Competition News

Revington TR / TR Register Sprint and Hillclimb Championship roundup

Neil Revington

What a fantastic year we have had, what with the rule changes and some great weather and yet another young champion to celebrate. It was a thrilling closely competed championship, with three potential champions at the last event of the season.

As usual the 2011 season was wrapped up with a presentation dinner at Wroxton Hall Hotel near Banbury. The drivers meeting started the proceedings at 3pm, presided over by our co-ordinator Roger McEwen, during which we reviewed the past season, elected officers and voted on any changes to the championship rules.

The main piece of business this year was a change to the scoring system. At last year’s drivers meeting we agreed to alter the complete ethos of the championship by allowing not only any Triumph to compete but also any standard of car without the encumbrance of a strict class system. We all agreed this had worked fine and once established we hope will encourage more competitors to our ranks. Whilst in principle the new system has worked well, there was one change needed with the scoring system to limit improvement over bogey time, this being necessary as competitors who completely trashed their bogey, whilst doing well themselves, had an unnecessarily large adverse effect on the results of fellow competitors at that event. Limiting score to 2.5% above bogey…read more »

Winning the Mountain Challenge 2010

David Liddell

The Mountain Challenge is the first event of its kind and was invented by Keith Baud from the Classic Rally Association. The way it works is you are given a list of 120 cols in the Alps two weeks before the event and on the evening before you are given a list (25-35 cols) of the target cols for the next day. You then have ten hours to climb as many as you can! Scoring is based on the total metres climbed with a handicap system based on the age of the car with 1961 being the base year and every year older is 100M bonus and vice versa. We started in Evian (nr Geneva), had two nights in Ls Clusaz not far south of Evian and then two nights in Serre Chevalier with a final run to Monte Carlo. The route took in cols in France, Switzerland and Italy.

Mark I’Anson and myself decided to compete in my TR4. There were three other TRs in the entry list, the TR5 of Colin Towers and Robin Morgan, the Ball’s TR3 and the newly restored TR3A of Trina Harley and Sue Shoosmith. Other entries ranged from 1920s Bentleys to 1970s MGBs.

Karen and I drove the car out to the Alps from Newcastle but I was concerned about the tyres; we had a set of Vredestein Sprint Plus which had already done four rallies and I had wanted two new tyres but they had stopped making them. In the end I decided we needed new tyres all round and bought four in France, the only ones available. They were called Roadstone which I think is the budget brand for Firestone, with…read more »

Mountain Challenge 2010

A different viewpoint from Chris Towers

I bought my TR5 in the summer of 2009 from Classic Marques in Norfolk. I had been looking for one for some time with priorities of colour of Royal Blue, surrey top, overdrive and preferably with the bodywork and chassis not needing too much doing. I already had a classic rally car (Alfa Romeo) and was really looking for something to enjoy the sunshine, had some get up and go, was sixties and British. This TR5 fitted the bill perfectly. It already had polybushed suspension, new front shockers, rear suspension conversion to telescopic and electronic ignition.

I spent the winter/spring of 2009/2010 doing some small improvements, including some rewiring with new fuse boxes and relays – the original setup looking a bit overloaded - fitting a Revotec electric fan (superb and useful modification), changing every bit of fluid and treating it to a new set of wire wheels. A bit of tweaking got it running like a stream train. It was just crying out to be used as it had so much pulling power.

Having already had experience of doing European classic car rallies, I was really looking for something a bit different to do with it. Along came the Classic Rally Association’s Mountain Challenge event planned for September. No watches, tripmeters, belting around against the clock.. just a little frolic around the Alps. Perfect! Robin Morgan, my brother-in-law who usually drives the rally car, was well up for it as well. The event was to start in Evian on the southern shores of Lake Geneva and finish in the mecca of all motorsport…read more »

30 Years of the Revington TR / TR Register Sprint and Hillclimb Championship

Kevin Bryant

It was thirty years ago that the Southern Championship evolved into the Revington TR / TR Register Sprint and Hillclimb Championship thanks to the generous sponsorship of Neil Revington.

Back then, when Olivia Newton-John wanted to get Physical and The J Geils Band sung about their Centerfold, doctors Mathew and Penny Short just wanted to get TR owners into their cars to have some fun. That ethos remains today.

So with the provisional calendar for 2012 published, the race is now on to get the cars ready and tested for late April. Reports of new clutches and gearboxes abound. Rumour has it that some drivers have even taken to the polishing cloth in order to reduce drag factors – frankly frowned upon by some competitors.

And this season, more so than last season, we are expecting to see some new cars and new faces appear. Fuller grids for 2012, that’s the promise. We are hoping to see Spitfires, Stags and GT6s on the track competing head to head with the TRs.

So come and join us. Whether that be for a natter in the paddock or lined up on the track. All you need to know is available from the Paperwork link, including our guide to getting started. We look forward to…read more »

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