On Saturday, the Finger Lakes Triumph Club held their spring British car meet.
This was a "fun" meet, with no serious competion, in order to allow everybody
to compete on equal terms and have a very enjoyable day. Events included
an autocross, a gymkana, answer-the-clues rally, peoples choice award, awards
& door prizes at the rally destination, a local winary. The modest lineup
included a range of TR's from 3 to 8, MGB's, a Midget, an MG TD, Several
big Healeys, and a Turner Mk III (Ford 1600) from Rome, NY. Most distant
was an imaculate Green TR4 from Ontario Canada, which won the Peoples Choice.
The morning auto-x and gymkana were held at a reserved lot in a local state
park, which eliminated the need for expensive insurance, but restricts events
to the "off season"
The gymkana was a brief timed event where you had to weave around a
series of cones while your passenger hung out and placed tennis balls on
top, then back up and remove them. We were at a distinct disadvantage in
our MG-BGT, being the only hardtop car present, which made it difficult to
hang over the side...
The auto-x, (my first) was a blast! I'm hooked. Place was determined
by the most consistant 2 times over 3 runs,rather than raw speed, which
put everyone on equal footing. The course was 2 laps around, with some very
tight turns, both to keep speeds down, and because of the smallish size of
the parking lot. I had the benifit of first riding the course in Don's
pristine TD to see what it was like. It was auful tight for the square-rigger,
and he missed a pair of extreme gates. (a lot of folks never saw them :-) )
My first run was about 1:04:30. #2 got down to 1:02:61. I got complements
on smoothness. [great! I must be doing something right :-)] The chap in
the Turner asked me if I'd like to ride along on his next run... You bet!
I got a chance to see what a set of Yokos feel like underneath something real.
[big grins] The GT did pretty well with it's XZX's, and sloppy bushings,
but couldn't come close to the Turner. The "faster" cars were hitting
about :56 or :57, while the Turner got down to :48:84. He said it ought
to be about a 45 second course. I didn't really care *too* much about keeping
"consistant", I was working on better- my 3rd run came in at 1:01:00.
Score- 1.61 seconds, which was close enough for 3rd place! I made one more
non-official run later, and got it down to :59:00. Not too shabby for
a begginner in a GT. I think the Sprite is going to get a set of Yokos
and get set up enough to persue this farther. :-) :-) :-)
The rally was an anwser the clues type, and with the weather getting
markedly colder and threatening to rain, now *we* had some advantage in the
GT, with functioning heater yet! The rain held off, and all made it to
the winery, except a '61 3000, in it's first week on the road since a
6 year restoration, which suffered a flat, luckly at a convienent stop point.
This kind of events by local clubs (or .net groups) can make for
a cheap, ($8-10), enjoyable way to spend a day in your British car. The FLT's
next such meet will be in mid Sept. for anyone interested, I'll post
details then.
A reminder, if you're anywhere near the Finger Lakes/Rochester NY
area- a show not to miss:
Sunday, June 3rd, Victor, NY. Sponsered by the WNY MG Car Club.
There have been ~1500 cars at previous shows, with a large portion
of British and other exotic stuff, as well as many American cars.
Entry- pre-reg $5.00, at show $15.00. I get the address for any one
who needs it.
{Rob P. What are those comments about an MG grave yard? :-) Just cuz they
aren't all running today...}
________
/___ _ \ Roger Garnett (garnett@tcgould.TN.CORNELL.EDU)
/| || \ \ Agricultural Economics | The All New:
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