The Kings Birthday long weekend saw the running of the MG Interclub Challenge with the running of three competition events over two days. The Interclub challenge is open to all MG Car Clubs in Australia although normally it has been contested mainly between South Australia and Victoria with the venue alternating between these two states.

In 2018 it was memorably won by the MG Car Club Geelong at Tailem Bend and the Collingrove Hillclimb track in South Australia. During the pandemic years the competition (like many other things) fell into abeyance until an attempt this year by the MG Car Club Victoria to resurrect it.

Sadly, despite excellent support from Victorian competitors, there were only two interstate entrants in a double entered MGF. Geelong was to be represented by five competitors but unfortunately this was reduced to four with the late withdrawal of Competition Director, Graeme Ruby who is struggling with a back injury.

Day one of competition was at the METEC Driver Training centre in Bayswater. The events of the day consisted of two Motorkhana patterns on the concrete skid pan at METEC and six Khanacross events on the bitumen interconnecting roads that crisscross the complex. I use the term bitumen advisedly as the surface of these roads was characterised by more than a few pot holes and bumps.

Despite this it was tremendous fun and greatly enjoyed by all who took part. Dan Hall in his race Midget was the quickest of the Geelong competitors over the two events. Trailing along behind him was your correspondent in his trusty old ‘A’, Craig Ballinger in his bright yellow Midget and Chris Freeman in his MGB GT.

Day two of competition was a Hillclimb at Robroy.  We woke on Sunday morning to the sight of light drizzling rain which persisted all the way out through the hills to Rob Roy. Sadly, the light rain continued all day and was enough to make the track constantly wet. Anyone who has competed at Rob Roy in the rain knows that it can bite the unwary, so slower times were the order of the day.

Chris Freeman decided at this point that his tyres weren’t up to scratch for a wet track and decamped for Geelong shortly thereafter. The rest of us soldiered on regardless. Dan Hall picked up where he left off the previous day and proceeded to lay down a series of quick runs that saw him finish the day as the quickest MG overall and 15^th outright against the modern rockets.

For Craig Ballinger, it was a case of “what might have been”. Determined to throw down a challenge to Dan, he managed to out brake himself into the chicane on the second last run and then got a little exuberant on the exit of said chicane on the next run.

Despite the miserable weather it was still a good fun day and we look forward to doing it again soon. There will be a short lull in the competition program over the next couple of months although our Competition Director is thinking of putting on an extra Motorkhana on the grass at Breakwater so stayed tuned for more on that.

More progress on the clubs BGT, Max Simpson and Stuart Boyd were hard at work with the grinders cleaning welds and such.

May Square Rigger Gathering

The weather was perfect for the May Square Rigger get together. We gathered at the Flying Brick Cider Co for a coffee and natter. Your scribe didn’t do a head count but I reckon we had around 28-30 people attended. As usual the T-Types vehicles were outnumbered, but we had David Selway-Hoskins and Geoff Ross along in their TCs. Rob Woodford’s TD is receiving some mechanical massaging so was absent.

But we had two ‘new’ TFs joining us to make four TFs in the line up! Mike and Carol brought their previously unseen TF1250 along. A lovely patina on this car. Welcome to you guys. Not to be outdone, David Lowe turned up in a nice, black TF1500, because he could! Hope we get to see more of these MGs (and their carers).

Loz in his Varitone Magnette brought the square rigger vehicles to seven. MGBs and moderns filled the rest of the lineup. Oh, and Peter York had his RV8 (because he could)!

From the next gathering of the square riggers, David Brook and myself, (assisted by Peter and Doug), will be the first contacts for arranging the Thursday gatherings and planning runs. Please feel free to offer up your preferences and ideas. David and I both drive the older cars and are sympathetic to their ‘limitations’.

Friday saw progress on the clubs restoration project (MGB GT) with the floors being welded in. Having the car on a rotisserie certainly makes these sorts of job a lot easier to do.

Competition Report – Into the Sunset (Steve Duniam)

A team of intrepid racers recently mounted a raid across the border into SA, to compete in a number of events across two weekends in late April and early May.

The first event was the Marque Sports Car Association of SA (MSCASA) sprint at the Tailem Bend motorsport complex, contested by an advance party of Nick Wood and Graeme Deahl on Sunday the 28^th of April.

Both drivers reported that the track was fantastic – challenging and fast. With no major mechanical gremlins impacting either driver it was a straight shootout, with Nick’s very fast MGA  just pipping Deahly’s MGB for the chocolates. The result must surely be down to Nick’s superior driving skills, as both cars are completely stock standard (at least according to their owners!!)

However Graeme did receive a subsequent “popular vote” award from the rest of the team for the number, quality and sheer imagination of the excuses he produced for why he was unable to prevail over Nick despite having the more modern car.

Attention then turned to Malalla, a far more traditional circuit, based on an old WW2 airfield just north of Adelaide, with two events over the weekend of the 4^th and 5^th of May. Mallala is a relatively short track of around 2.6 kms, but in that distance it manages to pack in some very challenging turns, interspersed with faster sweeping sections and short straights. It is a track that can lull the driver into a sort of trance with its gentle straights and sinuous curves, then bite the unwary with a couple of very tight hairpins.

First up was an Open Track Day on the Saturday, which was in effect a warm up for the Peter Hall Memorial 6 Hour Regularity Team event to be held the following day.

No results were recorded on the Saturday but all the contestants including Graeme Ruby, Brendan Sullivan, Dan Hall, Peter Thomson and the Duniam brothers, had a thoroughly enjoyable day getting to know the track and recording some times to be applied to Sunday’s Regularity event. And more importantly no mechanical gremlins were recorded, which perhaps added to the somewhat misplaced (as it turned out!) optimism of the drivers about the fitness of their steeds to complete a 6 Hour event .More on this later.

And so to the Main Event! Two MGCCG teams of 4 drivers each contested the 6 Hour Team Regularity hosted by MSCASA:

Team A consisting of the 2 Graemes (Ruby and Deahl) plus Geoff Duniam (all MGB mounted) plus Nick in the A.

Team B consisted of Dan Hall in his rapid Midget, Peter Thomson in yet another absolutely stock MGB, Brendan S in his MGA, and Steve D in the MGA Jag special.

Competition between the two teams was intense with a prize of a dinner at stake to be provided by the losers to the winners, and much gentle ribbing and gamesmanship was applied prior to the kick-off in order to unsettle the opposition.

The Supp Regs for this event runs to something like 28 pages so I won’t bore anyone with the details, but the event is a team relay event over 6 hours, with one car from each team on the track at any one time, and scoring points for laps completed but more importantly, earning bonus or losing penalty laps for being over or under the nominated times. To make things more interesting each team driver has to wear its Team’s “sash” while on the track, requiring a transfer from incoming and outgoing drivers in the pits… Sounds complicated? Well it was, but by about the third hour the teams had pretty much sorted out the sash transfer, and also the timing and signalling requirements in an attempt to keep the drivers circulating as close to possible to their nominated times.

Absolutely key to the whole process was Kerry Thomson who tirelessly acted as Team Manager, Pit communications officer, and sash transferrer for both teams throughout the day. Without her huge efforts, the event would have descended into a shambolic mess for both Teams.

Thanks Kerry – you are an absolute superstar!

As a comparison, some of the other Teams had support crews of 6 or more people, backed up by radio communications and digital timing boards to advise the drivers of their times. Obviously 1 MGCCG Team member is worth 6 from any other team.

So to the event, and for the first hour or so, both teams’ cars circulated reliably and racked up laps and bonus points, and the Teams settled into the unfamiliar routines of structured pit stops, car exchanges and pit lane signalling.

But the requirement for relatively long sessions for each car/driver combo, in quite warm weather began to impact on the condition of most of the cars. A number of cars started to record mechanical issues, requiring unscheduled pitstops for attention, and thereby upsetting the timing of the changeovers.

The only car to have a relatively faultless run was Graeme D’s MGB, and this was evident in the final results. All of the other cars suffered from sort of mechanical malaise during the day: Brendan’s MGA dropped a fan belt and was in danger of terminal overheating necessitating two early track exits, brake issues plagued Nick and Graeme R,  Dan’s Midget suffered loss of power, and battery charging faults impacted the B’s of Peter T and Geoff D, and Steve’s MGA Jag. The sight of three MG’s lined up having their batteries recharged between track stints raised questions about whether we had abandoned the internal combustion engine for electrical power.

It speaks volumes for not only the essential reliability of Abingdon’s finest, but also the ingenuity and improvisational skills of the drivers, that most of the cars were patched up and returned to the track and continued to rack up the laps.

But motorsport is an unforgiving mistress, and it should never be forgotten that it IS dangerous – even at the relatively amateur level at which we compete. This was driven home for the team when Nick’s gorgeous MGA suffered a total brake failure just as he was about to enter the pit lane. In an attempt to slow the car without impacting the cars on the racing line, Nick unfortunately rolled, causing significant body damage to the car. Nick was shaken but thankfully unhurt, demonstrating how critical it is to have a proper rollbar and harnesses fitted to any open car. The sight of his crumpled A on the trailer was a very sobering reminder that while competition is fun, it does come with potentially very serious consequences. We all wish Nick the best as he contemplates another substantial rebuild of his car, prior to returning to the track.

As the sun began to set on the last hour a scramble developed for both teams to keep cars on the track as others were subbed out as a result of mechanical issues. As the 5PM finish approached both teams were down to only 1 or 2 operational cars, and I for one was never happier to see a checkered flag when it finally dropped. I’ve never driven at Le Mans, but I feel like I have some very small understanding of the challenges and satisfaction of competing in a relatively long event.

And so to the results: It pains me to report that the A Team under Captain Deahl came 9^th overall with a score of 46.22%, while Team B under my clearly less adequate control came a lowly 15^th with a score of 38.74%. Dinner is on us!

Notwithstanding Nick’s incident, this was a fabulous event, well run on a very historic and entertaining track. For me personally, it also had the added flavour of being a team event, which provided a whole other dimension compared to our usual events which tend to be completely individual.

When bookended with some gentle touring by the Team via the wineries and coastal regions of SE SA and Victoria it made for a truly memorable week, and the team is already starting to plan its next cross border raid in 2025.

Lunch at the Farmers arms hotel Beeac

Club members gathered at Balyang sanctuary between 10 and 1030 am a great turnout 49 members.

After  a quick briefing we headed of to pick up the freeway and headed to Winchelsea where we took a right turn towards Creesy  lovely scenic drive through farmland. We arrived at our destination the Farmers arms hotel.

The owner Ian McDowell had saved parking for the club out front where several cars were reversed parked and chance for a photo op.

As we entered and filled the dining room with 49 members a roster for ordering meals was quickly organised and it worked very well. The food was excellent and arrived quite promptly I did pass no my thanks to the kitchen staff for a job well done.

After lunch the owner Ian opened his shed at the rear of the pub and gave us a talk about the cars there they were very well finished and some quite rare.

The weather on the day was excellent and a great day was had by all.

For the April square rigger report click here

Report on the Hesse run:

Click here