Vintage Racing Club of BC

The Spirit of Westwood Lives On!

March 21, 2014

Havana by Thunderbird - Linda Zumm photo

Havana by Thunderbird – Linda Zumm photo

Posted: March 21, 2014

Long time META volunteers and VRCBC members, Linda and Manny Zumm have offered us a diversion while we await the completion of the Mission Raceway track re-surfacing so that the 2014 racing season can get under way. They visited Cuba earlier this year and snapped some photos of the old cars that the country is so well-known for. (Apologies for the fuzziness of some of them; they were taken from a moving bus.)

By the way, the current rumour is that Linda and Manny are trying to decide which car to bring back for Vintage racing at Mission. Apparently the front runner is that hot-looking lilac(?) 1959 Chevie in the photo below, but we will have to wait and see what they show up with.

February 18, 2014

Vintage Drift for February 2014 - cover image courtesy of Martin Rudow and SOVREN; photo by Marshall Autry

Vintage Drift for February 2014 – cover image courtesy of Martin Rudow and SOVREN; photo by Marshall Autry

Posted: February 18, 2014

The latest issue of Vintage Drift, SOVREN’s excellent quarterly magazine has just been released. Included in the articles – with many great photos – is a review of the final 2013 standings in each of their Race Groups (some of our VRCBC racers are in there) and a preview of their 2014 Race Season. Our own BCHMR is again on the SOVREN points-eligible schedule this year and we look forward to seeing many of our friends from south of the border in August.

The Editor / Publisher of Vintage Drift is Martin Rudow, a long time friend of the VRCBC. To get more information on how to advertise in Vintage Drift or to get a personal subscription, just contact Martin directly by email: vintagedrift@eschelon.com

December 18, 2013

Fandango - Lyford Fangio CoupePosted: December 18, 2013

Many Vintage racing enthusiasts will recognize this 1938 Chevy – now affectionately known as Fandango – as representative of those used by the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio to establish his reputation in the very tough, very long road races in South America in the 1940’s, before he headed to Europe and worldwide fame.

Long time friends of the VRCBC, Pam and Chuck Lyford discovered this car at a friends and had it restored to its original race condition. They then entered it in the 2013 Vintage Cape Horn event; a 6,000 km(!) ‘adventure drive’ (yeah, right!) from Buenos Aires to Cape Horn through Argentina and Chile. Not only that, but they won! Click here to read Pam and Chuck’s excellent blog about their fascinating adventure.

With a little imagination, this could be a photo of Chuck and Fandango coming out of Turn 9 in a Vintage race at Mission Raceway Park Road Course! We wish!

Fandango on Day 12 - Gerard Brown photo

Fandango on Day 12 – Gerard Brown photo

Our congratulations to Pam and Chuck.

December 17, 2013

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Posted: December 17, 2013

Long time racer and VRCBC member, Mike Stacey passed away on December 8, 2013. For many years, Mike was active in racing at Westwood followed by Mission, as well as at other tracks in the Pacific Northwest. A celebration of Mike’s life is planned for this coming spring. Mike’s obituary in the Vancouver Sun is available here.

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The VRCBC offers it condolences to Mike’s family and many friends.

November 10, 2013

"We're Number One!!"; The Winning Team of (L to R) Gunter Pichler, Phil Roney and Greg Campbell. - Ian Wood photo

“We’re Number One!!”; The winning Team CPR of (L to R) Gunter Pichler, Phil Roney and Greg Campbell. – Ian Wood photo

Updated: November 16, 2013

Update: Photos added

It was another epic VRCBC Kart Race on November 6th. A full grid of 12 karts and 36 drivers took the green flag at TBC in Richmond for the one hour race; even more impressively they all made it to the end! You can see the complete results here.

The winning Team ‘CPR’ (not the railroad) of Greg Campbell, Gunter Pichler and Phil Roney beat the second place Team ‘Over the Hill’ (an appropriate name perhaps?) of Ian Wood, Keith Robinson and Paul Haym by only 29 seconds. The gap was actually down to five seconds with only a minute to go when a hard charging Ian Wood decided to try passing some lapped traffic by taking the high side on the banking of the last turn – except there is no banking on this kart track (see photo).

Ian Wood 'high on the banking' in the last minute. - Al Reid photo

Ian Wood ‘high on the banking’ in the last minute. – Al Reid photo

Team ‘Over the Hill’ never let up throughout however. Both Ian Wood (at 29.828 seconds) and Keith Robinson (at 29.986 seconds) broke the 30 second lap barrier. They would have made it even closer if they had not made an unnecessary extra pit stop / driver change. (It is always best to pay full attention throughout the full pre-race drivers meeting!)

Team META (of Roger Salomon, Thomas Leisner and Angus Glass) took the final place on the podium; these veteran corner workers leaving many supposedly ‘real’ racers in their dust.

The fight for fourth place was extremely close with three teams separated by only three seconds at the finish. Team Ogre (Jock Hobson, Peter Chappell, Chris Wilberg) took fourth followed by Team Quick (Evan Fraser, Malcolm Curtis, Bernie Hamm) and then the previous (in March) race winning Team Tiger (Trevor Yip, Doug Yip, Steve Hodge).

Planning is already underway for the next race in the New Year. Check out some more photos of this action-packed event below.

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