Ray Vesty Memorial Cup Sunday March 13th

A warm day greeted competitors to the resheduled Ray Vestey Memorial Christmas Cup. After months of intermittent heavy rain & flooding it was a welcome change as the course had under taken a major rebuild. Flooding had nearly distroyed sections of the track with holes large enough to swallow a buggy whole and spit it out in parts, final grading had only been completed on the Wednesday prior to the event.

19 high quality cars had entered and it was going to be a cracker. The starting order was organised on prior race results as there was no prologue and the 1st heat started at 9:30 am. Track conditions were muddy for the first few laps but quickly dried out to a dust free hard packed surface.

After heat one was complete car 107  Jaako Kylma was leading outright with car 28 Tom Dixon second and car 20 Scott Davis in third closely followed by Jeff Nichols in car 172 in forth. David Nikiforoff was out with a broken tie rod end while Glen Spizzo in his single seater had an engine miss and parked on the trailer for the rest of day. Kevin Ottey was fighting electrical gremlins but continued on with Gordon Tardrews Hayabusa powered buggy running well.

Heat 2 saw a change in positions with 107 still in first place with  car 28 Tom Dixon in second and 172 Jeff Nichols in third. David Nikiforoff in car 190 had returned with repairs done, Ian Hill in his new super 1650 buggy was running strong until the muffler and exhaust boke away from the car leaving him with no exhaust and no way of repairing it so it was parked for the day. Scott Davis in car 20 broke a drive flange and Kevin Ottey in car 112 gave into the gremlins. The monstering trophy truck of Paul Grant with its big v8 could be heard powering up the hills below the pit area, while the Howells car 306 was being towed back with engine problems also taking car 305 out of the event as it was the same car with a different crew & Peter Munday retired with driver issues.

Heat 3 saw race times improve even more with 28 Tom Dixon with the Quickest time leaving 107 Jaako Kylma with the second fastest and 172 Jeff Nichols 3rd. Ernie Taylor in car 131 came out of retirement to race and was enjoying himself until a rear wheel parted company stopping his race while Trevor Worthington in the Russian built Lada Niva did his impression of a bulldozer when the front suspension failed after the finish. Trevor also awarded the best presented vehicle.

Heat 4 and the final heat was run without incident and nine cars run the full distance and the results were as follows:

OUTRIGHT WINNER 107 JAAKO KYLMA

PRO CLASS 1ST  28 TOM DIXON / KRIS PETERS
2ND 20 SCOTT DAVIS / BEN HOSKINS
3RD  23 PETER MUNDAY / GARRY SIMPSON

PRO LITE    1ST  107 JAAKO KYLMA
2ND  172 JEFF NICHOLS
3RD  141 ADAM OLLERTON / SAM & AMANDA SIMPSON

SUPER 1650 1ST  287 NICK & JORDON SMEE
2ND  204 IAN & KELVIN HILL

SPORTSMAN  1ST  306 JOSH HOWELLS
2ND 305 ALLY HOWELLS

EXTREME 2WD  1ST PAUL & MARK-PAUL GRANT

MODIFIED 4WD  1ST 767 SIMON LENNOX / NICKY BIGGAR
2ND 736 TREVOR & ADRIAN WORTHINGTON

Ray Vestey memorial cup winner -  133 Gordon Tardrew

Best Presented  736 TREVOR WORTHINGTON

The Ray Vestey Memorial cup is run every year in memory of one of the Crookwell Off Road Club members that passed away with cancer in May 2007 . Uncle Ray as he was affectionately known competed in a yellow & green single seater buggy powered by a v8 leyland engine (he loved the sound). When he passed some club members wanted to name the event after him and they supplied the trophy so it was done. To win the trophy the a competitor must complete all of the race distance and end up in the middle of the finishing pack. To this day you can still see his partner Peta attending race meetings to catch up with friends that she has through off road racing circles.
Past winner are:
2007 Dick Allport
2008 Wayne Horsfall
2009 David Nikiforoff
2010 Gordon Tardrew