PDLJMPR Web Magazine, October 22, 1998
Photos by Marshall Cass Photography
Healey International Commemorative Race
AMP Bathurst 1000 Race Meeting
Wed September 30 - Sunday October 4
Firstly let me say that I can't possibly tell all the stories that should be told about this event. There was so much going on and so many people and cars. I will at least try to mention all the significant stories I was aware of.
Part 1 - Just getting there.
This event was a challenge long before the actual race meeting. When I first heard from Chris Dimmock about his attempt to resurrect the cancelled Le Mans meeting at Mt Panorama, I decided immediately that this was one event that I *had* to do. I decided that absolutely nothing would get in my way. This proved more difficult than I would have believed possible!
Firstly one had to have an International license. Luckily the fellows at CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motorsport) were being quite helpful - exercising some discretion in granting me a full national license (even though I had held a General Competition license since '94, I hadn't done 5 meetings in any 12 month period - necessary to be granted a full national license). After obtaining a national license, the driver must be observed by the Chief Steward at 3 national meetings and deemed to be OK for an International license.
My 5 meetings in approximately 14 months was deemed sufficient for the national license, saving me the difficult task of 8 national level meetings in 6 months. Quite a number of drivers actually went through this process, some never having raced before this year, collecting their international license the week of the Bathurst event! For one reason or another, I needed to get my final signature at the Calder round on 26/27 September, along with 6 big Healey drivers who had to do the 8 meetings since February. Even this final signature was a drama because, with the road engine still in the car, the stewards weren’t happy about signing because the car wasn’t competitive! This is Calder - a HP circuit - I wasn’t surprised it wasn’t competitive in that field and neither should they have been. It didn’t seem to matter that it was competitive against cars more similar to mine in a different race. In the end it was resolved, but it was a close call.
On top of that, the rules for eligibility at Bathurst were of some concern. The race was to be run under FIA rules which nominally meant the cars had to comply with historic rules - my bugeye should have had drum brakes, steel bonnet, 948 motor, etc etc. My car complies with Marque Sports rules and these allow me to use a 1275 motor, disk brakes, panhard rod etc etc. Somehow, Neil Dunn - one of the event organizers managed to work some magic and get cars that were not normally eligible for an historic log book (because of modifications) accepted for the event. Historic cars were to be given priority and cars with modifications could be prevented from running at the discretion of the organizers or the sanctioning body. Exactly which modifications would trigger this exclusion was never clear... One thing that was clear was that we had to run with historic-eligible wheels and tyres. This meant 5" rims (I normally use 5.5" rims) and a limited choice of tyres. Of course the tyres that I normally use (Dunlop Formula R) were not on the list so a set of Hoosiers was added to the bill too. On top of that we had to get FIA approved racegear instead of the normally sufficient national standards. SA95 Snell Helmets, FIA balaclava, socks, underwear - even with my FIA approved triple layer race suit! Luckily my suit, boots and gloves were OK already.
After 6 months of speculation entries were in and accepted. There were 41 confirmed entries including 3 internationals - Dennis Welch and John Chatham from the UK, and Frank Karl from New Zealand. Dennis and Frank brought their own cars, John drove Henry Toivanen's 3000 which was prepared by Steve Pike. Of the 41 entries, 15 were Sprites.
There were some very well credentialed local drivers, including Peter Hopwood, Richard Carter and Neil Dunn. A few big Healey drivers relatively new to circuit racing had demonstrated both very quick cars and a good turn of speed, Rob Rowlands, Warren James, and others. There were some very experienced Sprite racers out there, most noticeably George Forbes in his beautiful and exceptionally fast bugeye (1340cc, 9000rpm redline, approx. 135 bhp), and Colin Dodds in "The Toolbox", a lightweight all fiberglass body bugeye with somewhere about 125-130 bhp). Richard Dutton was one driver who didn’t make it - he couldn’t get his International license in time and was a late withdrawal from the event. A disappointing omission from the entry list was Tony Bennetto who might have driven either his bugeye ("Bluebottle") or the BMC works Midget he recently acquired. Tony had decided not to compete despite originally expressing his intention to enter.
