Austin Healey Yearbook 2011

Austin Healey Owners Clubs of Australia

3

Welcome to the 2011 Austin Healey Owners Clubs of Australia Year Book.

As all Clubs are aware the lead up to hosting a National Rally is a very busy time for those members of the host Club who have the responsibility of organising the event. As

volunteers the amount of work required to be undertaken by those individuals in addition to their commitments outside their Club are considerable. South Australia thanks those members from interstate clubs who attended the 40th National Rally in Adelaide in 2011

for supporting our event and making it successful. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.

There is always a slow down in club activities after hosting a National Rally as many of the organisers need a well earned rest. However, reading the summary of 2011 events in

South Australia held after the Rally shows the Club responded well. The pace of life and the number of activities that South Australian Healey owners get

involved with outside of the Club is reflected by less members attending events in 2011. A lot of members are retired or are retiring and seem to be busier than ever. The

challenge ahead for our Club is getting members to volunteer for Committees and/or organise events as well as attend and support their Club. I am sure that other Clubs are

having a similar experience.

Austin Healey owners are passionate about their great cars and will continue to be so. Let’s hope they continue to support their Clubs to keep the marque in the public eye so as

to encourage new owners and members.

We hope you find the 2011 Year Book informative and a useful resource.

Happy Healeying.

4

AHOC of South Australia Inc

COMMITTEE 2010 - 2011

President : Rod Bishop Vice President : John Read Secretary : David Hillier Treasurer : David Woollard Regalia : John Cronshaw Historic Registrar : Peter Barreau Assistant : John Read Social Facilitator : Bob Upton Editor : Graham Hammond

5

President’s Report 2011 The Club’s year started with the Vice President’s Family Dinner night at an hotel overlooking the Port River. This event is held in place of the usual member meeting in January. Excellent food, good company and great weather ensured a successful evening. The main task for early 2011 was finalising the National Rally to be held in Adelaide. The Rally Committee was kept busy undertaking this task which resulted in fewer Club events being arranged in the early part of the year.

February was the annual All British Day held at Uraidla Showgrounds in the Adelaide Hills. The Club supports this day each year as it is a good event and Ian Hay from our Club is the President. This year was the 27th event and we had 22 big Healeys displayed in the centre of the oval which attracted quite a bit of

interest. Over 750 vehicles were on display and the good weather attracted a large crowd. The Club’s annual Display Day was held at Light House Square, Port Adelaide in March. The good weather continued and we had 21 Healeys on display. The Peo-ple’s Choice Award for best Healey voted on by the gen-eral public viewing our cars was won by Lyndon Rogers with his BJ8.

6

April was the National Rally in Adelaide based at the Chifley Hotels on South Terrace in the city. As Easter was in late April our biggest concern was the weather, however, as it turned out we were very lucky and there was great weather for the whole event. On the Friday after registration and check-in, registrants were able to wander through the hotels to the Coopers Beer Garden to catch up with friends and meet new ones. Thanks to Cooper’s Brewery, Smeaton’s Martin Hill Vineyard, Thorpe Wines, Penny Hill Winery and Ian and Anne Leask for their generosity in sponsoring this event. Early in the evening the welcoming cocktail party was held at the Grand Chifley Hotel.

On Saturday there was a morning run through the Adelaide Hills with the autumn leaves still on the trees. Morning Tea was at Auchendarroch, a stately mansion built in the early 1800’s. The run continued east over the ranges to Mannum for lunch at the Pretoria Hotel overlooking the River Murray. In the evening the Ruby Ball was held at the National Wine Centre to celebrate the 40th National Rally. During the evening the Alan Jones

trophy was presented to Bill Ingham from the Victorian Club. Sunday was Display Day on the lawns at Elder Park in the city overlooking the River Torrens. There were 93 cars displayed during the day with a large number of the general public looking at the cars as well as TV coverage by the ABC. The People’s Choice trophy was won by Jeff and Sue Young from Tasmania in their BT7 Tricarb. In the evening an Italian Night was held at the Italian Club in the city. In addition to the People’s Choice Trophy the Hard Luck award was given to Chris and Colleen Miles from Queensland and the Good Sport award to Charlie Mitchell from Western Australia. On Monday the farewell lunch was held at the Bocce Club in McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide. This concluded the Rally and the feedback from registrants was very positive which makes all the hard work of the Rally Committee chaired by John Veale worthwhile. Many thanks to our sponsors The Healey Factory, Kilmartin’s Automotive Sheet Metal, Lumley’s Special Vehicles Insurance and Mt Barker Council. A number of post Rally events were held for those interstate registrants who elected to stay in

