The Roaring Season

Hope it is up and running, as I haven't yet managed to see that group race. Hopefully I'll also be able to drive myself by this weekend and spend all of Friday and Saturday at the track, so I'll happily withdraw from the list of wannabe McLaren drivers - this time.

The extra tarseal and grass in the paddock area and much improved PA system shows the steady improvement and progress at HD. Nice coffee too.

Spent the last 2 days at HD. What a fantastic event!!!! I should have been competing but a couple of f--k ups by an engine reconditioning firm put paid to that. Excellent numbers (except perhaps for the Can Am cars) and, unlike some "classic" meetings, not full of Lotus 7 replicas, Mazda MX5's etc. What was most impressive though was the continued improvements at HD-paths have been sealed and the facilities in general are superb.
Makes a bloke wonder why the Government and others would put money into Pukekohe-it would take many millions of dollars just to get it up to a similar standard to HD let alone make it better.

I saw John Greenwood's "Spirit of "76" racing at Le Mans in 1976.
If this 'vette is anything like that one we're in for a rare treat - I can feel the ground shake already!!

Was watching a clip of the HMC lads on fb earlier and was wondering when it was filmed as the crowds looked to be non existant from the in car footages.

Will be going next Sunday for my dose.

Cheers
Lee

Can I just say a big thank-you to all the people who are involved with, and organise, the official saturday night BBQ dinners at Hamptons. Good food, good entertainment, good company, and no egos!

Fun quizzes (if you were there, and saw a fat person in a white shirt running up to the stage, to win a prize, that was me !!!), and many a delightful conversation with the legends that were there.

Oh yeah, and people getting the odd autograph as well - I managed to get Jim Richards to autograph a couple of 1972 Heatway Rally booklets of mine, which featured his MORRIS MARINA on the front. He commented that he believes that he is the only person to win a Special Stage on an International Rally in a Marina....

I was also lucky to miss out on a big stack of second-hand Motorsport books that the Bruce McLaren Trust had been given to sell, although I still bought an Autocourse annual as "the price was right"...also bought a copy of Allan Scott's book "TWR and Jaguar's XJS Inside Tom Walkinshaw's Group A Racing Team" which I can well recommend to all. it is the first of 4 books he is writing which will eventually cover the Croup C Jag's, the Rover era, and the early years. In fact the Rover book is written, and due to be released later this year....the XJS book is 320 pages, the Rover book over 400!

Lee Tracey wrote:Was watching a clip of the HMC lads on fb earlier and was wondering when it was filmed as the crowds looked to be non existant from the in car footages.

Will be going next Sunday for my dose.

Cheers
Lee

Friday morning practice

And the afternoon qualifying session

...so why didnt Tony borrow the other "old blue" corvette???

More than likely a 100 thousand or more reasons Crunch at a guess.

Rod Grimwood wrote:More than likely a 100 thousand or more reasons Crunch at a guess.

Perhaps the documentation for next years festival will include in the fineprint something like... "The venue owners reserve the right to race any cars parked within the boundary of said venue free of charge."

Powder wrote:Perhaps the documentation for next years festival will include in the fineprint something like... "The venue owners reserve the right to race any cars parked within the boundary of said venue free of charge."

...provided the roll cage conforms to 2013 rules and is not a period item.

Photos from Saturday - F5000's

More from Saturday....

ERC wrote:...provided the roll cage conforms to 2013 rules and is not a period item.

Can be a period cage if the car has a Schedule K classification and/or Schedule AA scrutineering.

crunch wrote:Can be a period cage if the car has a Schedule K classification and/or Schedule AA scrutineering.

Well said Crunch!

Tongue in cheek...

ERC wrote:Tongue in cheek...

Your tongue might be in yours, mine wasn't.