I had done nearly all of the mechanical preparation required for Bathurst in the weeks before Calder. Unfortunately engine and gearbox were behind schedule (different people, different reasons - one inexcusable) and these weren't fitted and started until the Monday evening when I was due to leave for Bathurst! No this wasn’t my fault - the engine was ordered back in Feb/March! I had been hounding the people for about 6 weeks prior to the event, having actually expected the engine for the Winton meeting at the beginning of September, then in time for Calder and then first thing Monday morning.
In the end there was no time for a serious test run, no dyno setup, no running in. Sigh.
I had planned to take the road engine and gearbox up with me as spares but in the end I couldn't even fit them in. I was quite nervous about this because the engine was definitely rushed despite the long lead time. The motor was started, a couple of runs around the block and it was loaded on the trailer and I set off for Bathurst about 10pm Monday night. I arrived around midday on Tuesday, allowing me a leisurely pace of unloading the car, tools, spares etc etc.
Apart from the engine, my only other concern was the half shafts. I had some lovely high strength half shafts, but the 5" mags would not fit over the larger outside of the half-shaft so I had to go back to standard ones. At least I found one good dufor for the left and an EN17T half shaft for the right. I presumed the T stood for tuftriding and would thus be stronger than the normal EN17 material. Nevertheless, I had no less than 3 spare sets!!!
Part 2 - Practice and Qualifying
Scrutineering was the first hurdle. Eligibility aside, there is the matter of a different group of scrutineers, with different interpretations of the rules and different "hot buttons". All the concern turned out to be unwarranted. Scrutineering wasn’t even as careful as our club sprints! Mechanically the checks were pretty superficial which was, given the nature of the track, very surprising! They were very diligent indeed in checking for stickers and signage. One the first day there were two people checking every car for any stickers at all. You were only allowed the drivers name, numbers and the event sponsor (Marco Fabrics). They even made Steve Schmidt cover up the Team Alohoa sticker from this year’s Lactos Rally! They also were very diligent on race gear and brake lights. Unlike all the other events I’ve competed at, they checked race gear every day in addition to the car.
The first look at the track was amazing. No amount of watching the race on TV can prepare you for the steepness or narrowness of the track. It is a 1 in 4 grade climbing out of the tight uphill 2nd gear cutting! I had expected to use a 3.7 diff (because the main straight is both long and downhill) but I wasn't sure the car could pull a 3.7 up the hill at a reasonable pace! Luckily I brought my old noisy 3.9 (still in the car from Calder) and a good 4.2. The 4.2 was only there by accident but that is another story.
I had to use the first few sessions to run in the engine so unfortunately these weren't very useful in learning the track. Dennis Welch demonstrated that his reputation was well deserved straight into fast and very spectacular laps. Dennis still runs the 4½" wheels and vintage racing rubber required by FIA Appendix K. His style is very aggressive and spectacular. Lots of tail slides to thrill the crowds. The power of his car - "Bulldog" was very evident. It displayed an awesome turn of speed and he displayed car control and fearlessness to match the car! The sad news stories began almost straight away - Lyndal Cootes broke a crank in her Group Sa bugeye. There were offers of spare cranks back in Sydney but Lyndal decided to put the car on a trailer and become a spectator for the week.
David Gleen in the Healey Silverstone must be the bravest driver at the meeting - he ran without a roll cage and without safety harnesses. For some reason he is allowed to do this because of the type of log book he has (i.e. what class of vehicle). That may be true but you wouldn’t catch me without both of these safety devices - especially at a track like Mt Panorama!
The second session was for qualifying and I was prepared to rev the motor to 5000 that session, but it lost a lot of water and overheated. I pulled over after 3 laps when the temperature climbed very quickly. It was clear the engine had gotten very hot. Bill Hemmings (VIC), who had bought Bob Gill’s old bugeye "budgie" from John Evans, pulled up along side me on Mountain Straight. His car had "gone bang" so it seemed pretty serious! We both sat there watching everyone else having lots of fun - it is not the most pleasant position to be in! Bob Rowntree (NSW) and Robert Rochlin (NSW) in 1275cc Midgets (masquerading as Sprites for the weekend) seem to be having the most fun - running nose to tail for the whole session.