7

Adelaide for a few extra days before returning home. During May the annual Boxy’s Run was held. As always Andrew Box arranges a good run through the Adelaide Hills followed by lunch which this year was at the Balhannah Hotel. Unfortunately the weather was bad but 5 Healey owners were brave enough to take their cars whilst others opted for tin-tops. In June we returned to Auchendarroch for a dinner/movie night in the Wallis Theatres. July provided a weekend away to Port Vincent on Yorke Peninsular with some country members who live in the town and nearby districts attending. During August some members attended the MSCA Sprints at Mallala to undertake flag marshall duties to fulfil the Club’s obligation as a member of MSCA to do so at one race meet-ing each year. In September the annual Peter Norris Memorial Run, in memory of our deceased member, was held south of Adelaide around the district where Peter used to live, with lunch at The Green Man Inn in Ashbourne. October saw the resumption of a Border Run with the Victorian Club. This run to Mildura was organised by Ralph Fletcher from the Victorian Club and was well attended by members from both Clubs. It is hoped that these annual runs will continue as they used to and the 2012 run will be organised by the South Australian Club. In November a run to Victor Harbor was held with lunch at Middleton and an afternoon visit to a private collection of old cars and memorabilia owned by Dennis Martin who opens his gar-age to car clubs for a small donation to charity. The year finished with the annual Christmas Party held this year at the Trotters. As always a great day and this year there were more adult children of members present together with their children to welcome Father Christmas. Many thanks to the Rally Committee for a successful National Rally and to the Club Committee for their support throughout the year. The finalisation of the new Constitution and the upgrade of the club website were good achievements. Congratulations to Ian Hay on winning the Club Champion Trophy again. Happy Healeying Rod Bishop President AHOC of SA Inc.

8

Austin Healey Na

9

ational Rally 2011

10

Victorian President's Report Yearbook 2011 2011 was a busy and enjoyable year for the AHOC of Victoria. It was a year with plenty of activities for everyone. We had winery and pub runs for the socially minded, track days for the competitive, weekends away for the tourers and opportunities for all of us wanting to show off our lovely cars.

The year kicked off with a most successful Natter Day at Bill and Jeane Metcalf's home with 32 Healeys and almost 90 guests enjoying scones and cream before a good run around the nearby hills and return for a BBQ lunch. This was closely

followed by an excellent turn-out of cars for our 'Healey Day' display at Docklands, in February this time in place of the rain-abandoned event of October 2010. With good weather this time, we had 75 Healeys and some invited Sprites

and Bolwells to provide a wonderful display in a great venue with lots of public interest. The Committee's efforts in planning and setting up these first two very successful events set the tone for the whole year. Success, of course, breeds success and this proved to be the case when we won 'Best Club Display' for the second year running at the RACV Showcase at Flemington. Once again, this was due to the planning

put in and the erection of signage, tents, regalia, membership booth, a running engine demo and some very special cars. What really counted, however, was the 65 Healeys on display

and the real 'Club' atmosphere generated with members in regalia congregating around our BBQ and picnicking between the cars.

Our social runs included trips to the Avenel Pub, Balgownie Winery, Garage Classics, Brian's Brain Buster observation run to Mirboo North and our annual Cup Day gathering at the Edwards. Selwyn Hall introduced an occasional early morning 'Fang Run' and several

11

members joined John Mooney in a quick trip to Foster. Monthly Peninsula lunches and ROF runs (and lunches) also continued - with attendances rather weather dependent. Gordon Lindner arranged another weekend at Rusty Springs where 18 couples enjoyed a hilarious Christmas in July celebration. nother successful weekend away coincided with an MSCA event at Phillip Island. 30 members joined for a run to Cowes (via the scenic route), a BBQ amongst the Peugeots, an evening at the RSL and an opportunity to visit the Phillip Island Circuit to spur on the nine members competing in the Sunday Sprints and Regularity events.

