Triathlon,  Foremans Corner,  January 2005

TCS Racing is sponsored by :

Results for the motorkhana can be seen here.
Results for the hillclimb can be seen here.
Results for the triathlon can be seen here.
Photos from the weekend can be seen here.

The annual Foreman's Corner Triathlon weekend once again provided our team with a great experience and a good time was had by all. Despite terrible weather forecasts the weather held for the first two days before turning into a steady and constant light-rain on the last night, which was unfortunately enough to cancel the autocross on the last day. Despite this everyone seemed to be leaving the venue in high spirits.

Troy, Timothy, Trevor and Richard were all present from our team as was Lesley (wife of Trevor, mother of Troy and Timothy). Lesley had her first experience as a driver in the clubs motorkhana,  held on the Saturday afternoon. Sharing Trevor's diesel corolla she did very well for her first outing.
This weekend also marked a  return to the sport for Richard who hasn't competed in sometime, and while it took him a while to get to grips with our MR2 (ME8579) he did show a steady improvement throughout the day.  Timothy shared the little MR2 with Richard and while his times weren't quite as good as Rick's he certainly had fun. Troy shared our other MR2 (SO863) with Jeff Torkington,  and as usual Jeff proved the fastest of the pair,  but Troy did learn to create oversteer by dumping the clutch during the second test and started to get the hang of the hand brake again in the third test.
Dale Crossley won the motorkhana outright,  although Jeff Torkington got faster times in a Suzuki Swift he was using for practice only (didn't count for points).  From our own team Trevor proved to be the fastest overall in the motorkhana, despite the corolla not having a lot of power its front-wheel-drive nature and terrific handbrake helping both Trevor and Lesley to put up some good times while our other team members struggled.

The evening of the motorkhana saw the usual festivities at Georges' place on top of the hill, where much booze was drunk,  crap spoken and music listened to.  There were a few sorry heads the next morning,  although nothing compared to the morning of the autocross last year.  A few wiser heads, such as Garry Trayes,  managed to refrain from drinking,  preferring to keep their heads clear for the hillclimb the next day.

The hillclimb saw only Troy competing from our team,  once again sharing the car with Jeff. Neither the corolla nor the other MR2 is really up to a hillclimb and given Troy's accident a couple of years ago in the previous incarnation of ME8579 we decided not to let Tim try.  Neither Trevor nor Lesley was game to even think about using the corolla either,  although there were some people who decided to use their road cars. This included Chris Subritzky who arrived early on the Sunday morning and competed in the hillclimb using his Nissan Sentra.

It should be noted for those comparing this years times for the hillclimb to last years that the course is not the same. While the same road was used the circuit this year required us to drive 'the loop' on the way back up the hill as well as down. This was done because last year drivers were getting too much speed up the hill across the finish line and there was some concern that someone would fail to stop and crash into the house or someone elses car.

Surprisingly Chris asked to ride as a passenger with Troy on his first run,  with a muttered comment about Troy presumably not having much courage on his first run and Chris therefore being safe enough.  One way or another this proved to be true as Chris was quite calm throughout the run,  his only worry moment being when Troy got confused and went around a cone marking the outside of the circuit rather than a turn around - this didn't cause any problems but Chris was wondering if Troy was going to turn at all.  While this was a cock-up on his part Troy wasn't penalised for it (except for that fact that he drove further than anyone else),  and to his credit the two marshals in the car by the cone were seriously impressed with the handbrake turn Troy did despite it being around the wrong cone.  Troy's time for that run came out around 1:46, which was a good showing from him for a first run of the day.
Interestingly some rivalry started here when Chris commented to Jeff that he'd picked Troy as his competition for today. While Chris was arguably ham-strung by using his road car the reality of the situation is that Chris is a much better and more experience driver,  and Troy was somewhat surprised when he found out about this. Chris, having already seen Troy's time went out for his first run and put in a time of 1:44. 
Richard then replaced Chris as Troy's passenger for the remainder of his runs. Troy's second run showed a marked improvement, dropping six seconds to around 1:40, this time with the handbrake turn around the correct cone and still quite well done.  
Chris then put in a 1:41 which was a good showing but not quite good enough to beat Troy - yet. Troy followed this up with a slightly faster 1:40. Both Troy and Richard were certain the third run should have been slower than the second due to several mistakes made by Troy (probably due to trying too hard), including a handbrake turn that just didn't work. Despite the mistakes the time was still a few milliseconds better so he must have made up for those errors elsewhere in the run.
Chris,  however,  was not to be outdone and put in a 1:38 on his third run.  Troy was devastated.  He hadn't expected to beat Chris but his hopes had risen while his first two times had remained ahead. A 1:38 ? Troy would be lucky to manage that at all and if he did it would probably be slower than Chris' by a few milliseconds.