Back in the pits, I pulled the plugs and used a probe light to examine the bores. Simon Gardiner was at the event, primarily to look after George Forbes car, but he was also helping anyone who need it so he came over and helped out with this problem. The plugs and bores looked OK so we changed oil and filter as well as re-torqueing the head and resetting the tappets. Unfortunately after this there was gas leaking into the cooling system so the head was pulled off and the gasket was changed. It was all we could do in the circumstances. I was very relieved that Simon was on hand!
Bill Hemming’s problem was obvious - a hole in the side of the block - it turns out a rod bolt had broken. Luckily for Bill, he had brought one of Bob’s old spare engines and with a group effort the unknown spare was in place that afternoon. Other Sprite problems included Nicolas Rootes (QLD) losing all brakes at the bottom of Conrod straight! He blew a rear slave cylinder and lost the fluid. Luckily no damage was sustained and he fixed it before the next session. Avis Fowler (NSW) was complaining about her car pulling sideways on brake changes - it was discovered that the diff was a botched locker - the right side was driven but the left side was totally free - no wonder it felt strange! That too was fixed that afternoon.
Brian Mallon (QLD), had a big lose going into Forest Elbow and did some pretty serious damage to his 100/4 - it was about 3 or 4 feet shorter than it started. The TAFE boys were at Bathurst and provided that Brian sources some replacement panels, they thought that they could get it back together and painted in time for the next session! Unfortunately, after pulling it all apart they discovered that there was a fair bit of hidden rust and the like. Brian had air-freighted panels from Melbourne overnight but the repair crew had decided it was not possible to do the repair after all. Eric Rudd’s car (driven by Peter Hopwood (NSW)) also saw the head gasket replaced after that session and they seemed happy with the result.
Robert Foster (Mk 1 3000, QLD) had one very rattly big end but was able to get a new set of .020's from Sydney and was ready to try again the next day.
Steve Schmidt had removed the roof for this session and changed back to a 4.2 diff. He picked up a whopping 14 seconds as a result. He also managed to spin twice up the top of the mountain - once at the dipper, once at Forest Elbow. He managed to avoid the concrete wall on both occasions! Amazing!
Up to this point I had run the hardtop and a 3.9 diff. I decided to drop back to the 4.2 diff because the car was bogging down badly at the critical uphill right-hander at the top of mountain straight (Griffon’s Bend) and also would not pull well out of the steep cutting. Since, by switching to a 4.2 diff, top speed wasn’t an issue any more, I also removed the hardtop to reduce the weight.
Peter Ford (100/4, NSW) broke the goose neck extension on his oil filter on Thursday without realising it, drove down to scrutineering on Friday, but did not pass due to the oil everywhere. He had it welded up on Friday afternoon
The last qualifying session was my first chance to go flat out around the track. This session was in the warmest part of the day. After 6 laps I had to slow right down and come in early - the car was getting hot again and losing water. At least I got some reasonable laps in. I was not all that happy with the pace and not thrilled with the qualifying position (20th out of a field of 41). I was sure there was more to come. The trouble was that I was still slower getting up the hill than those around me on the grid. I thought I was a fair bit quicker across the top but I would possibly be stuck behind them because it was so tight and narrow. I knew I would be passed down the straight because I would run out of revs quite early, about 1/3rd down the straight! Even so, I would lose less time than if I struggled slowly up the hill.
The engine was a big disappointment. Even though I was running a 4.2 diff, I was not quite keeping up with the cars around me when going up the hill. Most of the fast Sprites were using a 3.7 diffs and even though I was carrying more corner exit speed than those around me, they'd pull away. I had to drive like buggery to stay with them. I caught them through MacPhillemy (where they backed off and I didn't), and made time on them from Skyline through Forest Elbow but was past not long after the hump in conrod as I wasn't prepared to rev past 7800! The engine seems almost the same as the old race motor in terms of performance instead of 10-12kW more that it should have had. It never saw the dyno so the timing/carb tuning are probably not optimal. Part of the problem was that instead of being 1380cc, it turned out to be 1310cc and that additional torque was sorely missed at this track. Oh well, have to make do with what I had - I had no choice!
