Quote:
Originally Posted by smee
... Was really intrigued as to how she could leave my place in shorts and t-shirt, yet come home in a bikini covered in dust......  ... |
For
no good reason your tale Stephen reminded of a funny tale from waaay back in about 1982 or so and the then DDC (or was it the NDDC by about then?)... Anyway, I digress...
For reasons that will become clear, I won't name the clubmember involved (but lets call him Mike), however "Mike" was a really top bloke who used to come and regularly support pretty well ALL club events at Colo and elsewhere that the DDC/NDDC ran them.
I must admit for "Mike" his competition was always in a somewhat sponsored drive insofar as his competition vehicle of choice was his supplied company car (which he even rolled once in an event, and then later it got moved out onto the Putty Road and an accident staged with you guessed it, another roll!)
Anyway, "Mike" would also nearly always come along to those events with a rather attractive redhead and they obviously were an extremely close couple (
as I unfortunately saw first hand on more than one occasion with their regular jiggy jiggy action going on on one of the motorkhana picnic tables in quiet times when they thought no one was around).
Well, "Mike" and his friend were a central part of the club for ages and he ended up doing pretty well in club point scores and suchlike. Then it came time for the annual presentation, where "Mike" told us he was bringing his
wife.
Yep.. you guessed it, Mikes wife was a completely different person to whom we had for so long known .. and now suddenly at the club presentation the entire club needed to completely ignore the fact that we knew "Mike" as part of a quite different couple.. and thus none of us (and the club was pretty big in those days) slip up and ask where is "youknowwho"?
I am sure stories such as the above have been played out loads of times in car clubs over the years, but it still brings a bit of a smile when I think about it... especially as we all sadly lost "Mike" a few short years later to lung cancer.
Curiously, at that same club presentation night in I think late 1982 (or possibly early '83?) at the Parramatta RSL, I discovered that my girlfriend at the time, whom I had been going out with for more than 6 months, was actually Jewish. I discovered this after she refused the Ham Steak being served and I asked why! Not that her religion made any difference at all to me, but it is odd isn't it how some things never seem to come up in conversation until when you least expect it! 
And, I suppose I should get this thread back on topic and let you lot know how I got started in motor sport/rallying.
In a small way I was born into motor sport as my Dad was pretty keen about motor sport of old and used to regale us with stories of racing cars in Parramatta Park (which he did a few times back in the 1940's) plus as a very young kid we would sometimes go and watch the rallycross at Catalina Park, car racing at Warwick Farm plus other bits and pieces around the place.
My first introduction to rallying was, like others have said, the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon, where I remember going as a 6 year old and seeing the cars somewhere (maybe Warwick Farm???) but best of all that Christmas my Uncle Tom & Auntie Rene gave me the game of the marathon as a Christmas present. Well, as kids do (and some adults I suppose) from the game and talk of sections, parc ferme, late time, flat tyres and all the other machinations of the game I became hooked with the adventure of it all, and wanted to know and experience for real what rallying was all about!
I would take a pretty keen interest in events like the Southern Cross, Don Capasco and (later) Castrol rallies... and then I think in about 1977 or so, Paul, my older brother, began navigating for Bob Beckham in his Mazda 1300. Of course as a 15 year old I would tag along and help with servicing and doing anything I could to try and be useful.. and of course by then the bug had well and truly bitten, and so there was no hope from then on.
Its funny that I also got exposed to a fair bit of circuit racing stuff too, as our family business used to sponsor some people in circuit racing (in a small way) and so there were a number of times that as a teenager I would find myself somewhere in Sydney on a school night doing tiny bits and pieces to help prepare a particular Gemini race car ... plus would end up at various races with either my brother (helping out) or my dad (being schmooozed as a supplier/sponsor).
Despite all that, the lure of tarmac never was the same, and always I couldn't wait to get to the next rally, lap dash or whatever... as long as it was on dirt!
Ended up doing my first event as a navigator in about 1978 filling in for my brother... and the story of that is elsewhere in my intro piece (which is linked in my signature box at the base of this post). Have both driven and navigated, over the years since then (first rally as a driver in about 1981 IIRC?) and whilst now I am "taking a well earned rest" from active competition... who knows what the future might bring?
Cheers
Dave
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