One of the highlights of our day at Round 2 of the Rob Roy Interclub challenge was Graeme Edwards cracking a PB of 25.42 on his last run for the day after edging closer and closer all day.  With a grin from ear to ear he made the point that that was the fastest a Clio has ever gone up Rob Roy.  He’s also decided that the money he spent on new tyres was well spent – up till now he was thinking they were a bit pricey!  Given that Graeme has been a serious hillclimb competition driver for years, to get a PB is quite a bonus for his day out.  That PB also earned him a 1st in class.

Another highlight – David Bertuch’s tussle with a seriously kitted out Ford Focus. Fractions of seconds separated them for most of the day with the pair alternating best times as they both steadily improved their times.  David’s scorching 24.90 in the last run sealed victory over the Focus for him, and 1st in class too. And David was second fastest on the day, beaten for that by a full on post-1960 racing car.

Not to take away from the skill, and courage, of Graeme and David but I suspect the magnificent weather (for this time of year) helped by keeping a little warmth in the track to the end, though it was starting to cool down quickly. Let that be a lesson to us – get the the start grid early in the later run as your competitors after you will get a cooler conditions, and go out at the end of the class in the first runs for the same reason. When there’s fractions of seconds separating cars every little bit helps.

The RCCV crew contesting Round 2 of the Rob Roy Interclub included a few new players for the club. With the exception of Ian giving his R12 a taste of competition, they all fielded Clios of one kind of another. Rui did the Come and Try at Rob Roy last September then took the first opportunity to compete whereas James T skipped the Come and Try option leaping straight into competition – either way both are new members of the club getting into motor sport right up front. Our other new Interclub contributors, James M, Wes G and Adam T, come from a familiarity with track days. Also there on the day, enjoying the Come and Try was new member Joel Joseph. So that’s seven members that Rob Roy hasn’t seen before.

All of the new drivers showed big improvements in times over the day, slicing 2 or 3, even 4 seconds off each run. Naturally, that made them feel good and they were all having a ball.

John turned in his usual enviable performance, maybe that’s just me envying his Alpine!  It’s a tough  class for the 3000cc and over and that might have kept him out of the points. It was good to see Glenn getting his times back up again in his Megane, at least as far as it seems his tyres will let him.  Peter, also in a Megane, was getting similar times to Glenn.

The introduction of the under 1000cc class this round gave me, I thought, the best opportunity I was ever going to get of winning a class. Various circumstances had conspired to keep other potential candidates from our club from entering this round. But, would you believe it, a VW Up entered – 999cc of sophisticated modern engine up against my 50yr old 845cc design engine.  I wasn’t so much disappointed by not having a chance at getting first in class as I was at not being able to claim I was ‘in a class of my own’ and pointing out that a first in class was also the slowest car up the hill!

More pictures are available from our friend David Branch.

It was a busy day with 80 competitors plus the come and try class. A usual it was slickly run by the MGCC – our thanks to them – and only one incident requiring the recovery vehicle, with no real damage to the driver, to mar the smooth running.

After Round 1, we were tied with the MGCC and we hoped to take a bit of a lead in Round 2.  While the results are not out yet, from our informal count it looks like the MGCC have done somewhat better than us.

There were four classes in which we didn’t have anybody and the MGCC did well in each of those. Three of the classes – Clubman and pre & post 160 racing – we aren’t ever going to have a candidate in and as they are all small classes (3, 4 entrants) whichever club is in them gets easy points. Which is just an added challenge for us.

full scores are available from the Rob Roy website here

The third and final round is on October 1st – put it in your calendar, and I’ll see you there.

by Geoff Rasmussen

No fools on the track

Our second track day for the year was on April 1st – is that for real was the question asked more than once during the announcement and entry period. But, yes, it was real.  Thanks to the Maserati Club again who were the organisers of the day, nearly a dozen club members had an excellent time at Sandown. And, Welcome to Dev who joined us on the day.