I think it was this session that George discovered that 9000rpm does terrible things to rotor buttons. It had wobbled loose and caused a misfire. That good ‘ol Silastic and a new rotor button to the rescue!
Peter Hopwood had troubles again - he and Peter Kent (100/4) had a coming together with the knock-on ears on Peter Kent’s car making a mess of the front guard of Hopwood’s car. Some fast panel work and you almost wouldn’t know there was an incident!
Robert Foster’s big end problem re-occurred so he packed up the car to be yet another spectator.
Part 3 - The Races
Race 1, Saturday Afternoon
I was a fair bit cooler on Saturday at race time, but still clear with blue skies. It was critical to get a good start so I could get closer to the people I thought I could keep up with. Instead I blew the start and lost about 5 places! I had a wonderful dice with Bob Rowntree for the first 4 laps before breaking clear and successfully chasing down John Wakeling (NSW) in his 3000. Bob and I had changed places a few times - I would pass him across the top or under braking at the bottom and he would pass me either uphill (mountain straight) or downhill (conrod straight). He started to get quite hot and eased off a bit and I put in a really hard lap to make sure of it! I caught John on this (last) lap and managed to hold him off to take 1st in class, 13th place outright, and 2nd Sprite overall, not far behind Glen Taylor (NSW). I should mention that both Colin Dodds (NSW) and George Forbes had set faster times (especially George!) but they both spun. Dodds wasn’t able to restart after he spun at the start of Pit Straight. George spun in the dipper and while he didn’t hit anything (charmed he must be!) he lost a lot of time and finished 16th outright and 4th Sprite.
Denis Welch won this race pretty convincingly. Neil Dunn and Peter Hopwood were harassing him for a while but Neil pulled out with a misfire. Peter wasn’t all that happy with the handling. He apparently devised a scheme to reduce the amount of tyre scrubbing (inside front) by reducing the amount of ackerman steering. His solution was to use wire rope to limit the droop of the front suspension - ensuring that the wheel would be lifted off the ground instead of scrubbing!
Hardy Kuhn’s 3000 broke a crank. Luckily Rob Rowlands had brought up a spare and the team pitched in to get the spare engine fitted in time. Bit harder than a Sprite engine to lift out. Instead of a piece of pipe and two strong fellows they had the hydraulic engine lifter working overtime!
Peter Ford ‘s bad luck continued - the welded gooseneck extension broke again without his knowledge during the race. The car proceeded to empty the sump all over his car and finally stripped the big ends and bringing the car to a halt near the cutting. Like Neil Dunn, his weekend’s racing was over.
Nick Rootes blew his rear slave cylinder again, Greg Prunster also lost brakes at the same place - end of Conrod Straight. Wendy Gibbs had the same rotor button problem as George. I hope she wasn’t pulling 9000 rpm as well - if she did she certainly wasn’t telling Ian! Avis Fowler was another casualty - she didn’t make it further than the dummy grid when her clutch packed up as we were signaled to move out. The team did the old engine removal thing again and we discovered a shattered metal from the throw-out bearing! It had also destroyed the pad on the pressure plate. Colin Dodds came to the rescue with spare parts and all was back together in short order.
Saturday afternoon saw repairs to both the braking systems of both Nick’s and Greg’s bugeyes. On Nick’s car the circlip wasn’t fitted properly and it was allowing the slave cylinder to rub on the drum. Simple fix in the end. On Greg’s car a new set of front and rear lining were fitted but it was still a bit of a puzzle - the front brakes weren’t getting anywhere near as hot as the rears? After much puzzling, Simon Gardiner was called over and it was discovered that the backing plates on the front drum brakes were on the wrong side of the car - the resulting trailing edge brakes were grossly inefficient. With the problem fixed Greg was very happy.