Rod Vogt continued his enthusiastic promotion of the club's Competition Championship. Points are awarded for the closeness of a competitor's four fastest laps at any officially timed race circuit event - racing, sprints, regularity or driver training - with their best four events counting towards the Championship. Over the year, 20 members took part in 23

events at Phillip Island, Sandown, Winton, Calder, Eastern Creek, Mallala and Wakefield Park. A further eight members competed in non-Healey vehicles for our first Associate Championship. Congratulations to Peter Jackson on his third Competition Championship in four years in his Group Sa Historic BN7 3000. Second placing went to Rob Raverty in his immaculate and virtually standard BJ7 (a true club-level effort)

and third to Brian Duffy in his Group Sa BT7. The 2011 Associate Champion is Tony Rogers (1974 Porsche). Members competed in cars as disparate as Graeme Marks' Mac Healey, MGB's and Triumph TR7, BMW Mini and Jaguar Mk2 saloons. Early in the year, the committee agreed to establish a sub-committee to review the rules and format of our Concours and Show & Shine competitions. After some months of detailed analysis, the sub-committee recommended that we change to an Australianised version of the USA system where Concours cars are judged against a set of standards and awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze status rather than competing one against another. A separate 'Road and Show' competition was recommended to take place in parallel with Concours judging. These recommendations were endorsed by the full committee and plans are being prepared for training of judges and promotion of the system. Seventy members travelled to Adelaide for another very enjoyable National Rally, held around the city-centre but with easy access out to good Healey roads and interesting venues. With good venues, excellent SA wines and great company, a good time was had by all. Barb Meredith and Ralph Fletcher then worked with our SA friends to revive the Victorian/SA Mini Rallies. After a break of some years, 71 members of the two clubs got together again at

12

Mildura in October. For a short time, we were joined there by some hundreds of 'bikies' and a large contingent of 'men-in-blue' (just keeping tabs on them). As neither group could compete with our Healeys in the glamour stakes they all soon moved on. Our monthly meetings were well attended and speakers in-cluded Phil Walker of Unique Cars, David Sires (an ex-owner and salesman at Austin Distributors), Geoff Clarke (RACV

Foundation), our own Neil Plunkett (arrange-it-yourself paint jobs) and two lovely ladies from Ambulance Victoria who conduct-ed an excellent CPR training course. Cars displayed at our club nights included Phil Walker's Corvette, Ray and Sue Lodder's 1957 300SL Mercedes, Mike Snelgrove's 911 Porsche, Bob Dixon (Bruce's brother) and his 1914 Sunbeam and the Healeys of David Dawson, Hardy Kuhn, John Mooney, John Olsen, Neil Plunkett and a Healey Factory BN2 Special. After successive Clubroom evening get-togethers with our Clubroom partners (Jaguar club) and guests (Sprite club) our Tri-Club event this year was a lunchtime run to Narbethong to the Black Spur Inn. This proved to be a most popular format and was quickly booked out. Members of each club were seen closely examining the cars of the others and the camarade-rie inside the venue suggested that we should do this more often.

Our year concluded with a fun evening at our annual Dinner Dance (Barb's last Social Event?) and our December AGM and Presentation Night. After 25 years of continuous service on AHOC committees, Barb Meredith decided to step down. Her work included five years as President and others as editor, social secretary, librarian etc. Barb's work has been greatly appreciated. I enjoyed my year as President of the AHOC of Victoria and have to thank my hard-working Committee colleagues for that. I wish Paul McPherson and his 2012 Committee all the best for the coming year. Bill Vaughan President, Victorian Healey Club

