Vintage Racing Club of BC

The Spirit of Westwood Lives On!

June 2, 2010

This year’s All British Field Meet (ABFM) at Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver was another great success, with over 680 vehicles registered and 7,000 visitors. Click on ABFM Latest News for links to stories about the event in Canadian Driver and The New York Times, plus a short video clip with several on-site interviews.

The VRCBC was there in force with a large booth near the entrance and a variety of great-looking racing cars on display. Many old time racers dropped by to reminisce (esepcially about the good old days at Westwood), as well as a lot of other enthusiasts, who were very pleased to learn that vintage road racing is alive and well at Mission Raceway.  We hope to see many of them at a future event.

June 1, 2010

Two of the Club’s long time members have recently made the news.

Ian Wood’s new car, a 1971 CanAm McLaren M12, is the cover story in the May 2010 issue of SCCBC Pit Pass. In addition to some cool photos, Editor Robin Fairservice describes in detail his (not yet completed) attempts to determine the car’s history. Let’s just say it’s complicated!  Go to the SCCBC web site click on “NEWS-PIT PASS”, and select 2010 May.
 
The May 2010 issue of Victory Lane magazine has a great story (pages 50-51) on Ralph Zbarsky and his well known, red, 1958 MGA Twin Cam. The story is not available online but you can go to the Victory Lane web site and buy a subscription, or try to borrow a copy from someone at the next meeting.

May 25, 2010

Six stalwart members of the Club competed in the Knox Mountain Hillclimb in Kelowna, British Columbia over the May 22nd – 23rd weekend. Evan Williams, Keith Robinson, Randy Custer, Geoff Tupholme, Bernie Hamm and Bruce Jamieson carried the VRCBC flag in this, the 53rd (!) version of this annual BC motorsports tradition. The official results are available on the event web site .

Photo of participants courtesy of Allen Reid: 

April 21, 2010

The April general membership meeting was held on the evening of the 20th at Jim Ratsoy’s Garage in Richmond. Everyone really enjoyed looking at Jim’s wonderful collection of over 90 beautifully restored antique and special interest vehicles. Those of us who grew up in North America in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s all recognized personal favourites from our youth. Those who grew up on other continents gained a greater appreciation for the origins of the term “Detroit Iron”! The Museum is highly recommended. Check out Jim’s web site: (http://www.grandpasoldcars.com/) for more information on their schedule and the cars themselves.

At the meeting, Club members recognized the impact that the new higher BC Ferries rates are having on members who have to use a ferry to get their race cars to Mission. A $75 per round trip subsidy was approved, which will hopefully be of some help.

Our guest speaker, Nigel Matthews, gave us an overview of the Hagerty Collector Car Insurance Company’s expansion into Canada, including their very interesting race car insurance plan. Further information is available at http://www.hagerty.com/ or by contacting Nigel directly by email at nmatthews@hagerty.com

April 2, 2010

Jim Latham has released the results of the Club’s Dyno Day at Miller Performance on March 20th.

VRCBC Dyno Day-2010 Results

A great time was had by all!

Also Mike Bailey has posted some photos on Facebook (Go to Facebook, search for “The Vintage Racing Club of British Columbia” and click on Photos) and some video clips on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8phheROGuRE

Thanks very much Mike.

Look for a full report from Jim in the next issue of the Vantage newsletter.