Race 2, Sunday Morning
We had to be at scrutineering at 600am Sunday morning! Our race was at 8am and none of us was sure what the track would be like at that time. We thought that there might be a number of damp patches underneath the big trees.
With the help of a bunch of Healey folk, Brian Mallon actually made it onto the track. His car had so much duct tape that it look like it had a vinyl finish! Some of the scrutineers were actually involved in the repairs so it must have been effective enough to be safe.
The track turned out to be clear and dry but naturally a bit cooler. This time I got a mediocre start instead of a disastrous start. At least I held my place into turn 1 this time. We had a 5 or 6 way dice and maybe 50 or 60 individual passes between the group of us. It was great! I started off 5th in the group and got through to 1st in the group in the end and only just missed chasing down the 10th place (Brian Dermott, Vic) by less than a second. I made some great passes, including inside at Skyline (same as Peter Hopwood), outside at Skyline, inside at the dipper, outside and inside at MacPhillemy Park, inside and outside at Griffon (end of mountain straight), inside at the Cutting, inside and outside at Murphy's and inside at Hell Corner. All in one race - and that is just the successful passes! It was the fiercest racing - no quarters were given or taken even though there were no panel touches. The flag marshalls must have been chuckling to see us try to take Griffon’s Bend three abreast! I only had about 3/4 lap of unobstructed driving on the last lap- I was on a hot one, trying to do a sub 3:00 but a yellow flag and oil flag was out at the Chase - ruining my only chance. I was actually using 8000rpm down the straight in this race. It didn’t stop me getting passed, but it left me a bit closer so that I could make up the places under brakes. Luckily it held together!
Neil Dunn didn’t start, having sheared the oil pump drive. Peter Hopwood gave Dennis Welch a hard run, passing him at Skyline and leading the last time onto Conrod, however Dennis shot past him again on the straight. Peter tried to pass him under brakes at the Chase but spun on oil on the entry. Peter set the fastest time for the weekend, but Dennis won both races.
Richard Carter was sitting in third or 4th for most of the race before he lost oil pressure on the last lap, probably for the same reason as Neil Dunn - a stripped oil pump drive gear on the camshaft.
John Chatham also DNF’d, apparently a serious misfire eliminated him.
I finished 2nd spridget on Sat (behind Glen Taylor) and 3rd on Sunday (behind Dodds and Forbes). If there was a trophy for first overall (combined pointscore) I would have won it since Glen blew up on Sunday and Dodds DNF'd on Sat. George did 4th on Sat, and 2nd on Sun. I guess I can't be too unhappy, but I would have preferred to have had a competitive engine and not rely on other drivers mistakes and misfortunes to be at the pointy end of the race within a race.
The track is *awesome*, it makes everywhere else look tame, technically crude and simplistic. It really rewarded having a go, but brutally punished errors. It was extremely deceptive in places. I'm sure I could pick up more time at Skyline and the Chase with more track time.
So, after all that, I finished both races and avoided any incidents. I had an absolute ball with the best racing I’ve had on what Dennis and John said was the best track in the world! On top of that, we had lots of fun, and good food at the Bathurst Goldfields where quite a number of us stayed.
I think I can speak for all the competitors in saying it was a privilege and a pleasure to compete in the HICR and our heartiest thanks and congratulations to Chris Dimmock, Neil Dunn, and Wendy Gibbs for their respective roles in organising the event, dealing with the regulatory bodies, and the accommodation and entertainment. Special thanks also to John Wakeling who organised the Interstate Healey Challenge. Not only was Bathurst the final round of the challenge, but the challenge was a necessary part of the qualification process for most of the drivers.
I’ll take this point to brag that the Victorians comprehensively won the Bathurst round and the series!
Lets hope that the goodwill and momentum that this event generated can be continued in future years. In particular, try and get behind the Interstate series next year so that if the opportunity arises again (and I think they we’ll be trying!) there is a known strong field ready to jump at a major event opportunity! Originally I thought that this would be a once in a lifetime event, but the broadcaster (Channel 7) was extremely pleased with the racing and the Bathurst 1000 Event Management had every reason to be pleased with the HICR. So who knows….
If it happens again - I’ll be back!
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