23 May VRCBC Racers Climb the Mighty Knox!
[caption id="attachment_7106" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Bruce Jamieson takes Turn 7 in Bernie Hamm's Fiat X1/9 - Jim Moody photo"]
Updated: May 23, 2012
The 27th edition of the All British Field Meet (ABFM) - 'The Greatest Show on British Wheels' - was held on Saturday, May 19th at Vancouver's Van Dusen Gardens. The weather was perfect and all of the cars looked great. The VRCBC display was in its traditional location, right inside the main entrance, greeting the very large crowd of visitors as they entered Memory Lane.
The VRCBC was very well represented by Mark Brown's two time REVS Champion Lotus Seven, Al Harvey's MGB, Al Reid's MGB, Ralph Zbarsky's MGB GT, Nick Woodhouse's Austin Healey, Ivan Lessner's multiple REVS Champion Austin Healey, and John McCoy's Lotus Cortina. There was a great deal of interest in the cars and in Vintage racing at Mission Raceway Park Road Course.
Update: The winners of the many awards and prizes are now posted on the Western Driver / ABFM website (here) soon. Our congratulations to VRCBC racers, John McCoy and Nick Woodhouse who took first and third places respectively in the Race Cars category.
The following few photos give you some idea of what was a very enjoyable day.
Well known MG devotees (and long time VRCBC members) Ralph and Michael Zbarsky have just completed a great trip to Sebring. This year Sebring celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the famous 12 Hours endurance race. As part of this celebration, the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) support race honoured the 50th Anniversary of the last MGA participation in the 12 Hours. A total of 19 different MGAs participated in the 12 Hours over the 1956 to 1962 period. Ten of those cars are known to have survived and eight of them were at Sebring this year.
Michael raced their 1959 MGA Twin Cam roadster (#53) - maybe the last time a MGA Twin Cam will take the Green Flag / Chequered Flag combo at the Sebring track? And Ralph raced their 1967 MGB GT (#60). This former BMC Works Team car has some former 'history' at Sebring. (Check out this You Tube video of the 1970 race around the 2:20 mark!) Ralph must have retrieved that wheel because the car is beautifully restored now. See below.
Martin Rudow, the Editor and Publisher of SOVREN's excellent quarterly magazine, VINTAGE DRIFT has just released the February 2012 issue. It contains a preview of the upcoming season's events (including our BCHMR in August - click here) as well as the second article in his very interesting, continuing...