13

AUSTIN-HEALEY OWNERS’ CLUB OF (NSW) INC. 2011 REPORT By John Kent Our Club continues to meet on the second Wednesday of each month with 30 to 40 members in attendance. The Club currently has 282 members and as it ages it is becoming more difficult to fill Committee positions with the Club being without a Competition Secretary again this year. The Club is in a sound financial position, but the current cost of membership will need to be reviewed to ensure that our continued operation does not drain members’ funds. The Club has generally arranged to have one social event each month; in January the Club Presentation breakfast was held at Belinda and Cameron Sell’s home at the foot of the Blue Mountains. In February two events took place, one an afternoon run and then dinner at the Royal Motor Yacht Club on Pittwater and the other a weekend away at Kiama which coincided with Wings Over Illawarra at Albion Park Airport south of Sydney. This was a well-attended event with over 46 members participating with our Concours de Elegance held in conjunction with a display on the day with Austin-Healeys being the show marque. March saw members at a Mittagong tea house for morning tea/lunch. Geoff and Margaret Smith hosted breakfast at their home on St Hubert’s Island on the Central Coast. This proved to be a very popular location with members enjoying a marvellous water view and breakfast as our April outing. A contingent of 15 members attended the National Rally in Adelaide, one member had a “failed to proceed” and his car returned home on the back of a truck. Apple Day at Tallong, a small rural community near Goulburn, was the focus for our May outing which saw members participating in a car display and then retiring to Anne and Don Read’s home for a barbeque lunch. Each year in June, Terry Bancroft organises a “Brass Monkey” run to somewhere colder than Sydney for breakfast. This year it was to Mudgee, where over 100 people from many car clubs shared tall tales as well as breakfast. At the end of June the Club hosts a Supersprint at Wakefield Park Raceway in Goulburn. This is strongly supported by Club members who provide the necessary flag marshals and course attendants to stage the event. The event which is held on the Saturday preceding an All British race meeting by Wakefield Park on the Sunday attracts a full field of 100 starters plus reserves. In July our event was cancelled due to wet weather. In August the Club participates in “Shannons Classic” at Eastern Creek Raceway and an All British Display Day at the Kings School Parramatta. The latter event attracts an enormous array of British Cars of all makes and sizes. September was a quiet month with some members attending Speed on Tweed. In October the Club undertook what has become known as the annual Charlie’s Run in memory of Char-lie Britten who passed away in 2011. This run attracted 34 members who spent a week to-gether motoring to various parts of the Riverina in NSW. In November Patrick and Caroline Quinn had an open day for their spectacular garden in Kurrajong Heights with members attending on Saturday or Sunday. Also In November we had our Conditional Registration vehicle inspection day. December rounded off the year with Christmas Party at our Club meeting location at Rydalmere Bowling Club.

14

TROPHY WINNERS – 2011

Concours – Wings over Illawarra – February 2011 Best 100 Roger Elsworthy Best 3000 MKI & MKII John & Kate Burch (BT7 MKII) Best 3000 BJ7/BJ8 Eddie Segalia (BJ8) Modified Healey Chris Dimmock BJ8 People’s Choice John & Judy Sherman’s BJ8 Furthest Travelled - Miscellaneous Warwick & Jennifer Sell (Healey Silverstone) Master Class Silver Award - Club Club Person of the Year (Alan Jones Memorial Trophy) Alan Mitchell Club Champion John Kent / Jim Phillips Lady Club Champion Carolyn Kent Scribe of the Year Allan Whitehouse Hard Luck Trophy Patrick Quinn Competition Best Performance in a non Austin-Healey Patrick Townshend (Valiant Charger) Club Competition Champion Cameron Sell 3000 MKI Ross Bond Trophy for Open Competition Peter Jackson Best 100 Chris Komor BN1 Best 3000 Cameron Sell 3000 MKI CSCA Trophy Cameron Sell 3000 MKI

SOCIAL SCENE – 2011 With Patricia Bancroft steeping down from social activities for 2011it was difficult to find someone to take the role. Christine Lyttle took on the role despite already holding a position on the committee and events were organised in conjunction with members helping in their area, making the task a lot easier. It worked out well and this way our club was able to enjoy a year full of events organised by some of its members. Sunday 9 January – Presentation Breakfast – held at the home of Belinda and Cameron Sell at Winmalee in the Blue Mountains. It was a wet day so not too many Austin-Healeys were in attendance. The BBQ breakfast was organised by Terry Bancroft and the attendees enjoyed the feast. Trophies for the previous year were awarded to the recipients. Wednesday 26 January – NRMA Motorfest – This event is always well attended with Austin-Healeys and other vintage and classic cars on display in Sydney streets even though you have to be at the meeting point at 5.30am ready to drive in convoy to the location for your marque of car and the cars must stay in place until 5pm. It is a long day although there

