December 2019
would be challenging. BTW Scott was
forced to go to Brands Hatch UK to
work with the Brabham team at the
BT62’s first races. My nose bleeds for
him.
The Legends is a very well run event
with a great atmosphere on a track that
is challenging in the dry and potentially
damaging in the wet. It is a credit to the
South Eastern Automobile Club and the
local council that this event happens
and the work required beforehand is
amazing. Well done SEAC!
The IP class had nine competitors with
Jordan Clarke taking out the class with
a 60.2sec run. He ran second to Scott in
2018 with a time of 58.9 so was clearly
impacted by the weather. I ran a time of
65.46 and Wesley 67.77. Final positions
TBA. A spin on Saturday was a bit of an
eye opener for Murray but no damage
sustained.
Prior to the event it was known that the
Honda had a stripped thread on one of
the water pump bolts but there was no
serious leak but on Saturday evening
there was a lot of coolant around the
engine and obviously something had
changed. A pressure test on Sunday
morning revealed a second bolt was
stripped and the water leak was sub-
stantial. After informing the starter that
the car would not run we visited a driver
whose advertising said “Captain
Thread” to see if anything could be
done. Brenton Trautmann is Captain
Thread and a superhero in our eyes. He
inserted two helicoils into the block and
had the Honda running again. He
missed his first run for the day but in-
sisted it was too wet anyway. During the
works Brenton used a small saw I have,
which holds a hack saw blade, to open
up the timing case and apparently he
bent the blade. Not only did he refuse
payment I later found a new hack saw
blade in my tool box! Above and beyond
tember so it performed beautifully and,
as usual, was great fun to drive.
Scott now wants to go to Mount Cotton
in Queensland in 2020 to defend his
title.
I am taking the Honda back to Bathurst
at the end of November to do the Chal-
lenge Bathurst Regularity which will
give it six twenty minute sessions of the
full track.
T
2019 LEGEND OF THE LAKES
From Murray Stephenson
he Legend of the Lakes Hillclimb
was run at Valley Lake, Mount
Gambier on the weekend of November
9 and 10. Unfortunately this weekend
clashed with an MSCA Super Sprint,
the Kimber Run and a State Race Se-
ries round so competitors had to make
a choice.
A field of 134 drivers competed over the
two days in some ordinary weather,
cold, windy, wet and very occasionally
sunny which meant you could never be
sure what the conditions would be like
for the next run. Many times were
slower that 2018 which could be due to
weather and/or uncertainty.
A number of the competitors had also
competed at the AHCC the previous
weekend at Mount Panorama.
Scott Stephenson had entered to de-
fend his 2018 class win in the Improved
Production under 2000cc class, al-
though it was the IP 1301 to 2000cc
class for 2019. I had also entered to
share the Honda and attempt to im-
prove his times. Unfortunately approxi-
mately two weeks before the event
Scott’s boss confirmed that he had to
work that weekend so he withdrew and
a long time family friend, Wesley
Inkster, took Scott’s seat for the week-
end. Wes has driven the Honda at
Collingrove before but the conditions
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