benefit, as the mud around pole #10 got worse as each car tried to pass it.
So, everyone saw me successfully do the whole course, then car after car hit pole #10.
In the end, only three cars (me included) made it past all 21 poles.

This guy is normally very good, but luck was against him today


An MGB. I discussed with this chap before he ran, exactly how I did it. He tried to do the same, but didn't quite pull it off...


The MX5 made it past #10, but ran out of traction getting up the hill


and finally me. Note, this was done BEFORE all the other cars tried it.


(You can see all these vids in HD by clicking through to YouTube.)
Final results are at http://www.mgcc.com.au/competition/2013-comp09.shtml Scroll down to the bottom for the outright order.

and then the 5th (and final) course for the day.
The first bit, up to pole #10 looks easy, but many people got stuck through there.
Then after pole#14, you had to do a sharp right hand turn straight back up the hill again. Everyone who got that far hit pole #15.
At about 52 seconds, you see me reach down to pull on the handbrake briefly.
The back of the car slides around a little, but not nearly enough.
I then bring on the power, and the back beautifully slides around to face me up the hill.
The problem now is that my back wheels are spinning quickly, and I'm just slowly edging forward. I get up enough speed to briefly drop the clutch and let the back wheels get traction again, and drive through the last couple of poles.