15

were activities in the City and Hyde Park to keep everyone amused. Other locations for events are at Parramatta Park and Berrima. Saturday 19 February – Royal Motor Yacht Club Newport – organised by John and Judy Sherman - 31 members and 7 Austin-Healeys met at St Ives Showground for a late afternoon run to the club. The temperatures soared to the high 30s and it was quite surpris-ing to see so many open cars and it showed on the occupants’ faces when they arrived at St Ives. With the extreme heat the run to the club was shortened with a short stop at Church Point to cool off under the trees and have a natter. Even though we were heading for a sea-side location the temperatures stayed high. On arrival at the club a cool drink in the air condi-tioning was very welcomed before enjoying a lovely meal. Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 February – Concours at “Wings over Illawarra” at Albion Park – The Austin-Healey was the marque for this event and it was appropriate to hold our concours in conjunction with the many other activities on the Sunday. Saturday night we stayed at a motel in Kiama and dinner was organised at the local club, a short walk from the motel. Sunday 13 March – Lunch at Werai Tea House and Nursery at Exeter – Anne Read organised this event and 30 members attended the lunch. It was another beautiful day in the Highlands and great driving the Austin-Healeys. The tea house is an old worldly back to the 50s styled with old tables and chairs from that era along with period crockery and parapher-nalia on the walls. Everyone enjoyed their excellent meals at a very reasonable price. Sunday 3 April – Breakfast Run to St Huberts Island – Margaret and Geoff Smith of-fered their home to have this breakfast. Meeting point was at Berowra for the convoy drive north. The feast for the 30 attendees was magnificent and Margaret excelled with her home family cooking. Margaret and Geoff live on the foreshore of the Brisbane Waters with beautiful outside landscaped area with enough room for the large attendance. After a pretty ordinary Saturday weather wise, Sunday was fantastic with an extremely hot day and many going home with a nice red glow. Friday 22 – Monday 25 April – National Rally in South Australia – 220 participants at the National Rally. A small convey of members from NSW drove to South Australia in 2 days, enjoying the trip there and back. The Rally was fantastic and I am sure there will be a report from the host club in the Year Book. Sunday 1 May – Apple Day at Tallong - a yearly event in Tallong with a display of many stalls including plants, farm machinery and food from surrounding areas of the town. The Austin-Healeys met on the highway south and showed their cars in the field and then on to the Anne and Don Read’s for lunch and a natter before everyone made their way back home. The day started out in very heavy fog and it took the sun a while to burn it off and when it did the weather was very warm for this mid autumn day. Sunday 15 May – CMC Heritage Day – promoted by the Council of Motor Clubs this is a day when owners of older cars are encouraged to join with other enthusiasts for runs throughout the state.

