Robin Bailey leads a resurgence of V8 powered MG’s headlines the opening round of the 2018 Hobson Stores MG Road Racing Championship.
No less than 7 MG V8’s have already been confirmed for Sandown at the start of March, headlining is Robin Bailey and Phil Chester in their B GT V8’s, while Mike Wood in his Group S period specification V8 will no doubt be a force mid pack but for the first time in a while joined by another Group S V8 in Trevor Dunford from South Australia.
Reigning V8 stalwart Phil Chester confirmed the V8 resurgence is a focus for 2018, “we haven’t had the strongest few years but it’s a great community of MG V8 owners and we are really pushing to get a number of us to a few rounds this year and round 1 suits us, it’s an MGCC run round, so we can really showcase our cars to the club and it is the Home of Horsepower!”
The V8 grid is further bolstered by Vince Gucciardo who is stepping up from his LE500 from the past two years to the former championship winner in the C GT V8. Vince commented on how excited he is to join the field “I am really excited about Sandown, since getting the car we have developed it a bit further again and Glen (Wood) is coming along to help engineer it for the first round. We have updated the dash in it with a MoTeC unit, and also made a few front end changes. It isn’t going to be where Robin and Phil are yet, and I need to get more comfortable in the car but it will be a really good to get out and join the boys”.
Gucciardo also supported the quality and strength of the grid, “It’s been really good to see the work the existing competitors have put in to get numbers up, and it really confirms that it was a good time to step up to the main class”
After having a year out of the V8 it’s great to see Richard Milligan jump in with his B V8 Roadster, Milligan has been focusing on his 4x cylinder MG B for a while and is keen to join the existing V8 field. The final MG V8 is a new car to Australia, Rodney Gibb who has been a long time competitors in MG B’s, and MG F/TF’s most recently a MG TF Cup with some improvements has stepped up to a MG ZT V8, the modern MG was built by Scottish MG experts Dreadnought and was built to contest the Silverstone 24 Hour endurance race. The car produced 520 bhp and has as sequential gearbox and once Gibb get’s settled and comfortable it will be a force to be reckoned with.
Bring on round 1!
