COMPETITION

Despite Wintery conditions we had a good turn up of 13 competitors including 2 juniors.
We ran 2 long courses and had 3 runs at each. Conditions were pretty good until late in the morning when light rain set in. The Marquee once again proved very useful though we were worried that the main retainer would be blown away. (Rob Woodfull's TD)
The long courses proved a bit of a bonus for the MGF's of Nick Le Franc and Chris Freeman who were right on the pace set by Ken McAllister and Mitch who were having their own battle. Hidden away between the B's was Peter Cronk's little Bugeye just quietly posting fast times. Barry Coad, Terry Malloch, Ian Mason and David Hoskins were having a red hot battle in the standard B class. Ted Heriot bought out the newly re-powered TC so that he and Tom could run it in. Tom ran it in and Ted pushed it a bit more. John Roker had bought in the Club 1100 for the Junior's, so Tom had a couple of runs but went back to the TC. We finally found an event that challenged Mitch McAllister when we ran 'MG" but I think a couple of reversing events and he will have that sorted as well. Ross Hutton seemed to enjoy the more open events.

I thought I had a good plan to counter possible water problems at the Motorsport complex. I went out to the course on Saturday morning to find it very dry even though most of Geelong had been saturated. So I posted an update on the website to say we were go. Upon arriving at Avalon early on Sunday I found I had to engage 4WD in the ute to get out to the water covered gravel pad. Apparently around 25mm of rain had fallen even though most of Geelong had 5mm or less. My assistants Rob Woodfull and Peter Cronk both with Roof’s off travelled back to clubrooms with me through driving rain and waited to advise everyone it would be cancelled. We then learned that the radar was clear after existing rain and that several cars were on their way from Avalon. Just then the rain stopped so we decided to go. We had several showers during the morning (apparently not on radar) By the time we started around 9.35 we had 23 starters including 10 juniors. (8 from GMSC and WDCC) We capped it off with a BBQ.
Competiton was very close and a few unfortunately had runs when very slippery but overall evened out. Some of our guests had great fun with their cars turning the event into a drift. Notable was Laurie Cushion and his wife who arrived with 2 cars towing a race car transporter and flat trailer carrying 2 Gemini’s all painted up and driven by himself, a son, a daughter and a friend. All had great fun, especially Laurie in the Holden V6 powered Gemini. Thanks also go to the helpers on the day including Laurie Cushions wife who cooked for us using the excuse of the warmth from the BBQ. Good also to see Bob Somerville trying out his new Midget which is powered by a K series 1.6 litre motor. (MGF) I got to have a try and it is very powerful. Results from our club were very good as we filled 2nd to 8th position. Our own wet weather specialist, Mitch McAllister again showed the way with fastest MG time.

Times:                          Cloverleaf           Double Loop      Butterfly            Total

Jason Bellamy                36.01                41.41                37.61                115.09
Mitch McAllister             38.56                41.95                40.80                121.31
Peter Cronk                    38.12                44.84                38.43                121.39
Chris Freeman                39.40                42.88                39.81                122.09
Bob Somerville               40.30                43.75                38.52                122.57
Ken McAllister               38.04                44.96                40.50                123.50
Mitch Freeman                42.24                43.18                40.60                126.02
Ross Hutton                   40.83                44.55                41.73                127.11
Kurt Bellamy                  42.63                43.21                44.09                129.97
Nick Le Franc                 43.03                48.41                39.80                131.24
Laurie Cushion               45.87                46.56                38.96                131.39
James Rooke                  38.69                49.64                46.53                134.26
Bruce Zimmerman           46.73                46.21                42.20                135.14
Craig Edwards                43.90                48.73                42.75                135.38
Ted Heriot                     44.36                48.80                42.27                135.43
Daniel Wilson                42.47                47.44                47.52                137.43
Amy Rooke                    44.81                50.30                44.04                139.15
Tom Cushion                 47.24                52.70                42.87                142.81
Dave Kirk                      50.60                48.89                44.09                143.58
Ashley Cushion              45.70                54.50                44.73                144.93
Mathew Jones                 53.35                51.00                47.92                151.10
Tayla Edwards                53.41                53.64                54.89                161.94
Amy Bellamy                 55.34                63.67                59.24                178.25

