Bathurst 12-Hr Race Camp Weekend
31 Jan to 3 Fbruary 2025
The best way to view the photographs below is to click on an image to enlarge it and then click on the arrows to go through the entire collection.
The Bathurst Camping weekend was held again in hot conditions.
We had 28 sites and about 38 people in attendance including junior members Henry and William Morris, Aymon Close, James Garnsey, Imogen Morris, Toby Shinfield and Jackson Shinfield.
We had four travel from Victoria - Grant Cowie and Andrew Cox in the FIAT ute and Daniel Clarke and Stuart McCorkelle in the 23/60 saloon. Kiwi Mike joined us from New Zealand joining Todd Barker in the 12/70 Alvis special.
Thanks go to those who helped make a great weekend- Michael Toms for towing the camp gear, Peter Weir for arranging the fabulous 90 km drive on Saturday morning and the cooks, servers and cleaners who all contributed to the weekend's success. Stuart McCorkelle gave us an excellent lecture on patternmaking and casting - a vitally important trade habitually neglected by the government.
I am told it will be on again next year!
VSCCA BATHURST RACE CAMP 2025 REPORT
There is some debate amongst attendees as to how many VSCCA Bathurst Race Camps have been held since inception. After investigation, it seems the first was in 2007, and we had a year off due to COVID. We still book 28 sites, and we filled 27, despite the fact this event clashed with the HSRCA Wakefield Park (One Raceway) event to which we lost three dozen members. Still, we had about 40 attendees.
Junior member participation
Most important was the junior member turnout including Aymonn Close, Will and Henry Morris, Imogen Morris, James Garnsey, Jackson and Toby Shinfield .
Toby had the great pleasure of being able to drive from Lithgow to Bathurst in Ian Shinfield’s MGB Mark 2 which is a great thrill for a young bloke on his L plates.
We had one overseas visitor – “Kiwi Mike” from New Zealand who is joined us for a second time, and we had four Victorians attend – Grant Cowie and Andrew Cox in the Fiat 525 ute, and Daniel Clarke and Stuart McCorkelle in Daniel’s brilliant New Zealand bodied 23/60 Vauxhall. Both Grant and Daniel had attended previously, and in was the first time for Andrew and Stuart.
There was a reasonable number of members who met at Chatswood for a loose tour up the Bells Line of Road. The traditional Friday dinner of seafood resulted in zero waste.
Saturday dawned clear, but it was fairly obvious it would be a hot day. As such, an early start was made on a rally route organised this year by Peter Weir of about 90 km.
Toby Shinfield clearly wanted to drive the Saturday morning rally route. So did his father, Stewart. I overheard this conversation:
Toby: Dad, I should drive because they’ll be quiet rural roads.
Stewart: What if your father wants to drive quiet rural roads?
Toby: Dad, I am the future of this Club.
Needless to say, Toby got to drive.
Breakfast for 30 was served at “The Hub Café” in Bathurst – highly recommended. Thereafter, people could do what they liked and some enthusiasts continued driving country roads.
On Saturday afternoon, Stuart McCorkelle gave a terrific Saturday afternoon lecture on pattern making and foundry work. Not only was this a fascinating topic (even Imogen was fascinated by it), but it also threw up some fairly important questions about repeated government failure to recognise pattern-making as a strategic industry in this country for military transport, agriculture, and mining industries.
Stuart has the biggest pattern-making business in Victoria, with a workforce of four. He had made an effort to bring a number of patterns to demonstrate the simple points he was seeking to make. Of interest was Stuart’s strong opinion that while CNC and robotics may assist the process, it is the properly trained pattern maker who is essential. It is part skill, accuracy, mathematics, art and intuition.
The pursuit of precision is paramount. Stuart prepared patterns for railway switching gear for Singapore that were eight metres long. Along that length was a series of holes. If Stuart did not achieve 0.2 mm tolerance of those holes, the product would be rejected.
As a side issue, one of Peter Weir’s guests (who attended for the first time) happens to work at a steel business in Wollongong. He recognised Stuart had the skills his employer had been looking for and been unable to find.
On the Sunday, the racing was spectacular with a much better range of cars than in past years but the spectator crowds were down significantly.
Thank you
We must thank Stuart from “Meat on the Avenue” in Mosman for donating a full ham and providing meat for the curries at cost.
The Committee would also like to thank all those who assisted including Michael Toms who towed the camp trailer, Peter Weir who organised the Saturday rally, Alistair Palmer who organised the bookings and those assisted with all those little jobs to make the camp a success.