Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Collingrove Winter Cup Round 2


Last Sunday Andrew and I wandered over to Collingrove for the hillclimb. Unlike Easter Monday when hardly anybody seemed to turn up, they were oversubscribed with about 150 entries which they had to pare down to an even hundred. Despite all that, they managed to give everybody four runs each, due mainly to the efficient running of the event and no real catastrophies on the day. In the morning the outright contenders were eclipsed by the 4WD WRXs and Evos but after lunch when the rain stopped and things dried out a bit, things got back to normal. Bolwell Club member, Alan Foster was right up there with the leaders in his motorbike engined hillclimb special which was good to see. I just love watching the Mitchells' Turbocharged Formula Brabham charging up the hill. They seem to launch it and if it makes it around that first lefthander well and good. Daryl Siggs was there as usual, looking very busy. You couldn't miss that raucous laugh right across the paddock. Either the headphones were turned up or he's going deaf in his old age but he never looked up when anybody yelled at him. Peter Goers' blown Zephyr Milano GT was also going well. No blown head gaskets this time. The copper one might have done the trick. You Victorians, watch out for Peter and the Milano at the Sandown Historics. I like Peter's trailer almost as much as his car. It's one of two car trailers Roger Waters made which lay down on the ground and after you have driven on it is raised from the compressed air tank mounted on the drawbar which is also good for blowing up tyres. The other trailer is the single axle one Roger had for that timeless MG special he had. Car and trailer have gone to an MGCCQ member following Roger's death (another one to go before his time). I'm only guessing, but I think the young woman in the Mallock clubman is Andy Ford's daughter which would account for her talent. Andy's driving is to be admired as is Peter Hall's. Poor old Peter couldn't compete on Sunday because he couldn't get anyone else to be clerk of the course. Finally, it was good to catch up with Steve Rowley before he and Marg slip over to Vanuatu to celebrate 30 years of marital bliss.

2 comments:

Colin said...

Any pics of the trailer?

John L said...

I'll get one. He's only over on Smyth Road. Roger had mainly done horse floats in this manner. They were great if you had a ratbag horse that didn't like going up ramps. The float came down to the horse. You might remember Roger's workshop when you lived at Lyndoch. He was on that road from Gawler, roughly near Sandy Creek.