G'day Morris Listers
After a 10-month layoff from racing the Oxford has been back on the track -
although I have done some casual track days in the interim.
On Saturday I ran the Oxford in the New South Wales Road Racing Club
Day/Night race meeting at Oran Park, South-West of Sydney. There were only
two Group Na pre'58 Classic Saloon Cars entered; me in the Oxford and Don
Titcume in his 1957 Morris Major - the "Morris Dancers" are back! The
organisers decided not to run us with the later Group N cars - just as well
as there were several 5.8 litre Ford Falcon GTs entered - and instead we ran
with the Group S Production Sports Cars (various historic - MGB, Midget,
Sunbeam Alpine, Sunbeam Tiger, Marcos 1800GT and Datsun 240Z).
Qualifying was fine - I remembered where the track went - and I managed
62.87 seconds, which was a second quicker than Don but 11 seconds behind the
Marcos (which is allowed 60 profile tyre compared to our 65 profile and has
a limited slip diff whilst we are obliged to run open diffs).
Our first 8-lap race was a bit of a pain as a Tiger spun and stalled in Turn
1 whilst a 240Z went into the sandtrap in the Esses - which meant that we
had 3 laps under the Safety Car before we could resume racing. I managed
to take Don's Major on the final lap as we went into the Dogleg and I beat
him home by 1 second in 9 minutes and 8 seconds.
Our second race was 12 laps, without incidents and this time I held the
Major out to beat Don by half a second in 11 minutes and 16 seconds - a
fairly close finish!
Then it was time for a break before the night races. As dusk approached I
re-checked all the lights - working fine.
Then it was time for our first night race - and as soon as I started up the
Prince of Darkness materialised. I had all the external lights working but
nothing illuminating the instrumentation - guess what happens when you want
to race a British car at night! However, given that I have a rev limiter
(set to 6500rpm) and a low oil pressure warning light I wasn't too bothered
and so proceeded onto the grid to "do it in the dark".
Our first night race was like the earlier daytime races with me and Don
swapping position at various points on different laps - and again my demon
move into the Dogleg on the final lap resulting in me beating Don by 1
second in 8 minutes 11 seconds.
Our final night race was another 8-lapper - again with position swapping by
the Morris dancers throughout the event. I even managed my demon move in
the Dogleg on the final lap but a slow run through the final turn gave Don a
better run towards the flag and he beat me by one tenth of a second - the
closest finish for any duelling pair in the whole programme of races!
Was it fun - you betcha! When is the next battle - the all-British Race
Meeting at Wakefield Park in June, when we hope to have our usual complement
of 10 Group Na Classic Saloon Cars rocking and rolling around the circuit as
usual.
Changes since the last full race have seen the engine de-tuned to run on
Premium Unleaded, specifically Mobil Synergy 8000. Also, I've now fitted
Yokohama A539s - 185/65x15 - to replace the ageing Falken FK-65Es. All I
need now is a wet race meeting to try these tyres across the range.
Finally, on Sunday, to get Brownie points to cover my Saturday racing
playtime, we took the MGA out for a drive around the Hawkesbury region to
the North-West of Sydney - details on request for any Lister wanting tourism
info for the Sydney region.
Keep on revving - Andrew "Axeman" Pursey
1955 Morris Oxford, 1956 Morris Isis, 1958 MGA+, 1970 AF Spider and 2000
Land Rover Discovery V8
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