On the weekend I took my little bugeye up to Winton Raceway for
the second round of the Inaugural Interstate Healey Challenge Series.
The first round was held at the Oran Park GP Circuit in August which,
unfortunately, I couldn't attend.
The series was conceived primarily as a mechanism to get the local
aspirants sufficient endorsements to be able to race at the upcoming
Healey International Commemorative Race at Mt Panorama (Oct 3/4).
The HICR is an event on the FIA International Historic Calendar and as
such requires an upgrade to a International Historic Licence. This is
quite complicated for those of us who race in open race meetings
under the Marque Sports Car rules, but I won't bore you with the details.
Suffice to say that those of us on full National "General Competition
Licences"
needed to be observed by the Clerk of Course at 3 National level meetings
and our licences endorsed by same. We can then receive the upgraded
licence.
The story for the many Healey enthusiasts who did not have a full national
licence was more difficult - they needed 5 observations to get off
"Provisional"
competition licence then another 3 to get the International endorsement.
There just weren't enough meetings to do so on the calendar at the time
the HICR was first proposed. So the series was born - a couple of
enthusiastic potential competitors, John Wakeling and Neil Dunn,
managed to get an all Healey races added to existing meetings so that
we would be able to compete at Mt Panorama.
The entries for the series were dominated by big Healeys, at least at Round
2. There were 16 cars, of which only 3 were Sprites. The sprites varied from
George Forbe's rocket bugeye (fastest car in the field) to a almost standard
bugeye
belonging to Queensland competitor Nicolas Rootes. Nick and Brian Mallon
(100/4) drove close to 2000 miles to compete! My bugeye is predominantly
a fast road car, that I use on road rallies. It was about 6 or 7 seconds
slower
than my race car at the same circuit on the same tyres, so it was about
half way between George's and Nick's cars and about 2/3 - 3/4 down the
field.
Victorian cars dominated this round, with all three of the fastest cars
belonging
to Victorians. George in his bugeye set fastest qualifying and won all four
races. He was challenged by Warren James and Rob Rowland in their 3000s.
The midfield was reasonably close, 0.6 seconds separated the next 7
qualifiers (all big Healeys).
I was the quickest of the rest during qualifying, but was unable to
translate to
race performances by the end of the weekend. Not only did the others improve
more (I know this circuit well), but I got left behind on the starts and
found it
difficult to get past - the drivers were good protectors of position! I
managed to
make passes stick on Bill Dixon in the first 3 races, but couldn't repeat it
in the fourth race. We all picked up the pace significantly in race 4!
The racing was clean, people were trying hard and the weekend went mostly
without incident. Warren James had engine problems (dropped a valve and
did another 5 laps on 5 cylinders - setting his PB in the process!), Jim
McConville had ignition problems with his 100S in the 2nd race and packed it
up for the weekend. Jim is a wily competitor - I had a good time chasing him
after I got past Bill Dixon.
Most drivers posted significant improvements as the weekend progressed,
even I managed to pull nearly a second off my qualifying time. My favourite
race was the last where Bill Dixon (100/4), Rob Jamieson (100/4) and I ran
close and fast the whole race. I made an unsuccessful passing attempt (side
by side but outdragged to the next corner) on Bill before he passed Rob.
>From then on, we were basically running nose-to-tail driving as hard as we
possibly could!
The 4 races were all good fun, we had a number of big Healey folk drive up
for the Sunday to spectate. The big Healey folk were well organised, very
helpful and very friendly - they had a continuous supply of tea/coffee and
food all weekend long in the pits, and we had a good night at the Golf Club
on Saturday night. It was a real pleasure to compete at this event!
The Vics won the day, George won the trophies and the marque was the
real winner.
The final round is the HICR race itself. the turnout will be about 42 cars
I believe, including some very fast people and cars.
I'm putting my race motor in the bugeye before Mt Panarama and
reducing the ride height from rally height to as low as she can go.
The sc/cr box will also go in at the same time. (I really noticed how
much the wide gear spacing hurt my exits on the tighter part of the track
where 2nd gear was way too low and 3rd left me coming out well below
max torque).
I've got a fresh set of shocks, and new Hoosiers Street TDs (185/60)
so I should be pushing a bit closer to the pointy end of the field.
I can't see myself challenging George - his 150HP+ bugeye is just too
fast. His redline is 8900 and it pulls that in top with a 3.7 diff.
Unfortunately
his car handles well and he can drive well too,,, However, I reckon I can
be competitive with the rest providing everything goes well.
Mike
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