Historic Sandown this weekend at............Sandown 4-6 November.
Representing AROCA Vic:
Paul Chaleyer Alfa Romeo Spider Regularity
Marty Lambert Alfa Romeo 105 GTV Group Nc
Chris Blanden Alfa Romeo 105 GTV Group Sc
Nick Taylor Alfa Romeo 105 Spider Group Sc
Phil Baskett Alfetta GTV Group Sc
Hung Do Alfetta GTV Group Sc
Neil Choi Alfetta GTV Group Sc BOG
Other AROCA members or Racing Alfa's:
Steven Byrnes Alfa Romeo GTA Corsa Regularity
Phillip Schudmak Alfa Monza Replica Regularity
Peter Donald Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 Regularity
Lyndon McLeod Alfetta GT Group Sc
Graeme Lowe Alfa Ricciardi Spyder Regularity
Trevor Montgomery Alfa Romeo 6c (Little Alfa)
Free entry Friday Practice
Qualifying Saturday
Racing Saturday and Sunday
Weather is looking fabulous.
Neil
Quote from: Neil Choi on October 31, 2011, 10:09:19 PM
Neil Choi Alfetta GTV Group Sc BOG
BOG = Best On Ground....right.
Quote from: Neil Choi on October 31, 2011, 10:09:19 PM
Weather is looking fabulous.
30 degrees + both days, I can hear the head gaskets groaning now.....
Neil Hung and me are down near garage 40 at the back of the pit wall area if you want to come by and say hello.
Quote from: alfagtv58 on November 04, 2011, 09:56:18 AM
Neil Hung and me are down near garage 40 at the back of the pit wall area if you want to come by and say hello.
Edit - I have just been advised that despite taking time away from work to get there early yesterday and secure a nice spot we have been kicked out of our spot.... >:( we are now over near the competitors entrance gate.
Quote from: alfagtv58 on November 02, 2011, 02:33:12 PM
30 degrees + both days, I can hear the head gaskets groaning now.....
Yep, I think I just did mine today.
Neil,
You forgot to tell everybody you will have a new one tomorrow. Never say die. Hope the rest of the weekend goes better.
Gully
Quote from: Paul Gulliver on November 04, 2011, 07:13:19 PM
Neil,
You forgot to tell everybody you will have a new one tomorrow. Never say die. Hiope the rest of the weekend goes better.
Gully
It's done already, huge thanks to Hugh Harrison.
But still BOG >:( >:( >:(
Got a couple of tickets for Saturday and Sunday to any AROCA member.
Price: FREE
or a bottle or two of ice cold gatorade as it is going to be a hot day
or preferably additional 50 bhp
Give me a call at Sandown if you like 0433 11 66 47
Don't call at 12:15 pm or 4:15 pm for obvious reasons.
Neil
It's pretty warm out here...
Qualy was not great for any of us.
My thanks to Choderboy for turning up and sorting out multiple issues with various cars. This is a great club!
Issues during qualifying I mentioned earlier;
I had handbrake cable wrap itself around the tailshaft. Choderboy fixed it while I was in drivers briefing.
Neil overheated. Hungs spare 3 core radiator fitted.
Hung overheated and broke his extractors. Overheating turned out to be a broken belt, extractors proved to be more difficult. DNS R1
Nick overheated. topped up the coolant, fingers crossed.
Chris. No issues that I am aware of.
Lyndon did something to his tailshaft which took out the housing. DNS R1
R1 was a bit of a mixed bag.
I finished 17th, reasonable, but still slow. Found my oil filter nearly unscrewed at end of race, thank god it wasnt one more lap.
Neil finished 28th, so not BOG and much faster than qualifying. Overheating sorted.
Hung - Didn't start I'm afraid. Currently trying to fix so can start rear of grid tomorrow.
Nick, started, but exhaust fell off in first lap, too far gone to rectify. Out for rest of the weekend :(
Chris, deposited most of the contents of his sump through turn 4 and the following kink. They believe the engine was shut down before any damage done, checking it out tonight.
Lyndon - Out for rest of the weekend :(
fingers crossed for a better showing tomorrow!
Great summary Phil, I had been watching natsoft results all afternoon ( far to hot to be gardening i told my wife) helps put some understanding to the times. Gee the front runners in Sc are getting bloody fast, i suppose Sandown helps with that . The field is also getting bigger any chance of an under 2 litre race start ???.
Gully
Here is a bit of excitement with 7 litres of oil on the track and for a split second thinking how much is this going to cost.........
LUCK!!!! AND LOTS OF QUICK PRAYING!!!!!
Neil,
Admit it you wouldn't have saved it if you had extra 50bhp :)
good to see the boys running around. Neil, what a save. Phil, great driving. Hope R3 went well for you.
I had plenty of mechanical issues throughout the weekend.
Half way thru qualy my fan belt broke I had to pit early, I went to Repco to buy a new belt and just got back in time for driver briefing and when I got back to the car Mick had already put it in, however we noticed the number 2 extractor pipe had been broken off. Phil, Neil and I tried our hardest to get the extractor off to no avail and subsequently missed race 1, so I took the car to Monza and Hugh came back to the shop and open it up on Saturday night to fix it up.
