There were only three MGs at the event. I drove my 1971 MG Midget (#3), Rajbinder Sandhu was there with his 1972 MG Midget (#215), and a non-member named Alex Wilson was there with a 1977 MG Midget (#936). This was the first Chicagoland MG Club driving event in the many years I've been a part of the club where the marque was entirely represented by the modern Midget. I couldn't help but wonder where all the MGBs were. Alex was in group C, while Raj and I were in Group B. All of us raced in class T with the other Non-Miata’s under 2.5 liters.

Of the three my car was the only one to perform without any mechanical difficulty. Raj's car features a Webber DGV conversion that suffers from vapor lock problems, and the 1500 Midget with its original single Zenith Stromburg carb setup suffered from the same problem. After setting a time of 1:05.496 seconds, Rajbinder's car stalled due to vapor lock and decided to call it quits. I started with a time of 1:08 and some change as had been trying to best Raj in the first half. With Raj gone and my time dropping below Raj's time I set my sights on Alex's very fast time of around 1:02.6 and managed to get my time down to 1:01.957. Alex’s time was helped by his wise decision to unbolt his front bumper and reduce his cars weight by around 90lbs! After getting my second set of runs in, it began to rain, and I hoped that it would rain hard enough to assure me victory over the 1500. However, the rain let up and Alex managed a very fast time of 100.338. None of us took home any ribbons or trophy mugs since we were up against Honda civics, Chevy's, Toyotas, etc. Next time we really must get 5 cars there so we can race in an MG class.

Final results (MGs) 1st Place: Alex Wilson (non-member) 1:00.338 2nd Place: Seth Jones 1:01.957 3rd Place: Rajbinder Sandhu 1:05.496

~~ Seth Amos Jones

The morning started with a drive from Lake in the Hills to Western Springs. Shortly after our arrival, a few other cars rolled up to Joel’s driveway. Eventually seven cars joined the tour.

Before we all ventured out to the next destination it started to rain. Up go the car tops and windows rolled up. As we were leaving, Barney mentioned that he had to get gas - he said he was low. Funny thing was while we were at a traffic light; he leaned over in his car seat, and started rocking his car left and right. On the road we noticed that he had passed a few gas stations. Five miles later he stopped and filled up – it’s good to know how far a person can trust his MG gas gauge to its limit.

A stop at Evans’ home for a while and then to Barney’s in Naperville. The last scheduled stop had to cancel at the last minute, but it was a fun day and the roads were good. Hopefully we will have a better turnout next time.

Thanks to all for hosting and participating in the garage tour.

~~Dino Perez