Vintage Racing Club of BC

The Spirit of Westwood Lives On!

April 18, 2012

Fine Italian Art - 2004 Ferrari F1 V-10 Crankshaft - VRCBC photo

The VRCBC’s April general meeting was actually a special visit to Ferrari Maserati of Vancouver (website). The Club members and guests who attended were too distracted by all of the beautiful new and pre-owned high performance cars on display to actually focus on any regular business agenda – so we didn’t even try!

The few photos below don’t do justice to these fabulous machines and the state of the art, multi-story facility on Burrard Street. It was a very enjoyable evening. A big thank you to General Manager Mark Edmonds and his team for hosting us.

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April 17, 2012

The first three in-car videos from the 2012 REVS season at Mission Raceway Park Road Course have arrived. You can find them in the right hand column of this web site.

The first video is from inside Gunter Pichler’s 1964 Jaguar E-Type as he wins the first Vintage race on Sunday, April 15th. The second video is the view from the lower right front wishbone of Mark Brown’s 1969 Lotus Seven S-3 as he comes second in the same race. The third video is again from Mark’s Lotus as he wins the second race, after first Gunter and then Dennis Repel’s Camaro succumbed to tire issues – most noticeably in Turn #1 and Turn #9.

Look for the track improvements, particularly the much better sight line through Turn 6.

April 16, 2012

Frank Winterlik's beautiful 1971 Porsche 911. - VRCBC photo

Updated April 30, 2012: Thanks to Paul Bonner and Brent Martin for the additional photos.

The SCCBC hosted two full days of CACC-sanctioned racing at Mission Raceway Park Road Course on April 14th and 15th. The SCCBC named the weekend ‘Robert Remembered’ in memory of Robert Currie, who sadly passed away in February.

The first VRCBC REVS races of the 2012 season were held on the Sunday. It was great to see some new faces (see the photos below) and there was some excellent competition throughout the field in both afternoon races. The complete Vintage results are posted under the Race Results menu and are also available directly here.

The next REVS races will be during the May 12th – 13th ‘Mother’s Day Special’ weekend. This will be a special double for us, with a Vintage qualifying session and two races on each of the Saturday and the Sunday.

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April 12, 2012

1958 Ray Ford Special

Regular visitors to this website will have noticed that the Ray Ford Special has recently disappeared from the Classifieds – For Sale section. That is because the car has just been purchased by Matt Flinn of Portland, Oregon. Matt has asked for our help in obtaining more information about this car’s early years.

The Ray Ford was one of the last and best-known of the ‘West Coast Specials’. This front-engined, aluminum-bodied sports racer was built in Port Moody by Peter Ray in 1958. It has a Ford (of England) Zephyr six cylinder with a Shadbolt cam, triple SU’s, an MG TD rear axle and close ratio gearbox. During the 1960’s, it was owned and raced by Gord Henderson, who renamed it the Ratel Mk 1, and may have entered it under that name. It was raced at Westwood, Seattle and Portland until 1969. At some point, the rear body section was modified from the original to accomodate larger wheels and tires.

Matt has already contacted those individuals who were known to have had personal experience or knowledge of the car, but is hoping that someone else may remember it and be able to provide some additional information that would help him re-create its competition history. Early photos of the car which showed the original rear body configuration would be particularly appreciated.

If you can provide any leads or suggestions, please contact Matt directly by email: mandmflinn “AT” gmail.com

 

 

April 8, 2012

The traffic was heavy at the SCCBC – VRCBC stand. – VRCBC photo

This year’s Vancouver International Auto Show has again proved to be very popular with car enthusiasts of all types. Many of them have visited the joint SCCBC – VRCBC stand to ask questions about our road racing at Mission Raceway. Most of the questions have been about spectating but there has also been a lot of interest in getting involved ‘on-track’. Two good friends of the VRCBC, Intermeccanica Custom Coach Builders (here) and Classic and Collector Car Insurance specialists, Hagerty (here) also attracted big crowds.

Check out some more photos below.

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