NEWS
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WE ARE NOW A AFFILIATED CLUB
The Gold Coast Sun have published an article on Formula Vee with the help of our Qld
committee member Alan Don.
Click on the link below to read the article.
committee member Alan Don.
Click on the link below to read the article.
Click on this link to read Nick Sebefsi's Pearls of Wisdom when attempting to get a race licence.
Important Announcement
Engine Seals for Historic VeesAll Historic Vees are now required to have additional engine
sealing tags applied and be sealed by HFVAA approved historic sealers. The names of the sealers
for NSW and Qld are on the Technical page along with an explanation of the requirements.
Sealers in other states will be announced in the near future.
This is a CAMS Historic Commission approved directive and is applicable to all Group V cars.
Go to our Technical Page for more information.
Go to our Forms & Rules Page for the CAMS rules for both classes.
Engine Seals for Historic VeesAll Historic Vees are now required to have additional engine
sealing tags applied and be sealed by HFVAA approved historic sealers. The names of the sealers
for NSW and Qld are on the Technical page along with an explanation of the requirements.
Sealers in other states will be announced in the near future.
This is a CAMS Historic Commission approved directive and is applicable to all Group V cars.
Go to our Technical Page for more information.
Go to our Forms & Rules Page for the CAMS rules for both classes.
HSRCA Spring Race Meeting Wakefield Park 27th and 28th September
Only three of our members entered for this race meeting but our presence was well and truly noticed. Again
we were mixed in with the Group M & O Racing Cars and again we showed how well our little cars can do in
this company. Seventeen cars qualified for the three races over the weekend and we managed to qualify well
in this very posh company. I managed to qualify tenth in the 1981 Spectre with Nick Sebesfi close behind in
eleventh place in his 1965 Nota and Chris Reeks in twelfth place in his 1971 Elfin Malmark. All three of us
were taking it cautiously as the track was very slippery with all sorts of fluid left on the track by the Group N
cars from the previous qualifying session.
In the race on Saturday afternoon I managed a hard fought eleventh place finish with Chris and Nick finishing
fourteenth and fifteenth. Their fate was basically decided at the start as the more powerful cars from behind
out dragged them to the first turn and pulled away up the hill - not much that 40 hp can do against 110 hp in
that situation. I had a better start and shoved my nose well and truly in the way at turn one and was able to
scare a couple of more powerful cars into submission. Anyway we all enjoyed ourselves and returned on
Sunday to do it all over again.
Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday with warm weather and a slightly slippery track. Chris and Nick
improved their lap times on Sunday with Nick finishing with a best of 1min 18.6 secs, Chris with a best of 1 min
18.9 secs and my best time was from Saturday with a 1min 16.7 secs. I believe that this is Nick and Chris's
best times so far at this track and considering their undeveloped cars, they are doing very well.
Our next event is the Tasman Revival at Eastern Creek in November where we expect some new car and
driver combinations to boost our numbers. See you there.
Eamonn Matthews. More Photos on Gallery Page
Only three of our members entered for this race meeting but our presence was well and truly noticed. Again
we were mixed in with the Group M & O Racing Cars and again we showed how well our little cars can do in
this company. Seventeen cars qualified for the three races over the weekend and we managed to qualify well
in this very posh company. I managed to qualify tenth in the 1981 Spectre with Nick Sebesfi close behind in
eleventh place in his 1965 Nota and Chris Reeks in twelfth place in his 1971 Elfin Malmark. All three of us
were taking it cautiously as the track was very slippery with all sorts of fluid left on the track by the Group N
cars from the previous qualifying session.
In the race on Saturday afternoon I managed a hard fought eleventh place finish with Chris and Nick finishing
fourteenth and fifteenth. Their fate was basically decided at the start as the more powerful cars from behind
out dragged them to the first turn and pulled away up the hill - not much that 40 hp can do against 110 hp in
that situation. I had a better start and shoved my nose well and truly in the way at turn one and was able to
scare a couple of more powerful cars into submission. Anyway we all enjoyed ourselves and returned on
Sunday to do it all over again.
Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday with warm weather and a slightly slippery track. Chris and Nick
improved their lap times on Sunday with Nick finishing with a best of 1min 18.6 secs, Chris with a best of 1 min
18.9 secs and my best time was from Saturday with a 1min 16.7 secs. I believe that this is Nick and Chris's
best times so far at this track and considering their undeveloped cars, they are doing very well.
Our next event is the Tasman Revival at Eastern Creek in November where we expect some new car and
driver combinations to boost our numbers. See you there.
