It is the time of year again to make my annual pitch to join us for the last couple of events. 

If you haven’t been out to one of our driving events this year, The Halloween Rally is your last chance for the real MG driving experience. Or, if you didn’t drive your MG in as many events as you would’ve liked, The Halloween Rally lets you experience one more real MG driving experience. And, if you just can’t get enough of taking your MG to our driving events, The Halloween Rally offers one last run to finish off your real MG driving experience season. I think that you got the point right? The last rally of the MG Clubs of Chicago is on Sunday, October 30th. You’ll find the details elsewhere in this issue of our newsletter. True, there are still the Fall Tune Down and the Cruise to the Rock. And Rich Meservey might come up with an extra drive on Sunday the 9th, But driving with a large group of fellow MGs in the countryside, whether you compete for the rally trophies or just enjoy the tour, The Halloween Rally is it before the calendar shows May 2017.

I updated the standings for the annual championships. The spreadsheet with 18 of the 21 events, up to the WCB Tour, became quite large and it is easy to make a data entry mistake.

Therefore, the scores are still a little bit preliminary until the IRS, Feds, FBI, and SEC audits are completed. 

The ‘preliminary’ overall championship for the Moss Motors Trophy is still wide open. Tim and Jamie Schafer are in the lead with 34.5 points in their Midget. The Halloween Rally is worth 3 to 6 points and the Fall Tune Down and the Cruise are worth 1 point each. That means that Rich Meservey and Sundy Mead (MGB) with 31 points can easily catch up, and also Ric and Nancy Maitzen (TD) with 23 points, Phil and Sandy Wydra (MGB) with 21.5 points, Bob Lee (TD) with 21 points, Dean and Kerry Hickenlooper (MGB) 19.5 points, Phil Law (TD) with 19 points, and Jim Compton and Bob Dorley (MGB) with 18 points could easily drive their MGs into second or third place overall. I hope that they all come out to compete and that you all come out to witness how the 2016 driving season unfolds. It looks like Tim and Jamie have the Victoria British Trophy locked up with 23.5 points from the rallies and autocross events but, just as above, second and third places are still undecided.

I will bring the spreadsheet to the next events and please ask me if you have any questions about the standings. And of course, I’m always happy to hear from you with suggestions, ideas, or questions. You can reach me at 847 342 9804 or at reinoutvogt@gmail.com

"The more you drive, the more you smile".

-- Reinout Vogt

Let me start off with a quote from the latest addition to our library, Flywheel. “It’s good to see membership keeping up in a most gratifying way. So often enthusiasts talk themselves right out ‘in the wire’ … and then interest flags, numbers drop, and the survivors feel horribly depressed and hopeless. … What all this leads to, is that it’s up to the new members not to sit back and just ‘absorb, they’ve got to get on their feet too, and keep the fire going. You don’t know what you can do until you try, and some of the older members have surprised themselves (and us!) and come back for more.” This was written by members of the Muhlberg Motor Club in 1944-45. Apparently their club was having a little trouble getting their members to take a more active role and assume some duties. And they were a captive audience. Did I forget to mention that they were all POWs in a German Stalag?

60 plus years later and thing haven’t changed too much. This month starts the election process for all club officers the various appointed staff positions, including librarian. Especially librarian. Perhaps you’d be interested in filling one of these positions? ‘Nuff said.

Flywheel
Memories of the Open road
Keeps the Works Going Round on the Idle Strokes
Tom Swallow and Arthur Pill, 1944-45, hardbound, color drawings

Reinout told me about this book. It is a reproduction of several issues of Flywheel, a handwritten magazine written by (mostly British) members of the Muhlberg Motor Club while being held as POWs at Stalag IVb during WWII. Don’t think of Hogan’s Heroes, POW camps were more accurately portrayed in Stalag 17 or The Great Escape movies. The magazine articles were a collection of the men’s memories of pre-war motoring, the then current news and rumors, and thoughts for the future. Beautiful color drawings, although not all of the information is 100% accurate as it was written by memory, but as Lord Montagu is quoted as saying, “This fascinating book clearly demonstrates the Anglo-Saxon’s love affair with the motor car and their ingenuity in carrying on with it under the most difficult circumstances. No wonder we won the war in the end.”

-- ~~ Bill Mennell

P.S. Looking at the authors’ names, don’t get the idea that reading this book will be a hard.