To say that the action was hot at round 1 of the MG Road Racing Championships would be an understatement. Some outstanding racing, hard and clean with good dicing throughout the field.

We had 34 entries, 27 practiced and 24 finished the Hobson’s Stores MG Trophy Race on Sunday Morning. Unfortunately Simon Gardner Midget, Damian Myer Midget, Mike Trathan Midget, David Anderson MGB, Richard Vollerbregt MGB all suffered terminal problems.

Excitingly we had a number of new drivers and new driver/car combinations.

Richard Vollerbregt in the ex-Vaughan Gibson MGB, Paul Vernall in the Jason Holmes owned Rover Tomcat, Adam Ayliffe in the ex-Geoff Foster Midget and Geoff StJohn-Cox in his Triumph TR7 were all new to MG Racing. Andrew Howell drove his new MG ZR resplendent in its X-Power grey/ green livery and boy does it go, once Andrew sorts out a few gremlins this car will be a strong outright contender. Matt Baragwanath has taken over the driving duties in the Paul Trevethan owned Broadwalk MGB-GT V8 .As everyone knows this is a fast car and Matt is giving it a new lease of life. Unfortunately the car suffered a broken wheel in the Trophy Race giving Matt a couple of anxious moments. Trent Price piloted the Jason Holmes owned MG ZR 160 for this meeting. As with Andrews ZR this car has only recently arrived from the UK and suffered a couple of teething problems that prevented Trent from showing its true potential.

We have re-introduced trophy presentations at the race meetings and have a new range of trophies courtesy of Andrew Watson of Hobson’s Stores Restaurant in Sandringham. The winners were;-

First Outright and First Open V8                       Mort Fitzgerald MGB V8

First Open 4 Cylinder                                            Jason Holmes MG ZR190

First Fast Road 4 Cylinder                                    John Baragwanath  MGB

First Fast Road 8 Cylinder                                    Rosemary Trevethan MGB-GTV8

First Historic 4 Cylinder                                        Ross Kaigg MGB

First MG Specials and Invited

British Sportscars                                                   Jim Robertson MG Midget Special

Finally a very special thanks to Peter Dunn. Peter was intending to run his MGB but ran out of time to get an engine together. So took on the duties of organising the BBQ and what a job he did. Peter arrived with a trailer mounted BBQ complete with double ice box provided by his mate Peter Reid. I suspect Mrs Dunn had been busy making cookies and ANZAC biscuits. We dined on hamburgers and sausages, cold drinks and dessert- real country hospitality, greatly appreciated by all. This will be a very difficult standard to live up to at future meetings.