Eamonn Matthews. More Photos on Gallery Page
| Historic Sandown Last weekend’s Historic Sandown event saw the Victorian arm of the HFVAA put on a display of six Historic Formula Vees. The primary aim of the display was to help raise the awareness of Group V in Victoria and judging by the positive response and enthusiasm from many people at the event, the display went a long way to achieving this. Two Pre-74 and four Pre-85 cars were in attendance, these being the 1967 CMS (Reg Gardner), Elfin 500 (Noel Bull), 1976 Elfin NG Chassis #1 (Max Bonney), 1977 Stag (Geoff Kelly), 1985 Elfin NG (Penny Neville) and the 1984 Daveric Mk6 (Paul Hambleton). If that wasn’t enough, notable Vee racers Dave Turnbull and John Dean stopped by a number of times for a chat about the old days. As an added bonus on Sunday, the VHRR kindly let four of the Vees join (Reg, Max, Noel and Mike Neville) around fifty MG’s for a parade lap around the circuit. Many thanks to Max Bonney, Reg Gardner, Cliff Brooker, Gary Ryding, Noel Bull, Geoff Kelly, Mike Neville, Ian Lee, Eamonn Matthews and the VHRR. Without their help and support, the display would simply not have existed. All in all, a great weekend was had by all... Paul Hambleton |
Queensland Race Report for September/October
Historic Vees have had two race meetings with the Cat 1 Vees since the last report.
On 13/14 September FVAQ bought a race slot at the Queensland Raceway meeting for a set of 4 races counting
towards the FVAQ Club Championships. Fourteen Vees, including 5 Gp V, were entered – the oldies were
Stephen Wilkins (Venom), Bob Roberts (FV), David Harrison (Nimbus), Len Don (Stag) and Alan Don (Nimbus).
Qualifying and race 4 were on the National circuit (the big paper clip), races 1 and 3 on the Clubman, and race 2
was a reverse grid on the Sprint circuit.
Qualifying had fastest time (1600) at 1:26, with Harrison on 1:38.1, Roberts 1:40.5, Wilkins 1:41.1, L Don 1:43.1
and A Don 1:44.7. Harrison took the Historic win in all four races, with Wilkins second in 3, and L Don taking 3
thirds and a second, while A Don was a consistent fourth. Bob Roberts had woeful luck all weekend – he had
throttle problems in races 1 and 2, then more mechanical problems which sidelined him for the rest of the
weekend. However racing was close and exciting, with the chance to do some serious slip streaming and
demon dives under brakes at the ends of the back straight and the inside straight, as well as power-on driving
through turns 1 and 2. David Harrison was fastest all weekend, being 2 to 4 seconds a lap faster depending on
the circuit, but he had the advantage of having raced Cat 1 there last year as well. For the other three, there was
less than a second spread over the fastest laps in 3 of the races.
Two weeks later saw the last round of the CAMS State Championships at Morgan Park. Fifteen cars, including 4
Gp V and another car to Gp V specs which is going through the log booking process. There were 9 1600 and 1
1200 Cat 1s, so the front runners (fastest lap 1:09.93) would lap us in the 8 and 10 lappers. Len Don (1;18.86) was
fastest in qualifying, followed by Stephen Wilkins (1:19.23), Bob Roberts (1:19.94), Alan Don (1:20.24) and Jim
Waugh (1:24.28). R1 was the first of two State Champ rounds, and saw Wilkins first in Gp V, followed by Len Don
and Bob Roberts only 0.4 sec apart. R2 (6 laps) had Stephen first again, this time 0.28 secs ahead of Len with
Bob 1.3 secs adrift. In R3 (8 laps), Len prevailed over Bob by 0.6 secs with Stephen third. The final Champ round
saw Stephen win from Bob by 0.2 sec and Len 1.1 sec behind. Overall the weekend showed good close and
clean racing among the Gp V and the leading 1600s – the State Championship went down to the wire, with Tim
Hamilton winning by 1 point after taking second in the last race. FV racing as is was, and still is!
Alan Don
Historic Vees have had two race meetings with the Cat 1 Vees since the last report.
On 13/14 September FVAQ bought a race slot at the Queensland Raceway meeting for a set of 4 races counting
towards the FVAQ Club Championships. Fourteen Vees, including 5 Gp V, were entered – the oldies were
Stephen Wilkins (Venom), Bob Roberts (FV), David Harrison (Nimbus), Len Don (Stag) and Alan Don (Nimbus).
Qualifying and race 4 were on the National circuit (the big paper clip), races 1 and 3 on the Clubman, and race 2
was a reverse grid on the Sprint circuit.
