HISTORY OF NATIONAL MEETINGS

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The first MGCC National Meeting in Sydney January 1970.

Five members of the Queensland club went to Sydney for the first ever MG car clubs of Australia National Meeting to be held over the 9th-10th-11th of January, 1970.

Peter Rayment 'TC’ and Ross Horton TR4 went down independently. Jon McCarthy, Will Charlton, both in MGBs and me in the “Truck” (MGC-GT), travelled as a group down the dreaded Pacific Highway with the inevitable road-works and rain where we went through a couple of the famous NSW DMR De-Tours with wet sandy loam which coated the undersides of our carefully cleaned cars.

By the time we reached our Motel in Lidcombe this muck had dried solid and all the Motel had was 1 garden hose without a nozzle which flowed like an empty rain water tank so three filthy cars were not well cleaned.

Friday night was a Barbecue at St. Ives, the home of the Sydney Club’s Competition Secretary with a steak and a beer, or two, at $2-00 a head. Getting back to Lidcombe was a navigation exercise at 1 o’Clock in the morning. The one way roads we went there with were OK but to get back using different roads and no UBDs was, to say the least, quite difficult.

Saturday was the Concours staged in the gardens of Vaucluse House. There was a lot of interest in the “Truck” as nobody outside the Brisbane area had ever seen an MGC-GT before. We had been interstate a few times but nobody knew there was one of these in “OZ”.

Saturday night was interesting as we had to go to the Chevron Hotel at Potts Point for a Dinner Dance. I had forgotten that the 3 of us crammed into the “Truck” with Jon jammed into the Kiddy seat and big Will in the passenger seat. John or Will reminded me of this. Saturday night was typical January in Sydney, hot, and we went from the Motel down Parramatta road to the city.

In those days the police booked you if you travelled over 35mph anywhere except Parramatta road [they just wanted the traffic to flow and it surely did] so three country lads found what a continuous Red light Drag Strip was like. There were tuned 179 Holden Utes and everything that could mix it with them everywhere all doing wheel spin starts at every green light, with screaming drum brakes at each red one. We thought this was for us and joined in, [I think there may have been a lot of encouragement from Jon and Will to get into it] this only encouraged them to have a go at this MGB and try even harder, what a drive.
 

I thought if you lived here you would need a new clutch every year. When we parked at the Chevron I seem to remember the poor old “Truck” was boiling.
 

Sunday was competition day, no gymkhana or social runs at the first National Meeting but a Hill Climb and a quarter mile oiled dirt short circuit at Amaroo Park, Annangrove.

The Sydney club had organised a supply of Crash Helmets and Fire Extinguishers for visiting club members. The Amaroo climb was tricky for a first timer with a short straight followed by a tight right turn then uphill to an extremely tight left hander with a ginormous boulder just of the track, to the inside of the turn which scared the pants off the new boys. I forget how the rest of the Hill went I just remember the boulder. I was doing well against the TR4 and TR5 competition with Ross Horton pushing me in his TR4 then on the last run for Ross he took a full second off my time and there was just no way that the terrible handling, understeering “Truck” could beat him by 1.1 seconds so he won the over 2 litre class.
 
The dirt circuit really showed I was driving a “Council Grader”, wheels on lock and car going straight ahead like a Grader blade does with wheels on full lock, not a sports car but a truck. This really confirmed the name “Truck” for the C-GT. Accelerated like a truck handled like a truck and was heavy like a truck. Try as I might I couldn’t get the rear out and then use power or use power to get the rear out the roll and understeer defied all efforts. Ross killed me on the dirt as well. The standard MGC is a dangerous car on loose gravel surfaces.
 
We all thought what a wonderful event the first National Meeting had been and planned to go to the next one which from memory didn’t happen in Melbourne the next year as was planned.
 
 Bruce Ibbotson Member # 600.