Calendar 2023
25th February, Rally Retro Festival, HRA, Vic
4th March, Taree Rally, AMSAG
18th March, Fluffy Duck Rally, AHRG.
17th -19th March, 100 Years of Triumph, TSOA, Bathurst
100 years of Triumph, Bathurst 2023
Day 1. Friday 17th March
Left home around eight in the morning driving my old Triumph 2500 MK I heading towards Bathurst but I had stops along the way. I had an interview to do along the way, with Geoff about his Nissan Godzilla Targa rally car, Geoff lives in the Blue Mountains so it was on my way. My route would take me through Wiseman’s Ferry, Windsor and then the Blue Mountains and on to Bathurst. The Navman did not want me to go across Wiseman’s Ferry, kept telling me to ‘do a U turn when its safe’, even as I sat waiting for the ferry, which amounts to may be 500 metres from Wiseman’s Ferry, it was telling me to turn around. To say it was hot would be understating it, it was hot, dam hot, old Triumphs are hot at the best of times but when added to the temperature of the day it was a hot trip. The poor old triumph got a bit asthmatic once we got up in altitude, hills that it would sail up normally now needed a gear change. I arrived at the Motel in the late afternoon but I had lots to do as I had used six cameras and three sound recorders that all had to be down loaded to a portable hard drive. Tomorrow I will be parking the poor old Triumph in the Main Street of Bathurst as part of the 100 years of Triumphs event. I was on the road for seven hours today, used $70.00 off petrol and travelled 285 km’s.
Jim Pope
Day 2. Saturday 18th March
Up early as I had to be in the Main Street of Bathurst by 8.20 in the morning but it was not a problem as I don’t sleep well at Motels. The organizers had a complicated system to get the over 100 cars in there allotted location, but it all went well. The cars were parked in groups as per there model, so I was parked with five other MK I’s next to the 2500 MK II’s. With the car parked with the other Triumphs I wondered around with a video camera filming all the cars. I think the final number of Triumphs was 116 made up of most of the models, every thing from TR2’s to TR7’s as well as sedan’s, Dolomite’s and everything in between. Again it was very hot but the Park next to the street had large trees giving great shad. I interviewed Paul about his Triumph 2500 MK II Targa Rally car and talked to many Triumph owners about life owning a Triumph.
Jim Pope
Day 3. Sunday 19th March
Met up with all the Triumphs for a convoy around Mount Panorama Race Track. What a track, I would love to drive it in my Dolly as part of a motorsporting event but that is not going to happen. Mount Panorama is a public road for most of the year, I think it is used as a race track twice a year and parts of it are used for hillclimbs, come sprint events a few times a year as well. I could enter one of those events, I like the look of one of them which starts part the way along mountain straight and goes up through the cutting. It would of been fun to drive in convoy with so many Triumphs but with filming and stoping to pick up some cameras that I had left on the side of the road I ended up driving around by myself. Keeping to correct side of the road was a challenge as well as keeping to the speed limit of 60 kph. The car was covered with cameras, five in all, plus some I gave to other Triumph owners so I should have some good video. After the convoy we all headed to the National Motor Racing Museum to have a look around. Did not know what to expect as V8 Super Cars have taken over Australian Motor Racing and I have no interest in them but the museum had a good cross section of cars down through time. It was great to see some Touring cars from what for me was a golden era, Group A and Group C, when Touring cars were real Touring Cars. No Triumphs but I did not expect any, even though Triumphs did race in the Bathurst 1000 and before that the Bathurst 500. The Torana that one of the Dollies crashed into on the start line was there which sort of gave a Triumph connection. Triumph Dolomite Sprint’s, Triumph 2500 MK II’s and Triumph 2000 MK I’s all race at Bathurst at some time. There was a John Goss section with two Falcons, a Matich formula 5000 as well as a Jaguar. Peter Brock’s around Australia Commodore was there as well complete with battle damage. I remember looking through a book on the Bathurst Race and seeing some pictures of the start grid with some Triumph 2000’s starting in the top four, how quick are they I thought. What I did not know at that time was that the grid was selected by drawing numbers from a hat. After lunch I drove about half an hour out of Bathurst to interview Ray about his ‘T’ Model Ford, some thing I know nothing about. All in all an enjoyable day of Triumph activities. Lots of video to down load and cameras to charge in readiness for tomorrow.
