The September Breakfast Club gathering in Warragul and the Austin-Healey Sprite Drivers? Club 50th Anniversary Hillclimb at Bryant Park both fell on the same Sunday, which was rather lucky weather-wise, but a trifle inconvenient for those wishing to compete or attend both events.
There were about 15 Spridgets competing on the day, including Sporting Register members Steve Schmidt in his Bugeye and Allan Richards in his MG Midget. Ian Maud brought along his Toyota MR2 to run with the ten or so non-Spridget competitors which included a LS1 V8-powered XJ6 Jaguar, a Mitsubishi Evo 8, a WRX, an MX5, Nissans Syline and Sylvia, a TR7, a race Mini and a Gemini track car. With slightly less than 30 competitors, all drivers were able to complete 4 runs at each of 3 different layouts of the Bryant Park circuit. The first track was the familiar Long Clockwise layout that will used in this October?s Australian Hillclimb Championship, then we tried the tricky Clockwise Figure 8 track which has a nasty blind crest which caught a few people out, then the Short Clockwise track which is a bit of a blast and an entertaining way to finish the day off. With 12 competitive runs and 3 familiarisation laps, it?s lucky that the Gunns Gully Service Station wasn?t too far from the track for a quick refuel prior to the run home.
It was great to see so many Sporting Register members dropping in after the Breakfast Club to support this event and those competing. Special thanks to John Fowler who spent most of the day manning the Start Line and assisting the Gippsland Car Club who were engaged to run the event.
Results wise, Ian Maud had a brilliant day. After several months of redesigning, manufacturing and rebuilding the supercharged MR2?s suspension, he was rewarded by placing overall fastest outright on the day after a close fought battle with the Nissan Skyline and Silvia. The competition amongst the Spridgets was also very close, but Allan and Steve both did well to win their respective classes within the Spridget category.
Video of the Figure 8 layout from the in-car camera in our 3 cars spliced together.