Vintage Tag

27 Sep

Posted at 11:57h in Racing Related, REVS by
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[caption id="attachment_7419" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Ralph Zbarsky and his former BMC Works Team MGB GT - Brent Martin photo[/caption]

Updated again: October 9, 2012

Sunday, September 23rd saw some of the VRCBC's finest hit the track at Mission Raceway Park for two Vintage races during the SCCBC's 'Volunteer Memorial' Weekend. In addition to some excellent racing, this event saw the Mission debut of Ralph Zbarsky's former BMC Works Team 1967 MGB GT, now beautifully restored. Ralph raced this car at Sebring in March of this year - see our earlier story here. (Don't miss the link to the You Tube video showing the car's roll over at Sebring in 1970. Hint: It wasn't Ralph!)

The first race got off to a great start. Dennis Repel was leading until about half distance when the throttle stuck open going into Turn 2. Major streaks of rubber were required to get the 'Heavy Chevy' (with its dyno-proven 406 hp) Camaro stopped in time.  Judicious use of the kill switch enabled him to get back to second place behind Mark Brown before the finish. They were followed by Phil Roney, Ian Thomas, and Roger Flescher. The next three places featured a close fight between Ian Wood, Al Harvey and Paul Haym. Then Peter Valkenburg and 'the Zbarsky Train' of Mike and Ralph. Al Reid had to retire his MGB after only nine laps.

At the start of the second race, Mark and Phil tried desperately to outbrake Dennis into Turn 1 but couldn't manage it and Dennis took the lead, only for his engine to let go in a (very) terminal way, entering Turn 1 on the fifth lap. Mark managed to see through the spray of oil well enough to take charge, particularly since Phil had already broken an axle shaft after only two laps. Roger took second, followed by Ian Thomas and then the scrapping trio of Ian Wood, Al Harvey and Paul Haym. (Just to show how close these three were: on the fourth lap, each of them turned a lap time of 1:24.1!). The Zbarskys were next. Peter Valkenburg and Al Reid had issues and were several laps down.

The full results are available here.

Update - October 9th: Gerry Frechette has added his 148 photos of the Vintage action on September 23rd to his web site. ( http://gerryfrechette.zenfolio.com/  ) or just click here to go directly to that album.

A big thank you to Brent Martin for providing the photos below. You can see the rest of his photos on his web site: www.martinsactionphotography.smugmug.com or  just click here to go directly to his September 23rd Vintage album of 136 photos.

06 Jul

Posted at 08:00h in REVS by
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[caption id="attachment_7249" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Pace Lap for the first race - Brent Martin photo[/caption]

The VRCBC's third set of REVS races of the 2012 season took place on the Sunday of the SCCBC's 'Long Time Running' Weekend on June 23rd and 24th. The Vintage racers consider themselves lucky to have avoided the dramatic weather conditions on the Saturday. It flooded, it rained, a thunderstorm passed overhead, and the wind blew bits of cottonwood trees all over the back stretch. Never mind the power outages!

Update - July 6th: The just- released SCCBC July Pit Pass has some excellent photos and stories about the 'wild and woolly Saturday'. You can find it on the SCCBC website (here) - click on the News - Pit Pass button and look for 2012.

Sunday's weather on the other hand, was perfect and the VRCBC gang enjoyed themselves - except for reigning REVS champion Mark Brown who had a rare DNF with a broken 'halfshaft'. The results are now posted on the SCCBC web site (here) or you can go directly to our 2012 Season Results page (here).

Next up is the BC Historic Motor Races (BCHMR) on August 4th and 5th featuring not only the usual set of exciting Vintage races but also two special features for this year, the Third Annual International Formula Vee Challenge and the Childrens' Charity Grand Prix. All this on only one weekend! Check it out at www.bchmr.ca

Thanks to Brent Martin for providing us with some of his photos of the on-track action.  (see below) You can see all of his photos from the weekend on his site (here) - Just look for  the 'Vintage Group' album.

Update - July 9th: Brent's photos have also been posted on the autocourse.ca web site (here). Look for the VRCBC logo and the 'Long Time Running Weekend' link.

04 Jul

Posted at 16:29h in Non-VRCBC News & Events, Racing Related, SOVREN by
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[caption id="attachment_7291" align="aligncenter" width="480"] 'The π Man' (aka Pierce Isaacs) leads Tim Pickstone. - Jim Moody photo[/caption]

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.)