The Courier News » Motoring

Motor event rendezvouz draws 4500

Admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:57:08 +0000

About 4500 people converged on Birdwood’s National Motor Museum grounds on Sunday for the 21st Rock & Roll Rendezvous.

Brian, left, Jesse and Gina Ferguson of Burton with their 1974 Ford XB Falcon.

While the crowd was down from last year’s 5500, event co-ordinator Pauline Renner said they were still “really pleased with the result overall”.
“There were high winds in the morning which made the set up for all the stalls and rock and rollers really difficult,” she said.
“But once it settled down everything ran very smoothly.”
About 400 classic cars, hot rods, muscle cars, motorbikes and scooters manufactured before 1979 were on shown throughout the day, while many people also dressed in rock and roll attire.

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Lance hit by motor memorabilia bug

Admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:39:52 +0000

When Lance Watkins was a boy watching one of Lobethal’s famous grand prix races he was struck in the head by a stray wheel from a passing car.

Lobethal grand prix memorabilia collector and local resident Lance Watkins by the stone monument and paved strip marking the finishing line of the 1939 Australian Grand Prix. Mr Watkins is concerned the strip will be lost when the main street of Lobethal is resealed this year.

Far from fostering an animosity towards motor sport, the incident inspired Mr Watkins and he became an avid collector of Lobethal grand prix memorabilia.
Now he is concerned that a piece of racing history will be lost when the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (DTEI) reseals the main street of Lobethal later this year following extensive streetscaping works by the Adelaide Hills Council.
The bitumen upgrade means a strip of pavers opposite the local supermarket carpark marking the finishing line of the 1939 Australian Grand Prix will be dug up.
The paved strip, stone monument and commemorative plaques were unveiled in November 1989 by the then Premier John Bannon to mark the 50th anniversary of the race which was Australia’s 11th grand prix but the first to be held in SA.
The January 1939 race covered 240km and was won by Allan Tomlinson who raced in 38C heat before a crowd of 60,000 people.

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Anger over rally rejection

Admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:00:55 +0000

A local rally director has criticised a decision by the Alexandrina Council to not support motor sport events requiring council road closures in its region.The council will change its policy towards such events with some councillors believing they were dangerous, offered limited financial return and the road closures were inconvenient for residents.
But Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally director Michael Clements said the decision was “unfair” with just 10 submissions received during a 21-day public consultation period – of which only eight supported the change. He feared the council’s decision could be repeated in other regions bringing an end to motor sports in SA and said the change would have a negative effect on businesses in the Alexandrina district which benefitted from motoring events.
“If eight people can squash it in their area, there may be three or five people in another area that can do the same thing,” he said.
Reduced to two days
Mr Clements said he had received about 100 phone calls and emails from people unhappy about the decision and said his three-day event might either be reduced to two days or less of it staged in the Fleurieu Peninsula.

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