Back to Sandown on Sunday for race 2 after which Mick found my muffler was sitting on the floor, luckily I had a spare one at home and a 45 min turn around on Eastlink, Mick had the spare muffler on the car in a flash ready for race 3.
My weekend would have ended real early had it be at any other track, that's one good thing about Sandown being in the suburbs of Melbourne. And of course HUGE thanks to Hugh and Mick from Monza Motors, their track support is second to none.
Hung.
+1 AND MORE
HUGE thanks to Hugh and Mick from Monza Motors
It was nice to see Spencer Rice in the pits on the weekend helping out with Lyndon McLeod's Alfetta ( NSW) . Pity he didn't bring his car down. I think the last time he was at Sandown was for the Historics in 2007 and i think he managed to post a time of about 1.28 in group NC which is pretty impressive ( make that bloody sensational ) for a 105. Anyway I found this clip of Spencer from Wakefield Park last year . Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvJVmzbViYg
Perhaps I should add my 2 cents worth.
Our weekend was the veritable curate's egg - good and bad in bits. Friday practice was trouble free, apart from the usual problem of slow driver. It was warm and there were lots of cars on the track so hard to get a free run. Qualifying was ok. I went faster than before but Hung still just beat me. Race 1 got an average start but held position and the rest of the race was good fun and I eventually got past a guy in a dark blue Healey 3000 which was much quicker in a straight line. Last lap coming around turn 4 onto the back straight I noticed smoke in the cockpit, a quick look in the mirror confirmed I was laying a smoke trail, so I quickly shut it off. Sorry Neil!! (BTW great save). DNF.
Turned out the sump plug had imitated Houdini and escaped despite wiring. Good news was that no damage was done and trusty pit crew Pat met Hung out at Hugh's for new plug, filter and oil (thanks Hugh) on Saturday evening. By Sunday morning all running again but starting rear of grid for R2. Reasonable start (beat Hung also rear of grid) and held position till at turn 2, a red Alfa made a 1/2 car width wider and barged past. Rest of race uneventful. R3 with a thinner grid, Neil got past into turn 2 and motor felt a bit fluffy. When I couldn't get past up the back straight I knew there was something wrong and then the rev counter started playing up to confirm it. Eventually got past Neil but not long later it just died coming out of turn 1, picked up and then cut out for good just around turn 4 (again!). DNF. Clearly electrical and probably the brand new Petronix ignition.
Worst part - no signature on the licence.
Thanks for chiming in Chris, I was wondering what happened to you in the last race.
Quote from: Chris Blanden on November 07, 2011, 12:09:03 PM
Worst part - no signature on the licence.
Thats a bugger.
Quote from: Chris Blanden on November 07, 2011, 12:09:03 PM
R3 with a thinner grid, Neil got past into turn 2 and motor felt a bit fluffy. When I couldn't get past up the back straight I knew there was something wrong and then the rev counter started playing up to confirm it. Eventually got past Neil but not long later it just died coming out of turn 1, picked up and then cut out for good just around turn 4 (again!). DNF. Clearly electrical and probably the brand new Petronix ignition.
Please let me live my moment of better driving getting pass you and running forward of you!!!!!
Got a great vision of great blocking Chris with Austin Healey.
One of my good deed and comaradarie moment for the weekend was upon arriving at the track and having to run down to the Group N paddock to help Marty Lambert with his 105 to get it started. Starter motor, as I have had a lot of experience with it recently. So I walked back feeling like I am a super mechanic!!!!!
Great weekend of racing despite BOG and all the trouble but glad to return home in one piece, just.
I must say, and these posts confirm it, that one of the great pleasures of these racing weekends is the camaraderie amongst the Alfa runners.
Paul mentioned Spencer Rice looking after Lyndon. We shared the same garage over the weekend and Spencer was really helpful to me, with advice, tools and expertise and I know was similarly helpful to others. His car prep is scarily impressive. (BTW, I think I only got into a garage by fluke but they are comfortable) There is no lack of advice encouragement and interest from all quarters and it makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable, especially for those of us who are mechanically challenged/incompetent. Similarly, Hugh's willingness to interrupt the weekend and open Monza to help late on Saturday demonstrates a willingness to help above and beyond the call.
Well done all.
Clip of race 2 from last place, I was asleep at the start :-[
QuoteI was asleep at the start
Hung you might have been asleep at the start, but it looks like you got going very soon after that . Great vision . Thanks for sharing
Reason why my car was so slow.
And some pics of the others.
And a few more pics
Peter Ellenbogen, a club member, has a great album of the event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterellenbogen/sets/72157627237850531/
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterellenbogen/sets/72157627237850531/)
Enjoy.
Neil
Thanks Neil,
You can see my muffler was already on shaky ground in this pic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterellenbogen/6383450305/in/set-72157627237850531 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterellenbogen/6383450305/in/set-72157627237850531)
Good to see you doing some work Phil( Mexicano).
JP