16

17

5 June – Brass Monkey Run to Mudgee Bowling Club - This long running annual event organised by Terry Bancroft proved once again to be a success with cars of many marques meeting at the truck parking area on the M4 at the Caltex Service Station for a 6am departure for a cold winter’s run to Mudgee. Tops down were de rigour. Saturday 25 June – AHOC Supersprint at Wakefield Park – while predominately a com-petition event, Saturday night brought everyone together at the motel in Goulburn for dinner and laugh and talk about the day’s happenings. Tuesday 26 July – Mid week Run to Megalong Valley Tea Rooms – Organised by Allan Whitehouse with a departure time of 11am on the M4 at Eastern Creek for a run up into the mountains for the Megalong Valley Tea Rooms. As we have a number of retired members the mid-week runs are well attended. Sunday 21 August – Shannons Eastern Creek Classic – Austin-Healeys were on display in the pit area at Eastern Creek together with the other marques. There were stalls to view in the pit area along with racing and parades of the cars around the track. Sunday 28 August – All British Display Day – Kings School North Parramatta – An-other yearly event with Austin-Healeys on display with many other marques of cars in the grounds of the school. Members enjoyed a relaxed day when they could have chatted or walked around the many cars on display. There were also many markets stalls to enjoy. The School’s art display was also worth viewing with many a member going home with an addition of an art piece to display in their homes. Saturday 22 – Saturday 29 October – Underbelly Run – The run was held in the River-ina area of New South Wales organised by Neil Thew. Saturday 12 November – Gardens at Kurrajong – Quinn’s residence – The Quinns opened their home and gardens for members to partake in a lovely drive in the mountain air and wander through their glorious gardens as part of Open Gardens Australia. Afternoon tea and a craft stall where a lovely gift could be bought for a special present. The day was abso-lutely superb with the sun beaming down all day. The open day was also on the Sunday too. Sunday 20 November – Club Inspection Day at Mortlake – Our annual event to inspect the Austin-Healeys that are on Conditional Registration was well attended at the property of Richard Horwood. Neville Stirton and Rod Richards did their usual work whilst enjoying the company of the many members nattering over the sausage sizzle prepared by Richard. It was great to see Tony Ash arrive even though his 100 is not on Conditional Registration he drove from the North Coast for the event and to catch up with members. Wednesday 14 December – Christmas Party – this year our dinner was to be a tradition-al Christmas dinner with a turkey and ham baked dinner along with plum pudding. A Christ-mas raffle of a half a ham, hamper, selections of bottles of red and white wines, Austin-Healey poster mounted on board, 1.5 litre bottle Johnny Walker Scotch and Pat Moss’ biog-raphy were also drawn on the night. Members donated the prizes and the proceeds were to go to the 2013 National Rally.

18

Thanks to the members for supporting the events through out the year. Christine Lyttle Social Secretary

19

AHOC of Queensland Year Book Report 2010-2011

“40 years of Fun and Friendship”

2010 Saw the Queensland Club members celebrating our 40th Anniversary and club events and activities had a historical theme. We are so lucky as an organisation to have members who remain active in the club who were there when we started all those years ago. Club members likes Joe Jarick and Alwyn Keepence remain active members in the club and are on our current committee. Alwyn as Membership Secretary reported in July that we had passed the milestone of 100 members which shows how strong our club is. In July our show and shine was held at the Maritime Museum and Brenda and Keith Bailey’s newly restored Spruce Green 100 took centre stage supported by three of the club’s special cars Alwyn and Helen Keepence’s 1953 show car lookalike and Joe Jarick’s 30000mile 100S along with Paul and Helen Blake’s NGR568 which is the only 6 cylinder car in the club originally sold in Queensland. These display cars were supported by many other club member’s cars for this special 40th Anniversary event. We were all very pleased to see Vice President John Hopgood receive the top award for his newly restored 100-Six which looks fantastic in Healey Blue over Old English White. A Christmas in July event saw many club members enjoying a weekend in Northern NSW. During this year Noel Standfast drew together a number of club members who were able to lend a hand to other club members who were having a tough time. Notably the ‘Flying Gang” as it became known were able to help long time club member Peter Fisher complete the restoration of his BJ8 when Peter suffered from serious health issues. In January 2011 serious flooding hit South East Queensland and some of our members where directly affected and many more helped others out with the cleanup. This slowed down club activity for a short time. The club was pleased to be part of the 50th Anniversary of the Lakeside Motor Racing Circuit particularly as we nearly lost this great facility for ever. As the club year drew to a close many members headed to Adelaide for the National Rally. We had more than the usual mechanical problems on this rally but in the end everyone enjoyed themselves. The 2010 – 2011 club year was a very successful time for our club with excellent membership growth and the right sort of events to get members out enjoying their cars and the formation of the ‘Flying Gang” epitomised the Austin Healey Club Spirit. Paul Blake President 2012-2013

20

AHOC of Queensland Year Book Report 2010-2011

21

Austin Healey Club of Western Australia 2011 The year started off slowly in January with the New Year Barbecue meeting and then into February with a sausage sizzle cobweb run and a breakfast run in March to the Zamia Café in Kings Park. In March we also displayed the cars at the Whiteman Park Classic Car Show.

In April we lunched at Lake Leschenaultia.

And many of our members headed east to the Adelaide National Rally Easter 2011.

22

In May we attended the All British Day in GinGin, an annual pilgrimage. In June Arthur Wallis took Jack Brabham for a ride around the Caversham Grand Prix Race track. In July we held the Annual Dinner with outgoing President Rodney Lloyd handing over to new president Graeme Shearer. Hazel Lloyd and Keith Patching were worthy winners of the President’s Trophy and the Club Champion respectively.

