Looking for information and history

E

Evargas163

New member
Hello everybody:

I am new to the MG Midget / Sprite scene. I bought this race car few weeks ago in Hesperia California. Is there a way that I can find any information on this race car? The seller was not the original owner. He took the car in for a trade. There was no logs and other information given. The VIN on the right side of the chassis is HAN9L68152.

Thanks for your help,
Manny
 
Manny,

On the main roll hoop look for an imprinted set of Numbers/letters. If this was ever an SCCA car you should find them by the drivers door side of the hoop. The numbers will indicate the Region it was first registered in and with that....you coud contact the Region for information on the first owner.

Bill
 
Manny,

It appears the car was raced in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) "G" Production class. (1100 cc engine) G Production has not been a recognized class for about 5-6 years, so it's likely the car has not been raced at least that long. With updates to safety equipment, including rollbar, and weight adjustment, this car can be raced in "H" Production.

The main hoop (rear) of the roll bar should have a small (1/8"-3/16") hold drilled in the tube in a readily visible place. (This is to check the wall thickness of the tubing) Somewhere near the hole there should be number stamped, 2-3 digits followed by 3-4 numbers. This is the log book number issued to the car. The first digits represent the SCCA Region that registered the car. The log book(s) would tell you where and when the car was raced.

SCCA offices in Topeka, Kansas might be able to tell you the owner when registered, as well as membership costs, General Competition Rules cost, etc.

Try contacting SCCA Regions near you for the information you seek. Should be available somewhere on the SCCA website. Someone on the coast will probably recognize the car.

Have fun with the car.

R. J. Sorensen
 
Thanks,

I will get the information from the roll-cage and will continue with the suggested steps.

Thanks Again,
Manny
 
FWIW, most of my cage stamps are on the pas side hoop and often the pas door bar.
Turns out that most tech guys are right handed and old critters. That means that to hit the hammerstamps they lean in the pas door and swing towards the rear. If the cage is painted, you may need to use a gasket buffer wheel thingy to clean the paint off.
Funny how the tech guys can bitch about my interpretation of the rules and then stamp the wrong part of the cage.

Bad news about the cage number. Only the regions have the records. National may have some really old records but not to be counted on. I really dont understand it. Why can't the regions copy in the Nat office each year with log book data?? What are we paying for?
If the car has a transponder, you may have better luck, tracing the TX #. That would also mean that the car has raced post 1996 or so.
Last, the tires have some sort of date code. look around the net to figure out how to read it or call the Goodyear race tire guy. If they are GY tires.
There may also be markings on the engine bits. I mark my heads that I have done with dates, and codes for prep level. Many race shops do the same.

A call to your local SCCA tech guy may be a good time spent. You can meet him and many like a history challenge with old race cars.
Welcome.
MM
 
It's got the old style SCCA stickers on it, no other stickers (e.g. no visible tech stickers on cage) and is otherwise pretty "clean", including those stickers. I'm betting it's an older GP car that hasn't been out and about in quite a while. If it had been, I would imagine those older stickers would be showing more wear and would perhaps have been replaced with newer stickers plus there might be more evidence of tech stickers or something within view.
 
Manny,

I just realized that California falls in 2 different Divisions; The Northwest Pacific & the Southwest Pacific. It would definitely help to know where the car came from.

If only the Regions have record of log book numbers, you've got to find the right Region.

You might try finding results of races (both Regional & National) from about 1995 to 2005 for a #22 Midget in G Production. Again, the host Region for the races might have this info.

Originally, Region numbers were assigned alphabetically, but with numerous splits and additions, I'm unsure how they numbered recent additions. (Chicago Region is #007)

Have you been able to find an identifying number?

keep on with the quest.

R. J. Sorensen
 
I am pretty sure I know that car. I think it belonged to Bill Ogg from around 1985 until? I don't know when he sold it. The last time it raced was the about the last race Cal Club ran at Riverside in around 87 or 88. The car originally belonged to Tom Abbot (?) but it sat for many years before Bill bought it. If it is the car I think it is, it has a full floating rear suspension which I never could figure out how it worked.
 
