A couple of days on from the Historic Racing and Sports Car Club’s annual Taupo TT event and time to reflect on what a wonderful weekend everyone had. Everything worked superbly, the weather, the entry, the ‘racing’, and the socialising. The biggest plus must be that there were no incidents or damage among the competitors, everyone was out for some fun and a good run.
There were six groups running – historic sports-racing, Formula Fords, Formula 3/Formula Junior, Alfas, sports cars and the highlight of the weekend a good grid of vintage cars of all sizes and speeds. Our group had two invited guests, a very neat and quick Terrapin and Nigel in Graham Banks’ Mk 5 Buckler (which also ran in the vintage group with Graham aboard).
A nice surprise was seeing Garth Thomas who bought his partly restored T72 Cooper-BMC formula three car for all to see. It was nice to meet Garth’s dad, Bryan, a gentleman who competed in Jim Barclay’s Gemini back in the 60s, some real Formula Junior history.
Most lost count of how many laps they got in, with very little time lost to recovering vehicles the groups rolled around so quickly everyone had had enough by 3pm on Sunday – the Carter Elfin, now back to genuine FJ specs and looking resplendent in new black paint, had enough. The battery went flat during its last run !
The Wayne Rodgers’ initiated and created “Spirit of Formula Junior Award” went to the team of Walter Findlay and Rex Harrison for their never-give-up attitude, much to the delight of all competitors.
By my reckoning the HRSCC have been running this meeting now for 25 years, if you were unfortunate enough to miss this year, don’t dispair, pencil it in for the first weekend in December next year. You won’t regret it !
Regards and Compliments of the Season to all.
Ian Garmey
