VARAC Site?

[JohnG]

The VARAC site appears to be down. It's been down for at least two days. Any vintage lurkers out there know what going on?
J

[Jon Hirst]

The site server is down.

Ran Wanless (site manger) is looking into it - no reply yet from the ISP.

Jon

[JohnG]

Thank you Jon. Actually, I just tried it right now and it's back up. Thanks for the reply though. I wish more of the Vintage people would spend some time here.
John

[Jon Hirst]

Hi John -

There is a VARAC members yahoo group that most of the online members frequent.

It has been around since 1999 or so thus the membership were used to going there when this forum was founded.

It is also a private forum so there isn't much point in posting a link. I should mention that it isn't neccessarily a "members only" forum - just a "invite only". If you are interested, I can email you the contact to get signed on.


There are other Vintage forums around that you browse however. Check with some of the club websites on the VARAC links page.

jon

[JohnG]

Jon
I was waiting until new year to renew my VARAC membership but I would love to be back in the email group. I am totally out of touch with what is happening in G-70 and the rest. Email is johngriffith@rogers.com.
John

[Trackdog]

Hey John! I was wondering where you were... emails to you have been rejected... I'll email you offline and get you up to date on G70+!

Diane.

[Jon Hirst]

For G70 info there is no better source than Diane!

Welcome back to the fold...:)

[JohnG]

Thank you Diane and Jon.
Sorry Dianne, when I moved, my email changed and I guess not everything got switched over. looking forward to getting caught up. Wish you would post some of the G-70 stuff here as well so the rest of the heathens can learn about real race cars that drive from the correct end.
John
(Before the flames start, the above email is to be read with those smiley face thingies firmly in mind)

[Crusher45]

Originally posted by JohnG
Wish you would post some of the G-70 stuff here as well so the rest of the heathens can learn about real race cars that drive from the correct end.
John
(Before the flames start, the above email is to be read with those smiley face thingies firmly in mind)

John, you should try ice racing where real racing is.



:D :D :D

[JohnG]

Crusher, My father ice raced Van Gards (I know, I know "whats a Van Gard) and Mini's for years and I spent many a winter weekend on some frozen lake in the 60's as a kid. I still get the shivers when I drive through Orillia
Rolf and I brought out an old BMW 530i several years (when I worked at Beach Auto) ago, but I tend to spend my winter weekends at swim meets with the kids these days. There is only so much time and (no) money to go around.
John

[John Powell]

Um, John, that's "Vanguard" as in Standard Vanguard. A rather chunky "saloon" car with a rounded back made by Standard-Triumph before they were bought by Leyland "Truck, Bus and Tractor" (or should that "Lorrie "? :p ). If I remember correctly (and even I was young then) it had a flat-head four banger.

[ellswrth]

Originally posted by JohnG
Rolf and I brought out an old BMW 530i several years (when I worked at Beach Auto) ago

I remember that car - everytime it spun it blocked the entire track.

And no point in leaning on it.

;)

[JohnG]

John, yes your right it is Vanguard, I was asleep at the keyboard. That car was so old, it actually had a hole for the handcrank! It was painted British racing green and yellow (like his Mini's) and my mom drove it around town for awhile before she made him buy her another car. It had a little plexiglass plaque on the back that said "Gail's grocery cart". We still have the plaque.

Scott, yeah that car was awful, I only ran it once then Randy and Dave finished the year with it. The car had about 400 lbs of lead bolted under the floor to try and balance it. It was a complete pig.
J

[John Powell]

John,
I have some photos of a BARC ice race at Carlton Place in '67. They're not in great condition, but one of them has the Vanguard in it. If your interested, I can scan it and send it to you.

[ellswrth]

Originally posted by John Powell
John,
I have some photos of a BARC ice race at Carlton Place in '67. They're not in great condition, but one of them has the Vanguard in it. If your interested, I can scan it and send it to you.

John, in my (spare) spare time I'm BARC's webmaster.

If you'd send me a scanned copy for the website I'd be grateful!

Thanks,

Scott

[John Powell]

Scott,
I have 11 photos of that race, which was my first race in my '67 MGB, but they're a bit foggy. I asked my buddy to keep the camera inside his coat when he wasn't shooting, but he forgot and the film froze in the camera. The photo shop did the best they could with the resulting mess, but they may not be of good enough quality for a web site. Anyway, if you can give me a bit of time (i.e. when I can pry my better 'alf away from the computer) I'll send them to you with what information I have on who's in the shots. If I take more than a couple of weeks, send me a reminder at mgb296@hotmail.com (mgb.296@hotmail.com).

PS: John, same goes for you.

