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VINCENT HRD O/C INTERNATIONAL RALLY Sunday 25th March
A
dozen members met at Deer Park and with Jack Youdan leading rode
straight up the highway to the venue at the Ballarat airfield.
More
Vincent’s then you could poke a stick at. I heard there were around 150
to 200 Vincent’s plus a handful of HRD’s standing on the tarmac. I
wasn’t counting but collectively that amounted to an awful lot of money
gleaming in the sunshine. Every time a Vincent started up hordes
gathered around.
Some
had no mufflers and were stripped for speed. Imagine the noise! Neal
Videan’s meticulously restored Cooper Irving seemed to be the star
attraction. I must say it looked stunning. The Cooper Irving open wheel
race car is powered by a supercharged Vincent HRD Black Lightning
1115cc V twin originally dropped into a Cooper race car chassis by Phil
Irving hence the name given to the car by the original owner Lex
Davison in acknowledgement of Phil Irving’s contribution to the car’s
great success in sprint racing. Phil of course also designed the HRD
engine during his time spent over in England.
We all looked forward to the eighth mile speed trials on the runway and at last they were on with the Cooper Irving driven by new
owner Neal Videan first off the block. This was the car’s maiden run
since the completion of Neil’s ground up restoration of this 1950’s
icon.
To
our disappointment the Cooper Irving left the start line with not the
rapid up and go we all expected of a sprint machine. Also a bit of
engine popping was evident as it at last gained some acceleration to
finish it’s first of two runs.
Neal
then worked for a while on the car behind the control tent and
re-emerged for his second run with the car now minus its mufflers. This
time the car was noticeably quicker and with no more engine popping.
Neal has since told me that the car also suffered major clutch slip on
the day and he has now replaced the ‘bought in’ clutch unit with ‘one
of his own’. Better sprint times ahead!
After
Neal’s run the rest of the afternoon was taken up with the bikes and
some outfits mostly but not all Vincent powered. The all black outfit
No 888 went down at a cracking pace veering a bit offline on its first
up change to a roar of approval from the spectators. I spotted Steve
Walsh make a really quick start only to miss a gear and spoil what
might have been one of the top runs.
And
so it went on….bike after bike sprinting down. It appeared that anyone
who got in the queue with any bike could have a go! I wondered how my
old A10 would have gone. It was all quite enjoyable and I was able to
video maybe half of the sprinting until my video cam battery died.
Some time after 3pm we all headed home back down the freeway after a most enjoyable day in good weather.
Reg Hammond
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