It is a never-ending source of wonder to me that photos and videos from my past seem to still be cropping up years afterwards. It is even more amazing that most of them I have never seen before. Here is an example.
The video is from 1989 and the event was the Australian Sprintcar Title at Canberra’s home track, known then as the Pepsi Powerdrome (or Tralee Speedway as most of us knew it) It was a diabolical weekend with track preparation dramas ruining the first night (after some Sydney sprintcar drivers told our track preparation man how it SHOULD be done.) He SHOULD have told them to bugger off but he took their advice and over-watered the track with the result that it was a quagmire. The heat races were a nightmare with hardly any overtaking taking place and the grid for the feature on the Saturday night was almost solely determined by the final lot of heats early in the evening.
An over-watered clay track will dry out very quickly, especially in the summer time and, by the time the feature was due to start, the track was dry, hard, dusty as hell and offering almost zero grip levels. As can be seen from the video, the track was a one-lane affair and hardly any overtaking took place. Visibility for both drivers and spectators was non-existent and I remember a lady coming up to the box and complaining that her little boy had been hit on the forehead by a stone that had been dislodged from the track and hurled up into the crowd.
After many delays the feature was held and it finished around 1:30 am on Sunday morning (Tralee had no curfew in those days) Australia’s premier sprintcar driver, Gary Rush, won his 8th title (he would retire having won 10 altogether) and few people went home happy. The acrimony that followed the event saw both of the promoters, lovely guys both of them, lose a mountain of money and leave the sport, disillusioned and angry, never to return.
The video is a pretty accurate depiction of what actually happened that night but what is interesting to me is that I actually commentated that meeting and my voice can be heard on the video during the various stoppages that occurred. I was the on-track announcer and the video commentary was done, post-event, with the commentary being provided by the inimitable Dennis Newlyn, the voice of speedway. I cannot remember anything about the presentation at the end but, apart from mixing up 4th place for 3rd, I think I did a pretty good job of it.
That was 28 years ago but I remember that meeting so well and not for all good reasons. I know that it’s cars and they have two wheels too many, but I hope you’ll indulge me if I embark on some reminiscing.
If you are a Facebook member you can view the video here.
1989 Australian Sprintcar Title
I haven’t figured out how to save the video to my computer so I can share it from there, if anyone can help me with that, I’d appreciate it.