For most of us, a full-blooded run around Sandown was something new and this was reflected in the times. Experienced drivers were posting more consistent times that were a few seconds faster than the majority. No surprise there. There was surprisingly little spread among the times for most, with Paul’s R17, David’s Fuego (both around 40 years old) and Geoff’s non-Sport Megane with barely a second difference among them bringing up the tail end.

That small difference made for an engrossing tussle as the dynamics of the three different vehicles favoured their cornering, acceleration out of a corner, or braking into the corner. In the last session, the R17, Fuego and Megane were in a bunch with none being able to get enough up to get ahead. For me in the Megane, the other two would open up a gap getting around the corners faster – both with race tyres – which I would close down heading into the next corner because, I guess, of the more modern brakes.

The day was run with the relaxed slickness we’re coming to expect of the MCA who were very welcoming.  We did note that close to half the runners were in Renaults, though not all were from our club.  Fair to say too, that Renaults were not the fastest runners on the day. But . . . the real question is ‘who had the most fun?’. As a measure of ‘event satisfaction’, most of us decided to sit out the last session as ‘we’d had enough’. Had enough in a good way, as in not wanting any more, fully satisfied and well pleased with ourselves and the event.

Well, most of us had a really excellent time but some not so. Dramas, such as they were, were fairly minor but enough to rob some of a portion of their track time.

Mikee posted a sharp time in the first session. But with flaming brakes – and I’m not just using slang here – I mean flaming! – the wiser course of action was to sit out the rest and get his brakes properly checked out.

Peter limped home in the last session with cut side-wall in one very flat tyre but nothing particularly scary happening as a consequence; just  adding to his costs for the day!  David’s Fuego had the good graces to wait until the last cool-down lap before belching clouds of smoke from the power steering fluid pumping over the exhaust.  Now that could have been ‘exciting’ had it happened earlier.

A dropped adjustment bolt saw James take the wisdom over valour course late in the day. And Graeme was aggrieved that his Clio became reluctant to go above 5,500 revs. I think it was just because he struggled to get past me – the competitive force is strong in that one!

Next track day is Winton in July – another one of the classic Victorian motorsport tracks.

 

Honestly, he’s reading something, not putting in a fuel additive! And check out the new club sport shirt – our ‘uniform’ drew some attention on the day.

Equal First!

A stirling effort by the RCCV sets the year off to a cracking pace

We fielded a team of nine drivers in the first round of the Rob Roy Interclub Hillclimb in February this year, two-thirds of whom scored placement points for the club.  A 1st, three x 2nds and 2 x 4ths for a total of 47 points. Matched by the MGCC and well ahead of the GCC on 28 and VHRR on 25.

Colin Stark in his Alpine 110 got the first in class, backed up by Graeme Edwards (Clio 182) in second place in that class.  Paul Stewart in another classic – the R17 Gordini – started the day off with a PB for his first run, grabbed several more PBs with successive runs, and picked up a second in class for his efforts.  Our third second in class was David Bertuch in his Megane Trophy – beaten only by the man who took out first outright overall.  John Elliott and Geoff Rasmussen picked up fourth place points for the club in a Alpine GTA and an R4 – two more different ‘sporting’ Renaults you couldn’t imagine!

Colin was third outright for the day.  And although picking up 5 points for the club, Geoff was 50th which just goes to tell you that there were only 50 competitors! Four of the top 10 outright placings went to the RCCV, two each to GCC and VHRR and one each to BLCC and MGCC Geelong.

The weather was perfect, the atmosphere carnival with the cheer squad ably led by Jeni Sammons egging everyone on to greater efforts. It was good to see Glenn Armstrong back in the saddle, so to speak, easing himself back into competition after the tumble his Clio took last year.  Mike Neil in his rallying R16 having his first outing at Rob Roy and Peter Stathis, not his first outing but his first with his new Megane 275, completed the RCCV field.

The contest for first place is clearly a numbers game – the MGCC outnumbered the RCCV 13 to 9 but it was more that they had competitors in some classes with few runners in them that worked to their advantage. There’s no doubt it’s going to be an interesting contest this year – and we can be sure the MGCC will be looking at the stats in some detail and working up a strategy too.

Click here for the full scores.