“The Caversham Race Circuit was a buzz of excitement and activity on the first Sunday in May when vintage and racing car enthusiasts flocked to the circuit to meet a world famous triple Formula One champion and Aussie

hero.

Sir Jack Brabham OBE was invited to the racing circuit to celebrate the offi-cial naming of the suburb in his

honour.”

23

In July we farewelled long-time and life member Tony Ash - with the ASHOOP run and barbecue.

In August members headed south for the annual Winter Woollies at Bridgetown.

“There were lots of people (50), Healeys, chatter, good food and good wishes on the ASH00P Drive and Sausage Sizzle to wish Tony Ash well on his new venture back in NSW. There was really only one thing missing and that was the sun! As you can see in the photos there were plenty of coats, scarves, beanies, gloves and whatever else could be found to keep warm! “

24

The Grass Gymkhana in October was very grassy and muddy but despite gale force winds and rain overnight the weather stayed dry enough for everyone to have some fun! “the conditions were extremely slippery which made it even better but very muddy, George was the first to do a 360 with me as passenger coming very close to cleaning up an MGB. I managed to capture the moment on camera. After the initial lap it was time for the drivers to give it a go, with two cars competing at one time, each starting in the opposite direction, around the course marked out with cones,….”

25

“Caversham 25 yrs anniversary run & show n shine. 125 cars

from the 1900’s to the 1970s turned out for this unique run. We all met up at Midland oval at noon and were directed to our class positions, I was in 50s to 60s sports roadsters. On arrival we had to sign in for the show n shine, then it was look at the cars and relax in the sun and have a bite to eat before the judges came around. I had a few nice comments about my out-fit, we were asked to dress period if possible, a bit like Goodwood I suppose.” Mid-week runs were held in the cooler months. The runs initially were arranged for the retired members of the club. For the owners of cars that are restricted to the concessional licence requirements, it gave an outlet to use the cars during the week. Invitations were extended to the MG and Triumph Car Clubs to come and join in on these day runs. The week day runs, called “Midweek Meanders” went to the Peter Brock Memorial and Noble Falls, Stringy Bark, York, GinGin and the last one of the year to Dwellingup. Run “No 13” was surely a sign for what the weather had in store. It belted down early that morning and first thoughts were who would venture out today. Surprise surprise! Tony Mel-lor, Mike Hopkins, Frank Van Der Worm and myself in Healeys, 6 MGs and a Triumph Stag turned up at Ginger’s Roadhouse. We left in the rain and headed to the back blocks of Muchea and Bindoon, then on to Gingin via Mooliabeenie. The rain disappeared during the run not to appear for the rest of the day”

Charlie Mitchell Mike Hopkins

26

Barry Berkshire completed his restoration: “The car was completely stripped and placed in a rotisserie, a large amount of rust was removed and panels replaced including all floors and boot floors, inner and outer sills and chassis outriders. The front aluminium shroud was in very poor condition and special thanks must go to Keith and Diane Cooper. Keith spent the best part of a day repairing the shroud and the result is excellent…..”

27

And several members travelled far and wide across Australia in their Healeys “Everyone felt confident when Noel arrived too late to buy any raffle tickets, but he did cap-ture our attention by entertaining us with his story of collecting a new BN1 chassis from KAS in Victoria. Who else would spend $500 on an old Suzuki 4WD, change the plugs and leads and then head across the Big Paddock to go shopping?”

Linda and Charlie Mitchell in the Red Centre

Peter and Nancy Hill overland to Lake Eyre

Noel Gorn collecting his BN1 chassis

28

The club has enjoyed a steady membership growth throughout the years leading up to the end of 2011. To control membership fees and provide funds for social events, the club magazine was produced in as an electronic edition. This has not only helped balanced the books, it has freed up the editor from the erroneous task of magazine production and mailing. Name badges were also introduced in 2011.This was something that was considered not necessary in the past, but is now accepted for meetings and events where participation with other car clubs is held.

Christmas Party 2011 at Linda and Charlie Mitchell’s.