With some eleven entries from Geelong we were well represented among the 57 in total entries. Once again a wide range of vehicles participated including a 5.7 chev powered Elfin MS8, a new Golf GTI, Polo GTI, Mazda MX5 and Sprinter by Geelong member Bill Cowper. Chris Baraciolli improved times with every run to post a fantastic 163.5 on road tyres, closely followed by Peter Cronk who had the bugeye properly wound up for a good 164.45. Mr Smooth is so smooth he kept doing 98 seconds for two of his first courses and again on his second courses, just couldn't go slower but did go faster on each of his final runs. Ken McAllister was very consistent and Mitch kept getting faster. Graeme Deahl was getting great times out of his very standard Lancer and son Jackson also improved with each run. New member Nick Lanham bought along his mini-moke which looked a bit precarious for the driver but times were ok. Our top four cars were all inside the top 10 MG's for the day, a great effort.

Times. Car Course 1 Course 2 Total

Graeme Ruby MGB Mod 80.45 79.69 160.14
Chris Baraciolli MGB Mod 82.27 81.53 163.80
Peter Cronk Sprite 81.49 82.96 164.45
Bill Cowper Sprinter 84.27 81.91 166.18
Graeme Deahl Lancer 90.25 88.46 178.71
Ken McAllister MGB Mod 87.79 91.15 178.94
Nick Lanham Mini Moke 90.65 92.45 183.10
Mitch McAllister MGB Mod 91.76 91.84 183.60
Gillian Inglis Sprinter 93.11 95.02 188.13
Barry Coad MGB 93.43 97.02 190.45
Jackson Deahl Lancer 102.95 99.61 202.56

Despite the area being water-logged 4 days before the event all was well on the day. The weather bureau got it right, 29 deg and late rain turned into 18 deg until after lunch and early showers. This all helped to keep the dust down until early afternoon when a little dust started to drift around. In total we had 35 entries, a little down on normal MGCC Vic events but given it was the last event of the year and many were nervous about the gravel surface damaging the cars, the numbers were ok. The universal praise given to the venue and the event will guarantee its future with MGCC Vic looking to run an extra event there next year.
We ran 4 of the 6 patterns from which Natmeet will run 3. All were compact and two in particular favoured the small cars and those with working handbrakes.
The first course "Try Angles" is probably the hardest Motorkhana course in the book and it was reflected with many WD's and several WD's on both runs. Ken MacAllister, David Hoskins and Chris Freeman lead the way with 41's and improved with David doing a 40 along with Peter Cronk and Nick LeFranc and new member Nick Lanham ran his Mini Moke to a good 38.7. The next run was Double Loop with Nick Lanham again getting a 35.9 followed by Ken and David. Butterfly was very tight so Nick Le Franc's 34 was impressive followed by Ken with a 35. the last event was Reverse Lazy eight which basically consisted of complete circles around 5 flags, so was very good for hand-brake turns. I was happy with my 31 followed by Nick Lanham with 33 and David Hoskins with 35.
All in all a great day made much better by the excellent assistance given on the day. Great to see the Social director and his Mid Week Co-ordinator both working on the timing gear all day despite just returning from the tour. Sorry if I miss some but Anna Hoskins, Lorraine MacAllister and crew provided great food for all, Rob Woodfull, Peter Cronk checked people in, Rob Lyle directed them to park's and helped time, John Roker Scrutineered and Peter Cronk, Ken MacAllister and David Hoskins helped with set-up and tear down.
We ran a competition against MGCC Vic which basically totaled points received by each club divided by number of competitors. We missed out by a second place (6 points) with the final result being MGCC Vic 6.08 and Geelong 5.66.

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