Dec 2009 - MG Car Club Newcastle

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C L U B T O R Q U E Page 24 DREAMS DO COME TRUE For those who don’t know me, I am Brad Goulding, son of long time MGCC members & supporters Pat & Maureen. Most of the ‘experienced’ car club members know of Pat & Maureen. Owners of the 1962 Nota Sportsman, an Austin A90 Atlantic convertible, MGA, MGB & other Nota’s. Brother Jason works for Bradstreet Parts at Cardiff, and loves speedway. Prefers Speedcars, but is known to enjoy the Sprintcars and other dirt vehicles that can only turn left. About 13 months ago – May 2008, a few guys from my work – I am a Police Officer in Sydney – did a trip to the USA for 3 weeks. Their trip included a week in Washington DC for the National Police Memorial Week, a 5 day commemoration of Police who lost there lives in the USA in the line of duty over the previous 12 months. These guys came back with glowing reports of the US, and it planted a seed. Work trip for 3 weeks, then some playtime for a couple of weeks after. Just what was this holiday going to consist of? Art museums, historical sights, places of interest & statues? Nope. Race tracks, race cars, race museums, baseball & ice hockey games. Sounds good to me. And to Jase as well. Jase arrived about the 16 th of May, & I picked him up from DC on the 17 th . I hired a Dodge Charger for 3 weeks. The car was the 3.5 litre V6 auto. Basically the same size as the Falcadore, and I think it’s finished slightly better, even though it was the base model. So, we left DC on the Sunday and we headed northish. The plan was to go to the Indy 500 via Pittsburgh. I wanted to see the National Football League (NFL) Hall of Fame in canton Ohio. I love the NFL, more so than league, so this place was a given. It’s also about 1 hour east of the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, so there was another stop over, & Pittsburgh was the chosen route. So, we headed east towards Morgantown West Virginia. 260 kays of billiard table smooth dual & triple lane freeways was one hell of a way to introduce us to the roads of the USA. Some of the NSW pollies on there overseas jaunts should have a good look at the roads & transport systems in the US. Everything is so well signposted, designed & engineered. Have a look Mr Rees…you MIGHT learn something. Anyway, arrived at Pittsburgh, looked around the baseball & football grounds (the Pittsburgh Steelers are the NFL champions), and managed to pick up a couple of tickets to the Stanley Cup ice hockey playoffs. Later that night we saw Pittsburgh beat Charlotte on their way to being 2009 Stanley Cup Champions. Nice start to the second part of
S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 the holiday. Tuesday we headed to Mid Ohio Sports Car Course and we saw a new Mustang being driven pretty hard on the track. They run a Mustang Challenge in the US, and have about 30 odd cars on the track. It runs over 8 tracks – Homestead, Mid Ohio, New Jersey Motorsports Park, Barber Motorsports Park, Miller Motorsports Park plus Laguna Seca and a few others. Like most one make series, it should be pretty close, with ability and not big wallets being the deciding factor. It’s a pretty tightly organised series with limited improvements & control parts. The Mustang that we saw was pretty quick and sounded great with the 4.6 litre 3 valve V8 cracking along nicely. They cost 75k US, which isn’t too bad considering they are a fully completed & set up race car. So, from here it was onto Indianapolis. The motor sport capital of the world. We arrived late on Wednesday , and wanted to have a decent look around the whole place. Thursday morning Jase & I headed to the track. So, we get to the track, meet up with our friend Paige, and find that she has tickets for the Friday’s practice, Indy Lites race plus access to the Indy Car Pits. Spent the day taking in the atmosphere, working out where things were, how to get from point A to B etc. The place is massive. Right in the middle of suburbia/industry. As we enter the facility, we see the current model Corvette pace cars. There are 4 of them scattered throughout the front office carpark, plus a few of the Chev Camaro pace cars. They both look brilliant in their silver & red colour schemes. After a few hours walking around, Jase & I head south west to the Terre Haute action track. It’s a half mile dirt speedway track 1 hour from Indy in the Wabash Valley. The race meet on was the Tony Hulman classic, a race for wingless & mufflerless sprintcars. It is part of the USAC race series. These cars are blindingly quick, noisy V8’s that bounce & buck around the clay tracks. They are much better to watch than the winged sprintcars that run here, simply because they have no aero aids. A great nights racing from the sprinters, but there were no support catagories and the races were a bit few & far between. Otherwise it was terrific. About 10.30am Friday morning we head off to Indy for the Lites & practice. Expecting a small crowd & no traffic hassles, and being a 10 mile trip to the track, we thought maybe 35 minutes at most. How wrong were we? 95 minutes later we park our car & walk into the track. We watch the Indy lites from the pit garage roof tops, and although not the greatest viewing spot, it was a good spot to see the crews at work. Just a small Friday practice crowd of 50,000. After the race, we decide to visit the famed Indy 500 race museum. First thing that shocked me was the price of admission. $3.00. Yep. 3 bucks. Cheap at twice the price. Page 25
Page 1 and 2: Clubtorque S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 Offi
Page 3 and 4: 2010 COMMITTEE NO PHONE CALLS AFTER
Page 5 and 6: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 FEBRUARY 2010 E
Page 7 and 8: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 MEMBERS WIN STA
Page 9 and 10: C L U B T O R Q U E Purchase of Hil
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Page 17 and 18: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 NOTICE OF SPECI
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Page 29 and 30: S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 The current mod
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Page 53 and 54: CAPTAINS CORNER THE END. . that may
Page 55 and 56: CAPTAIN’S CORNER (continued) JUNI

Dec 2009 - MG Car Club Newcastle

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