Jim Pope
Day 4. Monday 20th March
The day started with a short drive out of Bathurst to interview Craig about his Datsun 180B Rally car which had competed in the London to Sydney Rally as well as one of the around Australia rallies. From there I headed home via the Bell’s Line of Road, Richmond, Windsor, Wiseman’s Ferry and then home. I will have a lot of editing to do with four interviews and reports on the Triumph Display, Convoy, National Motorsport Museum as well as videos on the trip up and back but this might have to take a bit of a back seat as I have a lot of car work to do on the poor old MK I that just has to be done. I was on the road for 8 hours today and travelled 315 km’s, not sure of how much petrol I used as I have not fill it yet.
Jim Pope
17th June, Des West Winter Classic, AHRG.
Des West Rally 2023
Another year and another Des West Rally, this year starting from Branxton, with lunch at Denman and finishing at Patterson. A good field on twenty entered the event in a cross section of mostly classic cars with a few modern cars making up the numbers. The weather was cool at the start but sunny, perfect weather for driving a classic car. The Des West Rally is a navigational event with the navigation being a route chart, which presented little problems for the competitors. All the starters got to the finish without problem and reported a great day driving the roads of the Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. The next Australian Historic Rally Group event will be the Heart of the Hunter in August. For results and photos go to AHRG’s web site. For a video report of the event go to the Rally page, drop down menu, click on Rallies 2023.
Jim Pope
18th June, Euro Day, MG Car Club Hunter
Euro Fest 2023.
Organized by the MG Car Club Hunter Region and held annually at the foreshore Park, Newcastle, the Euro Fest is a car Show/Display for cars from Europe. A large number of cars were on display ranging from modern BMW’s through to old MG’s. At a lot of car shows the age demographic tends towards the older but the Euro Fest having some modern cars the age group of the car owners is more spread out. It was good to see a big turn out as some events seem to be struggling to regain their past glories since the virus. Yellow Duck Motorsport was not represented this year as all of Yellow Duck Motorsport’s classic cars are out of action at the moment. For a video report on this event go to the Links page, drop down menu, click on Event reports, then Reports 2023.
Jim Pope
12th August, Bago 150 Rally, Wauchope, AMSAG
Bago Rally August 2023.
Organized by Hastings Sporting Car Club and AMSAG the Bago Rally forest special stage rally and attracted a big field of 65 crews. Based out of Wauchope on the north coast of NSW with the service park at the near by Motorcross Complex. Crews did two passes of the course during the day and judging by the spectator points the roads held up well. There were three spectator points of which I went to two using twelve cameras to film the action. From an outsider looking in it seemed to be a well run event and know doubt took a great deal of work to make it happen. For video of this event go to the Rally page.
Jim Pope
19th August, Heart of the Hunter, AHRG.
Heart of the Hunter 2023
As is the tradition, the Heart of the Hunter started from Freeman’s Waterholes and travelled via a scenic route to the finish just out side Cessnock. A good number of competitors took up the challenge of competing in this event in a cross section of classic cars. This year had a few to many modern cars as it would seem everyone’s classic was out of action. Everyone seemed to enjoy the drive around the Hunter Valley as well as the lunch break in Dungog. The next Australian Historic Rally Group event is the Even Green Rally. For video of events go to the Rally page.
Jim Pope
17th September, All British Day, Sydney
All British Day
Its been some years since the last All British Day (2019 I think) due to the virus and bad weather so it was great to be back at Kings School for this years All British Day. As with a lot of events since the virus the numbers were a bit down on the last event which in the case of this event, was a bit of a surprise. For the first time of attending the All British Day I was not driving a British car (as it is off the road) so I was driving my daily driver, a Subaru Impreza. That meant I had to park in the spectator parking lot, which in turn meant a long walk to the display area. By the time I got to the sports field that all the British cars were parked on, my knees were telling my to go no further. As always there were many great British cars to look at, cars I wouldn’t mind owning, any of the small Fords etc. There were lots of Triumphs on display as well as Jaguar’s and MG’s but my knees cried enough before I got all the way around. For video of this event go to the Links page, click on Reports.
Jim Pope
14th October, Walcha Rally, AMSAG – Cancelled
21st October, Central Coast All British Day, CCBCC. For video of this event go to the Links page, drop down menu, click on Event Reports, then on Events 2023
22nd October, Even Green Memorial, AHRG.
Even Green Memorial Rally 2023
Organized by the Australian Historic Rally Group the Even Green attracted a good size field of twenty cars, with two thirds of them being classic cars. Starting at Heatherbrae Pies, Ourimbah and finishing at Pokolbin with lunch at Bulga the event covered around 300 km’s. The Even Green was the final rally for AHRG’s year with only the Christmas Run left on the calendar. With the virus now just a memory this year went well with four events held with good size fields in all the events. For video of this event go to the Rally page.
Jim Pope
4th November, Black Springs Rally, AMSAG
25th November, Christmas Run, AHRG.