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VSCC News
Standing Regulations
The 2017 Standing Regulations will have been ratified by the Competition Committee at the
first meeting for the year on January 16th. A copy is posted on the VSCCWA website. A hard
copy of these Regulations will be available in the March 2017 edition of
Vintage Metal
.
Guest Speaker for February
The guest speaker for the February meeting will be Bob Ilich, former Brabham racing
mechanic and successful racer during the early years of
Wanneroo Park.
Bob served his apprenticeship at the family business, Ilich
Motors, before taking off for the UK where he managed to get
a job with the Brabham organisation. This led to his becoming
a race mechanic during Brabham's championship years of 1966
and 1967.
In 1968 Bob decided to come home, having stayed for the
planned two years in Britain. He decided to bring a BT21
chassis home with him and looked around for a suitable
engine. After taking advice from Jack Brabham, he ended up
with a Cosworth SCB engine that fitted nicely in the the then current 1500cc class.
The Brabham was very quick, but not quite quick enough to beat Craig McAllister's Macon,
so Bob sold it and shopped around for a replacement. Unfortunately, prices of racing cars
had surged, putting his favoured Brabham BT30 out of reach, so Bob retired from racing.
On his retirement, he looked for a project and the family suggested he buy the car he had
been chasing all those years ago. He eventually found one in the USA and brought it home,
where it took six years to restore.
There is a lot more to tell, but the "new" Brabham is beautifully restored and will be on display
at the February general meeting where Bob will tell the whole story and probably answer a lot
of questions. See the front cover for a photograph of the Brabham taken by Bob's wife Rita.
J, K and Square-riggers Group
You may have noticed that the fields for the VSCC’s early cars has been growing in the last
year thanks to the energetic efforts of Hugh Fryer and his team. A meeting was held in
November at Trevor Eastwood’s Workshop in November to plan for 2017 and a great
number of members and their cars came along.
A minute silence was held for the passing of
Bruce Mackintosh, a keen supporter of the group.
He will be missed in the pits.
The aim of getting the group together was to give
notice that we’ll be trying for full fields of cars at
Northam and Albany. It looks like we’ll be entering
16 to 18 cars both at Northam and Albany.
It is felt that if we can have full fields of the slower
pre-war cars then it will encourage more members
to dust off the cars that they have not thought about
entering recently and getting them on the track.
It is all about having fun with the pre-war cars
Bob and the Brabham at a
practice presentation
The gathering at the Eastwood workshop