Vintage Racing Club of BC

The Spirit of Westwood Lives On!

May 22, 2018

Regular VRCBC racer and ‘Knox rookie’, Phil Pidcock wheels his very quick 1965 Triumph Spitfire up the mountain. – Jim Moody photo

Posted: May 22, 2018

One of the VRCBC’s very own ‘travelling motorsports correspondents’, Jim Moody covered this year’s Leavitt Machinery Knox Mountain Hill Climb, and has sent us a report plus some excellent photos of the VRCBC members and friends who were competing. Thanks Jim!!

“ VRCBC members and associates made their presence known at this year’s running of the Knox Mountain Hill Climb. A mixture of  sun and cloud kept temperatures pleasant for the two day competition.

 Gayle Baird very ably represented the ladies (as always) piloting her Honda Civic up the 2.2 mile road course and posting a best time of 2:21.603. Legendary (ahem) race veteran Keith Robinson, no stranger to Knox, brought a Honda CRX to challenge the course and his best time for the weekend was 2:14.105.

Vancouver Island’s Phil Pidcock, making his first appearance at Knox, drove his Triumph Spitfire to an excellent best time of 2:13.364. Larry (‘Pops’) Sandham once again had his familiar Mini Vauxhall up to speed clocking a best time of 2:04.188. Trevor (‘Junior’) Sandham drove his gold coloured Mini Cooper to a time of 2:11.249 on his fourth run of the weekend, and that stood as his best.

Mike Ball and Bruce Jamieson shared a Datsun 240Z, with Mike’s best time showing as 2:12.770, while Bruce’s best was 2:12.645. Nick and Stephen Gunner co-drove a Porsche 944 keeping the car busy on the hill with Nick’s fastest time being 2:17.289. Stephen beat his brother’s time by only .113 seconds to finish at 2:17.176.

The most fascinating story of the weekend was Doug Yip’s son Trevor posting a very competitive time of 1:51.210 with Doug’s self-designed and built ‘Electric Cobra’; a Tesla-powered EV. Trevor was second fastest overall up Knox, beaten (by only 1.17 seconds) by Andre Marziali’s highly modified BMW M3. Andre’s FTD was 1:50.040 and he was crowned ‘King of the Hill’ for 2018.

The 2018 event is now in the history books and Knox Mountain is quiet once again ……… until next year’s Hill Climb!”

Check out Jim’s photos below.

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May 19, 2018

Gunther Ruppel’s bright red Bugeye Sprite was a big attraction at our VRCBC display at the ABFM. – Brent Martin photo

Updated: May 23, 2018

The VRCBC again had a display at the 2018 All British Field Meet (This was the 33rd edition!) at Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden on Saturday, May 19th.

The VRCBC is very grateful to the ABFM. As a non-profit motorsport club, we enjoy complimentary sponsorship at the ABFM in order to promote awareness (and attendance) of our BC Historic Motor Races over the August 18th – 19th weekend, among both classic car owners and enthusiasts in general.

The weather was good and there was the usual large crowd of enthusiasts checking out the many classic British cars and motorcycles.

The legendary Austin Healey ‘Bugeye’ Sprite was one of this year’s featured marques and Gunther Ruppel’s bright red racing version was very prominent in our display, right next to the ‘main road’. We are all looking forward to seeing Gunther really ‘wheelin’ it’ at Mission this season!

Check out Brent Martin’s other photos of our display below, and his full gallery of 2018 ABFM shots on his web site (here).

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May 10, 2018

The Sandham Express! Trevor Sandham (’75 Austin Mini Cooper) leads ‘Pops’ (aka Larry) Sandham (’85 Mini Vauxhall) around Mission’s Turn 5. – Brent Martin photo

Posted: May 10, 2018

The weather was great for the season’s second race weekend at the Mission Raceway Park Road Course on May 5th-6th. A good time was had by all!

The Vintage results are available here; the complete results for the weekend are available on the SCCBC web site (here). We have a break in the action now until the third event – the June 23rd-24th weekend. That will give everybody a good chance to get some of those new ‘go faster bits’ on their cars!

Thanks to Brent Martin for more great photos of our Vintage action (see below) and check out all of his photos on his web site (here).

See you at the track in June!

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April 23, 2018

‘Turn up the volume!’ Here’s a view we don’t often see. Dennis Repel (’74 Chevrolet Camaro) leads Ian Thomas (’70 BMW 2002), Peter Valkenburg (’69 Porsche 911) and Steven Allaire (’92 Porsche Carrera Cup ) into Mission’s Turn 4 during one of the day’s great Vintage battles. – Brent Martin photo

Updated: April 30, 2018

The April 21st-22nd weekend was a very busy one for the VRCBC. Some members were ‘working’ our display at the BC Classic & Custom Car Show in Abbotsford, while everybody else was ‘playing’ at the race track!

The 2018 race season at Mission Raceway Park Road Course began under sunny skies with the first Sports Car Club of BC (SCCBC) event, sanctioned by the CACC. As usual, our Vintage REVS series races were held on the Sunday. The Vintage results are available here; the complete results for the weekend are available on the SCCBC web site (here).

And now that spring has finally arrived, it’s time to get that grass cut, as VRCBC Vice President Paul Haym so ably demonstrated with his highly efficient Datsun 510 ‘mower’ in Turn 5!

More of Brent Martin’s photos of the Vintage action are shown below. (Thanks Brent.) The rest of Brent’s photos of the whole weekend of racing are now posted on his website (here).

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April 23, 2018

The VRCBC display during a quiet moment before the doors opened at the 2018 version of the BC Classic & Custom Car Show at Tradex. – VRCBC photo

Posted: April 23, 2018

The VRCBC returned to the BC Classic & Custom Car Show at the Tradex in Abbotsford over the April 20th to 22nd weekend. We had both of VRCBC legend Al Reid’s Team OGRE racing cars on display; his 1967 MGB and his 1996 Pontiac Firebird. Both cars attracted a lot of attention and many show attendees were very interested to learn more about road racing at Mission Raceway in general and our own Vintage racing activities in particular.