[JohnG]

John, If you could email me those, I would very much appreciate it. Over the years (and many moves) many photos have gone missing. I spoke with my father this morning and he was quite exited as he has no photos of Carelton Place racing.
I beleive you still have my email, send the photos of your Mini as well. Did you ever come across them?
Thanks
John

[John Powell]

John (this could be getting confusing to those who don't share our auspicious first name :cool: ), when our hard drive went mammaries skywards last summer I lost my contact list, so I'll need you to re-send me your address.

I didn't have a Mini - my first race car was a Lotus VI that a buddy and I purchased from Dave Hunt (?) in '63 which we had to sell after only two novice races when he lost his job. The next was a '67 MGB with O/D (the one in the ice race photos) that I bought new and started to prepare it for racing in the summer of '68. The next was a fully prepared '65 MGB that I bought from Tony Simms and ran in '69 with some very good results, and the last (until now) was the Kiki Mk. VI FA car, that I also bought from Tony as a rolling chassis.

I don't know where the Lotus VI went to, the '67 "B" went out to BC minus the O/D (which we switched into the car I got from Tony), the '65 "B" went back to Tony in trade for the Kiki, and now is being run in Vintage by Joe Lightfoot of Picton. The Kiki is a bit of a sad tale involving a flying lesson at Harewood and the backing out of a sponsor, but I'm leaving that story until I get a chance to write it up for the MCO newletter The Link.

[JohnG]

John, tried the email link but it bounced back. My email is johngriffith@rogers.com . I would love to have the photo when you get an opportunity.
Thanks
John

[ellswrth]

Originally posted by JohnG
John, If you could email me those, I would very much appreciate it. Over the years (and many moves) many photos have gone missing. I spoke with my father this morning and he was quite exited as he has no photos of Carelton Place racing.
I beleive you still have my email, send the photos of your Mini as well. Did you ever come across them?
Thanks
John

John, I'm guessing your Dad may be Bob Griffith?

Have a Look at the BARC website (http://www.barc-oc.com) - on the front page you'll see a link called 1968 Ice Race Photos - Bob Griffith is in one of them.

Scott

[JohnG]

Thank you Scott. That was before it was painted. It was quite the beast. Don was a really nice guy. He was at the house often when I was a kid.
My Dads is a past (very) president of BARC. I still have the helmet he wore those days. Boy, helmet technology has come a lonnnnggg way since then. It still has BARC stickers on either side.
J

[JohnG]

John Powell, I tried your email several times and it keeps bouncing. Any luck scanning the photos?
Thanks
John

[John Powell]

John & Scott,
The photos will be e-mailed in a few minutes (hopefully). I tried my e-mail link, and it doesn't work because somehow a period got added in the wrong place which doesn't show up on the link. Next time I post a link I'll try it before I post the reply just to make sure it works. :rolleyes:

[JohnG]

I'd like to publicly thank John Powell for taking the time to find and send these photos. It's kind of strange having photos show up 37 years(!!!) after they were taken. My father thought they were great. Too many of the old pictures get stuffed into a drawer and forgotten. They are our vintage racing history.

Although, it raise the spectre that when I'm 70, thoses photos will appear of that wild weekend when me and ....Ok, thats another story.
Thanks again John. It is much appreciated and a really cool Christmas present.
John

[John Powell]

John, you're welcome - and I have more old racing photos going back to the early '60s, but I don't really have time to catalogue them all. One thing that did come out of this, however, was when going through my albums, I came upon a photo of my first race in 1963 in the Lotus VI. This made me realise that the 2004 CASC/Panoz Celebration weekend with the RX7 was the 40th anniversary (plus a few days) of the first time I turned a wheel on a race track. It hasn't been a continuous 40 years, but still ... :D
So don't worry about those photos coming back to haunt you ... they may be of interest to someone. ;)

[Steve Moore]

Congrats John.........40yrs and still having fun behind the wheel! Having grown up in the Vintage Racing crowd, Ive had the opportunity to meet & race with alot of great canadian race car drivers who were the pioneers of our sport.

One of my fondest memory's, is of racing in the pouring rain at mosport with Oliver Clubine. He was in a formula car and I was in our XKE. For ten laps we swaped the lead, I'd get him on the back straight and he'd get me back in turn 10. Im sure he no doubt wondered what the hell he was doing racing this kid in the rain in a big Jag.

I've got a great shot taken at the 1988 Vintage Festival at Shannonville with 4 cars dicing for the lead. Murray Smith/Aston DB4 GT, Jack Cowell/Ferrari GTO, Steve Moore/Jaguar XKE, Roger Fountain/ Lotus Elite. I will post it when I get it scanned.:)

[John Powell]

I think I have a photo somewhere of Ollie Clubine in his MG TC (TD?). Maybe I should dig into my old albums and see what I've got and post them here. :confused: