October 2011

31 Oct

Posted at 21:30h in LeMay Family Museum, Special Club Events, Special Meetings by
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[caption id="attachment_5597" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Gearheads - except for Larry Payeur who took the photo"][/caption] The VRCBC hosted a day trip of both members and non-members to the fabulous LeMay Family Collection Foundation ( www.lemaymarymount.org/ ) in Tacoma on Saturday, October 29th. Many automotive collections have a few very high value cars displayed in what seems to be an art museum - you think you must speak softly. In contrast, the LeMay has endless numbers of 'real' cars displayed in 'real' conditions. There were rows of Model T's and Model A's, Chevrolets, Dodges, Buicks, countless Cadillacs, probably the largest collection of Packards anywhere, a Tucker, a Franklin, 'Fire Truck Alley', a DeLorean, a Bricklin, Studebakers, early 'brass cars' and farm tractors, a gas turbine powered kart, Pierce Arrows, aircraft engines, Lincoln Continentals, Rolls Royces, Kaisers, and on, and on, and on. And it seemed around every corner, there was also another collection of toys or dolls, or even hose nozzles! There were constant comments like: 'My dad had a car like that!' - or even more frequently - 'I tried to convince my dad to buy a car like that!' It really was Gearhead Heaven! Highly recommended. A big thank you to the Lemay folks for the excellent tour and to our own Al Reid for pulling the trip together for us. [caption id="attachment_5617" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Tour organizer Al Reid is amazed by the brass hose nozzle collection."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_5592" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="VRCBC Pres. Stan Guy presents our lead tour guide (and VRCBC racer in 2012), Pierce Issacs with some BCHMR 'swag' as a thank you. Al Reid is still amazed."][/caption]

And another big thank you to Larry Payeur, President of the Fraser Valley British Motor Club ( www.britishcarclub.ca/ ) for most of the photos you see here and below.

24 Oct

Posted at 16:15h in Mazda, Rennsport Reunion by
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[caption id="attachment_5254" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Greg Campbell, Hugh Archer and Tony Campbell change the Elva's Porsche 4 cam - Hugh Archer photo"][/caption]

Long time VRCBC member Hugh Archer has sent us some photos of his trip to the Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca over the October 14-16 weekend. Well-known BC vintage racers, Art Conner and Greg Campbell did very well in the Group 2 Eifel Trophy race, which had a field of 43 cars. Art won with his 1964 Porsche Platypus Spyder and Greg finished fourth in his 1964 Elva Porsche. Greg's dad, Tony (seen in the above photo) was a very successful Porsche 'chauffeur' in his day as well. He was inducted by the Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society (GVMPS) in 2010. You can read about Tony's career - and see a photo of a very young Greg - in Vince Howlett's GVMPS story here.

Kelowna's Kees Nierop also attended, meeting and greeting enthusiasts together with many (50!) other long time Porsche drivers, such as Hurley Haywood, Derek Bell, Brian Redman, and Rob Dyson, and he also drove a 1976 Porsche 934 Coupe in the Group 4 Carrera Trophy race. The Mazda Raceway site (here) has a lot of Rennsport Reunion information - including links to videos and the full race results.

Check out the rest of Hugh's photos below. Note that according to Porsche, their 2008 ALMS car is 'Vintage - eligible'! Hmmmm .........

24 Oct

Posted at 14:32h in Westwood History by
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[caption id="attachment_5270" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The 1974 Province 500 Program Cover"][/caption] Thanks to Robert Barg for providing a copy of the spectator program for the Province 500, which closed the Westwood racing season on Sunday, October 13th, 1974. The co-winners of the first "500" in 1960 were Bob Constabaris (of 'Mr. Mike's' restaurant fame) and Jerry Barbour. All of the winners from 1960 to 1973 were shown in the 1974 program. There are a lot of still-familiar names on that list.

See the complete 1974 Entry List below, with many more well-known names. Oh yes, the 1974 race took the typical 7 hours to complete. The winners (repeating from 1973) were local heroes Bert Laakmann and Charly Godecke (Porsche 911S), second went to Andy Barcheck and Loren St. Lawrence (Datsun 510) from Salem, and the podium was completed by Jim Robertson and John Holgate in a Lotus.

21 Oct

Posted at 10:27h in Non-VRCBC News & Events by
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[caption id="attachment_5065" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Ian "Knees" Wood works on his Rawlson's plumbing - Jim Moody photo"][/caption]

The Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) held its annual Charity Challenge at Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point) in California over the Oct 1st-2nd weekend. Veteran VRCBC racer Glen Gibbons and his wife Karen, and the club's good friend and frequent photograph contributer Jim Moody and his wife Colleen went down and have sent us this report.  (Thanks folks.)

VRCBC stalwart Ian Wood was there with his Rawlson and had a very good weekend. In Sunday's Group 6 race, he placed third ahead of the big block Can Am cars of Tom Malloy (McLaren M8E), Jim Stengel (McLaren M8F) and Fred Cziska (Shadow DN4A). Fellow VRCBC member Keith Frieser won the race with his Lola T290 with second spot taken by R Smith in his Chevron B-19.

Rides for Charity were offered with a wide selection of race cars to choose from, and it looks like these were the highlights of the trip for Glen and Jim. Glen being a devoted Alfa Romeo aficianado (fanatic?) took three laps around Infineon with Jon Norman and his ex-Trans Am Alfa GTV. Jim chose three fast and furious laps with Tom Malloy in his McLaren M8E. Were you able to hold the camera steady Jim?

20 Oct

Posted at 20:27h in Goodwood by
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[caption id="attachment_4890" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Grand Prix Ferrari cockpit - M. Zumm photo"][/caption] META stalwarts and VRCBC members, Linda and Manny Zumm had a great time at this year's Goodwood Revival. They sent us the following 'trip report' and many photos which really capture the atmosphere of this event. Check...