Goodwood Festival of Speed catapults OUMF back to Barbados!
The OUMF Riley 1.5 performed faultlessly on the first event of the
Barbados Historic Rally, the Rally Sprint at Bushy Park Raceway on
Saturday the 17th of July.
After winning 2 out of 3 qualifiers against the 1972 Renault 12 Gordini
and another against a 1975 Toyota Corolla, the Riley was finally beaten
by a Mk1 Ford Escort 2000, but only by a couple of car lengths.
At the Prizegiving the OUMF team were delighted to be presented with the
Group Winner Trophy for the Historics and were 2nd in class for the Post
Historics up to 2 litres.
"My meticulous preparation obviously paid off", says Ina Jahn.
Goodwood Festival of Speed catapults OUMF back to Barbados!
OUMF's Alfa Romeo and Barbados Rally themed stand at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last week created lots of interest in the Foundation's mission, brought many more welcome offers of support, and gave the OUMF students on the stand an extraordinary experience that they all want to repeat in the future.
We would particularly like to thank Lord March for donating OUMF the stand as a platform for us to broadcast our message, but also Horace Baker and Suzanne Symons of Fast 1One Transport, Julius Thurgood, Tim Howes at NGK Plugs, Virgin Atlantic Barbados, Simon Diffey (Merry Printing), Tony Pollard, Frank Stephenson, Darren Crockett, Simon Jordan (Caracalla Bagaglio), Antony and Liza Dixon (Boot-bag.com), Chris Lomas (Q20 Oil), Jack Stevens, Darren Wortley, and Robin and Wendy Whalley - and of course Ellen Laverty and her team at the FOS - for their many and varied helpfulnesses.
As a result of this, and other great support from Barbados - the fantastic, motor-fevered island with which we now seem inextricably linked - a second OUMF Team will be flying out to contest the Barbados Historic Rally on July 13th - 28th, and then flying home to prepare our infamous Riley 1.5 for its debut (we hope!) at the Goodwood Revival in September. This should coincide nicely with a comprehensive feature on our Barbados rallying exploits with the Riley in the September issue of Practical Classics magazine - so don't miss it!
More OUMF for RACE RETRO 2011!
We are delighted that Stephen Dallimore of Live Events has confirmed an OUMF stand at Race Retro 2011 at Stoneleigh Park next March. We look forward to seeing all our supporters visiting our stand at this superb show, meeting Oxford's new arrivals, and giving the students every encouragement to get into the action and fun you all enjoy so much - historic motorsport!
LORD MARCH SUPPORTS OUMF AT THE FESTIVAL OF SPEED 2010
OUMF will be full-on fund-raising at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on a stand generously provided by their staunch supporter Lord March. We have a target of £3000 to find to get an OUMF team out to the Barbados Historic Rally Carnival in 3 weeks time. In this, Alfa Romeo's centenary year, we will be exhibiting two of our Alfa projects, and we invite all our many sponsors and supporters to come and visit us on the stand during this extraordinary 4 day show.
The stepfront 'INCA TRAIL' ALFA project is being exhibited as a 'work in progress'. We intend to finish its reconstruction and rally preparation during the course of the coming academic year and - with luck and loads of support - campaign it on the SOL BARBADOS RALLY 2011. It was donated as a shell by Geoff and Jennie Dorey, and we are in need of many parts to complete its rebuild. If you have any surplus spares for these early 105 series cars that we might be able to put to good use, please contact us or let us know on the stand at the FOS; we would be very grateful.
FANTASTIC RESULT ON SOL BARBADOS RALLY FOR OUMF HISTORIC RILEY
The OUMF rally team recently arrived back in the UK after a stunning 42nd out of 92 overall and Second in Class - their best result yet at their 3rd attempt in as many years. The 1965 Riley 1.5, which was 30-40 years older than most of the other cars, and easily the most standard, completed all 24 gruelling stages over the two days.
"Its a testament to the painstaking preparation and efforts of the student service crew that we only suffered a sheared rear brake adjuster and a fractured electrical connection during the rally - and both were quickly fixed, with no stages lost" says Ding Boston, the driver and OUMF team coordinator. "We cannot thank Barry Gale, the Barbados Rally Club, and all our other sponsors enough for their support".
OUMF president and co-driver Hannah Byrd, on her first ever stage rally, says " It was tremendously exciting and challenging event, and I am so pleased that our meticulous preparation before the event paid off. The support crew brought us through - along with all our fans among the 1000's of spectators - and we have all learned so much from the Ullyetts Machine Shop and the other team mechanics about resourceful repairs in the field. We plan to be back again next year - and will do even better!"
The team was joined on the rally by Neil Campbell, staff writer for Practical Classics magazine. He was embedded with us for the full two weeks and you will be able to read his account of our rallying adventures in a big feature in the September 2010 issue.
But we hope to be back sooner than expected...!
BARBADOS HISTORIC RALLY CARNIVAL 2010
As a result of our magnificent efforts, we have been invited back to the island for the two week Barbados Historic Rally Carnival on July 13th. Organiser Greg Cozier has kindly extended free entry, return shipping and accommodation to the OUMF team, and the Riley has been left on the island to await its second trial. Meanwhile OUMF has begun an appeal for £3000 to cover the flights for a second team to join it.
NEXT EVENT: Equipe GTS Series - Brands Hatch - 10th-11th April
OUMF launches its 2010 SOL RALLY BARBADOS APPEAL
RACE RETRO - March 12th-14th
We would like to thank everyone who made it possible for us to be at Race Retro this year, especially Steve Dallimore and David Alderson of Live Promotions.
We would also like to thank everyone at the show who donated items to us, agreed to help us, and all others who made an impression on us at the show, including:
Akzo Nobel, AMSoil, Autocar Electrical, Anthony Binnington, Greg & Vicky Cozier, Dunlop, Equipe GTS, John & Jill Freeth, Groom & Hornsby, Highwood Alfa, Lord March, Lumonition, Plastics4Performance, Raceparts UK, Racewear, Recaro, Rae Davis Racing, RW Racing, Speedy Cables, Toyo Tires, Tran X, Wizbang Fabrications, and many others...
12th February 2010
After a storming initial success last term, OUMF's increasingly confident student rally organisation team is preparing to stage their second 12 Car Rally for the Oxford Motor Club this Friday - with OUMF crews also competing
3rd February 2010
An OUMF visit to Rae Davis Racing in Hounslow was a big help in our preparation of the OUMF Riley 1.5 for the St Marys Trophy track day at Goodwood on March 19th
'Hands on' race engine building seminar at MASS RACING DEVELOPMENTS. An OUMF team has fascinating day rebuilding an Alfa race engine and rolling road tuning the project Alfa 1750 with Chris Conoley and John Wright. Some students didn't want to leave...