While all of you are in the midst of "Spring Cleaning" and looking
forward to the coming warm season of racing, spare a thought for the
(small but vocal) minority of FOT members who are up to our armpits in
Autumn heading straight towards Winter. However, we are slow learners
here "Down Under", so while it is almost June (think December in your
terms), we have a race meeting this coming weekend at Winton - a long 10
hour tow South from Sydney (which you would feel to be north - or in
simple terms, the wrong direction at this time of year). But I don't
write simply to solicit your sympathy. I'm just curious on a couple of
fronts.
1) For the first time in my racing life, I have added to the list of
things to pack - one tuxedo. This is simply due to the fact that we are
going to celebrate 25 years of historic racing at this particular race
track. I wasn't around for the first historic race in Australia, but
it's clear that things historic racing started happening here around
1976. It's just made me a bit curious about when the historic race
movement started up elsewhere.
So question one is - when did the historic movement get started in the
USA, UK etc.? I suspect there might be more than one opinion, but I'm
just interested to know if 1976 was late in the game or ???
2) This particular meeting is unique in one respect - we share the day
with our two-wheeled historic bretheren. I for one have enjoyed each
year at Winton trying to come to grips with the historic motorcycle
fraternity (especially those sidecar car guys, but I don't think I'll
ever understand them).I've learned a little bit about Vincents,
Velcettes, JAP, Montesa etc. I'm really looking forward to seeing them
dressed in their Tuxedos!!!
So question number two - anyone have any race meetings that they share
with the bikes?
|