I think it is important to remember that Club Triumph is not a 'Classic' Car Club, but the original Triumph Motor Club owing to its 50s origin. By stating this I have nothing against 'Classics' but I think the terms 'Motor Club' or Car Club' portray the Club's history. The Club used to organise a wide range of events such as tours, autotests for new owners of Triumph cars, however by the late 70s membership was dropping off. The 'Classic car culture that sprung up at that time boosted interest in Triumph cars, membership starting to pick resulting in the membership of 1475 we presently enjoy. CT always had a problem in that it used to organise the biennial RBRR but for driving events more or less become dormant in between, thankfully the Club had the Show scene available to show its prescence.(Please note that the above comments are mine, not the Club's and certainly not the Club's policy).
This situation was relieved in 2003 by the first running of the 10 Countries Run, as conceived by Martin Randle. The other great tool in bringing together the membership is this website and its superb forum, making it easy to tap into the enthusiasm of the membership of make things happen-nice one, Mr Bennett!
Therefore in 2005 we formed the Comp. Ctte. and since then have produced some decent events, managed to get together a calendar of events that CT members can take part in and recently inaugurated four Championships. All of this hoping to make it exciting to be in the Club and of course further the use of Triumph cars either competitively or just getting them onto the road. The help of organisations such as Bedford Car Club, MG on Track, Caledonian Historic Motorsport Club and NESCRO must be acknowledged as they have been very willing to let our Members take part in their events, often making it unecessary to join their organisations. I do hope that this does not get read as self congratulatory, we are fully aware that we have lots of work to do to keep up the interest in Triumph cars and of course most importantly create or maintain events that the membership of CT can take part in and enjoy.
The aim of this Ctte is to provide cheap motorsport for the members of the Club to take part in. The Ctte will never be able to organise races or stage rallies, but we see no reason why we cannot organise fun events at the small budget end of motorsport culture. Talking with Dale Barker and Martin Randle, I think the CT Competition Committee have a few more exciting events planned over the next few years, information will be forthcoming as soon as finalised. This Committee is an imaginative bunch and whilst some of our ideas are a bit whacky the ones we run with are sure to offer a good time for CT members.
We have just held the first of what is hoped to become an annual event, the Club Triumph Autosolo and we managed to get 33 entrants together, this being far more than we expected. All CT members taking part seemed to be having a good time, whatever car they were using and however they were doing all were smiling throughout the day, not bad considering the awful weather we enjoyed. Top 3 results were:
1st. Mike Helm: TR6
2nd. Nigel Abdullah: Herald 1200 (Using Dale Barker's Herald)
3rd. Andy Martin: Vitesse 1600 (Ex Monte Carlo Rally car)
Their cars are shown below. Amazing pic of Andy's Vitesse eh!!
After the Autosolo, we have the first 12 Car Rally that the Club has organised taking part in Essex in August. New Ctte. Member Mike Banks has sorted this out, the attention to detail and planning he has done is top notch and again we are sure the event will be both challenging but fun.
Right, end of my sermon.
However, please get involved as driving cars is fun!!
No comments:
Post a Comment