Vintage Racing Club of BC

The Spirit of Westwood Lives On!

July 4, 2012

‘The π Man’ (aka Pierce Isaacs) leads Tim Pickstone. – Jim Moody photo

Several of the VRCBC’s racers attended SOVREN’s Pacific Northwest Historics event at Pacific Raceways over the July long weekend. Thanks to Jim Moody, we have some photos of ‘our heroes’ taking maximum advantage of some additional on-track warm up time before the BC Historic Motor Races that will be held over the August 4th-5th weekend at Mission Raceway Park Road Course. You can find more info on the BCHMR here and you can check out Jim’s photos below. (Thanks Jim.)

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May 29, 2012

Some of the grid gets set for the first Session on Saturday- VRCBC photo

Updated: May 29, 2012

The weather was perfect for the Sports Car Club of BC (SCCBC)  ‘Mother’s Day Special’ Race Weekend on May 12th and 13th.  The VRCBC racers did their part to honour all mothers with their special ‘Double – Double’ – holding two races on each of the Saturday and Sunday. Not all of the cars (or drivers!) managed to complete both days, but there was some excellent battles throughout the field in all four events. The results are posted on the SCCBC web site (here – click on ‘Race Results’) or they can be viewed directly here.

Photo Updates: A big thank you to these photographers for making their photos available to us.

Brent Martin has posted his photos here. He has also posted them to autocourse, the well-known, eastern Canadian motorsports website. (Just click here and look for the VRCBC logo.) You can check out all of Brent’s photo albums at his web site: http://www.martinsactionphotography.smugmug.com/

Gerry Frechette has posted photos of all of the Mother’s Day Weekend activities on his web site (here). Click here for his Vintage photos.

Paul Bonner’s photos of the Vintage races are now included in the gallery below. See the Links page (here) to contact Paul.

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May 24, 2012

Mark Brown and his Lotus Seven - Paul Bonner photo

Have you ever wanted to be a an old-time riding mechanic, looking both forwards and backwards while your driver threw the racing car around the bends and pounded down the straights? Well, here is your chance to see what it would be like. Check out Mark Brown’s onboard video combo from one of the Vintage races during the SCCBC Mother’s Day Weekend at Mission Raceway Park Road Course. Just look at the top of the videos in the right hand column or click here and then hang on!

May 23, 2012

Bruce Jamieson takes Turn 7 in Bernie Hamm's Fiat X1/9 - Jim Moody photo

By Jim Moody with files from Geoff Tupholme

The Victoria Day long weekend was a busy one for VRCBC members. While some were ‘working’ at the All British Field Meet in Vancouver, others were having a great time climbing Knox Mountain in Kelowna. The Knox Mountain Hillclimb is the longest annually running (This year was the 55th!) paved hillclimb in North America, and VRCBC members have been participating for many years. This year, it was Frank Winterlik, Geoff Tupholme, Keith Robinson, Evan Williams, Bernie Hamm and Bruce Jamieson carrying the Club’s banner up the challenging 2.2 mile course.

Frank had his 1973 Porsche 911 RSR both looking and running great during the two day event, posting a best time of 2:08.349. Right behind Frank was Geoff and his quick little 1973 Austin Mini (fighting a plug-fouling mystery) turning a best time of 2:08.416. Bernie Hamm with his 1974 Fiat X-1/9 enjoyed his weekend of competition and came through with a best time of 2:27.906. Evan Williams, no stranger to Knox Mountain, brought his 1963 Jaguar XKE to the hill this year. Evan’s best time of the weekend was 2:30.268. Bruce Jamieson was just getting familiar with Bernie’s Fiat and turned a 2:35.034.  Keith Robinson was our only single seater representative this year, driving his 1980 Van Diemen RF 80 Formula Ford to a best time was 2:10.073.

The final results are available here. Check below for more photos.

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May 20, 2012

Getting ready: the VRCBC Booth before the gates open - VRCBC photo

Updated: May 23, 2012

The 27th edition of the All British Field Meet (ABFM) – ‘The Greatest Show on British Wheels’ – was held on Saturday, May 19th at Vancouver’s Van Dusen Gardens. The weather was perfect and all of the cars looked great. The VRCBC display was in its traditional location, right inside the main entrance, greeting the very large crowd of visitors as they entered Memory Lane.

The VRCBC was very well represented by Mark Brown’s two time REVS Champion Lotus Seven, Al Harvey’s MGB, Al Reid’s MGB, Ralph Zbarsky’s MGB GT, Nick Woodhouse’s Austin Healey, Ivan Lessner’s multiple REVS Champion Austin Healey, and John McCoy’s Lotus Cortina. There was a great deal of interest in the cars and in Vintage racing at Mission Raceway Park Road Course.

Update: The winners of the many awards and prizes are now posted on the Western Driver / ABFM website (here) soon. Our congratulations to VRCBC racers, John McCoy and Nick Woodhouse who took first and third places respectively in the Race Cars category.

The following few photos give you some idea of what was a very enjoyable day.

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