By Steve Broadbent
A big thanks to Gary Ashton for pulling together our 18th year Night Trial, a tradition for the club on the shortest day, longest night. This was my first and I wasn’t going to miss it, although my Mini’s had other ideas. The 5.15pm start time at BP Papakura was certainly achievable and the retro Cibie Oscar spot lights were hooked up and working on my NZ assembled 1275GT. Or so I thought… After the demise of the cooper at the Italian Job run, followed by a dashboard electrical problem and sale of the BMW JCW the GT was the only car running…. A quick job to fix the dash lights started at midday. That led to one issue after another…. On fixing the dash lights the main beam and spot lamps decided to latch on, fixing that issue led to no lights at all! Trying to keep some of the original parts on the car was proving an issue, the decrepit 1980’s wiring loom had other plans. About to give up at 4.30 I found the second faulty RHS ground connection bullet connector. Lights on! The 1275GT wasn’t exactly as it seemed, after blowing a piston ring the 998cc was proving a little underpowered but that wasn’t going to an issue afterall!
The turnout at BP was amazing, we had 11 teams running, some with and some without navigators. Chris had driven his Mini Mack truck pickup 2 hrs to make the run and it looked amazing lit up like a proper big rig. Adam brought his newly assembled orange beast out to play and we had Dave who had eventually fixed his mechanical issues that lingered from the nationals. Ray & Alison West looked set for business in their Cooper Rally car, headsets on and dashboard electrics all working! Steff and me teamed up in the GT as it was my turn to repay the favor after Steff drove me around on the Italian job. What a fantastically well laid out route with some well explained (if not understood directions!). SO, we left the services and headed out to pick up the route and the problem soon manifested itself. Back in the late 70’s I’m sure the GT’s lights and cibre Oscars were the things to have, but roll the clock forward nearly 40years and although the foresaid items were still very much original they are, well….. rubbish! As the roads fell dark the 4x candle power did nothing to help with the clues, but we laughed all the way. Phil and Ted behind and the Mini mack behind that, we grabbed some radios and leaned forward in the seats to see the road ahead. To add to the hilarity, the heater packed in so not only was it dark, it was cold and dark! Epic! Gotta love the 80’s.
The run was such a laugh and once we met up with the other teams at BP Bombay the stories got exchanged. Clearly there are winners and people who come second, we came 7th! Thanks to all for another enjoyable evening, the trials and clues add another dimension to the follow the leader style runs. Can’t wait to the next one. Thanks again Gary!
1st Adam & Jessica Jenkin
2nd Ray & Alison West
=Viv & Kevin Taylor
4th Alan & Shelagh Murie
=Murray, Grant & John Sweeney
6th Dave & Sarah Bates
7th Chris Westlake
= Stephen Broadbent &Steff Harsnappe
=Chris & Steve McMurray
10th Jo Wooding
Phil Kane
A big thanks to Gary Ashton for pulling together our 18th year Night Trial, a tradition for the club on the shortest day, longest night. This was my first and I wasn’t going to miss it, although my Mini’s had other ideas. The 5.15pm start time at BP Papakura was certainly achievable and the retro Cibie Oscar spot lights were hooked up and working on my NZ assembled 1275GT. Or so I thought… After the demise of the cooper at the Italian Job run, followed by a dashboard electrical problem and sale of the BMW JCW the GT was the only car running…. A quick job to fix the dash lights started at midday. That led to one issue after another…. On fixing the dash lights the main beam and spot lamps decided to latch on, fixing that issue led to no lights at all! Trying to keep some of the original parts on the car was proving an issue, the decrepit 1980’s wiring loom had other plans. About to give up at 4.30 I found the second faulty RHS ground connection bullet connector. Lights on! The 1275GT wasn’t exactly as it seemed, after blowing a piston ring the 998cc was proving a little underpowered but that wasn’t going to an issue afterall!
The turnout at BP was amazing, we had 11 teams running, some with and some without navigators. Chris had driven his Mini Mack truck pickup 2 hrs to make the run and it looked amazing lit up like a proper big rig. Adam brought his newly assembled orange beast out to play and we had Dave who had eventually fixed his mechanical issues that lingered from the nationals. Ray & Alison West looked set for business in their Cooper Rally car, headsets on and dashboard electrics all working! Steff and me teamed up in the GT as it was my turn to repay the favor after Steff drove me around on the Italian job. What a fantastically well laid out route with some well explained (if not understood directions!). SO, we left the services and headed out to pick up the route and the problem soon manifested itself. Back in the late 70’s I’m sure the GT’s lights and cibre Oscars were the things to have, but roll the clock forward nearly 40years and although the foresaid items were still very much original they are, well….. rubbish! As the roads fell dark the 4x candle power did nothing to help with the clues, but we laughed all the way. Phil and Ted behind and the Mini mack behind that, we grabbed some radios and leaned forward in the seats to see the road ahead. To add to the hilarity, the heater packed in so not only was it dark, it was cold and dark! Epic! Gotta love the 80’s.
The run was such a laugh and once we met up with the other teams at BP Bombay the stories got exchanged. Clearly there are winners and people who come second, we came 7th! Thanks to all for another enjoyable evening, the trials and clues add another dimension to the follow the leader style runs. Can’t wait to the next one. Thanks again Gary!
1st Adam & Jessica Jenkin
2nd Ray & Alison West
=Viv & Kevin Taylor
4th Alan & Shelagh Murie
=Murray, Grant & John Sweeney
6th Dave & Sarah Bates
7th Chris Westlake
= Stephen Broadbent &Steff Harsnappe
=Chris & Steve McMurray
10th Jo Wooding
Phil Kane
RSS Feed