Qualifying had fastest time (1600) at 1:26, with Harrison on 1:38.1, Roberts 1:40.5, Wilkins 1:41.1, L Don 1:43.1
and A Don 1:44.7. Harrison took the Historic win in all four races, with Wilkins second in 3, and L Don taking 3
thirds and a second, while A Don was a consistent fourth. Bob Roberts had woeful luck all weekend – he had
throttle problems in races 1 and 2, then more mechanical problems which sidelined him for the rest of the
weekend. However racing was close and exciting, with the chance to do some serious slip streaming and
demon dives under brakes at the ends of the back straight and the inside straight, as well as power-on driving
through turns 1 and 2. David Harrison was fastest all weekend, being 2 to 4 seconds a lap faster depending on
the circuit, but he had the advantage of having raced Cat 1 there last year as well. For the other three, there was
less than a second spread over the fastest laps in 3 of the races.
Two weeks later saw the last round of the CAMS State Championships at Morgan Park. Fifteen cars, including 4
Gp V and another car to Gp V specs which is going through the log booking process. There were 9 1600 and 1
1200 Cat 1s, so the front runners (fastest lap 1:09.93) would lap us in the 8 and 10 lappers. Len Don (1;18.86) was
fastest in qualifying, followed by Stephen Wilkins (1:19.23), Bob Roberts (1:19.94), Alan Don (1:20.24) and Jim
Waugh (1:24.28). R1 was the first of two State Champ rounds, and saw Wilkins first in Gp V, followed by Len Don
and Bob Roberts only 0.4 sec apart. R2 (6 laps) had Stephen first again, this time 0.28 secs ahead of Len with
Bob 1.3 secs adrift. In R3 (8 laps), Len prevailed over Bob by 0.6 secs with Stephen third. The final Champ round
saw Stephen win from Bob by 0.2 sec and Len 1.1 sec behind. Overall the weekend showed good close and
clean racing among the Gp V and the leading 1600s – the State Championship went down to the wire, with Tim
Hamilton winning by 1 point after taking second in the last race. FV racing as is was, and still is!
Alan Don
| CAMS OLT day at Oran Park 7th November 2008 Five of our members, Mark Alexander, Steve Batty, Alan Brown, Jeff Genge and Phil Lewis met at Oran Park last Friday to show the CAMS licence observers what they were made of. We all arrived around the same time and set up camp under the main grandstand out of the sun. This was about the only space left as there was practice for a race meeting that weekend and the pits were absolutely full, mainly of Club Sedans as this was their National Title Race Meeting. There was a short practice session on the GP circuit to familiarise themselves with the borrowed cars and the circuit and then a very brief safety check before the actual observed five lap race on the short circuit. Our five formula vee drivers were lined up on the grid with two formula fords and a clubman and they waited and waited and waited until the water cooled formula fords could take it no longer and they disappeared on a slow lap by themselves to cool off. But our five heroic vee drivers stood their ground and dutifully waited and waited and waited. After approximately ten minutes the official finally gave up on ever finding the switch to the starting lights and somebody threw him a green flag which he waved with such vigour it scared the s..t out of our heroic vee drivers and they shot off as fast as they could to take cover. Now this is all good you might think as they are now racing and it will all be over soon. But spare a thought for this brave crewman who had said to his driver before he ventured out "don't worry”, there's enough fuel in it for five laps". That is all well and good, but if it took ten minutes to start the race with a piece of cloth, how long could they be out there if he has to go looking for another piece of cloth with some chequers on it. Yes, exactly, my driver will be out of fuel in five minutes and the rest could be driving around until they need headlights. Anyway it all ended o.k. with Phil leading the vees home and he chased the formula fords all the way. The next problem was to extricate my driver from the car he had borrowed from me. Yes he got in it o.k. but I don't care what he says, he is a fat b…..d and we all thought of leaving him in it and going home - the problem is that I needed the car for the Tasman meeting. Our five heroic formula vee drivers are now provisional race drivers (heaven help us ) and as you can see from the photos, very happy they are too. Well done chaps. |
Alan praying to the god of observers
| Eamonn wondering if he can get the Prez out of his car |
One reason why Phil is so quick!
| A National Champion! It has come to our attention that the very modest Alan Don, our Queensland committee member, is for the second year in a row, The Australian Hillclimb Champion for Group V. Alan competed at the Australian Hillclimb Championships at Bathurst on 8-9 November and won the class. It is the second time he has done this and kept it very quiet. Don't worry though, we can bring even the best kept secrets to the historic vee world's notice. Congratulations Alan. |