Before Troy had a chance to try though, Jeff went out for his third run (remember Jeff and Troy were sharing cars).  The run went fine until just after the finish line where the car got away from Jeff for a bit. "I thought I was gonna own it...", he was heard to say afterwards but he did manage to recover control after clipping a fence post and tearing the rear bump free on the passenger side. A bit of race tape soon put this right for the rest of the weekend, although the team will probably need a new bumper now.

With the body damage repaired Troy went out for his fourth and final timed run,  not expecting to beat Chris but determined not to be shown up either.  Apparently Troy had a blistering take off from the start line with several spectators commenting they thought it was Jeff driving until they saw him standing around watching as well.  Troy felt he wasn't quite as fast through the first part of the corner at the top of the hill and in an effort to make up for that planted his foot over the latter part of the corner and carried a lot more speed down the hill than on previous runs. A much better turn in to the loop allowed him to stay on the throttle in second gear all the way around the loop before dropping back to second to exit. Despite fears of a repeat of 2003 Troy pressed harder down through the culvert than on his previous runs until he arrived at the cone where the turn around happened. Sadly, he didn't get this handbrake turn right either, but he did keep the car on the road (or at least the grass) and he took off again back towards the loop, again carrying slightly more speed than he had previously. The end result was a 1:37 - just enough to beat Chris, and more than enough to put a grin on Troy's face.

Of course Chris was using his road car,  and to be honest he withdrew before his fourth run simply because he didn't want to risk trying to hard or having a mechanical failure.  Had Chris been driving his Escort, or any other properly prepared car,  he probably would have creamed Troy's times - however, as they say, a win is a win !

Troy ranked 13th out of 23 in the hillclimb. The overall winner was Harold Bennett,  who deserves a big congratulation as this was his first ever outright win at an event.  Harold managed at 1:28,  with Richard Hulbert coming a close second. A few others scored times in the 1:29/1:30 area (Jeff included) and then most other peopled followed with times around 1:34/1:35, 1:38 or 1:40+. 

Carnage for the day was relatively light, with the worst damage being suffered by Harold Bennett and Sam Stubbs.  Sam managed to roll his car off the road opposite the tree Troy hit in 2003.  The car was still able to be driven but there was some damage to bonnet and front bumper etc.
Harold had the misfortune to hit a strainer post head on during an un-official (non-timed) run at the end of the hillclimb.  This destroyed his intercooler and a few other parts,  plus left the front of the car looking quite sad.  Luckily this is also repairable and both competitors were quite philosophical about the incidents, as was Leon England who managed roll his starlet into the ditch on the inside of the loop earlier on the in the day - his car suffering no visible damage as a result.  Leon's starlet was back on the road after a check from the scrutineers.

That evening saw the same partying as usual on the hill, despite the rain which had already started and continued through the night.  Sadly,  the competitors all woke to find the rain continuing and the venue quite damp so the autocross was cancelled it everyone began to pack-up and leave early.

Still, it was a good weekend where everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and our team had an excellent result.  Thanks to George Foreman for the use of the venue,  to all the volunteers and the HCMC committee. 

Also a big thanks to the Lion Foundation who have supported HCMC by providing a grant for the purchase of new radios. As a result of this you will notice many if not all of the cars in our photographs are wearing Lion Foundation decals. Thanks greatly guys!

Results for the motorkhana can be seen here.
Results for the hillclimb can be seen here.
Results for the triathlon can be seen here.
Photos from the weekend can be seen here.

TCS Racing is sponsored by :