Thanks for the information.

As someone suggested, I got the information from the Driver Side roll-bar. It is listed as 19 1115. With this information, I will contact SCCA to request some information.

I posted few pictures of the Car Number and the engine.

Thanks,
Manny
 
Evargas163":325vc4en said:
Thanks for the information.

As someone suggested, I got the information from the Driver Side roll-bar. It is listed as 19 1115. With this information, I will contact SCCA to request some information.

I posted few pictures of the Car Number and the engine.

Thanks,
Manny
Click to expand...

Manny,

Region 19 (the 19 in the number you provided) is the CalClub region located in southern California.

Click this link and it will take you to the CalClub web site: http://www.calclub.com/

Once there, click on Links in the red menu bar, then select Contacts and you will be rewarded with many folks you can contact. I'm willing to bet you will find someone who knows about your car.

Good luck and hope this helps!

Tim
 
I forgot to mention that it is probably the "sister car" to mine. Tom Abbot owned your car and mine at one time. Bill Ogg bought both of them and eventually sold one to me. Your car did have a log book when Bill bought the car. I am surprised it did not come with with the car.

There was at least one owner between Tom Abott and Bill Ogg but I don't know the name(s). I don't think it was raced much, if at all, during that time.
 
I can confirm the "19" refers to California Sports Car Club (CSCC or Cal Club) I raced with Tom Abbott out there- me starting in 1980 and for several years after- of course he was GP and me HP. The car would have run Riverside, Willow Springs and maybe Holtville in the San Diego Region, and was bright yellow at the time. He lived and worked in Glendale (borders on Los Angeles) and worked at Glendale Mill, a wood products place (window frames, trim, etc.) around 1986 or so. His wife Pam was for some time the head of the Cal Club office - the region maintained a full-time office with paid staff. These bits might give you way to contact him or find out more about the car. Feel free to mention the McGinley name if you reach him- my brother Pat also raced HP and several of us flagged corners for years.
 
This is what I got so far,

So far, I have contacted Mr. Tom Abbott. He is at the SCCA - Continental Divide Region, Colorado. He informed me that he never owned this car.

I wrote an email to Mr. Allan Coy at the SCCA - CalClub, California. He sadly informed me that their roll bar logs only go back to 19-2000.

I am back to square one. What's next? I will be trying the folks at VARA.

Thanks,
Manny
 
As of now,

I am planning on get it running, replace fuel lines, work on the brakes, cooling system, suspension and eventually get the fuel tank replaced with fuel cell. After that getting new racing seat, wheels, tires and getting the body work and new paint job. I was thinking about trying VARA or the Vintage MG club and get into racing. I have no experience in Racing except for few year of Go-kart racing while stationed in Okinawa Japan.

Manny
 
Well, if even Tom Abbott didn't own that car I still think it was the car Bill Ogg bought. I know Tom raced my car. I talked to Pam many times about my car because she was very familiar with it. I also had a brief conversation with Tom about it. I just assumed he also raced the red car (#22) since they were sold as a set.

I can try to see if I can track down Bill Ogg to get more information on the car he owned and try to find out if this car is the same one or not.
 
Evargas163":3jpzce3d said:
As of now,

I am planning on get it running, replace fuel lines, work on the brakes, cooling system, suspension and eventually get the fuel tank replaced with fuel cell. After that getting new racing seat, wheels, tires and getting the body work and new paint job. I was thinking about trying VARA or the Vintage MG club and get into racing. I have no experience in Racing except for few year of Go-kart racing while stationed in Okinawa Japan.

Manny
Click to expand...


I understand you wanting to research the history of this car, but it's not really necessary to prep it for vintage racing, no previous history is required for a car to race in vintage, you could build a vintage prepped car from scratch for that matter. I would look at the vintage group you want to run with, check our their rules, attend some of their events, to get a feel for the racing and prep levels, and go from there. It appears whoever you bought the car from knew little about, so approach it that way, everything has to be looked over and prepped by you, assume nothing, even if you did get in touch with one of the previous owners.
 
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